After the 3DS sequel to the classic Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, after the Wii U release of a Wind Waker remake, we will eventually get an original Zelda game on Wii U. It’s being made now. Nintendo’s barely talking about it.
Eiji Aonuma, the man who oversees all Zelda projects at Nintendo, talked to me about those first two Zelda games at E3 last week, and offered just a slight hint at how the Wind Waker remake is influencing the simultaneous development of the unnamed original Wii U Zelda.
“Wind Waker HD is kind of a testing ground for us,” Aonuma said. “With Wind Waker we were able to accomplish, for the first time, to create a seamless experience. You traveled a great sea… also [we are adding] the Miiverse communication of playing with others virtually. So we’re going to take things like this and add to those so the Wii U [new Zelda] experience should be one that is satisfying to players.”
I’m sure Zelda fans are all for more of a seamless Zelda in the future. And integration into the Miiverse, to support hints or other communal interaction is intriguing. Aonuma said that the Wind Waker HD team will, upon completion of their project, merge with his Wii U new-Zelda team. Aonuma’s translator described the merged team as a “super-team”. Aonuma laughed and repeated the term in English: “super-team!”
Don’t expect that new Wii U Zelda for a while, 2014 at the soonest, but Nintendo isn’t even committing to that.
Comments
16 responses to “The Vaguest Hints About The Wii U’s First Original Zelda”
2014???? Yeah right! We’re not even getting mariokart until then and it’s playable now!
I’d say 2015 at the earliest. Who knows? I could be right. I was right about MS backflipping on the XBone’s DRM.
Yeah if they are barely even talking about it now, I think 2014 is probably being optimistic. Maybe LATE 2014 at the earliest.
Definitely. Not one to hold the breath for. But we’ll be happy with wind walker and other games by then anyway. Hopefully.
Take your time, Nintendo. Make it special.
This,
Please don’t. Make a good game but don’t repeat the Wii.
Like the Wii U, it also came out with a version of a previous console’s Zelda early, and took their sweet goddamn time with Skyward Sword, which came out in the Wii’s twilight years. If I knew that was happening, I wouldn’t have bought a Wii on launch day and instead waited till it was like $100. However, I want to own a Wii-U, just give me a good reason (aka Zelda). Hell, squeeze in two for this generation if you can.
If it’s one thing you can’t accuse Nintendo of, it’s rushing games out. They’ll release it when it’s ready.
They don’t tend to delay, either. When they say something’s going to be out, it usually is. If they don’t know, they don’t say. I like it.
But we’ve been waiting over 10 years for a decent Zelda now…
At least you’ll have an HD version of that Zelda to tide you over 🙂
I liked Skyward Sword.
That’s highly debatable. Twilight princess is considered by many to be a good zelda game. Likewise, many people enjoyed Phantom hourglass and spirit tracks, although being handhelds they obviously won’t have the depth of a console game.
Twilight Princess was a great game
will be why i purchase the Wii U. The day it comes out I will pick one up.
Hopefully we’ll get a traditional Hyrule but large and open with no transitional scenes between areas apart from dungeons. Twilight Princess was always disappointing in the way Hyrule Field was sectioned off into small chunks.
In 2006 that didn’t bother me too much, but yeah, that would be horrible in 2014 era of games. I would also like them to take some ideas from Skyrim and have side quests and cool exploration. Zelda is a perfect world for that – it’s a shame the last few games havn’t tried anything more ambitious.
Ditto with Skyward Sword. The sky was so bland and surface zone was basically its own little world with no connective tissue. Even Skyloft island was just a placeholder. When you landed, it transitioned with a quick load and it was jarring how it was obviously a different zone.