This year is the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series. Nintendo is celebrating with lots of Zelda releases and announcements. First are the music CDs that will feature all the classic tunes. These will be available through Club Nintendo and probably as a tie-in with Zelda: Skyward Sword, which is the brand new game that will be coming out for the Wii at the end of this year. In September, Zelda: Four Swords will be available, free to download, in the 3DS online shop.
Stuff for the 3DS
Speaking of the 3DS online shop, if you update your 3DS now, you'll be able to get Excitebike and the Pokedex games for free! Zelda: Link's Awakening is also available for purchase from the Virtual Console. Nintendo 3DS owners will be excited to know that lots of first-party games are coming soon.
Along with already revealed titles, such as Star Fox, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Kid Icarus, are games such as Mario Kart 3DS, which will feature sky and underwater racing. Additionally, a brand new Super Mario Bros., Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion, and Super Smash Brothers are coming to the handheld.
Project Cafe
The biggest reveal of the press conference, and arguably of the entire E3 2011, is Nintendo's new home console, the Wii U. Previously known by its codename, Project Cafe, the Wii U features a brand new controller that has a large touch screen tablet on it. This screen allows you to play without a TV, but also lets you use it as an extension of the TV so that you can display extra information.
The Wii U will have HD graphics and a processor powerful enough to play "core" games like Assassin's Creed, Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders 2, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3, Madden, and Battlefield, which are all coming to the system. The Wii U will be out in 2012.
