Nintendo announces Zelda title, SD loading at GDC

March 25, 2009

At Nintendo’s GDC keynote, president Satoru Iwata revealed enhanced Wii SD card support, arcade titles on Virtual Console, and a new Zelda title for the DS.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, to be released later this year, retains the visual style of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.  While maintaining many features of previous titles, Tracks eschews a boat for a train as Link’s main method of transport.

Wii System Update 4.0 allows Wii owners to boot WiiWare and Virtual Console games from SD cards, and allows cards larger than two gigabytes to be used with the system.

The Wii Shop Channel was updated immediately after the press conference with five arcade titles from Namco Bandai and Tecmo.  The games are part of a new Virtual Console Arcade initiative, and all currently retail at 500 Wii Points.

The company also announced new DSi and Wii downloadable titles, including WarioWare: Snapped!, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, My Life as a Darklord, and all NES and SNES Final Fantasy titles already released in their respective region.