E3 Nintendo Keynote Opens with Zelda Orchestra, Four New Zelda Titles

Nintendo's opening keynote for E3 2011 on June 7th, 2011 began with a blast – a giant screen display showing off a massive collection of Zelda scenes from every single iteration of the game (or so it seemed) since the beginning of the series. One of the most legendary names in gaming Shigeru Miyamoto, aka the creator of The Legend of Zelda, is called on stage. His presentation includes a series of "live" songs from the game played by the in-house orchestra. Certainly a strange display for the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series.

Miyamoto notes that there are two brand new games coming out from the Zelda series: Ocarina of Time 3D, Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, Link's Awakening, and Four Swords, which will be a cooperative game. "For the 25th anniversary we have prepared a Zelda gaming system for each of our systems," notes Miyamoto. Skyward Sword will be released this winter holiday season for the Wii. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is the first title in the eShop Virtual Console, available today. Legend of Zelda 3D will launch for Nintendo 3DS starting next weekend (that being the 11th-12th of June, 2011.) Legend of Zelda Four Swords will be ready for free download in September 2011 on DSiWare.

And Skyward Sword will be available with a fancy golden Wii controller! Oh it is so pretty, just look at it! Also there'll be two new music CDs for you nerds who love the music of Zelda so much that you need to play it in your vehicles and on your home stereo systems. It's actually surprising to your humble narrator that they're releasing them in physical form on a disk. They'll be the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D Official Soundtrack, available as a gift for those who first register the game with Club Nintendo, the second will be an album of music from Skyward Sword. Available soon!

Stick with us here on SlashGear for more coverage of this event and the further events contained inside the already fabulous E3 convention 2011 – games and games and games!