Stephan: Nintendo

The Next Zelda

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:57:20 GMT

I think we can expect an announcement on the next Zelda game pretty soon. Consider this:

1. Twilight Princess has been out for a year and 3 months. It was first revealed at E3 in 2004, 2.5 years before release, 1 year after the release of The Wind Waker.

2. Nintendo is always working on a new Zelda. They probably started working on the next one before TP was done. That is almost 1.5 years of development time.

3. Most of the big names have been released in the last year or will be released this year. We've had Metroid and Mario last year, we'll get SSB and Mario Kart in a few months.

So? The time is almost right to announce the next Zelda for the Wii.

What kind of game do I expect?
Not a remake of A Link to the Past. Not yet. Talk has just recently started that 'it would be interesting to see ALttP in 3D'. To me it sounds more like the developer was brainstorming aloud than a hint towards the game they're currently working on.
I expect a pretty direct, 'side-quest' sequel to Twilight Princess. Like we had Majora's Mask on the N64, like we had the Oracle games on the GBC. They will be using the same engine of Twilight Princess, with a few improvements of course. (Hopefully they can implement some features they had to cut from TP.) The game will not take place in Hyrule, or at least not involve Ganon.

Every Zelda game must have a 'theme': a specific feature that allows for interesting gameplay modes and that does not (likely) return in other Zelda games. MM had masks, TP had twilight, OoT had time traveling, The Minish Cap had shrinking, etc.
The theme for the next Zelda game? Shapeshifting. An evolution from TP, like MM's mask system was based on the masks in OoT. TP had Link transform into a wolf. The wolf will return, together with various other animal forms. Can we see a dolphin/seal/turtle for fast water action? A horned goat for mountain climbing? A rhino for breaking through rocks/enemies? Maybe they'll even let us fly as an eagle, although that might need the game to change too much (level setup etc.). But if Blizzard can do it, maybe Nintendo will too. Imagine climbing a mountain as a goat, running to the other edge as a wolf, jumping off to turn into an eagle and fly away.
The game would need another theme next to this, because just shapeshifting looks too much like MM's mask system, so it is not innovative enough. A bigger role for the weather? More wiimotion features, like dances? Who knows.

Some other aspects of the game: more advanced sword controls. You can bet that Nintendo is working hard to get awesome wiimote/sword controls, as close to 1:1 as possible. Maybe we'll get an online option, even if it's just an arena-style minigame where you duke it out with the items and animal forms you found offline.
We will see better graphics (TP on the Wii had the same graphics as on the GameCube), more story aspects, a more lively world. Quite a bit of classic Zelda 'stuff' will return. Sorry to say, but expect Tingle.

When will it be released? Nintendo will say it will be out in 2009, which will of course become 2010. It will sell well in the Western countries and it will do better in Japan than TP did, because of its focus on wiimote controls and other funny stuff. The name of the game? It will probably involve some new story aspect that we can not possibly guess at this time.

Your thoughts?

Nintendo update

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:45:44 GMT

Time for some Nintendo news!!

First of all: Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be awesome. Yesterday they revealed that you'll be able to build your own levels!! So far they've revealed 23 characters, while many more are expected. It will probably launch in Europe somewhere in spring 2008.

Secondly: I beat Metroid Prime 2 (GameCube). Good game, even though some parts were annoying because they have you search in the least likely places. Fortunately the hint system helps you out. Many gamers have complained about the 9 keys you have to find in the end, but I don't understand those complaints. You get plenty of clues, I found all of them within a few hours. I really was just a matter of picking them up, if you decided to use your brains.
One thing that annoys me a lot about the Metroid Prime games are the Metroids themselves. They are hard to kill. When they attack you, it takes around 5 seconds before you're free and you can attack them again. Especially when there are 2 or more at once, they're awful. I hope they're better done in Metroid Prime 3.

Thirdly, speaking of which: Metroid Prime 3 (Wii) is waiting for me! I'll be able to play it when I get to Sneek, hopefully next weekend.

Fourthly: Nintendo is doing great, which makes me happy. For around 15 years I've been a Nintendo-fan and it hasn't always been that easy. Ok, that's a bit over-dramatic, but during the N64 and GameCube generations I always (felt I) had to defend Nintendo. Everybody was playing their Playstations and laughing at Nintendo with its kiddy games.
When the Wii launched, people were still making fun of it. "It won't sell" they said. It did. "The hype will die within a few months" they said. It didn't. The Wii is out for almost a year now and it's still doing very well. And that just feels good for Nintendo-fans.

Fifthly: There are a lot of good Wii games coming out in the next months. Super Mario Galaxy, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Endless Ocean are just a few games that I'm interested in, but I don't have the time/money to play/buy them all. Oh, I bought a TV, so now I can bring my Wii and play some more games. After I've finished my Bsc thesis of course.

Funny Nintendo stuff

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:26:07 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHZNVpO5tc8&eurl= My kind of tropical island.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKxpmnAFRw A bit long, but I hadn't seen it before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvljN9ycqLg Happy together!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCln02FDCUI I want that!

Enough ads for today. The DS is continuing to sell like crazy, so here's that picture again:

Nintendo Mii's in Xbox Official Magazine

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 20:40:22 GMT

http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/miioxm.jpg

Wiii!

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:21:48 GMT

I won't hide that I'm a Nintendo fan. I'm the kind of fan who likes it when competition is doing bad. So I get a laugh from stories of PS3s sitting on shelves, while the Wii continues to sell out.

Untill I find out how to show images here, you'll have to do with this link: http://www.codenamerevolution.com/images/sonywii.jpg ^_^