"Two handheld games to start—Nintendo's still playing it safe," the associate editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly whispered to the photographer beside him. "The real show should be coming up."
He was right.
The screen changed. The colors suddenly jumped to a higher intensity.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
The entire screen was rendered in a hand-drawn, crayon-like art style, unlike any previous Mario game.
Yoshi ran across the screen, carrying little Mario in his mouth. Colorful trails marked the ground he trod, and the clouds and hills in the background had a soft, painterly texture.
The audience fell silent for two seconds.
This wasn't the quiet of boredom, but the hushed awe of being captivated by the visuals.
"Is this the SFC?" someone whispered.
Onstage, Shigeru Miyamoto pressed buttons on the controller. Yoshi swallowed an enemy, turning it into an egg. He aimed and threw.
The egg arced through the air, smashing against a hidden item in a distant wall.
"Every level in Yoshi's Island features sketches hand-drawn by our designers," Shigeru Miyamoto said. "We want players to feel like they're stepping into an art book when they start the game."
Applause erupted.
This reaction was clearly more enthusiastic than for the previous games.
Several reporters in the front row began furiously scribbling in their notebooks.
Next, gameplay footage of Super Donkey Kong 2 was shown.
Compared to the original, the sequel boasted improved environmental depth and character animation frame rates, with the minecart levels particularly impressive for their fluidity.
The final game was Super Nintendo Wars.
A turn-based strategy game with a bright art style and a wide variety of units.
While this genre didn't have a large following in North America, it had always been popular in Japan.
Miyamoto didn't spend much time on this title, briefly demonstrating the battle scenes and map editor before concluding.
"All SFC and Game Boy," a bearded American reporter in the audience muttered to his neighbor. "Nothing Next-Gen."
"Nintendo hasn't even hinted at a next-gen console. What are they going to release?" someone nearby replied.
"Then how will they compete with Sony and Sega this year?"
No one answered that question.
Nintendo's press conference concluded.
The applause from the audience lasted for quite some time, most of it directed at Shigeru Miyamoto personally.
He bowed deeply on stage and exited amidst the ovation.
In the manufacturer's section, Takuya Nakayama glanced at his watch.
10:28 AM. Nintendo had taken nearly half an hour. Although they didn't announce many games, Shigeru Miyamoto had presented them in such a captivating way. As expected of Miyamoto, he thought.
A brief intermission followed.
During the changeover, the media area buzzed with activity.
Some stood up to stretch, others headed to the coffee station at the back for water, while many seized the opportunity to exchange information with colleagues.
"Konami is going all-in on multiplatform releases—SFC, MD, PS, Jupiter, the works," a young reporter from Wired said to his colleague, flipping through his notes. "That company really plays both sides."
"Konami has never taken sides. They go wherever the money is. Look at their games over the past few years—more than half have been released simultaneously on multiple platforms, and their overall sales figures look great."
"What about Namco?"
"Namco has deep ties with Sony. Didn't you see that Tekken and Ace Combat are PlayStation exclusives? The underlying architecture of the System 11 arcade board is based on PlayStation hardware."
"All exclusives?"
"At least, that's what's been announced so far."
At 10:40, the Namco logo appeared on the main stage's large screen.
Hideki Sugano walked onto the stage.
In his early forties, he wore thin-rimmed glasses and a perfectly tailored dark gray suit with a meticulously knotted tie. The outfit wasn't flashy; standing on a university podium, he would have looked every bit the rigorous professor.
After a brief self-introduction, he raised his hand, directing the audience's attention to the screen.
The screen displayed live gameplay footage of the arcade version of Tekken.
Two polygonal fighting characters squared off in the center of the screen.
The man in the white gi slid forward, his rapid-fire punches and kicks forcing his opponent into the corner.
He followed up with a standard aerial combo, ending with a devastating downward smash.
The entire sequence was remarkably fluid, with no frame drops or polygon tearing.
Each frame had been meticulously hand-crafted, raising the bar for 3D fighting games.
"Holy shit," one American journalist in the front row blurted out.
Hideki Kanno waited until the footage had finished before speaking.
"Tekken will be ported from the System 11 arcade board to the PlayStation," he said, adjusting his glasses with a steady voice. "Since the System 11 and PlayStation share the same hardware architecture, this port will achieve an exceptionally high level of fidelity."
A rustling sound of paper came from the press section below.
"Shared hardware architecture."
This statement carried immense weight.
It meant players could enjoy arcade-quality graphics in their living rooms.
In a corner of the manufacturer's section, Ken Kutaragi leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
Namco's words were more effective than Sony's own multi-million dollar advertising campaign for the GG.
Using the best third-party games to endorse their console was exactly the scenario he had envisioned.
The screen switched again, this time to Ace Combat.
Fighters darted through the clouds, their movements leaping off the screen.
The aircraft's metallic sheen was incredibly realistic, and missiles left long white trails in their wake.
A rapid targeting tone blared from the sound system, plunging the entire auditorium into the tense atmosphere of a high-altitude dogfight.
"Is this one also for PS?" someone in the back asked.
"Look at the bottom right—that big PS logo," a colleague in the front replied without turning around.
Next up was Ridge Racer: Revolution.
As the true successor to the original, its tracks were significantly more complex.
The smoke effect from the tires skidding around the corner during the racing game drew a few cheers.
Hideki Sugano's pacing was impeccable.
The string of three PlayStation-exclusive blockbusters had the audience's anticipation soaring.
The scene shifted.
[ Tales of Phantasia ].
The art style changed abruptly, revealing a 2D-style RPG.
The character portraits were exquisite, but the combat system was the real showstopper.
This wasn't the traditional turn-based, side-view combat. Instead, characters moved freely across the battlefield, jumping and attacking in real-time.
"Is this running on a 16-bit console?" a reporter asked.
Implementing real-time action combat on platforms like the Super Famicom and Mega Drive required incredibly complex underlying logic.
Namco flexed its technical prowess here.
The final title was [ Soul Calibur ].
Also derived from the System 11 arcade platform.
The teaser trailer lasted only thirty seconds.
There wasn't much gameplay footage, but the appeal of its weapon-based combat was undeniable.
The sparks flying from clashing blades offered a far more visceral impact than bare-fisted punches.
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