GDC 2011 Nintendo news

[Rob64]

As you may or may not know, Satoru Iwata was the keynote speaker for GDC 25. Anyone who wants to watch it click on the link.

http://gdc2011.nintendo.com/

Or you can read my summary of the approx. 60 minute speech:

A large part of the conference was Iwata talking to the attendees to discuss the past 25 years in gaming, where they are now, and how to move forward when competing with mobile gaming and other challenges. One of the points made was the growth in gaming population that plays games regularly in less than 5 years between the ages of 6 and 74 (both male and female) from 45% to 62% (and his graphs showed that Nintendo was largely (but not entirely) responsible).

There were also some Nintendo related news snuck into this speech.

For 3DS news:
1. 3D video recording is something that the 3DS "may" be capable of (it isn't currently, but they are working on it either in a new system or in an update to the current.)
2. Netflix will be on the 3DS this summer with features to work together with the Wii.
3. Big movie studios are going to use 3DS to put 3D trailers into our hands (ie Green Lantern)
4. Huge wi-fi support from 10,000+ AT&T hotspots which is available at public places that have wi-fi (airports, restaurants, bookstores, etc). Connection is automatic (at your discretion) and free.
5. New browser for 3DS. Netfront replaces Opera.
6. The Eshop on 3DS includes DSiWare, Virtual Console (with Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gamegear, TurboGrafix 16 games), 3D Classics, and Game Promotion.
7. Unfortunately, a number of these features are not out of the box ready. They will be available in a worldwide system update in late May of this year.
In other news:
1. New Super Mario game for 3DS. No title, logo is temporary but includes an interesting tail (that looks like the raccoon tail from Mario 3), 4 screen shots available. Game looks comparable to Super Mario Galaxy 2. More details at E3.
2. Ocarina of Time 3D... Coming in June.
3. Iwata recognizes this year as Legend of Zelda's 25th Anniversary and Shigeru Miyamoto is planning something to celebrate
4. Skyward Sword... Motion + use has improved since last E3. "It feels more solid and free ranging." - Iwata. New trailer is out and it looks very impressive.

[tappybot]

Zelda looks great, but not beyond the abilities of the Gamecube... That's a shame, because Wind Waker wowed me in 2003...  8 Years ago, and Nintendo's games don't have much of that awe factor [anymore].  All I'm saying is thanks to the Wii's weak hardware, they can't deliver the booms and wahs they used to do every generation.

As for Mario 3DS, I'm pretty interested..  It looked more traditional Mario in 3D even though it's done by the Galaxy team.  So I imagine something with more Mario Bros. 3 elements, in a Super Mario 64 style world, with the playability of Galaxy.  Anyway, it's gonna be awesome I'm sure...  Too bad it will probably come out before any second revision 3DS..  Just don't like that ice cream sandwich design, .. wish the battery was an hour or two stronger, and the button placement seems bizarre. You would think the 4 face buttons would be centered rather than directly across from the slidepad, which leaves the dpad just about to fall off the device.  I dunno, just not a fan and I know they'll do better.

[L___E___T]

Is the netfront browser confirmed?  Last I read, this came out of rumour and Nintendo said they weren't confirming anything.

Can you elaborate?

[Rob64]

My source is Tanooki:

http://www.thetanooki.com/2011/02/27/nintendo-drops-curtain-on-opera-browser-switches-to-netfront-for-3ds/

It appears from reading the article that Netfront will be released to us for web browsing when the worldwide update takes place.

[L___E___T]

Thanks, very helpful.  I have to go now and scream at some people now who'd assured me it was Opera    

[Rob64]

No problem. What's the difference between the 2 anyway. ie which is better?

[L___E___T]

Hard to tell until the specs come out.  Netfront seems better suited to mobile/smartphones from what I can tell.

There's more of a write up here - but what I find interesting is that this wasn't confirmed by Nintendo at all and therefore it's not exactly certain.  ACCESS are obviously jumping on this as a PR story.

http://www.negativeworld.org/article.php?id=4726&pagenumber=1

By the way, this doesn't mean that the broswer will have flash, Java OR come free.  
Bear that in mind.  We just know it hits in the May update with the shop etc.

I can't imagine Nintendo allowing flash here - for security and commercial reasons.  Free canabalt would be nice though