GDC 2009 – Keynote Address

10:10am – NEW ZELDA GAME: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. For the Nintendo DS.

Quote from the IGN blog,

“Link is riding in on a train. Wind Waker style. Awsomeness supreme. Link is able to direct a sidekick character, an armor-clad warrior, with the stylus. Fights huge crab-like boss. It’s called The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.”

Quote from Gamespot blog,

“Clip shows link running a locomotive with some kind of steam cannon on the front. It will be available later this year.”

10:08am – Virtual Console Arcade is announced. You can now download arcade games such as Space Harrier, Mappy, Druaga, Star Force, and Emeraldia. Space Invaders is on its way. These downloads are available today.

10:06am – More DSi number fun. More DSi’s pre-ordered at Amazon then any game product in history. 2millinion DSi’s sold in Japan already.

10:04am – Demo showing Wario Ware: Snapped. They also were just playing a game entitled, Moving Memo. I’ve never heard of it, but the people seem to like it.

10:01am – Talking about the DSi. You can draw pictures, turn them into animations, and send them to friends. You can speed up and slow down animations, as well as add sound. Lots of small cool tidbits that I will never use.

9:58am – New games from Square Enix announced.
-My Life As a Darklord.
-Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
-Final Fantasy I and IV coming to Wii. The first five titles are coming to Japan. Presumably through the Virtual Console. More information from Square later this week.

9:55am – To test the SD Card feature, they load… ZeldaII: Adventure of Link from the SD Card. That’s the second Zelda mention. These guys are really teasing us. I’m not liking the chances at this point.

9:52am – New storage solution for the Nintendo Wii. An SD Card system seems likely. Seems to be integrated with the Wii Menu 4.0. I guess that is a new interface for the Wii. You can now download games straight to the SD Card, and it has a massive storage capacity.

9:49am – Iwata mocks the PS3 in a way, stating that the Wii Balance Board is sort of like its own console. It has sold nearly as many copies as the PS3 console in the US.

9:48am – Mentions how serious Nintendo views core gamers, by mentioning the releases of a Zelda, Mario Kart, and Mario title within the first 18months of the Wii’s release… Lame, Mario Kart for Wii is a core game??? Twilight Princess was a launch title over two years ago. Not looking good.

9:46am – Iwata mentions the core Nintendo gamers! Gives them props for helping the casual gamers get in. Could this be the lead up to a Core game announcement?!

9:44am – Iwata mentions Guitar Hero, Spore, and World of Goo as new ways of thinking about games. Now he is talking about… female gamers playing the Nintendo DS.

9:40am – Talking about the development of a DSi launch title, Rhythm Heaven. He just give a brief history of its production.

9:37am – One of the last stages in Miyamoto development is ‘kidnapped’ a random Nintendo employee who has no gaming experience. He gives them a chance to play the game, but offers no help or guidance. Miyamoto notes the reactions from the game and tweaks the game accordingly.

9:34am – More Miyamoto talk. About how he always upends games during their late stages. This causes games to be delayed, but they are improved. He cites Nintendogs and Super Mario Galaxy. Mario was apparently planned to be a Wii launch title.

9:28am – More gibberish about how Miyamoto plans on games. Trial and error, many failures, small group discussions, lots of idea exchanging, etc…

9:21am – Iwata is reminiscing about a time during the SNES era. He’s talking about Miyamoto and how he goes about creating ideas and developing games… More, not so exciting stuff.

9:17am – Iwata is talking about 3rd party games for DS and Wii, and explains why they can complete with Nintendo. Alright, lets get to the announcements. No more sugar coating.

9:12am – Iwata finally takes the stage and talks about the huge success of the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. Wii has shipped 50million consoles… Okay, lets hurry and get to the less boring stuff.

9:06am – Still waiting for it to begin. We are on ‘Nintendo’ time, so the usual 5-10 minute late start time is to be assumed.

The time labels with the edits are in Pacific Standard Time.

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, is currently delivering his Keynote address at the Game Developers Conference. Click Here to follow GameSpot’s live blog of the event. Be sure to check back at Zelda Dungeon for the latest on the event.