If you subscribe to Nintendo Power, the latest issue should be arriving at your house very soon -- Aeropause has the scoop on some details on Nintendo's upcoming lineup from the issue. Most important to folks reading this text is likely what Miyamoto had to say regarding the new Legend of Zelda game, announced back at E3: "I don't think it's going to be that radically different." But, what about the theory of the girl being the Master Sword? Surely that is radically different!

In typical Nintendo fashion, that's all Miyamoto had to say. He left us hanging to speculate, and we're sure most will be able to turn this appetizer of a quote into a five-course meal.

[Via Videogamer]

Luminary Shigeru Miyamoto hasn't lost his shimmer in the eyes of game developers, with a recent industry poll finding the Nintendo icon to be without equal. The survey, commissioned by organizers of next month's Develop Conference, asked 9,000 devs to name their game development hero, with nearly a third of respondents pointing to Miyamoto as the man with the plan.

The popularity contest also named id Software's John Carmack as the next most idealized developer, followed by Maxis and now Stupid Fun Club brainpan Will Wright. The top ten list of industry highlights was rounded out by Braid dev Jonathan Blow, who's likely too busy rewinding time (to see if he can somehow land higher on the ballot) to care.

Are games too hard for you, Johnny? Don't worry -- Shiggy's got your back. Starting with upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii, future Nintendo Wii titles will be shipping with the ability to, well, play themselves. In an interview with USA Today, the man who birthed Mario confirmed the existence of "demo play" for the next Mario game and "future games, too" -- essentially an option to allow the game to play itself when the player encounters an area too difficult for them to handle.

Savvy Joystiq loyalists will remember the patent filed by Nintendo earlier this year, roughly outlining the feature. The idea behind this, Miyamoto explains, is to reduce the barrier to entry for younger players and casual alike. Last we checked, the whole point of games was the challenge but, ya know, who needs that? "Demo play" remains the tentative title for now, but we expect some Wii-ification by New Super Mario Bros. Wii's release later this year.

If there was one driving theme behind this year's E3, it was that motion controls are too cool for school. However, even with both Microsoft and Sony jumping onto the bandwagon with their own gesture-based antics, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto tells the BBC that he's "not worried at all" about being left behind.

In fact, the brain trust says that Nintendo's "very flattered" by the competition. Still, Miyamoto barbed his comments, stating that, based on what he's seen so far, neither competitor's motion controllers "have the type of depth that we're able to provide with Wii Motion Plus." Sony. Microsoft. You hear that hitting the floor? That's the gauntlet.

[Via 1UP]

Shigeru Miyamoto didn't appear at Nintendo's big E3 conference, but he did appear at what Nintendo called a "developer event" later that evening, in a "very relaxed mood" from his morning off. This discussion/Q&A event was the location of last year's Pikmin 3 reveal, and this year Miyamoto came prepared to surprise everyone again at the end, with art from the next Zelda game.

"To be honest with you, I really wanted, at this E3, to announce a Zelda game for Wii," he said. "But, we've already shown you a Zelda on Wii, and rather than try to think of something to bring here to show you, we really wanted to focus on actual game development.

"However, I didn't want to come empty-handed, so I did bring the main illustration for the next Zelda title."

At his developer roundtable event, Shigeru Miyamoto sprang artwork from the next Legend of Zelda game on us. It killed us to be unable to share the image with you, because photography was prohibited. No exaggeration -- we died, and we've returned to the earth to (haunt people and) write about it.

Now you can look at it without being locked in a room with Miyamoto. It looks Twilight Princess-esque, but upon closer inspection, the character in front of the (surprisingly menacing-looking) Link looks less like a Zora than we originally thought. Inspect the full image after the break.

Wondering where the in-development Zelda for Wii was at this morning's Nintendo E3 keynote? At an invite-only developers event with Shigeru Miyamoto, the revered designer confirmed that the title wouldn't see release until at least 2010. "We hope to bring it to you next year but it may take a little longer," he said through a translator. "To be honest, at E3 we wanted to announce a new Zelda game for Wii." Unfortunately, that desire didn't earn the title a spot in Nintendo's keynote and it was instead relegated to the developers event. He also said that the title could "possibly" be a Motion Plus exclusive – though if he's not sure, we don't know who would be.

The "announcement" included artwork – we weren't allowed to take pictures of (sorry!) – which was Twilight Princess-esque, featuring Link and a female Zora character. Here's the bad news: the more astute amongst you may remember that Miyamoto took the opportunity at last year's E3 developer's event to reveal a new Pikmin title for Wii in development (not the Wiimake) and, almost a year and two major keynotes later, we've yet to hear about it again.

It's something that every meme learns sooner or later: The internet has a short memory. Just a year after it voted him the most influential person in Time's annual poll, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has been downgraded to 42nd place. You can now find him snuggled between Miley Cyrus and author Tucker Max.

Lest you doubt the validity of the list, it's topped by 4chan founder "moot," so, yeah. This is serious business. Oh well, at least Shiggy still beat the Pope on this completely useful list.

[Via GI.biz]

Collectors, listen up: One Nintendo-loving eBay user has dug through his/her Nintendo collection and decided to give up a few rare (and autographed) collectibles. Included in the auction are four gold and black N64 controllers (won during a Star Fox tournament) signed by legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto and ex-Nintendo president Minoru Arakawa. The auction also includes a copy of Next Generation magazine signed by Miyamoto and Arakawa as well as former Nintendo executives Howard Lincoln, Peter Main and others.

It isn't the sexiest auction available but at $21.48 (as of press time) it may be the cheapest way to grab classic Nintendo autographs... or at least a half-dozen N64 controllers.

[Thanks, Charles P.]

Earlier today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and childhood memory manufacturer Shigeru Miyamoto delivered a presentation about Wii Sports Resort and Wii/DS price cuts (or lack thereof). However, neatly tucked within the folds of their discourse was a fascinating figure for the hardware salesophiles among us -- in its launch weekend in the US and Europe, the DSi sold 300,000 units in each territory. Our on-call mathematician is currently visiting his grandkids in Des Moines, but we're pretty sure that equals 600,000 units.

The two went on to discuss some of the miscellaneous features Nintendo hopes to implement in the shutterbug handheld, such as museum maps, schoolroom applications, and tour guide programs. Those sound intriguing, though ultimately not compelling enough to steal us away from our tireless all-catching endeavors.

Canada's ELAN Awards, a ceremony celebrating achievements in animation and video games, has announced that it will add another trophy to Shigeru Miyamoto's collection. The Nintendo producer, "considered by his peers to be the greatest video game designer in the world," will be inducted into the organization's "Video Game Hall of Fame." One notable peer: last year's award winner, Microsoft's Don Mattrick.

Voting for the honorary award, along with the ceremony's other honorary awards in the fields of animation and visual effects, was held online, hosted by IGN. The awards will be handed out on April 25 in Vancouver at an event hosted by Tom "Spongebob Squarepants" Kenny.

Sometimes, one might assume that super-genius game developers don't think the way that you do, but it's just not so! Take, for instance, Shigeru Miyamoto, who you might know for his work on pure undiluted joy. He recently told Japanese mag Famitsu that several aspects of the way Nintendo operated during the N64 and GameCube years made him "very sad." Hey, Shiggy, us too!

Of course, we probably have slightly different reasoning. Miyamoto complained about the company trying to follow its competitors during that era, saying, "I was endlessly fascinated with 3D worlds, but what with all the issues I had to tinker with in terms of rendering and processing speed, it got to the point where I didn't know who was making the games any longer." We would have more simply said that "a lot of games for those systems were very, very bad," but it's nice to know the big guy gets where we're coming from.

Shigeru Miyamoto and Spore have been recognized by The Jim Henson Company as part of their annual "Jim Henson Honors" awards. The legendary game designer was bestowed the Celebration Honor, which goes to an "individual, organization or product that makes the world a better place by inspiring people to celebrate life." Mario, Donkey, Wii ... yeah, you know the drill.

As for Spore, it took home the Technology Honor, probably because it allowed everyone to create their favorite Star Wars characters or giant penis monsters. The other not so game-related awards went to artist Shepard Falrey (Creativity Honor) and the Center for Puppetry Arts Distance Learning Center (Community Honor).

Congratulations to everyone. We can't think of a better way to celebrate than with the video after the break.

When Swedish eBayer Mikael was lucky enough to win a Shigeru Miyamoto-autographed DS at E3 2005, he did the only sensible thing: he sealed it away from the harmful effects of light and dust forever. Or at least, until now.

This pristine, fingerprint-free Pearl White model is currently on eBay, where it lies at the $760 mark with over a week to go. Is it worth that? For something you're likely not going to use, probably not, but this is easily one of the nicest autographed DSes we've seen. The combination of gold on white reeks of class, and Miyamoto's famous signature is, as usual, fun and playful. The fact that it's a Phat only increases its appeal to us.

See also: A very special deal on a Miyamoto-signed DS.

[Via Kotaku]

Sure, we know how amazingly awesome these two dudes are, but unless you're as obsessed with Nintendo as we are, there's a possibility you don't know who they are. Well, if we could sum these two up in a brief statement, it would be this: they're bad enough to save the president. Also, they make some products we enjoy on a regular basis.

We're not the least bit surprised the Nintendo duo of Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata topped GameDaily BIZ's "Persons of the Year 2008" list. They've managed to make a ridiculous amount of money on gaming during a very uncertain economic time, as well as expand the market and bring more players into gaming.

Source - 2008 Persons of the Year: Part 1 (GameDaily)
Source - 2008 Persons of the Year: Part 2 (GameDaily)