E3 2010: Nintendo presentation liveblog

It's been a few months now since Nintendo surprised us all by announcing the 3DS (name still unconfirmed), a handheld console capable of displaying 3D without the need for glasses.

Since then we've picked up a few crumbs of information about the device, but not a lot. None of that matters now, of course, because very soon Nintendo is going to march onto a stage at E3 and show off the 3DS for the first time.

There's also going to be some other stuff about some more or less interesting games, but the revolutionary 3D console is the star of the show. Check back here at 5pm GMT to get our reaction.

If you want to watch the presentation live, go here or to Nintendo's official stream at e3.nintendo.com.

18:20 - "Enjoy Nintendo 3DS, and please enjoy E3". He's a nice man. 18:17 - Some booth babes are filing into the auditorium holding 3DSs. They're working their way through the audience, demonstrating the power of the naked eye. 18:15 - "Something you thought you knew perfectly well will be perfectly transformed." Literally another dimension.

A video attempts to convey the magic of 3D with an animation in which Mario jumps out of the screen. Miyamoto shows up and shakes hands with a dog from Nintendogs. Donkey Kong throws out some barrels. Reggie turns up and laughs at the sight of Miyamoto and a colleague fleeing danger in a Mario game. Then Bowser comes out of the screen and breathes fire on him.

Back on stage, Reggie's jacket is shredded.

18:12 - To finish, a roll call of notable developers praise the 3DS, including Kojima. 18:09 - Now Iwata is talking about Nintendo's success in creating a big install base. That done, he's bigging up the third-party support - Activision, Square Enix, THQ, EA, Tecmo, Capcom (Resident Evil), Warner Brothers, Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed), Namco Bandai, and Konami with Metal Gear Solid.

Yes. Metal Gear Solid. Blimey.

18:06 - Iwata claims the power of 3D is greater than you might expect. You can judge distances better in the gameworld, for instance. Makes sense.

Now he's talking about communication between 3DSs - better than previous models because it supports automatic communication. Downloads content without you having to do anything. No monthly fee. (Round of applause.)

18:03 - "Gamers care most about games."

Project Sora - Iwata lifts the lid. It was to create a game specifically for the 3DS. It's called Kid Icarus: Uprising. The avatar can fly for five minutes at a time, so there are flying and ground-based sections. Lots of combat.

Graphics look to be beyond the DS, but not staggering. "Coming soon."

18:00 - Increased graphics capability will cause increased enthusiasm in the development community. There's are new control mechanism - a slider. Two camera mechanisms on the outside, allowing you to take a photo and view it in 3D. Very nice.

Nintendo 3DS is also capable of playing 3D movies. Disney, Warner Bros, and Dreamworks films will be on display at the show.

17:58 - The upper screen is 3.5-inch widescreen - not as wide as the concept images, but wider than the bottom one. Features a 3D effect slider, which you use to set the degree of 3D you want the device to display.

It has a touch panel, of course, but a "touchscreen and a 3D screen don't get along very well." This means the touchscreen is only on the bottom, as with the other DS models. That's one rumour scotched.

17:55 - A reel about the history of 3D. And there it is - called, indeed, the 3DS. Looks like we won't have to change the name of our new section. Camera zooms in on a 3DS on a pedestal. Saturo Iwata appears, speaking in English. 17:53 - Wahey! "3D in the living room will be expensive," and the glasses don't come cheap. "Nobody said it was going to be easy. Well, nobody but Nintendo."

Out with it Reggie.

17:52 - A Metroid game for Wii, and now a Donkey Kong game, which will no doubt be of great interest to fans of the SNES games. Donkey Kong Country Returns, it's called. "We're going back to the jungle this holiday."

Ooh, future of gaming. This has to be the 3DS.

17:47 - Dragon Quest 9 and its social features. A player called Chico has logged 140 game hours, "and she's just getting started. It's coming in a few weeks.

Another pause for applause met with silence. Reggie doesn't have what Jobs has.

17:44 - I think Reggie just said, "Kirby's got game."

Kirby's Epic Yarn is the game. It's a side-scrolling platformer in the doodle style with a Nintendo synth-orchestra score. Looks okay. Slated for release this autumn.

17:40 - There's a side-scrolling platform stage on-screen with black and white graphics which looks beautiful. 17:38 - Warren Spector's on stage to talk about a Mickey Mouse game for Wii: Junction Point Mickey. This one might be quite good. It includes a lucky dip of assorted Disney paraphernalia. This will apparently be the fulfilment of Mickey's video game potential. The gameworld can be changed using paint and thinner - the primary tools of progress. Lots of approaches available, "choices and consequences". Graphics look nice. 17:35 - And we're back on the Wii, this time with Goldeneye, which will no doubt please many gamers. "I remember it, you remember it," says Reggie. Activision's Goldeneye arrives in stores this holiday. Let's hope it still holds up. 17:32 - Now we're talking. A Golden Sun sequel for DS, with a long trailer. It's called Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, and it looks okay. It's coming "this holiday season." Reggie leave pause for applause. None is forthcoming. 17:29 - Just. Dance. 2.

I mean, I'm sure it's great if you like that kind of thing. Like the man who howls at the end of the trailer.

17:27 - Now he's talking up the Wii, crushing its dissenters with rock solid data. As many people intend to buy a Wii in the next six months as they do the other two consoles. The Wii isn't just for Wii Sports. It's a console that provides 'bridge games', "moving consumers along their gaming journey."

Cue Wii Party, a multiplayer game involving Miis. It makes me think: maybe the Wii is a bridge console, but I crossed the damn bridge when I was four. It's done.

17:24 - Reggie: "Our goal is to provide new experiences for everything." Miyamoto: The goal of game design is to provide experiences that cross boundaries. Now Reggie is on about sports games - primarily a Mario game called Mario Sports Mix, coming in 2011. It's "pure fun", says Reggie. 17:20 - Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be out next year. It's playable on the show floor (begging the question: why such a long demonstration?). Now a trailer.

And it's gone. Reggie is back.

17:18 - I beg your pardon, there's another use for the WiiMote: shooting things. In this case, spiders. Now he's throwing a bomb, and now rolling one.

Uh-oh, some interference. Bill is echoing Steve Jobs at WWDC by complaining about wi-fi use. Nervous laughter.

The game looks fine. It doesn't appear to be hugely innovative, although using the WiiMote and nunchuck as a bow is interesting. Maybe it'll be good. Maybe it won't. We'll see.

They need to stop playing Zelda.

17:13 - Okay, so the Zelda thing is still going on. It looks fine. I don't have to tell you this, you know - Pocket Gamer is a handheld site. But it's okay.

Miyamoto is batting rocks back at a deku plant using the WiiMote. Now he's chopping down trees. Now he's slashing at somebody. At some point I imagine he'll fish, thus exhausting the range of uses for the WiiMote.

It's getting awkward now. After a certain amount of time surely we're just watching somebody play a game. Not very fun. I hope he's not drawing this out to fill time.

17:09 - Now he's handed over to a nervous man called Bill, who's demonstrating the game on stage. Miyamoto - What. The. Hell? So he interrupts Bill - a translator, it turns out - and then magically zaps off the big screen at the back (did I mention he wasn't actually on stage?) and appears on stage to rapturous applause. After a little bit of broken English Miyamoto reverts to Japanese and he and Bill play together on stage. It's a scene. 17:06 - "An experience you've been waiting for," he says. Not 3DS, alas, but a new Zelda game - the Skyward Sword. Miyamoto is talking about it in Japanese, calling it a "key turning point" in Zelda's history. Unfortunately, Miyamoto, I sold my Wii years ago. I never even used Wii Motion Plus, which this new Zelda game uses. 17:02 - Here we go. Reggie Fils-Aime is on stage, stalking on it like a big cat. "Technology is only a tool." What matters is the experience. The best experiences come when technology and game design come together. "Nintendo is raising the bar." 17:00 - Some background. We have a man on the inside, Jon Jordan, but he's not able to liveblog so I'm doing it from the Nintendo stream. Which is good, as a reasonably frightening woman has just appeared on the feed and announced that there will be features on it not available to those in the audience. Suckers.