Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

Amidst much fanfare and excitement for Nintendo’s biggest announcements, one was conspicuously absent up till the end of the show: a new Legend of Zelda for the Wii. Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Other M are both interesting sequels – the first Mario Galaxy helped redeem the franchise after the debacle of Sunshine, while Team Ninja devs are teaming up with Nintendo to create a third person/first person hybrid of Metroid. However, the show stopper has always been a Legend of Zelda. The universally loved, respected and played franchise, no matter who the system fan, has always been Zelda. Yet Nintendo chose to omit it. Is it really that big a surprise, though?

The demand for a Wii-specific Zelda began when Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had been delayed on the GCN due to Nintendo outfitting it with motion-specific controls as a Wii launch title. As such, it was a Zelda for the Wii – just not a Wii Zelda. It wasn’t built ground up for the Wii. That being said, it takes much more to create such a title than simply adding motion gimmicks. At least the rudimentary mechanics can be used in Mario Galaxy. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption facilitated the motion-sensitive aiming controls, and allowed for true first person adventuring within the context of Samus’ battle suit (two actual hands using two separate arm functions). But Zelda is no simple quest. Neither it’s length nor it’s scope nor the enormous hype associated with it allows it to be anything less than revolutionary. Porting a Zelda title gave Nintendo one “Get-out-of-jail-free” card, especially when it was the edgy Zelda we’d all been waiting for. But if the company didn’t completely think it through this time around – if it half-assedly threw something together for the sake of stealing E3, it would have been the Majora’s Mask to Ocarina of Time: Fun, but not a masterpiece. Would fans have happily excused them again? Most likely not.

That being said, there’s so much potential for Zelda on the Wii. First person sword-fighting and narration completely from Link’s eyes. Implementing Motion-Plus with this to give players a deeper association with Link. There are hundreds of things Miyamoto and the brains at Nintendo have probably run over, which we can’t even comprehend (just like when they released the DS and it was unknown what games to expect). To say fans crave a new Zelda is an understatement. To say gamers want it to be the next big step for the series is another. Fans, and Nintendo, would agree which is more important in the end.