WORLD EXCLUSIVE: SECRETS IN SEATTLE - STUNNING NEW DS ANNOUNCEMENTS REVEALED!

Details of Nintendo top-brass presentations and unbelievable revelations inside!

13:04 As you must be aware by now Nintendo are holding a huge press conference in Seattle today and tomorrow to make a series of announcements about DS and reveal new details.

Well, check this out: we don' t have to wait for the announcements to be made. We know them already.

After introducing the DS and discussing its innovative control methods including the touch screen and in-built mic, Nintendo president Saturo Iwata will drop the first of several awesome bombshells.

The DS' s much-vaunted wireless features won' t only let you play multiplayer games - you' ll actually be able to download games and play them. Nintendo are calling this feature " Game Sharing" , and it means that multiple DS owners will be able to play multiplayer using only one copy of the game.

This instantly obliterates the problems of everyone needing to have a copy of the game to play multiplayer, and makes Nintendo' s boast that you' ll be able to play ' anyone, anywhere' absolute truth. Nintendo plan to promote production of titles with this " Game Sharing" feature, and several early titles including Super Mario 64 DS and Daigasso Band Brothers will support it.

Revolutionary? Yes, and it gets better. Nintendo plan to implement downloadable demos to let you play time-restricted versions of games before you buy them. Initially it seems that this will be restricted to retail outlets.

And more? Yup. Plans are afoot to implement connectivity between the DS and the movie screen during showings of Pokemon movies. Iwata will discuss how DS owners with a GBA Pokemon game cart in their DS will receive bonus materials beamed straight to them!

It seems that DS' s wireless capabilities are beyond anything we expected. As you can imagine, the potential for these kind of features is amazing.

After Iwata concludes his speech Shigeru Miyamoto will take to the stage and demonstrate a number of games including Nintendogs and Mario 64 DS.

He' ll be joined by Yuji Naka, president of Sega' s Sonic Team, who will demonstrate I Would Die for You (also known as Feel the Magic: XY-XX) and announce that a DS Sonic game is also in development.

This will be followed by a confirmation from Square-Enix that Final Fantasy III, previously only available on NES, will be coming to DS with overhauled visuals and new control features.

A new Pokemon game, called Pokemon Diamond, will be confirmed. Pokemon Dash, which is a Japanese DS launch game, will also be demonstrated, and the president of the Pokemon Company will show off how extra tracks can be unlocked by inserting GBA Pokemon game carts.

But the most exciting game announcement for Nintendo fans? We' ve heard that Miyamoto will confirm that a Legend of Zelda: Four Swords game is in production for DS.

Hopefully more details about this huge news will emerge at the presentation, and we' ll keep you up to date.

So how' s that? Awesome wireless revelations, stunning cross-platform connectivity, and the possibility of a new Zelda game to chow down on. Don' t say we' re not good to you.

More info as it happens.

Graeme Boyd

Well then that is quite amazing. Makes me wonder what the plans are for their next console. But also makes me wonder if thisll cost a bit more then expected if not immediatly but over time...

Thats some kickass news right there. Game sharing sounds ace, wonder if the PSP is going to be able to do that? It' s the games being announced which is also great. So far the DS is lacking in confirmed titles compared to the PSP so hopefully this will sort things out.

Didn' t Mr. Naka already announce Sonic DS as E3? I think he did, even saying the demo shown at E3 was only a tech demo.

I share your worry Mass X. The biggest appeal of the DS was its affordable price over the PSP. I hope with all this announced it will still be released with its promised low price.

That' s good I guess, but nothing mindblowing like Nintendo was supposedly building up to. I still have no interest in the DS.

Wow no intrest? Have you seen the videos of actual gameplay on the DS? Super Mario 64 DS alone is making me buy the DS and the game because right when I take it out of the box I can connect to someone playing it and play multiplayer Mario 64 style. I am so excited that' s why I am saving up money right now just incase I cant get 200$

No interest. It' s a portable. Yee haw!

That' s awesome! -- I' m probably not going to buy either portable -- but that' s awesome!

That' s some highly interesting news. Me personally, I was hoping to read something more along the lines of the DS getting juiced up with higher audio and visual capabilities.

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Were you even born when Mario64 came out? You don' t remember it well, that' s why.

I' m planning/hoping to get both handhelds at their respective launches.

My only problem with the DS is that the specs will make for some unattractive 3D games. Especially compared to the monstrous PSP...

With 2D games, BOTH handhelds can shine and will shine brightly. It' ll be hard to tell which one has the edge in that department going by still pics alone.

But with 3D, the difference in quality will be quite noticeable ESPECIALLY when a game is released on both units, taking advantage of their strengths.

Imagine seeing pictures of an N64 Madden game compared to pictures of a PS2/GameCube Madden game. The differences will no doubt be very apparent.
I mentioned GameCube Madden game simply because while the PSP is considered to be a portable PS2 in a way, it contains texturing capabilities close to that of the GameCube since they use a similar chip I read.

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That sounds awesome, but its still a colse choice for me between the DS and the PSP, but i think im leaning toward the DS more now because if the projected prices and I' ve heard rumors that the PSP will have very short battery life.

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Whoa 90 minutes? Haha wow that kinda sucks... compared to the DS. Maybe they improved the PSP the battery life span.

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I think the battery life is more around 2 hrs, but its still pretty short.

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Actually the battery life of the PSP is highly dependant on the games. Games that access the disc alot will drain the battery of the PSP at a faster rate, but games that are loaded into RAM without needing to access the drive often will mean for longer battery life.

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