Nintendo was in the middle of an almost undeserved bravado during E3 2005. While their E3 2004 press conference brought the house down with Reggie Fils-Aime’s ass-kicking debut and the reveal of a realistic Zelda for GameCube, Nintendo’s latest home console was solidly in third place and the recently released PSP was a significant threat to the well-being of the Game Boy line, even with the successful launch of the DS. As Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said, though, “actions speak louder than words,” and Nintendo acted like they were the kings of the industry. In retrospect, E3 2005 is the middle chapter of the near flawless turnaround from GameCube to Wii, and while it might seem to be pedestrian now, it was effective at the time.

The biggest present-day focus for Nintendo at E3 2005 was the DS, which first launched six months prior. The DS wasn’t a runaway success but, as of May 2005, it was very close to turning the corner to become the dynamo we know of. The two biggest DS games at their press conference were barely games as Electroplankton and Nintendogs were given as much time during their show as Zelda was. That isn’t to say they didn’t have anything else – Animal Crossing and Mario Kart were both highlighted on DS as well – but the company was clearly gearing up for their strategy of capturing the whole market and not just Nintendo fans.

E3 2005 was the same year Fils-Aime brought up the idea of Nintendo being an “and” company (as in, they make games for this group AND that group) as opposed to an “or” company. With Nintendogs hitting the vaunted casual market and an online portable Mario Kart, Tony Hawk, and Metroid Prime coming for the hardcore, they mostly succeeded at being an “and” company at E3 2005.

The Revolution, which would later become the Wii, was a major focus of their press conference as well, though it was still presented in vague terms that, in hindsight, clearly hinted at the underpowered motion control future. Iwata referred to the Revolution as “the console where the big idea can prevail over big budgets,” which is exactly what they were doing with concepts like Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

While some of the ideas mentioned here never came to fruition (there were no major online games at launch, EarthBound never came to Wii Virtual Console, and the Wii was never able to play DVDs legally), Nintendo’s Revolution presentation here was promising and not really misleading. Indeed, the system was all about “not what you will be playing, but how you will be playing.”

The DS and Revolution weren’t all that was there. The Game Boy Micro was revealed, emerging from Fils-Aime’s pocket about halfway through their show. The GBA in general had its few last gasps, with Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Pokémon Emerald, and Drill Dozer (which was known as Screw Breaker at the time). This was also the last year that the GameCube would have as their dominant home console, and while there wasn’t any single knockout game, the console did feature a variety of projects at E3, including Battalion Wars, Super Mario Strikers, Killer 7, and Geist. Even as the GameCube was petering out, Nintendo was still proud of their excess of 10 million systems sold in America (and shy of 20 million worldwide) in about 40 months on the market. In comparison, the Wii U won’t sell more than 10 million systems worldwide by the time it hits 30 months old.

And of course, who could possibly forget The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which was playable for the first time at this E3. A new trailer closed Nintendo’s press conference, revealing that Link could turn into a wolf and showing off Midna and the Twilight Realm. For the second year in a row, the latest news about a Zelda game was all that mattered at a Nintendo E3 presentation. Little did anyone know that that game would get delayed a year and moved to another console.