Space World 2001: Mario and Zelda make an appearance

Following a presentation by NCL's executive staff, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto stepped onstage to unveil the latest Mario game for the Nintendo GameCube console. He revealed that the first GameCube Mario game, tentatively titled Mario Sunshine, will be released in Japan in summer 2002. The game, which was shown in video form, is similar in look to Mario 64. The level shown was in a tropical setting.

After the brief presentation of Mario Sunshine, Miyamoto unveiled the next game in the Zelda franchise. Tentatively titled The Legend of Zelda, the game features a cel-shaded graphical style. In the video shown, Link looked younger than in the N64 Zelda games, and his general design looked more cartoonlike than in those previous games. Zelda will be released on the GameCube in Christmas 2002.