Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed several new surprising games during his keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference today – the most prominent of which is a new DS Zelda title named The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Spirit Tracks boasts an artistic style similar to Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, though Link has exchanged his seafaring vessel for a locomotive (with snappy conductor’s clothes to match).  The game appears to feature train segments in which the player fights enemies with a mounted cannon and a mix of more traditional dungeon exploring, treasure gathering and key collecting.

Another big announcement has been long overdue for fans of Square Enix.  Final Fantasy, a series mysteriously absent from the Virtual Console, will finally make its appearance on the service.  The first Final Fantasy will appear on the Japanese VC in May, followed by a North America release soon after.  Iwata also mentioned that the second Final Fantasy released in America – Final Fantasy IV – will also appear on the VC, but said that details concerning that will come soon from Square Enix.

Not only will players be able to play the original Final Fantasy IV on the Virtual Console, but will be able to extend the game and experience with Final Fantasy IV – The After Years.  The game is a sequel to the original game, and will be available in 2009.  Square will also offer My Life as a Darklord, a WiiWare sequel to My Life as a King.  From the sounds of it, the player might take the role of an evil overlord as opposed to the adorable ruler seen in the first game.

Final Fantasy isn’t the only thing coming to VC either.  Virtual Console Arcade, which should be available right now, will offer classic arcade games for those who, according to Iwata, “spent too much of your pocket money on arcade games” as a kid.  The Virtual Console Arcade will offer games like Mappy and Space Harrier.

And finally, Nintendo has definitively killed that pesky storage space problem.  With Wii Menu 4.0, gamers will now not only be able to use SDHC cards which can store up to 32 gigs of memory, but also download to and play directly from the SD card.  This makes the memory expansion a truly functional storage solution as opposed to the clumsy and time-consuming space it once was.

This is big news from Iwata that should give a booster shot to the Wii console.