E3 2005 - Nintendo

That's all I need to say isn't it? Nintendo's press conference has been and yielded a surprise. Here are the main bits.

- The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
Forget Halo's grass. Forget Wave Race's water. Forget the Dead or Alive girls. This is the most beautiful thing you will ever see. The photopak holds a pic of a cloaked figure. Could this be the return of Sheikah? The boomerang's back too. That makes me happy. Another thing is seemingly a wolf wearing a green hat. A return to the transformation of Majora's Mask? It certainly looks a lot darker than previous games. Zelda is growing up at last.

- Mario Party 7
Inevitable.

- Pokemon XD
Its not over yet. Subtitled Gail of Darkness and looking like a GC game I wonder if they're ready to bring the RPG proper to the consoles.

- Super Mario Bros.
COME ON!! Brand spanking new Mario. Shigsy was secretive though.

- The Revolution
From the look of the photos its going to be even smaller than the GC! A shiny black box means it loses the unique look of its predecessor but as the other 2 new consoles are shiny silver it'll still stick out. From the look of things it'll split into 2 bits. The main black bit holds all the switches and disc slot (looks like regular discs this time) complete with fancy blue light and I have no idea what the bottom silver bit does. It does have a second disc drawer to house GC games so don't be afraid to switch. I didn't get a good look but one of the pics Satoru Iwata brought up showed all the Nintendo consoles side by side. Could there be other cartridge slots?

- Gameboy Micro
This is the 3rd attempt to get the GBA as small as possible. No space has been wasted in shoehorning everything in. The start and select buttons have even been pushed to the bottom. The machine also looks to be skinnable.

- DS
Advance Wars DS still makes me very excited but I haven't quite bought into the whole Animal Crossing thing. Mario Kart DS has me wondering, not many of the new screenshots show MK64 tracks. Could it be a new game? Also keep an eye on Viewtiful Joe DS and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (yes for the DS).

- Gamecube
Following the Donkey Konga 2 fiasco at Gamespy as I reported last week that game's lost credibility. The oldest company in gaming haven't lost faith in music games though as DDR Mario Mix is looking shaweet! Also the Mario Sports series gets back on track with Mario Baseball. That should be interesting.

- GBA
No-one's forsaking the GBA. Mario Tennis is hitting soon and looks to keep the RPG element that made the GBC one so much fun. Donkey Kong Country 3 is also on its way as it seemingly a new Fire Emblem. Looking forward to that.

Overall a good performance. Look out for Konami later on.

All pictures mentioned are available at E3Insider.com