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At a press conference held by Nintendo in Japan today, it has been revealed that Japanese gamers will only be able to buy the GameCube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess from Nintendo’s online store – meaning only the Wii version will be available at retail outlets.
Nintendo also announced that it plans to release “Compact Software,” Wii games delivered via the Virtual Console, starting in the spring. These titles will be cheaper than games packaged in a box.
Also on the Virtual Console front, Nintendo stated that by the end of the year 30 classic Nintendo games will be available (NES, SNES and N64), together with a further 30 from the SEGA Mega Drive and PC Engine.
Speaking about full retail packaged games, Nintendo announced that 18 games will go on sale for the Wii in Japan this year, 16 of which will arrive on December 2 for the launch. Big Bran Academy was announced for spring 2007 and Miyamoto popped up in a video message to inform onlookers that he is to release a Wii “Health Pack.” This was described as something for the whole family to use to manage their health and take part in exercise.
The conference also contained information on peripheral and cable pricing, notably the Ethernet adapter for 2800 yen (£12) and a 512MB SD card for 3800 yen (£17).
There was also some mention of the DS, with the announcement of a new cooking aid called DS Complete Menu Collection. This is a joint effort between Nintendo and Orange Page (a cooking magazine and book publisher) that will contain a thousand recipes and feature Wi-Fi connection support. This will go on sale in Japan on December 7, as will a magnetic stand for the handheld, making it possible to stick the DS to a fridge or anything else that happens to be metallic.
