Dawn of a New Year – 2020

A new year begins and not only that, it's also the start of a new decade. At the beginning of the previous decade the Zelda series was arguably at a low point after the release of Spirit Tracks in the middle of the Nintendo DS and Wii era. Of course this is entirely subjective, but the Nintendo DS Zelda games are often regarded as some of the lesser favorites and it could only go up from there.

And up it went. In the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U era the Zelda series saw a collection of solid remasters of its 3D games, as well as a great new take at topdown Zelda with A Link Between Worlds and with it a return to less linear adventures. We also got one of the most extensive and popular spin-off games for the series with Hyrule Warriors, which was able to entertain Zelda fans for hundreds of hours.

And then came Breath of the Wild, the biggest milestone for the series after Ocarina of Time and the most successful Zelda game yet... It sparked a newfound interest in the series and really made Zelda popular again, where it's in Nintendo's own interest to keep going with the series in all directions.

This is how the last decade looked like in terms of new releases for the Zelda series:

• Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS, 2011)
• Four Swords: Anniversary Edition (DSi, 2011)
• Skyward Sword (Wii, 2011)
• The Wind Waker HD (Wii U, 2013)
• A Link Between Worlds (3DS, 2013)
• Hyrule Warriors (Wii U, 2014)
• Majora's Mask 3D (3DS, 2015)
• Tri Force Heroes (3DS, 2015)
• Twilight Princess HD (Wii U, 2016)
• Hyrule Warriors: Legends (3DS, 2016)
• Breath of the Wild (Wii U & Switch, 2017)
• Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch, 2018)
• Cadence of Hyrule (Switch, 2019)
• Link's Awakening (Switch, 2019)

And this will keep going, where it's not unlikely that there will be some form of Zelda release every year, even if it's just a spin-off. And what we will be getting in 2020 will heavily depend on how far the development of the sequel to Breath of the Wild has progressed.

"Breath of the Wild 2" could be the big focus of this year's E3 and become a release for the Christmas season. It's more likely, however, that the game will be released in early 2021, following the release of Breath of the Wild in March 2017, or even later. We can't really be sure at the moment other than the fact that Nintendo and Monolith Software are working on this game.

But it should be clear that the sequel won't be released in the next few months, where it's entirely possible that early 2020 will give us something else. There's still Skyward Sword HD up in the air, which could already be coming soon as a nice filler. After all it will already grow ten years old next year and it was the first major Zelda title of the previous decade. Such a project would probably be developed by Tantalus, the studio that made Twilight Princess HD, so this wouldn't distract Nintendo from developing the next big game.

In the same sense would could see ports of both The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD at any time. Nintendo really loves to port its Wii U games for a second home, where they might actually sell, so the library of Zelda games on Nintendo Switch could expand pretty quickly.

It's also still possible that GREZZO might consider updating Link's Awakening to make more out of the Chamber Dungeon feature, which was very promising, but ultimately somewhat disappointing. New rooms, enemies and bosses could already spark some excitement here. However, that's all that we can expect in this department for 2020, where any follow-ups to Link's Awakening will probably take their time until 2021 and later.

If the sequel to Breath of the Wild will keep us waiting, we might also hear something from a sequel to Hyrule Warriors instead to keep us entertained in the meantime. Focusing on Breath of the Wild and letting us play as the four Champions would certainly attract attention, while they also could fill some gaps from earlier games.

And of course there always could be something that's coming out of nowhere, like Cadence of Hyrule in 2019... The possibilities for other crossovers or completely new Zelda experiences are vast.

In any case 2020 should be an interesting year and the start to an even more interesting decade full of new Zelda games and surprises.