Hey all; I'm sure a lot of you caught coverage of this earlier, but I was taking notes live-blog style and have gone back to complete the thoughts and ideas from the session; digested it a bit more if you will. Enjoy!

Tim O'leary from "the treehouse" at NOA, host and translator welcomes everyone.

(Miyamoto enters) konnichiwa!

Isn't stressed from being in the conference today, so he's relaxed, however he's been working remotely from his hotel with studios in Japan and Redmond.

He's been busy with a project, but one he enjoys...

Had an idea for people to carry their DS everyday wherever they go for daily activities: shopping, map guides, audio guide at museum. Some of these are being tested in Japan currently, such as school students are measured by teachers for their comprehension of the day's lessons.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

They'll talk while playing... 3P today.

Co-op is something he's wanted to do for a long time...recreate the experience but spread it across multiple players. Wanted to explore the dynamic between co-operative versus competitive play.

Observation of gameplay: Yoshi can eat other players, or Hammer Bros' hammers and spit them back out out as a weapon.

Camera adjusts zoom to accommodate players who are spaced widely in the level, something possible with the Wii's power.

Players can try a 1p strategy and compete against 3 other players versus various stages or previously cleared stages. roughly 80 total!

Miyamoto takes the helm and is using a debug feature to cycle through power ups; chooses the penguin suit. Mario can toss ice balls to freeze enemies and then use frozen blocks to reach new areas. (Miyamoto screws up and loses a life, plays through, cheats again when he gets hit).

He says it is fun to work on, fun to play.

This is a game to get people to play together, even those who may not otherwise try it.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Showing the trailer... in the original Galaxy, they explored circular worlds and played with gravity; but they realised there were a lot of ideas and opportunities that went unused; some real gems they wanted to see worked through. They originally wanted to use those to make a "Galaxy 1.5", but realised they could go even further, so now v2 has roughly 90% new content ratio to old/reworked ideas; roughly the same amount of content overall as the first Galaxy.

SMG2 is planning to release next year, even though it is really far along, to not crowd or overlap too much with the timed release of NSMB Wii this holiday.

Wii Fit Plus

Doesn't consider it a simple "sequel"..there's enough new and different content to make it a unique, standalone product.

With WF+, he was able to include many new features, such as increasing communication between family/friends, also include input from nutritionists, physical trainers, etc.

Wii Sports Resort

They thought about what would follow up Wii Sports, such as moto racing, among other ideas. Wii Motion Plus influenced which idea they'd develop to follow as Wii Sports' successor. Wii Sports did plenty to increase body activity, but there was still plenty of opportunity to do more, such as basketball wrist snap. or release of a throwing dart, but WM+ allows this sensitivity (Darts not one of the Resort games, just an example).

Resort is a collection of activities that were fun and enjoyable, but also made use of the plus. Sword fighting is an office favourite for them... but it's more than just swinging the controller; you have to be mindful of defence, and counter at the correct angle to the opponent's strike.

Miyamoto golf demo.

Bowling and Golf return from the Wii Sports, but they are much different thanks to WM+. Golf's gameplay will reflect many details of your swing this time around (including power, angles, etc), such as a real-time, wiggling power gauge that sways back and forth to show the hook or slice. Power is determined by the amount of your back swing. Swinging too hard will cause an inaccurate delivery, so a relaxed approach works best. You can also easily add things like backspin to feel like a professional golfer.

Playing 18 holes doesn't take much time, and it's easy to just play naturally without watching gauges or meters. Also, lengthy tutorials aren't necessary for WSR.

Table Tennis is also an office fave. The ball physics are faithful to the experience of the real world sport. Using the paddle's rubber face makes putting spin on the ball easy, and that spin causes the signature mid-air wiffling curvature the lightweight balls are known for. Speed/power can affect the curvature and vice versa.

WSR has a stamp system that rewards certain goals as incentive to improve your skills and continue playing. 100 stamps total in the game, such as one for scoring 3 consecutive bulls-eyes in Archery.

The familiar island is called "Woo Hoo Island" and comes from the original Wii Fit. He dreams of treating a location like a regular character, so it can recur, have evolving roles and personality. He'd like to make it almost a trademark character that appears in many games, such as putting a hotel on the island where a murder occurs, so some other main events can happen in their own separate games.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

3 modes on the show floor, will show 1 today. Showing a standard dungeon. A phantom is present, but it is used to solve puzzles this time, instead of being an enemy.

The game moves from ocean to land, using a train to traverse the terrain. In Japan, young boys are often fascinated with trains, a wonder he wants to share with others to enjoy as well.

In Phantom Hourglass, it had a 2P competition mode, and Four Swords on the Gamecube focused on co-operative play. Spirit Tracks includes a 4p mode as well.

About Zelda in general...

What is a Zelda game? They've been having discussion at HQ. The stories have evolved over time, graphics improve, but what is the best way to move the franchise forward?

Miyamoto's idea is.. to give the player a more impacting experience and really feel Link's journey through the game, by creating memories of the characters you meet and things you face along the way. These would be things that would differ for each person as they play their own way through, so everyone would have unique memories. How you approach a dungeon, solve a puzzle, or complete a side quest all add to this.

Right now, for each game they are mainly iterating on variations of controls, level designs, etc.. so he wants to see the series evolve in more meaningful ways.

He wanted to show a new Zelda for Wii today, but they want to focus on development before announcing or showing anything. Instead he brought an illustration to prove they are far into development of a new game, because it contained characters that are deeply involved even into the later stages of the game. He's hoping to release next year, but may take a "little longer" (laugh). Illustration was Link with one smaller whitish character, looked a bit like a female relative of the Zora.

He would like to make it compatible or even exclusive to WM+. Says in the mean time to think of Zelda while playing some of Wii Sports Resort, like sword fighting or archery. The reception of WSR may influence development of similar features in the next Zelda.

Q&A

Microsoft and Sony both showed their take on motion control, what is your feedback?

For Nintendo, the philosophy/policy is to make an idea or technology useful and playable in real games before announcing it (BURNNNN!). They faced difficulty early on in development of the Wii, and required much longer time to properly implement it before they could announce it. So until (MS/Sony) can show it working at a practical level, he can't comment yet. He doesn't know the perfect approach for motion control, but he is in favour of anything that gets people active and more involved with the experience.

What do you have to say about the revealed Vitality Sensor (Wii Mood Ring)?

It's a unique device he's been interested in for awhile. Input has evolved over time from buttons to bathroom scales, and you can consciously control these things by stepping on the board or pushing the button. But can you control your pulse, your emotion, your inner being? For him, the concept of something difficult to control or master is intriguing, such as skilled Yoga. So for example, when you sleep, are you really relaxed and sleeping well? How might you help or control this? He cited one input method they once pursued which was a 2P (tandem/simultaneously gripped) controller that performed measurements to determine their compatibility with each other...the "love tester". A brain-controlled device he once tried had both he and Iwata thinking of ways to use it to create a new Pokemon for example. New devices open doors to new creativity and experiences.

NSMB was too easy. I liked original Japanese SMB2 (our "Lost Levels").. might NSMB Wii have difficult levels later in the game?

Making the game enjoyable for everyone is both the priority and the challenge, but for those who want a harder difficulty, there are some levels and areas that should be tough for everyone...he hopes.

Wii Sports Resorts has "stamps", a basic reward/trophy implementation. Is this the beginning of a possible Wii achievement system, like 360 or PS3?

Not in the overall picture of the Wii; stamps for WSR is just one system that felt right for this game. He's not a fan of using "carrots" to motivate people; he wants people to enjoy playing because they want to and the game is fun. Instead of unlockables, ideally games would have it all available at purchase, but have the game adjust dynamically as you progress in skill. Stamps here are merely to encourage players to try new things and think of new ways to play the given activities (such as inventing their own personal goals or objectives).

Any plans to support Wii Speak with coming games, like an NSMB online mode for all those players?

Thanks for the free idea! He always wants to, and they consider it for each game, but it doesn't always make the cut. NSMB Wii isn't one of them, but they will continue to try and add it where and when they can. Wii Speak does have a channel that encourages you to just use it right now for everyday chatting.

Do you often run into hurdles or roadblocks during development? How do you deal with them?

Every project, and that's part of the job. We work within the limitations, in the past, currently, and in the future.

How do you feel about last year's press conference, and was this year's show any kind of reaction to the reception of that show?

(Jokes about not playing Wii Music very well last year, so he ducked out this year). Last year so many new and different features were presented, we couldn't cover everything we wanted to on stage. Sometimes, it isn't until people can actually play something that they really understand what Nintendo is trying to do. So, Nintendo's products don't always translate well to demonstrations.

What game most inspires you (not your own)?

SimCity on NES has always had a big impact. Comics/comedies are also an inspiration for him.

The End.