Here’s a nice surprise: Nintendo’s top developers playing their huge new open-world 2015 Zelda game. Marvellous!
Nintendo just showed off that new Zelda at The Game Awards via a video recorded at the company’s studios in Japan. Zelda lead producer Eiji Aonuma controlled the game while original Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto added some commentary.
The game shows a zoomable world map on the Wii U gamepad and action on the TV.
The map indicates that the game’s world is huge. At one point, Aonuma said that it’d take five minutes to span the distance that they wanted to travel, from one part of the game’s map to another. (it seemed that they were operating in the map’s lower right corner.) This led Miyamoto to quip about whether the game would actually come out next year. It will, Aonuma said.
It might take five minutes to get from the green arrow to the red X, though that wasn’t completely clear due to how the video was edited. The Nintendo devs seemed to have made some progress in their journey before making the time estimate. So it could take longer?
Link has a sailcloth in the game, a sort of gliding parachute device seen in Skyward Sword and kind of like the leaf in Wind Waker. He can also set waypoints from a first-person mode. Go first-person, spot an area of interest, mark the waypoint and then go to it.
The idea, it seems, is that anything you can see in this game world, no matter how far out in the distance, is a location you can reach.
Link can get around quickly by riding his horse, Epona, who apparently won’t run into trees. Epona appears to automatically avoid trees as you gallop through. You can shoot arrows and swing swords from Epona.
Link can also jump off his horse and attack enemies in slow-motion as he does an aerial dismount.
Nothing that the Nintendo developers showed was all that surprising, but it’s still the first time we’ve seen the game being controlled by anyone. It looks massive and visually striking. Presumably, we’ll see a lot more of it by E3 of 2015.
Miyamoto also confirmed that his new Wii U Star Fox game will be out next year, some time before this new Zelda.
Comments
36 responses to “Nintendo’s Creators Show Off Next Year’s Massive, New Wii U Zelda ”
Tilt controls for aiming? 🙁
Tilt controls are usually there for aiming/camera controls in Wii U games, but I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that forced me to use them. It’s one of those rare times where Nintendo don’t just force what they think players want on you. So it’s tilt and motion in the commercials but a mix by default with the ability to turn them off. I wouldn’t expect the new Zelda to break that tradition.
Splatoon has tilt controls for vertical aiming too which were forced in the demo I played at PAX – though there was no menu in that. Made what was otherwise an awesome game, really akward to play.
Here’s hoping you’re right and there’s a way to disable it and just use the analog stick for both games.
yeah Splatoon will have local 2 player though so it will have the non tilt option.
@sernobulus spoke to the nintendo representative. You will have the ability to turn off tilt aiming in splatoon, they just didn’t have time to do it for the demo at pax.
Awesome, thanks, that was the only thing I didn’t like about that game – kept running up to people then realizing I was aiming at the ground >_<
Hopefully Zelda will be that same.
I was trying to aim at the ground and was aiming who knows where =P
I’m sure you can still use the stick in its place.
I’m one of the people who love it, I guess. I hated aiming the bow and arrow in Ocarina of Time on N64. The OoT 3DS with gyro made it actually usable for me.
To be fair though the N64 had a single rather flimsy little stick (circle pad on 3DS was better but it’s still just one and circle pads aren’t great for precision aiming). I would probably rate tilt controls about equal on those, but Wind Waker HD’s twin stick controls left tilt in the dust.
[Edit: I mean if you like them that’s fine. It’s great the option is there. It just makes me a bit nervous when they mention those Star Fox controls.]
Have you tried the tilt controls on Ocarina of Time 3DS? I thought it would be really gimmicky and silly but was pleasantly surprised and became my main way of aiming.
Yes. I can’t stand tilt controls, they’re incredibly unintuitive for me.
It all depends. It would probably be bad for an FPS but great for a game like OoT.
like every game that has aiming on wii u im sure you can disable it and use the controller.
Heh, when XBOX and PlayStation fanboys fight over who has the prettiest exclusives they should probably take a moment to thank Nintendo for not running on true next-gen hardware. =P
I like this comment, much truth is contained within
you mean game that you can play and working properly.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this will be good.
Some things I’ve picked up;
-Large bodies of water seen on the map, so water travel is highly likely.
-Map has gradients, a compass as well as being highly detailed supporting the focus of exploration which is heavily emphasised by Anouma.
-Map also reveals different coloured sections, suggesting different terrains ( ice, rocky, grassy, etc)
-Clock readings are located at the top of the map.
-Can eat apples- an alternate or perhaps only way of gaining health?
-Magic meter/stamina meter
-At around the 3:40 mark, a blurred figure can be seen perched on top of the rock. (is it a deer?)
-At around the 4:00 mark, a figure that looks like human can be briefly seen.
Pretty sure I saw a sign that said Kakariko Village -> …..wishful thinking.
I thought the horse riding looked a little buggy (it’s not out until at least next year though) but the world itself looks great. Can’t wait to see some more of it.
what was buggy about it?
The animations for me, it wasn’t always a smooth transition from what ever run animation it was in to the dodge tree animation.
This was pretty much what I meant. Even just the sudden stop from running (galloping? I’m not a horse person) looked a bit akward. Nothing major, just little things that I’d be 99% sure will be ironed out by release.
I’m actually amazed with Epona can dodge trees. no previously games actually had that.
Next year the Wii-U is really shaping up. I was so lucky to get a MK8 Premium bundle from the kmart stuff up for $178! 😀
The new Kings Quest looks better
I’m so pumped for this. The wiiU may not be powerful at all but I’m loving the way Nintendo are doing the graphics and art styles. Winning
I haven’t been this bored by a Zelda announcement ever.
It’s open world… I get that. I saw last generation open world last generation.
What’s the premise? What’s the story? Is there anything interesting about the game play?
I’m not trying to be a dick, it’s just that reminded me of the No Man’s Sky demo but without the impressive graphics or engine. I’d rather an interesting Majora’s Mask style thematic shift because I don’t think Twilight Princess in a last generation open world is going to get me particularly excited.
Dont be a dick.
What was seen was merely a teaser… much like the E3 demo. I’d expect the details u crave will be released in good time.
There are probably a number of features in this game to keep most people happy, but on a broader scale, I really want to see something truly revolutionary. I’m a loot addict and love customisation. Does anyone think this game would be improved if they brought in such a system?
It does look good, kind of like WoW. Almost makes me want to buy a Wii U. Not really but it’s still a good start. =)
If you can’t invert the Y axis for the camera and aiming this time I’m going to lose my shit.
Can’t wait looks great!
Will get this, but still more hyped for Uncharted 4 and Metal Gear Solid 5.
Most Anticipated for 2015 goes to……