It was announced a month ago that we would see The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D before Skyward Sword, and today Nintendo has made good on that promise. Zelda's 25th anniversary was just a week ago, and to celebrate, Nintendo has announced that Ocarina of Time 3D will be out in June, hopefully in time for E3 so we can start looking forward to the continuation of the series: Skyward Sword.

Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, made the announcement without specifying exactly where the game would be released, but presumably North Americans should rest assured that the June launch will include them.

GDC 2011 has been very fruitful for Nintendo fans waiting desperately for the next wave of first-party games. Earlier today we discussed the announcement of a new fully-fledged Mario platformer, Super Mario 3DS as well as Nintendo's new partnerships with AT&T and Netflix. Now, we not only have the release month for Ocarina of Time 3D AND new gameplay footage from Skyward Sword, we've also got some fresh screens from the revamped land of Hyrule.

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There is no question that the graphical capabilities of the 3DS far outweigh that of the visually inferior N64. These screens, as well as gameplay footage from January, are proof enough that the team restoring Ocarina of Time is doing a fantastic job. No one is going to bet against Zelda, though the question still remains: are retreads on familiar territory enough to keep the 3DS afloat for years to come? If the immediate sell-out of every single system in Japan on launch day is any indication, then yes. Yes it is.

I am as excited as the next gamer about hopping back on Epona's back, but I need to see more originality coming out of Nintendo before I'm willing to hop on board the 3D hype train. Super Mario 3DS certainly doesn't hurt though. Are you all excited about picking up the 3DS this month, or are you better off waiting until the catalog of games grows? Let us know in the comments below.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D will pop out of a small Nintendo 3DS screen near you in June 2011.

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Source: Eurogamer