Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Company Ltd President, delivered the keynote speech at the 2011 GDC earlier today. Joining him on the stage of the packed auditorium was everyone’s favorite ass kicking executive, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. While the majority of the speech focused on industry history and an inordinate amount of sales graphs, some pretty exciting news for Nintendo fans was unveiled.
First up was the revelation that 3DS owners will have access to streaming Netflix movies on the handheld. Keeping in line with Nintendo’s dedicated history of platform connectivity, the service will also allow you to jump back into a movie or show on your Wii right where you leave off at on the 3DS. In addition, the 3DS will also be capable of playing 3D movie trailers. Iwata-san promised that this service would be ready to go prior to the June release of the first movie utilizing the service: The Green Lantern.
All of that streaming would be pretty useless without a network supporting it, though. Thankfully, the duo also announced that the system will gain free access to more than 10,000 AT&T wireless hot spots by late May. But what about game downloads? Fret not gamers, for the 3DS is going to be getting a service called the Virtual Arcade in a future system update. On top of “3D Classics” (older games remastered in 3D), the Virtual Arcade will also feature DSiWare games and ports of titles from systems like the Game Gear and Turbo Grafx-16. For those of you already using the DSiWare service on Nintendo’s current handheld, there will be an option to transfer your current titles over to the 3DS starting in May.
If all that isn’t exciting enough for you, we also got the game announcement that everyone knew was coming from the moment the 3DS was announced. That’s right, Mario will be stepping into the world of stereoscopic 3D in a brand new game. Visually, the game looks like a modernized version of Super Mario 64. A handful of screen shots showed plenty of classic Mario staples like floating blocks, goombas, collectible coins and the big/small Mario dynamic. An official logo was also shown and it featured what appeared to be the raccoon tail from Super Mario Bros. 3. More coverage of the title was also promised for E3 in June.
As a final treat, Iwata showed off a nearly minute long video full of game play footage from the highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Nothing major was revealed in the video, but we did get to see Link battling a variety of enemies and solving a basic puzzle. The Hylian was shown slashing away at a door mechanism until a gear rotated far enough to unlock said door. Check it all out for yourself in the video below.
Source: Nintendo of America
Image courtesy of Ars Technica
