Okay, so we were disappointed with Nintendo’s E3 showing. No Kid Icarus. No Punch-Out! Four years since the last The Legend of Zelda reveal. But in all honesty, should we really want to hear about a new Zelda game now, learn about a holiday 2009 release date, only to see it delayed to “after the fiscal year” ending March 2010, and finally see release in November of 2010? Reggie doesn’t think so.

There’s one thing I do want to reinforce. I could almost put myself into the ‘geeks and otaku’ camp. I grew up playing all those great Nintendo games. And so for me I look at product like “Animal Crossing” and I get tremendously excited. I look at “Wario” and get tremendously excited. I look at “Sluggers” coming out and get tremendously excited. So this mentality that we have somehow lost our soul and [are not] speaking to our fanbase, there is nothing further from the truth. And if you talk to Mr. Miyamoto, you really understand that we really have the interest of our core fanbase right at the top of the list. The recognition is — and I think this is really the point — we’re not going to tease you over 18 months or 24 months. We’re going to show you something that’ll make your jaw drop and make it available shortly thereafter.

That’s more like it. Remember, E3 and all the smaller publisher events surrounding it are only the start of the event season. We’ve got the Penny Arcade Expo, Leipzig Games Convention, Tokyo Game Show, and E for All rounding out the rest of the year, with the Game Developers Conference early next year. We’ve got plenty of time to reveal that amazing new Zelda + Wii MotionPlus game.

MTV Multiplayer

Up until now, Nintendo’s stance toward the storage problem has been a bit lackadaisical, to say the least, and after the famous “geeks and otaku” comment out of Europe, it looked like the mini-fridge may never see an upgrade. However, good ol’ Reggie seems to have gamers’ backs. When asked about the problem in an interview with MTV, he responded:

From an Americas-centric perspective… this is becoming much more of a mainstream problem, which is why we have a sense of urgency to solve it.

I’ll give you one thumb way up for the ambition, but I’m going to save the other until I see some real progress. Until then it looks like Toki Tori is going to have to wait.

MTV

Speaking with Stephen Totilo about the recently revealed Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime was asked the inevitable question: What about a Wii version?

You know, a “GTA” on the Wii is all based on what Rockstar and Take-Two want to do. And again, from our standpoint, if they build a bottoms-up game that takes advantage of what we do well, I’d love to see it on the platform.

Haha. “Bottoms-up.”

In all seriousness, you would automatically assume that any Grand Theft Auto game for the Wii would have to be built from scratch, given the size, resolution, and downloadable content that feature in GTA IV. Any idea what could be done differently with the Wii?

MTV Multiplayer

The Wii’s waggle plus 360’s HD graphics? That’s a good three years off, right? Maybe not. Speaking with Geoff Keighley, Nintendo of America’s president remained open to the possibility of working with Microsoft in licensing the Wii Remote. Here’s an excerpt from the video clip, cleaned up by me from the original transcript:

Keighley: I was talking to Microsoft and they didn’t announce their motion controller. John Schappert was saying he’d love to talk to you about the idea of using the Wii-mote to work with the 360. Gonna happen?
Reggie: You know those Wii-60 rumors continue to…
Keighley: Schapper said, he’d be open to having that meeting.
Reggie: You know it’s interesting, for us, we said…
Keighley: Not gonna happen, right?
Reggie: We said during our press conference that we’re about making people smile, and what’s thrilling is…
Keighley: Gotta make him [John Schappert] smile.
Reggie: …with Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Iwata and these fantastic experiences we bring to the market, we do believe we make people smile, and that’s what is giving us the momentum in the market place. You know, in terms of, you know, other people, you know, trying to tack on to our technology and our approach…
Keighley: …and your success…
Reggie: …and our momentum in the market place, you know, it’s… We’ll see…

Remember when Bill Gates said he wouldn’t hesitate to purchase Nintendo? My, how the tables have turned. It’d be interesting to see what details would have to be part of the deal for such a Wii/360 collaboration - I would imagine both Nintendo and Microsoft having to deal with egos. You can view the video of the above interview after the break.

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