So, Nintendo put on another one of their Nintendo Direct presentations today, and while most of the news was stuff that would only be of interest to hardened N-fans, there were a handful of big, surprising announcements sprinkled throughout.
Hit the jump for the four most interesting announcements from the latest Nintendo Direct…

via GoNintendo here, here, here and here
First off, if you have 35-minutes to spare, here’s the full presentation…

Now, on to the highlights!

EarthBound On North American Virtual Console!

It’s been nearly a decade since Nintendo first unveiled the Virtual Console, and since day one, quirky SNES RPG EarthBound has been one of the service’s most demanded titles. For mysterious reasons it hasn’t happened — until now. Yes, finally, EarthBound on Virtual Console. I’m sure Starmen.net just exploded.

New Yoshi’s Island on 3DS

Looks like Yarn Yoshi isn’t the only new Yoshi title on the way — an all-new Yoshi’s Island is coming as well. The game looks to combine the visual styles of the original Yoshi’s Island and the N64 game Yoshi’s Story. Hopefully the game is closer in quality to the former than the latter.

Bravely Default Comes to North America

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, a stylish Square-Enix RPG with a ridiculous Engrish name is coming to North America courtesy of Nintendo themselves. Like a lot of 3DS owners, I’d mostly given up hope of seeing this one cross the Pacific, and am pretty happy to see it happening. If you’re at all nostalgic for the classic 8 and 16-bit Final Fantasy games, this title should be on your radar.

A Direct Sequel To The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past?!

Say whaaat? Definitely the craziest news to come out of this Nintendo Direct was the announcement of a new Zelda game set in the same world as A Link to the Past. The game has an…interesting, art style that’s cartoony, but in a very different way than Wind Waker and the past couple DS Zeldas. The game also looks to really emphasize the 3DS’ 3D capabilities. The game’s supposedly due out this year, but the Zelda series is no stranger to delays.
The Nintendo Direct contained plenty of other news, such as a release date for Pikmin 3 (August 4th) but those were the big four announcements. What do you folks think? Ready to play EarthBound again and return to the world of A Link to the Past?