Nintendo held a special media briefing after the show floor closed Wednesday, to specifically address the Nintendo DS, and the recently-unveiled Legend of Zelda sequel.

Miyamoto opened the show by addressing a rumor that had been circulating about him having a heart problem. Some versions even had him no longer working for Nintendo. He assured the press that he is in good health, and is most certainly still happily working for Nintendo. He's no longer working with second parties, and is instead now working exclusively on titles in development at Nintendo. This has allowed him to be very hands on in the development of the DS tech demos that are being shown on the show floor.

After this brief general introduction, Miyamoto began speaking about the DS and Nintendo's thinking behind the console. What was continually stressed was that the DS is not a Game Boy, and it's "not going to be called the 'Game Boy something'" when the final name is announced. The thinking behind this is that the new technology in the DS is fundamentally different than anything that's been in a Game Boy or any other console. It's going to result in games that are literally completely different than anything seen before. So, even though it's a handheld system, Nintendo continually reiterated that the system is not the Game Boy's successor.

Miyamoto also briefly addressed the thinking and rationale behind the system. In the past, he said, if you wanted to try a new idea like linking GBAs together for multiplayer, every gamer would have to buy that cable. If you wanted to try voice recognition in a game, gamers were forced to buy a microphone. With the DS, all those ideas for peripherals will be included right out of the box. He stressed that it gives the developers and unprecedented amount of creative freedom. Not every game needs to use the mic, or the Wi-Fi, or even the touch screen, if the developers don't want to, but all those tools are available to them.

During the Q & A session that followed Miyamoto's DS dissertation, some new details were brought to light. Nintendo is researching various technologies to prevent the stylus scratching up the screen, but nothing has been finalized at this time. Miyamoto also explained that he feels the DS's instant messaging capabilities have universal appeal to young and old. Younger children see their parents with PDAs, and want to emulate them and send messages through that format. It's fun for them. For adults, the functionality is there. He gave the example of someone writing something on a DS, connecting it to a PC, and send the info to someone else online.

After wrapping up the Nintendo DS Q&A Mr. Aonuma joined Mr. Miyamoto on stage to address the latest Zelda sequel that has sent Nintendo fans into a tizzy thanks to the return to realistic-looking graphics. The first thing they discussed was why the chose to go with a more realistic art style over the "toon-shading" featured in The Wind Waker. One big reason was simply that "many many people wanted it." That's not the entire story, however. When making Wind Waker, the team knew that for that particular Legend of Zelda title, Link was going to be a young boy. They experimented with many different graphical styles to help express that feeling, and compliment it. So, now that Link is once again more grown up for this title, they had to once again rethink the graphics. To better represent a teenage Link, they felt it was better to go with a style more like that found in the N64's The Ocarina of Time.

It was also revealed that none of the footage in the initial trailer was CG; it was all actual gameplay. The reason so much of it focuses on the horseback fighting is because it's something Miyamoto had wanted to include in the franchise since the N64 days. The horseback combat will be emphasized in this new title.

The Zelda Q&A session was largely unproductive, because Nintendo is still being extremely tight-lipped about any kind of details. A few morsels of information were let out, however. The game's engine is complete; all that's left is to build all the actual parts of the game itself. The title will be completed sometime in 2005, and will be playable at E3 next year. One thing the team is currently focusing on is trying to come up with new types of puzzles, rather than the standard fair that's been seen in the series since its inception.

When asked about the possibility of actual voice acting being done for Link or other characters, Miyamoto got a good laugh, saying that he "didn't want Link to talk much," and that perhaps he should provide Link's voice himself.

We'll have more details on both the Nintendo DS and the newest Legend of Zelda as soon as it becomes available.