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Nintendo was the last to present among the three major hardware publishers. Their conference was the shortest yet, clocking in at one hour and ten minutes, and yet it was packed with news, the most exciting of which was the unveiling of Nintendo’s next home console, a strong contender for E3 Best of Show.

The Nintendo E3 press conference began in a very fan-pleasing manner, showing a montage of The Legend of Zelda footage from all the canonical games in the series, accompanied by a live orchestra playing the classic Zelda score. All of this was a perfect introduction for their first presenter, Zelda creator and Nintendo’s head of design, Miyamoto Shigeru. Miyamoto greeted the audience amidst wild applause, commenting on the memorable nature of Zelda before asking Nintendo localization head Bill Trinen to translate.

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo’s quintessential action-adventure series. While Zelda’s evolving gameplay and visuals are what fans usually focus on, Miyamoto stressed that the music of the series is just as important. The feelings we get when beating an enemy, discovering a new area, or getting an item is influenced in part by the music in the game. Link, the protagonist, even uses instruments in his numerous adventures. Miyamoto demonstrated the effect of orchestrated music to the Zelda sound, miming out the “item get” animation as the orchestra played the corresponding tune.

Miyamoto continued his unveiling of plans to commemorate the anniversary by revealing that they would launch Zelda titles for all of their current platforms, starting with Link’s Awakening DX for the 3DS Virtual Console that very same day. Miyamoto called it a game that they created with perhaps the most unbridled creativity than any other in the series, and was a good entry point for newcomers to get used to the series staples.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64 is regarded as one of the best games ever, and on June 19, the 3DS will get a fully remastered version of the title. This enhanced port will sport a number of new features, such as improved framerate and upgraded visuals more in line with the game’s concept art, hint movies for players that need help, a mirrored Master Quest mode, and a boss rush mode. The stereoscopic 3D visuals would also make exploring the land of Hyrule much more immersive.

Even the last-generation DSi handheld will get a Zelda title—The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. Not much was announced about the title, though it does share a name with one of the richest multiplayer experiences on the Game Boy Advance. As to whether it will be an original title or a port of the GBA game remains to be seen in the leadup to its release in September.

After all the Zelda announcements for portables (all of which, incidentally, can be played on the backwards-compatible current-gen 3DS) Miyamoto revealed that the newest game in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword would release for the Wii this holiday season.

“It’s finally done,” Miyamoto said after being interrupted by applause. One of the highlights of the game, apart from its lush watercolor visuals, is that it uses Wii MotionPlus—which features 1:1 motion control—extensively, letting players be immersed in the combat. As such, the title will also be bundled with a gold Wii Remote Plus, which incorporates this functionality. Miyamoto claimed that Skyward Sword will be packed full of content, and be the most satisfying Zelda experience ever.

In addition to games commemorating the anniversary, Miyamoto announced there will be Zelda 25th Anniversary symphony concerts in each region worldwide. It wasn’t clear just how “worldwide” it would be, but Japan, the United States and Europe were mentioned. Two music CDs would also be released, The Ocarina of Time official soundtrack, free to the first people who register the 3DS game with Club Nintendo; and another CD based on the symphony concerts, to be released in conjunction with Skyward Sword.

Miyamoto ended the beginning of the conference by calling onstage three Zelda collaborators: Tezuka Takashi, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the series. Miyamoto took this opportunity to saying that the fans were the most important part of the process. The five distinguished gaming personalities, including Trinen, bowed deeply in thanks.

Nintendo Global President Iwata Satoru then took the stage and talked at length about how Nintendo has created changes in who plays, where people play, and how people play—with the Wii, the boundaries between personality, age group and even gender are being erased.

Iwata continued that their next goal would be to expand their audience while at the same time creating deeper gaming experiences, clearly teasing at (as he himself pointed out) their next console, which he couldn’t announce at that very moment, because bold new experiences on the 3DS were about to be revealed. Look out later for part two of our Nintendo E3 coverage, where we take a look at Nintendo’s 3DS lineup for the coming year.

Nintendo E3 2011 Press Conference Coverage:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Images courtesy of Nintendo's live stream of the conference.