by Jody Anthony - 03.25.09

If you’re reading this, odds are pretty good you know how to use the internet and you’ve heard all the details. Either that or you’re my parents, in which case you’ll be calling me asking what a “Nintendo” is in about 15 minutes. In any case, you can get everything in Nintendo’s official press release.
Major points
SDHC support for Wii, with the ability to run software direct from your SD card
Wii System Menu 4.0 out now
DSi coming with 1,000 DSi points (provided you log in to the DSi shop by October)
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for DS! Video + Screens
Arcade games coming to the Virtual Console, starting today
Other cool stuff from around the net
Nintendo handheld prototypes
DSi-only and DSi-enhanced cards coming
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
What do you think about everything that was shown or announced today? SDHC support for the Wii? Link on a train? Virtual Console Arcade? Let us know what you like, and what you don’t. Personally, all I needed to hear was that there was a new Zelda game coming. Man, I love Zelda games.
pic: MTV Multiplayer











I didn’t like Phantom Hourglass, and this seems to be more of the same.
Minish Cap was much more enjoyable, in my opinion. Hell, it looked better too.
Shadic - 03.25.09 11:44 pm
ability to run software direct from your SD card
This made my day.
Came home, entered the 2000 wii pts card I had lying around for about 4 months, and went online to buy Life as a king, whihc i wanted to play forever.
Edgar - 03.25.09 11:48 pm
Indeed…a part of me feels the way running from SD works is a kludge (since it has to copy to flash), but it works great and is actually pretty fast, so in practice I’m pretty happy about it. I have quite an archive of VC and Wiiware titles at this point.
Also, arcade games on the VC…finally. I thought this should happen but never thought it would.
9th Sage - 03.26.09 12:04 am
Wow, this 4.0 update made my day too. The process is seamless, quick and fluid. I also like having a dedicated menu (black, nonetheless) for my VC & WiiWare games. Now my Wii Menu feels much less clutered. So, I’ve been going back to some titles I’ve left behind since I was out of space… Gate of Thunder!
Also, this new Zelda looks totally cool. I really liked Phantom Hourglass even with its flaws, it was an amazing and impressive DS title and this one will certainly be better.
i_am_error - 03.26.09 12:33 am
Is anyone from 4colorrebellion going to be at GDC on Saturday?
Sam - 03.26.09 12:42 am
Phantom Hourglass >> That stinking turd Minish Cap.
Willozap - 03.26.09 1:20 am
Really? I loved Minish Cap. I’d say it’s one of my favorites.
9th Sage - 03.26.09 1:23 am
And oh yeah..haha, I was thinking that same thing. “Oh boy! Now I can play “Gate of Thunder” again.”
9th Sage - 03.26.09 1:23 am
Man, I have got to say, I NEVER thought I’d see a Zelda game with a train, let alone with a conductor Link.
What’s next? Planes?
Note: I’m not bashing it. In fact, I am pumped.
Bob - 03.26.09 1:30 am
Also, I haven’t really been keeping up with what’s been going on at the GDC, but I’ve just been looking through GT, and am pretty pleased, although I was expecting more stuff.
Also, seeing Rhythm Tengoku in English makes my smile.
Bob - 03.26.09 1:39 am
Sorry for the triple post but…
I forgot to mention the translated monkey song makes me frown.
Bob - 03.26.09 1:43 am
YEAH LAYTON!
YEAH!
Some guy - 03.26.09 1:48 am
Minish Cap was on rails the whole time. There was nothing new, and it didn’t feel like a Zelda game at all, just a rip off of a Zelda game. Phantom Hourglass wasn’t perfect, and if you didn’t like the giant temple thing (I loved it), then that could sour you on the whole thing, but if you did, it was golden. I would put PH in the top three of Zelda games, along with Majora’s Mask and Link to the Past.
Carl - 03.26.09 2:00 am
Thinking about it a little more, what I liked about those three is that you have a space that you keep returning to and exploring more of. In MM, it’s Clocktown. In PH, it’s the sea temple. In LttP, it’s the overworld map. The main thing is that it lets you learn more about a space you thought you knew.
Carl - 03.26.09 2:06 am
Sam, are you making reference to the elusive Saturday night party?
nintendoFREAK411 - 03.26.09 3:11 am
Meh. I knew the SD card support was coming a couple months ago. Show more games, DAMMIT!
Boots - 03.26.09 8:12 am
Phantom Hourglass is my favorite handheld Zelda. Even better than Link’s Awakening.
(Minish Cap is great as well)
Jody Anthony - 03.26.09 9:02 am
I’m overall really satisfied about GDC.
Just solving the memory issue was awesome. Whether or not we knew it was coming… simply put I was excited to see how they implemented it. The fact that you can boot games right off of it was a must and they did that, not to mention they threw in the SDHC support (which originally some skeptics believed the Wii would never be compatible with for some reason)… I mean it will be nice to go out and buy 16GB or even dare I say 32GB SD Card and never have to worry about saving on the Wii again.
Spirit Tracks looks good, and to be honest I’m really quite curious to what direction they are taking the story (assuming it takes place in the Wind Waker timeline and directly after Phantom Hourglass) since it shows things like a large Hyrule, Tetra in her Princess Zelda role, and some quite interesting weapons. It may not be entirely revolutionary, and built on the framework of PH, but perhaps this one will present more challenges over all (and hopefully a better soundtrack…please Nintendo PH soundtrack was disappointing).
Next to this news I was just happy to hear of the support coming from Square Enix… I know all those PS/Square fanboys will complain that the Wii sucks for getting the Crystal Chronicles series which they consider less hardcore then the main series (which is overly rehashed anyways), but personally I love how Square-Enix actually takes chances with Nintendo…
I mean we get Crystal Chronicles in a variety of forms, from action multiplayer RPG, to town managing sim, to evil lord action sim, and the soon to come single player quest. Should I even mention The World Ends With You as well? I’m sorry but Nintendo gets the more original SE titles in my opinion. Oh and I want FFIII on SNES (although now referred to as FFVI).
Anyways my two cents on everything. Blah blah blah…
The Maverickk - 03.26.09 10:10 am
Meh, whatever. I don’t even like Nintendo anymore. I just come to this site because it’s funny.
Miyamoto’s cool tho. He should go work for Sony.
hokku - 03.26.09 11:25 am
Nintendo is BETTER than SONY rrrrrrrrrraaghgh*foam*
So, it’s Phantom Hourglass 2, this time with Link dressed as a train conductor! I was seriously hoping that the boatlessness of the game would mean no more driving-on-a-preset-course-shooting-things sections, but apparently they like that too much to drop it.
I wonder if there’ll be a part where you drive your train on a looping track around a boss?
I’m sure it will be a fun game. I kind of wish they wouldn’t reuse so much stuff in it thoug.
Simon - 03.26.09 2:24 pm
PH is the best game on DS by far in my opinion. I really dont understand how anyone can say NSMB is, I would say it is just about in the top10- 0 challenge from start to finish.
sobe - 03.26.09 3:08 pm
I’ve been holding back on downloading anymore VC console games for months now, I just simply ran out of space and didn’t want to choose between my carefully chosen games.
This SD card update has literally made my week!
MIchelle - 03.26.09 5:38 pm
Yeah…no.
Nintendo is officially retarded. The new Zelda looks like shit. It’s kind’ve obvious that they’re milking the franchise, and it’s really gone to the dogs. After MM, they’ve seriously stopped making good games in general.
The people who keep saying that they’re “milking” the franchise for FF: it may be true to some extent, but overall, the games have deeper stories than what I’ve seen from the N front.
I’ve really lost hope, see you guys when the next console comes out.
Shiro786 - 03.26.09 7:10 pm
Not to interrupt the Zelda and FF wankfest, but…Professor Layton translation! Booyah!…about time.
Red - 03.26.09 8:51 pm
The whole SD thing was a pleasant surprise, but I’m really excited about the 1,000 free DSi points. I can’t wait to see what I can download with them.
The 180 dollars is starting to sound like it’s paying off. lol.
Although I’m still confused as to how they didn’t say ANYTHING about the WiiMotion Plus.
A.J. - 03.26.09 9:59 pm
Yeah, I feel it necessary to shout, “Bout time for Professor Layton 2!! HELLS YEAH!”
I’ve also given up on Nintendo not destroying the Zelda franchise. Wind Waker was the last good one, and even it suffered from some very obnoxious gameplay flaws. Minish Cap was fun but not outstanding. Four Swords was stupid as hell. PH had the dumbest control scheme of all time and was somewhat fugly. TP tried so hard to be OoT it forgot it was its own game. Thanks Ninty; it was fun while it lasted.
Howard Roark - 03.27.09 12:47 am
nice picture, think i’ve to print it
greets mookster
gdc Rocks … but it would be great if there will be more balanceboard-games
mookster - 03.27.09 1:19 pm