London, England - In a market where 70 percent of the turf is owned by the enemy, what's a competitor to do? Like the poor blokes hitting that beach in Saving Private Ryan, you give it everything you've got.

　　At this year's ECTS, Nintendo is determined to encroach as best it can on the sands of Sony. With Zelda 64 in its final days of tweaking and aimed for the European market next month, it just might have a chance.

　　"We're here, were serious, this is an important market, and we have high expectations," Perrin Kaplan of Nintendo of America told GameSpot News Sunday.

　　Nintendo's secret weapon, of course, is Miyamoto's next opus, Zelda 64. Zelda is a game so important to Nintendo's 1998 performance that the game's creator and lead designer Miyamoto, contrary to earlier plans that had him attending ECTS, remained in Japan to finish up the very final stages of Zelda production. "He's a perfectionist," Kaplan explained. Nintendo of Japan's Yusuhiro Minagawa corroborated Kaplan's assessment. He likened Miyamoto's final days with Zelda to that of someone with a giant puzzle yet to be put together in final form, Miyamoto with his hands on the various pieces. In this case, however, there is a clock ticking loudly in the background. Miyamoto has only until the middle of the month to sign off on his project before the game is put through the final production and manufacturing processes.

　　In fact, the game is due to be released in the Japanese market on November 14, a week before the European and US release date of November 23. Zelda, by the way, isn't the only weapon Nintendo brings to this modern-day battle of Britain - 40 first- and third-party games (including Rogue Squadron, 1080 Snowboarding, F-1 World Grand Prix, and F-Zero X) are due to be released in Europe before the year is out.

　　In addition to software development, pricing also plays a role in Nintendo's dreams of grandeur. In the past two weeks alone, Nintendo has instituted various pricing changes to hardware in 15 countries. Still, it's Sony that grabbed the headlines in the UK with its recent price reduction to £99 (which includes a single Dual Shock controller).