Satoru Iwata gave his keynote speech earlier today, announcing several noteworthy developments in the drama that is Nintendo.
For the Nintendo Revolution, Iwata discussed a noteworthy pair of additions to the Revolution?s Virtual Console (the service that allows gamers to download NES, SNES and N64 games to their Revolution). Firstly, small-time developers will be able to make their games available via the Virtual Console. This is a massive step forward for indie developers, opening up the opportunity for them to skip over publishing and packaging costs when making their games available. Also, over one thousand games from the Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx will be made available for download on the virtual console, making the already-massive library of games even more impressive.
On the DS front, Iwata spent much time praising the popularity of the DS?s wi-fi service, saying how it hit the one-million user mark only eighteen weeks in, five times faster than the other leading services. He also spent a great deal of time showing off the upcoming [i]Brain Age[/i] title, a title that will quiz and grade gamers on math, speech and other intellectual practices, and allow for competition.
Quite possibly the most important announcement, however, was the unveiling of The [i]Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass[/i] for the DS. This title will involve drawing on the touch screen, and is made by Aonuma Games, makers of [i]Wind Waker[/i], and uses the same cel-shaded style.