2014 – The Year of Crossovers

Another year has passed and for a year, which didn't see a new title in the The Legend of Zelda main series, this was probably a very lively one, especially when compared to the voids in 2008 and 2012. It all began end of January, where Iwata announced in an investor briefing that Nintendo is going to be less protective about their character IPs:

We will actively expand our character licensing business, including proactively finding appropriate partners.

And this ultimately led to various cameos for the Zelda series in other video games this year. There was the "The Legend of Zelda Zone" in Sonic Lost Word, where Sonic runs through Hyrule Field and the Goron Mines in the traditional green garbs. Speaking of, a Link costume also made it into Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

One of the highlights of these cameos was without a doubt Mario Kart 8, however. In its first DLC pack Link was added together with the Master Cycle Zero and the Hyrule Circuit, where you collect Rupees and activate switches for a shortcut.

As a perfect fit for this "year of crossovers" we saw the release of the next Super Smash Bros. game, both on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Though, nothing much happened with the Zelda franchise in the next iteration of Nintendo's allstar fighting game. We got new stages with the Spirit Train from Spirit Tracks, the Gerudo Valley from Ocarina of Time 3D, and Skyloft from Skyward Sword.

The Zelda franchise also saw a significant upgrade in the field of items in Smash – the Gust Bellow, the Beetle, Bombchus, a Fairy Bottle, Cuccos, and three new assist trophies: Skull Kid, Midna and Ghirahim. But there were no new playable fighters from the Zelda series and the recurring ones only changed a little, so overall the new Smash probably wasn't all this exciting for Zelda fans.

However, Zelda finally got its own well deserved all-star fighting game with Hyrule Warriors. You could probably even name this the "year of Hyrule Warriors", because this title was huge. Speculating about new characters and weapons, marveling at artwork and of course playing the game, where you can easily invest hundreds of hours – Hyrule Warriors dominated the free time of Zelda fans in the latter half of the year. And it will still keep going. Two more DLC packs are coming in early 2015, one about Majora's Mask and one adding new game modes, where Hyrule Warriors will probably keep the fans busy until the next Zelda game get released.

Otherwise we got a small blast from the past with The Minish Cap on the Wii U Virtual Console, as well as some NES goodness with NES Remix 2 (Wii U) and NES Remix Pack (Nintendo 3DS).