Zeldathon is running the whole week, collecting money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Check it out and maybe leave a donation. This time it's digging deep into the 90s nostalgia and they even have SuperMCGamer back on board, who started the whole thing, but stepped down from his leadership role after Zeldathon 1986 two years ago. And that's making me nostalgic as well.
In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom you briefly play as Link, before you slip into the role of Princess Zelda for the first time in the mainline series. Unlike Link, who still relies on his trusty sword, shield, bow and bombs, Zelda primarily fights by summoning echoes of monsters, while she can also freely steer entities around by binding them to her own movements.
Now, this is a great basis for another cooperative multiplayer Zelda game, following Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and Tri Force Heroes, but this time tailored to two players. It would be perfect for pairs who are into Zelda, where Hazelight Studios has popularized this genre of games, with A Way Out, It Takes Two and Split Fiction.
This idea is as old as Echoes of Wisdom itself, but let's finally get into more detail here. Spoiler warning for the game's ending! Don't hit "read more", unless you have beaten Echoes of Wisdom or don't care.
GOOOOOO STAMP RALLY! As a fellow stamp enthusiast, why just collect stamps when you can collect stamps in a specific order? Isn't that some stamp-tacular idea? Yes? Let's doooo this!
Okay... So, in Echoes of Wisdom you get five stamp cards to fill, where each of them has five slots for stamps. And there exist five different stamp designs in the game, where each design has five designated stamp stands in the world. The game remembers which stamp was put in which slot, meaning that the stamp cards will look different at the end for a number of players.
Knowing this, you can plan ahead and fill out the cards in an order of your liking. And that's what I did when I was recently replaying the game. There are very different approaches you can take here, but if you want some order to your order, then you will either go for five different stamps on each card or five of the same stamps. Let's talk a little bit about this...
This is to inform you that a new review was added to Hyrule Blog, one for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Most of it got written back in late 2024, after I had first played through the game, so I decided to add it into the archive around the time, because it makes the most sense there historically. Here is the link:
All the screenshots were also taken during my first playthrough in 2024, but a lot of them didn't find their way into my Adventure Log. And here it's nice to show off some more, so they don't just rot on my harddrive.
At the time, I wasn't able to finish the article, because I was moving to a new apartment and therefore busy with other things. But it can generally be tough to write a review after I already have talked so much about a new game, because it feels redundant. Still, I find them to be very valuable, because they collect all my important thoughts from the play logs. But once some time has passed, I need to play the game again to refresh those thoughts, which is what I have done in this case (see here).
There are also half-finished reviews for both Age of Calamity and Imprisonment somewhere in my drafts, where hopefully I will get back to those one day. Sadly, for Breath of the Wild I only have an intro and some notes, while I didn't even bother with Tears of the Kingdom...
After replaying Ocarina of Time back in June, I was in the mood for some top-down Zelda goodness, where Echoes of Wisdom was on top of my list. It and Tears of the Kingdom are the two most recent Zelda games, where I had played and completed both of them only once so far. Well, this won't change anytime soon for Tears of the Kingdom, because I'm fed up on that game, but with Echoes of Wisdom it's hard to say no when it's so short and sweet, just like a good classic Zelda.
But there is more to it, because I was also able to experience the game in new ways. This time I played it from start to finish in Hero Mode, which I had ignored entirely during my initial run. And thanks to the free update for the Nintendo Switch 2, I was now able to play Echoes of Wisdom in 4K and fluid 60FPS. In addition, I've went through the game's dungeons in a completely different order. Hit "read more" to learn more about all of this.
Last week two curious entries appeared on IMDB, for unannounced Zelda remakes:
They are featuring different voice actors for Link: Mitsuki Saiga, who has voiced Link in the more recent top-down Zelda games and Hyrule Warriors, as well as Nobuyuki Hiyama, whose voice was used for adult Link in the Nintendo 64 era. It also lists Hidemaro Fujibayashi (the current director of the Zelda series) as doing mocap for Din, which is hilarious and teaches you all you need to know about the credibility of this information. I can only imagine him performing all those gracious dance moves.
Of course, anyone with the necessary rights can edit IMDB and add whatever they want, so this shouldn't classify as a meaningful leak in any book, unlike a certain Metroid game that has appeared in the news earlier this month... It's still weird how no one has bothered with removing this yet, or with checking any sources. Still, I appreciate the idea of this hoax, because Majora's Mask and the Oracle games are the exact remakes that I would love to see happen next, after Ocarina of Time.
"Majora's Mask HD" is a strange title, however, because the HD suffix implies that this is not a remake like Ocarina of Time, but an HD remaster of either the Nintendo 64 original, Majora's Mask 3D, or a mix of both. Maybe even still coming to the Nintendo Switch, because on the Nintendo Switch 2 this should be called "Majora's Mask 4K".
And that's not what I would want. I would want Nintendo to follow up on the Ocarina of Time remake and take their time with this. The Nintendo 64 Zelda games are siblings and always deserve to receive the same treatment in the same quality. Also, Majora's Mask has re-used a lot of the assets from Ocarina of Time and it makes all the sense in the world for a remake to do the same.
It's the same reason why I still want remakes of Oracle of Ages & Seasons to happen. It simply makes too much sense to recreate them in the same style as Link's Awakening, because they have borrowed so much from the original. Period.
At least, the IMDB entry got the right idea in this case. I like the simplicity of the title "Oracles", where this would be the first time for a Zelda game to receive a one-word subtitle. But it implies that this is going to unite the two Game Boy Color games into one experience, which is how it should be and refreshing to see.
Often you just find pure pessimism or rejection amongst the Nintendo and Zelda community when it comes to this particular remake. Some believe that this will never happen, because they were originally made by Capcom. And if they were to happen still, then Nintendo would never release them as one, because they are too greedy.
But Nintendo owns all the scenario rights for the four Zelda games developed by Flagship. Only the music rights could pose a problem. It's the main reason why you can find Stickers and Spirits based on these games in the Super Smash Bros. series, but no music. However, the music shouldn't be a major hurdle, because they can just compose new tracks...
And splitting Oracle of Seasons and Ages into two games again would defeat the entire purpose of such a remake. Sure, you wouldn't need to use passwords any longer, because they could just read each other's save files, but you would still need to connect these save files manually, making things needlessly complicated, whereas this could and should become a completely seamless experience. (See my Oracle of Worlds article for how this would work in greater detail.)
Plus, when they are effectively offering two Zelda adventures as one, then the full price that Nintendo is definitely going to charge won't feel as unreasonable. At least to some people.
In any case, I personally hope that the "Oracles" is GREZZO's current project, where this might even get released next year. A proper Majora's Mask remake on the other hand may take a couple of years to appear.
You've probably heard the news already, but this needs to be talked about. Microsoft has announced heavy layoffs in the video game branch earlier this week: 1600 people got fired immediately and 1600 are to leave later. They've tried to make it sound reasonable by talking about trimming down management, which is usually a good thing, but these changes also hit where it hurts.
One developer was hit particularly hard: id Software, the studio behind classics like Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake. An article from Kotaku shares insights into the extent of the cuts: 136 of 185 employees got fired, more than two thirds of the staff. This happened right after the launch of DOOM: Revelation, an expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages, leaving the studio now crippled.
One of the affected people is Adam "SyncError" Pyle, who has been keeping their free-to-play multiplayer shooter Quake Champions alive for the last couple of years, with new maps, weapon skins, features, and lots of fixes. On his own admission, he did a lot of that in his free time, not because he had to, but because he deeply cared about the game and the franchise. He worked together closely with the community, who tested upcoming features and gave feedback.
If you have someone as passionate and talented as Adam Pyle working for your company, you don't let such people go. But Bethesda under ZeniMax Media under Microsoft apparently doesn't care about such talent – they only care about margin. And classic gaming franchises like Doom and Quake seemingly don't create enough of that these days, where it looks like their fate is sealed, unless Bethesda is planning to outsource them to other studios...
Of course, these aren't the first major layoffs in the industry in the recent years. There's a whole Wikipedia article about the topic, which lists pretty much every major publisher except one: Nintendo. The worst you hear about them lately is that they are killing one of their few mobile games...
I wouldn't even be surprised if some of the people who have worked for id Software now found their way to Retro Studios, helping out with the development of Metroid Prime 5. Both are located in Texas, in Richardson and Austin to be exact, which aren't that far from each other...
And just like Retro Studios spawned from Iguana Entertainment back in the day (the creators of the classic Turok games for the Nintendo 64), all this talent from id Software may open their own studio. If that happens, then that new studio will certainly have my interest, unlike Microsoft going forward.
Nintendo has announced today that Mario Kart Tour will cease to exist at the end of September. And this time there won't be a way of playing the game offline, like there is with the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - Complete Edition. It doesn't really affect me, because I have only tried the game once and didn't like it, but it's an interesting view into the nature of such service games.
First of all, this sucks for everyone who has invested in the game somehow. But let that be a lesson learned to not invest into this form of gaming, where your ability to play the game depends on some online service that is likely to shut down once the game stops being profitable. You want to stay as far away from it as possible.
(And I perfectly know it's not easy to resist. If Nintendo were to release a Zelda mobile game with micro transactions, I would still play it. And as a fan of classic Arena Shooters, I'm also still playing Quake Champions, where I had recently praised Bethesda for keeping it alive, as the franchises has reached its 30th anniversary. But with this week's lay-offs from Microsoft, things are looking very bad for the game. More on that later.)
Free-to-play became a new standard for multiplayer games, because everyone is doing it and a price tag is therefore creating a barrier. But I can still play those Arena Shooters from the old days, because the community is keeping them alive. And I can still play Mario Kart Wii whenever I want, with community mods even online.
Anyway, the silver lining is that a lot of the contents from Mario Kart Tour found their way into either Mario Kart 8 Deluxe via the Booster Course Pass, or into Mario Kart World. The latter mainly got the characters and costumes, where hopefully they will add more of them in the future. It would be nice to finally have Dixie Kong playable in a console Mario Kart game. And all-but-one of the exclusive courses made it into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where they are preserved. Only the Piranha Plant Pipeline (also known as Pipe Canyon) will be fully lost.
Well, three years ago I was an advocate of a second Booster Course Pass to truly preserve as much as possible, but what we got was already quite good. And the lost course will eventually return in the future, maybe already as DLC for Mario Kart World. It is even in the current rotation of Mario Kart Tour, where it may be the last chance to play the Piranha Plant Pipeline in the game. But best not to start now...
Yesterday Nintendo has added the Free Roam playlists for all three Super Mario Land games in Mario Kart World to Nintendo Music. I still remember hearing them for the first time while playing the new Mario Kart and getting really pumped, because the Game Boy was my first own video game system and these three titles were my entry into gaming, followed by Link's Awakening.
They have a special place in my heart, but are often overshadowed by the Super Mario Bros. trilogy and Super Mario World, where it's nice to even get a reference here and there. Well, I've already sung my hymn of praise about these Game Boy classics some years ago, so I won't repeat that. But today they are finally reunited on Nintendo Switch Online with the addition of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.
It's easily one of the best looking and sounding, if not the best looking and sounding title made for the original Game Boy, so you should definitely check it out if you have never played it before.
Some rumors were floating around about a new Wario Land coming to the Switch 2. I certainly hope that it will be more like this one, because I never really liked the direction the series took with Wario Land II and those transformations. By the way, the sequel is still missing on NSO as well... They are certainly taking their sweet time.
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One of my overblown expectations for the June Nintendo Direct included the announcement of a new Metroid project by MercurySteam, which didn't happen. But it looks like we might be still getting one in the near future.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Safety in Brazil temporarily listed a rating for an upcoming Nintendo title, called Metroid Ravenous. This was obviously by mistake and has been removed already, but the internet sees everything and never forgets, so you can find some screenshots of the matter, originating from UniversoNintendo.com.
Well, this is certainly exciting. MercurySteam could have been working on a Super Metroid remake and that would have been awesome as well, but amidst the current wave of remakes of beloved classics from the 90s, it's probably best to follow up directly on Metroid Dread, which came out in 2021 and was absolutely fantastic. After having waited 19 years between Metroid 4 and 5, shortening that wait to five years would certainly be a refreshing change of pace for the franchise, right in time for its 40th Anniversary.
The title "Ravenous" indicates that Samus is not yet done facing her dark Chozo connections, as revealed by the antagonist Raven Beak. Sorry, English is not my first language and I interpreted the word as "raven-like", but it actually means "voracious". My bad. But in that case...
Anyway, the cat is out of the bag and the bag is out of the river, so Nintendo might as well release a trailer for the game as soon as they have one ready. Show us what this is about. I'd also love to see a Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade for Metroid Dread, while they are at it.
After the addition of Bob-omb Blast back in March, the latest update for Mario Kart World adds some new features as well, and promises a series of similar free content updates for the future. With version 1.7.0 they have added two new rallies for the Knockout Tour: the Drill and the Boomerang Rally.
It's probably the easiest way to expand the game, without actually adding anything. Out of the 202 routes, which are connecting the different courses, only 62 were used in the Grand Prix mode and the Knockout Tour. The rest has been exclusive to the VS Races and Free Roam mode. So, it makes a lot of sense to utilize them for additional Knockout Tours.
Ideally, there would be custom or random rallies for the Knockout Tour, but having more dedicated rallies certainly is more convenient when playing online. Custom rallies would require the players to vote for six courses one after another, instead of just a single rally. And nobody has the patience for that.
You can access these new rallies in a similar way to the Booster Course Pass cups in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where you now flip between two rows via the L and R buttons. Next to the two new rallies, there are open slots for six more, which they are going to add in future updates.
In addition, you can now use your sticker collection in the Photo Mode. It's almost strange that this wasn't in the game already, especially since Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury had a similar feature to reuse the Miiverse stamps. And this is finally adding a little more value to collecting all these stickers.
The update even got its own trailer. And you can find the full patch notes on Nintendo's website, where there have been a number of tweaks. For example, they have raised the acceleration of characters and vehicles with low acceleration.
If they add two more rallies per update, then this means that we will be getting three more of these updates, hopefully each of them also coming with their own additions. These could include 200cc, more outfits, and potentially even new drivers. (See here for more ideas.)
And it doesn't look like they are interested in adding more Knockout Tour rallies via paid DLC, if there's going to be any. However, this fits the general idea that paid DLC would probably expand the world with new islands around it, e.g. DK Island. And these islands wouldn't connect as nicely to the rest of the world, so they may not contribute to the Knockout Tour in any case. Each island could serve as an individual Grand Prix cup, however, with four new courses per island.
Hopefully, they will release new magnets on the Nintendo Store once all rallies and eventual DLC cup have been released. I need my fridge trophies.
Back in May I talked about how a full re-imagining of Ocarina of Time could look like. Well, from the little footage we've got, it's too early to tell whether the upcoming Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 will be like that, or more of a faithful remake, where they reuse the game's code and simply wrap a modern graphics engine and some shiny new cutscenes around it (like they did with the new Star Fox).
Whatever might be the case, I took some notes while replaying the Nintendo 64 classic for things that they should improve either way, going beyond what they already have done with the Nintendo 3DS version. This will be a long list, so you have to hit the "read more" button.
After the announcement of the Ocarina of Time remake for this year, I felt like I needed to refresh my memories of the original game. Well, it's not like I have forgotten everything, because I have played the N64 original so many times over the years that most of it is ingrained into my brain. But it has been over nine years since I had last played the game and some details got blurry...
The best example are probably the Gold Skulltulas. There was a time where I could have listed you all 100 of them of the top of my head. And while I still was able to do this for the most part, I was confused about what Skulltulas on the overworld only appear for young Link and for adult Link. If that's not a dire reason to replay the game immediately, then I don't know...
Last time I played the game on the Wii U. It was during the 30th Anniversary of Zelda, where I had made it my goal to play through absolutely all Zelda games on the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, before Breath of the Wild came out. Unsurprisingly, my experience with the game on the Nintendo Switch (2) has been very similar, where a lot of my sentiments from the time still stand. And Nintendo has done some improvements to Nintendo 64 service since its lackluster launch back in 2021, so that it's not any worse than the Wii U version used to be.
Overall, the Nintendo 3DS remake is still the preferred way to play the game (next to the unofficial Ship of Harkanian PC port of the Nintendo 64 version), but for this blog I like to go with Nintendo's latest offerings to see what they can do for you. (That and playing on my Switch 2 is simply the most convenient for me right now.)
In late 2024, I even got the Nintendo 64 controller for the Nintendo Switch, but I probably should have saved that money, because the classic Nintendo 64 analogue stick is absolutely awful. Not sure how we ever managed to play games with that thing... Nintendo really should have modernized this into something that looks mostly like the N64 stick, but feels better.
Well, the main reason to buy the N64 controller was the default button mapping for the normal controllers, which wasn't exactly ideal either. You had to hold down ZR to turn the four face buttons into the C-buttons and it was utterly confusing. So, at the time it seemed like going with the dedicated Nintendo 64 controller was the best option, despite its stick. But shortly after I bought the peripheral, Nintendo introduced per-game button mapping for the service, which eliminates most problems.
It should have been like this from the beginning. And now it looks like Nintendo was making it shitty on purpose, just so that people would buy the additional hardware. It certainly had worked in my case...
Anyway, I went with a Pro Controller in the end and my button mapping for Ocarina of Time looks like the following:
This felt like the most natural with how the buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller were arranged and how they are displayed on the HUD. The only problem was that I'm using the B-button to confirm things inside the game, while it's still the A-button within the menus, which kept confusing me. But this is a general problem, which you also have when coming from a PlayStation or Xbox controller back to Nintendo.
But before you set up your controls, you should pick the right version to play. I simply went with the PAL/European version at first, because that's the one I grew up with, but after Dodongo's Cavern I realized that I probably should have went with the NTSC/North American version instead, which is based on 60Hz instead of just 50. As a result, the PAL version doesn't actually run at 20FPS, but 16.66FPS, making it even more sluggish.
And the difference is quite noticeable. The North American version runs more smoothly and also slightly faster. In the early game you have to run around a lot, back and forth from Hyrule Castle Town to other places, and here the slight increase in speed made things already less dull. I also noticed the difference when killing Gold Skulltulas with the Fairy Slingshot. In the PAL version, I often miss the second shot, because the spider is still in its hurt animation from the first shot. In the NTSC version on the other hand, I can just fire at the spider twice in a row without missing.
The Shooting Gallery mini-game becomes even harder, though, especially since you still have the problem of the all-or-nothing stick sensitivity with these emulated versions. But luckily, there is now the rewind, so you can just quickly undo any mistake. It makes most mini-games easier, where it also helped with the fishing. I got a 20-pounder on my "first try", because I could just rewind whenever it broke from the line. I say "most" mini-games, however, because the Bombchu Bowling Alley is still a pain, even with rewind.
The rewind is generally nice to undo small mistakes with great effect, for example in lava rooms where you need to collect Silver Rupees. Or if you accidentally jump down somewhere where it would take some significant backtracking to return to where you were.
Whenever I replay Ocarina of Time, I try to mix up the dungeon order a bit and this run was no different. Though, for a moment I thought about just doing the vanilla order, but with the remake in mind it's interesting to think about how it could allow for a little more freedom, so I was testing my limits.
As adult Link I first tried to achieve as much as possible without going into the Forest Temple as I could. Free Epona, grab the Hookshot, clear the Ice Cavern, become a member of the Gerudo, and complete the Biggoron's Sword trading sequence, all without going into any of the temples.
Then I proceeded with the Water Temple to secure the Longshot and finished the Fire Temple, before finally doing the Forest Temple. The Fairy Bow is quite the gatekeeper in the game's second half: it unlocks two target shooting mini-games and the whole Big Poe hunt, while it's also required to finish the Water Temple. None of the other temple items in the game give you as much to do.
And of course, beating the Forest Temple is required to get Sheik out of the way, so I could proceed with the Bottom of the Well, the Spirit Temple, and the Gerudo Training Ground. And only then I went back to the Water Temple to clear it, which finally lets you learn the Nocturne of Shadow for the Shadow Temple.
It's a shame that Nintendo has never added the Master Quest version to their online service, because I'd like to give those goofy dungeons another run as well. But with the upcoming remake this will probably not happen anytime soon... Maybe I will also go and play the Nintendo 3DS remake one more time in the next months, but I didn't like how they mirrored everything for the Master Quest mode.
And for now I have achieved my goal of refreshing my memories, so I'm ready for the remake and prepared to talk more about Ocarina of Time in the upcoming weeks and months. It will be exciting to see how the game has evolved once more, and I do have collected a number of ideas for how to improve it. More on that later...
It's probably not a coincidence that Nintendo is launching the new Star Fox remake this week, since this is marking the 30th anniversary of the Nintendo 64. We will also be getting a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time later this year, and if this is marking a new trend, then we might be getting a Super Mario 64 remake afterwards, to complete the trinity of Shigeru Miyamoto's first 3D hits before he retires.
The Nintendo 64 holds a special place in my heart, because it was my first own home console. I got it only three years later, for Christmas 1999, the fancy grape purple edition (see here). But games like Ocarina of Time were absolutely magical at the time, which might be difficult to grasp today, with the clunky controller and the blocky graphics. There was nothing like this before. It was a whole world in your TV, which felt alive and which you could freely explore in three dimensions.
And there was a big emphasis on those three dimensions. Just look at the first dungeon, Inside the Great Deku Tree, with its multiple floors, where you had to jump down from the very top to break through a giant spider net in the middle. While you had tower-like dungeons in A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, where you could drop down from one floor into the rooms below, such verticality in the level design wasn't possible before. It was awe-inspiring.
Another thing I always like to praise about the games from this early 3D era is their atmosphere. What they may have lacked in the number of polygons, they made up for it with incredible soundscapes and soundtracks. Play the rattling of the windmill in Kakariko Village, with birds humming in the distance, and I'm immediately taken back into the place, fully immersed.
Anyway, it looks like the remake of Star Fox is more of a remaster with a full engine swap, re-using the code base of the Nintendo 3DS version. Let's see whether they will take the same approach for Ocarina of Time or give us a complete re-imagining. In any case, it will be a nice way of celebrating 30 years of this beloved classic console.
30 years ago, on June 22nd 1996, Quake was released. One day before the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 in Japan, it was at the forefront of real-time 3D rendering, offering fully polygonal models and levels in three dimensions. It was the spawn of a new era in gaming in the late 90s, where such 3D graphics were the shiny new thing, but still so blocky that you had to make up for it somehow.
And games like Quake, or later Ocarina of Time, did with it their atmosphere, created by fantastic sound effects and a striking soundtrack, in this case provided by Nine Inch Nails. With many inspirations taken from Lovecraft, Quake created something unique, something that has left a legacy until today with a number of sequels.
Personally, I'm only half a fan of the series, where I've primarily played the multiplayer episodes: Quake III Arena, Quake Live and Quake Champions. But eSports is another category where Quake had excelled things – to this day it's one of the fastest first person shooters with one of the highest skill ceilings, where it's incredibly impressive to watch professional games of Quake, even though the Quake Pro League sadly ended in 2023.
But you have to give it to Bethesda for keeping things alive with Quake Champions nevertheless. It's currently running its 30th season, while the average player count on Steam is around 250... This is rivaling the numbers of Sony's mega-flop Concord from two years ago, but Quake Champions somehow manages to stay afloat, with one main developer behind the project – a level designer who also creates weapon and character skins, while constantly delivering new features and improvements for the game, working close with the game's tiny community. It's truly refreshing to see this in modern times.
And it seems like the plans are to slowly transition Quake Champions out of its live service model, like how it was done with Quake Live, to preserve it for the future, despite its small following. The latest Battle Passes have been offering players a second chance of obtaining certain cosmetics and weapon skins, some of which that weren't available for years.
For example, the current pass (which is entirely free) finally brings back all of the time-limited QuakeCon weapon skins, just in time for QuakeCon 2026 from August 6th to 9th – an event that has been "Quake" in name only, for several years now.
Still, if you're a fan of classic Arena Shooters, then you should give this a try, and now is a great time to do so. But if you're sticking to a Nintendo Switch, you can also play the remasters of the first two games by Nightdive Studios, with lots of additional content. Though, I personally would recommend to use something with a mouse and keyboard...
We're already getting another Nintendo Music release for the Zelda franchise and this time it's something more special: the first Zelda spin-off featured in the app, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. It has a total of 69 tracks, with 62 of those marked as highlights.
Some of my personal highlights are "Land of Antiquity", "Wicked Designs", and the main theme. A lot of the sound is quite remix-heavy, though, and with that not quite as good as the predecessor's, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
Which begs the question whether or not we'll see this as an addition in the future. Neither of the composers work directly under Nintendo, but Nintendo may have secured all necessary rights in this particular case, already with the Nintendo Music app in mind. This app wasn't a thing when Age of Calamity came out, however...
The rumors were true, the leaks were real... Nintendo is going to release a remake, or re-imagining, of Ocarina of Time later this year. They have revealed this at the end of today's Nintendo Direct in a short teaser trailer, which shows the story tale from the beginning of the game, about the Kokiri boy without a fairy.
This is done via a tapestry and you can already tell how this is not going to be a mere remake or remaster, like Ocarina of Time 3D, but a whole re-imagining with its own spins. One of the major differences is how the Triforce already resonates with Link here, glowing on his left hand. This didn't happen in the original, because at this point the Triforce was still in the Sacred Realm and not yet split. (But other Zelda games have done something similar later on.)
Visually, this looks a bit like one of those Unreal Engine projects you keep seeing. And maybe Nintendo has hired one of those people to just work on this remake, who knows? Jokes aside, it's actually still the biggest question mark: who is making this remake? Judging by all the leaks, it's probably not Nintendo themselves.
There was some speculation about how Monolith Soft may be working on this, where this had me quite excited, but they are still having their hands full with all the Xenoblade stuff. They are a very big team, so it can't be ruled out completely, but this assumption remains questionable at the moment.
Meanwhile, I really hope that this isn't done by GREZZO (again), because this would mean that we're not getting any more top-down Zelda games in the near future. With their experience on Ocarina of Time 3D, they would be a good choice for this project, but this would be a very painful trade for me personally, because I really liked the direction of Link's Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom.
And whoever is remaking Ocarina of Time here, they will be busy with remaking Majora's Mask next. It will be the same story as with Majora's Mask 3D, where the fans keep asking for it until it eventually happens. It is the natural follow-up, though I've been saying the same for years about Oracle of Ages & Seasons.
But first let's see how this remake will actually look like. So far we haven't really seen much, certainly no gameplay. And we will probably have to wait until the September Direct to learn more...
Okay, I was dead wrong about this Nintendo Direct. And I certainly have hyped myself up here too much; my expectations were too premature. The main reason was that I was truly expecting Nintendo to start the 40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with this Nintendo Direct, but instead they are still going with the Super Mario Bros. anniversary for now.
Specifically, they are adding even more FOMO events to the Donkey Kong Bananza DLC. I've recently managed to finally catch up with the newer 3D Mario games, having completed both Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, where now would be the perfect time to get into Bananza, but all these mobile game shenanigans really are a downer. The leaked challenges for the Nintendo Switch Online games are even tied to this as well, with some Donkey Kong-focused time-limited event, the "DK Challenge".
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is looking good and will launch on September 17th. Like its predecessors, it's getting a Special Edition, the "Dagdan Collection", with a world map, an artbook, art cards, and a steelbook. Nintendo used to do a lot of these for Nintendo Switch games, but not in the recent years. I think the last one was actually for Tears of the Kingdom three years ago...
Monolith Soft is cooking, but apparently not with the Ocarina of Time remake, but with Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of the entire Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy. And with a new Xenoblade game, called Xenoblade Genesis. I still have to catch up with the series as a whole and may use those Switch 2 Editions to do so, but there's only so much time...
Anyway, the big finisher was a teaser trailer for the Ocarina of Time remake. I've been a doubter at first, then I've embraced the idea of Monolith Soft developing a re-imagining (which seemingly isn't the case), and now we have this. More on that in a separate post.
But it looks to me like the 40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda got postponed to the September Direct. There is also the chance that they may not celebrate the anniversary at all, but with this remake and the movie coming, I doubt that they will skip it. They probably just want to keep it closer to the movie. So, most of the things that I said yesterday are still a possibility, it's just not going to happen (yet).
The announcement of the Ocarina of Time remake also would have had a lot more impact if this wasn't leaked in advance. Now it was just a confirmation of something that the internet has been speculating about for months. And it was nothing more than that, leaving me somewhat disappointed about the whole Nintendo Direct at the end.
This blog awakens from a week-long slumber. But starting tomorrow, there will be a lot more to talk about, because Nintendo has announced a Nintendo Direct and a Treehouse Live for June 9th. This was once more predicted by NateTheHate, who has been quite certain about there being an Ocarina of Time remake, coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this Christmas.
In any case, the Nintendo Switch 2 is one year old now and in desperate need for some news, where it's likely that Nintendo has waited for this particular anniversary to make further announcements. We will be getting the Star Fox remake later this month, which likely will be showcased in the Treehouse Live session. And there is one title from the last Nintendo Direct left, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, which is probably going to be the Direct's opener. Luigi's Mansion 4 could be another big title for this fall, but the biggest topic of the Nintendo Direct will be...
It is now time. The 40th Super Mario Bros. anniversary is fading out and the Super Mario Galaxy Movie was a big hit, where Nintendo will shift their attention towards Zelda for the rest of the year and the first half of 2027, until the launch of the Zelda movie. "Same thing in green," as we like to say in German.
They have wrapped up filming and even moved the movie's launch date one week ahead, to April 30th. So, they might show us a first teaser trailer, like they did for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie in the last Direct. In the very least, Miyamoto will remind us that this movie is coming and that we can look forward to it.
With that in mind, I wouldn't expect any news about a new 3D Zelda for now. Aonuma will likely mention that one is in development and that they are working very hard on it, but they probably want to transition from the movie into the new, big Zelda game in one year, in the June 2027 Direct.
This doesn't mean that we won't be getting anything else, but for the 40th Anniversary we will be looking at remakes and other side projects. And there are a couple possibilities, all coming from different development studios:
The Ocarina of Time remake, as already mentioned, is looking to be the hottest candidate for tomorrow, based on all the recent rumors. This would certainly make some waves, because you have all those middle-aged people out there, who used to love Ocarina of Time in their childhoods, but who have lost interest in Nintendo or gaming due to different reasons. Such a remake, in combination with the Zelda movie, could rekindle that interest. No other Zelda game holds this much power in nostalgia, not even A Link to the Past.
It's also possible that the movie will be somewhat based on Ocarina of Time, because that's where Miyamoto was still heavily involved with the series and he is calling the shots for the movie. And if it's true that Monolith Soft has been developing this remake (or re-imagining), then we could be getting something truly special here, not just some warmed up Ocarina of Time 3D for the sake of it.
As for Grezzo, they are certainly working on another top-down Zelda game, where this still a lot of juice left with their current toy-like style. This could lead into a new coop title, following Echoes of Wisdom, or a remake of the Oracle games. In either of these cases, I wouldn't expect this to be revealed and released before 2027, maybe even 2028, but there is one possibility where they could have cooked up something for this year: a remake of the first Zelda game, also in the Link's Awakening style.
If all those Ocarina of Time rumors turn out to be a bust after all, then I will put my money on this idea, because this is the best fit for the 40th Anniversary. Of course, both these remakes can co-exist, especially if they are made by completely different teams and if Ocarina of Time is more of a re-imagining.
A remake of the first game could even be shadow-dropped right after the Nintendo Direct, similar to Metroid Prime Remastered, so we already have something to play until Ocarina of Time comes out later this year. It could also still be available on the Nintendo Switch, with a prettier version for the Nintendo Switch 2, so that the Zelda fans who haven't migrated yet aren't left out entirely during the anniversary.
It could also be a free download, as a gift for the anniversary (Nintendo could still make money from selling physical copies via the Nintendo Store). A remake of the first Zelda game makes a lot of sense for this occasion and in the current top-down style, but it's not exactly a crowd-pleaser, unlike Ocarina of Time.
Now, the modern Breath of the Wild brand also wants to be served as a slice in the 40th Anniversary birthday cake, where this could go into different routes. The Super Mario Maker was originally made for 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., where now it could be Zelda's turn with an equivalent in 3D.
Alternatively, Age of Imprisonment could be getting some paid DLC. Keep in mind, though, that the free updates have made the game very much definitive, where there is even a special reward for clearing every mission in the Forbidden difficulty mode (see here). So, the probability that Koei Tecmo will expand the base game even further goes towards zero. However, they could add a whole new game mode for a Ganondorf campaign, where playing as Ganondorf has been a very common request from fans (and they listen). Call it "Rise of the Demon King", or something like that, which would be entirely separate from the main game.
Finally, the 40th Anniversary itself may come with some other goodies and events. They could revive the Zelda concerts, release more amiibo, reveal some new merchandise, or even a special-themed Nintendo Switch 2. And the anniversary itself should get a fancy logo, which is something they had skipped with the 35.
In other news, an ever-green topic are always free updates of Nintendo Switch games and Nintendo Switch 2 Editions. There could even be some ties to the 40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, where Skyward Sword HD hasn't gotten an update yet. But similar to Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, they could drop this at any time, so I wouldn't necessarily expect any news tomorrow.
Age of Calamity is left as well, where Koei Tecmo may have been working on a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of the game, instead of an Expansion for Age of Imprisonment. Or maybe we will be getting both...
But as for other Nintendo franchises, the biggest candidate is easily Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai's team at Bandai Namco has finished working on Kirby Air Riders last year and is likely working on a new Smash Bros. game next, but it will take years for this one to come out. And a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Ultimate could keep things afloat until then, which is a similar situation to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Don't expect any major new contents with that one, however, because they will need to keep the online multiplayer backwards compatible with the Nintendo Switch playerbase. Maybe they will add some more stages and/or Echo Fighters, but those should be part of a free update. A Switch 2 Edition on the other hand could add a new game mode exclusive to the new hardware.
Let's not forget that Metroid will be getting 40 later this year as well. However, Nintendo has yet to celebrate an anniversary of this franchise, so I wouldn't hold my breath, especially when they are busy with Zelda. It's also too early for Metroid Prime 5, though I'm sure the rumors about it being in development are true, despite the lack of success of Metroid Prime 4.
But MercurySteam may have been cooking in the meantime. They are not doing so well, with lay-offs announced just some weeks ago (see LinkedIn), where they could certainly use another hit. And Metroid Dread was one of their biggest hits. We could be looking at a Super Metroid remake, where this would be a lot of remakes in 2026, or potentially even Metroid 6. Even an HD remaster of Metroid: Samus Returns would be fine at the moment.
Instead of releasing another "Nintendo World Championships" title, it looks like Nintendo will update the Nintendo Switch Online apps to include similar, NES Remix-style challenges (source). Select titles in the NES, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy collections will receive such challenges, which already got installed with the latest update of these apps. And this will probably unlock tomorrow, after the Nintendo Direct.
There have been boring Nintendo Directs in the past, but this won't be one of them. I haven't been as excited about a Nintendo Direct in years and I'm 100% positive that Zelda fans will be feasting good tomorrow. Stay tuned for a busy month on Hyrule Blog.
The Zelda additions to the Nintendo Music app have generally gotten more sparse, but maybe they are saving some for the upcoming 40th Anniversary celebrations. In any case, A Link Between Worlds is a good one. It comes with a total of 105 tracks, including the Nintendo 3DS start screen jingle and all the different Milk Bar performances.
This is entirely based on the soundtrack CD, which was one of the last Club Nintendo rewards here in Europe, back in 2015. But it features the exact same tracks, just in a different order. And it's a real treat, even though the Hyrule Hotfoot theme is still haunting me in my dreams, because that's what also gets played during the Endless Cucco Rush.
But tracks like the Lorule theme make me want to play the game again right now. And I've always been a fan of how the Lorule dungeon theme is played in a different style in each dungeon. It was the masterful entry of Ryō Nagamatsu to the series, where it's such a shame that he has left Nintendo. At least they still have the rights to his music for these games, which can't be said for everything.
Not sure they will ever add Oracle of Ages & Seasons, Four Swords, or The Minish Cap, because these were the Capcom productions and Nintendo doesn't seem to have the music rights in this case. They couldn't be included into the Symphony of the Goddesses and aren't featured in the music selection of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. So, don't expect these to be added... ever. If the Oracle games are remade, they may even have to get new music for the most part (they can still re-use some of the tracks from Link's Awakening).
Anyway, we still haven't gotten Link's Awakening, neither the original, nor the DX version, nor the remake. Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess are absent as well, where I expect the latter to be added alongside the GameCube title for Nintendo Switch Online, maybe later this year. And then you also have Four Swords Adventures, Spirit Tracks, Tri Force Heroes, and Echoes of Wisdom left. So, they won't run out of Zelda soundtracks to add anytime soon, with or without the Capcom titles.
On this day three years ago The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released for the Nintendo Switch. And Nintendo is still not entirely done with the game, where today they have given us the release date for the upcoming amiibo of Mineru's Construct: it's going to be September 17th.
Similar to the Guardian amiibo from Breath of the Wild, you will be able to bend its arms to your liking. You can even do the shield pose with the crossed arms. So, this is certainly going to be one of the more sophisticated and bulkier amiibo, one with a heftier price tag.
And like all the other amiibo around Zelda, this one will give you a unique fabric for your paraglider, the Sage of Spirit Fabric. It has a very subtle glow-in-the-dark effect, where the third eye will light up.
This fabric is already in the game. It came with version 1.4.0 last year, which added the features for the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and the other four Sage Fabrics. So, you can technically already get it with the right NFC chip.
The recent rumors had me thinking... What if they are not remaking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, like Grezzo did on the Nintendo 3DS? What if Monolith Soft (or whatever studio is set on this hypothetical project) is actually working on a complete re-imagining of the game? What would that look like? And what could this lead to?
Well, I have been in doubts about the rumored Ocarina of Time remake, but I may stand corrected. Nintendo has just announced a Star Fox remake last night, which was another big part of the same rumors. It felt a bit too convenient after the Fox McCloud cameo in the recent Super Mario Galaxy Movie, since these projects should be entirely unrelated (they even said that the idea came from Illumination, not from Miyamoto himself), but here we go.
Anyway, the Ocarina of Time rumors are getting a lot more support now, mainly from Nash Weedle. My biggest question always has been about the development team, because it seemed unlikely that the main Zelda team or GREZZO have had the time to be working on this. And apparently it's Monolith Soft, the studio behind the Xenoblade Chronicles series, who helped creating the world of Breath of the Wild. I hope they are ready to work on Majora's Mask right afterwards, making them a third Zelda team for years, but first let's see how their version of Ocarina of Time is going to look like.
Nash even had the idea that they are going to split the game up, similar to the Final Fantasy VII remakes. One game for young Link and one game for adult Link. But this makes me only doubt that he has ever played Ocarina of Time before in his life. If something like that were the case, then switching between past and future would mean switching between games, similar to how Oracle of Ages & Seasons worked on the Game Boy Color. And no one wants that. Plus, it makes no sense even from a technical standpoint, since a majority of the game world gets shared between young and adult Link with only a few differences.
However, it could indeed be that we're not dealing with a faithful remake here, but some crazy re-imagining that has only the name and characters in common with the original. A new game based on the classic ideas, with a much bigger world and all that. It's interesting to think about, where this could give the project a whole new appeal, for old and new fans alike. But it would be also at risk at losing the original charm.
Let's see. Like everyone and their mothers, I'm expecting there to be a Nintendo Direct in early June, which is hopefully going to put an end to all these rumors. It's time for the 40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda to kick in, where I'm sure that it's going to feature some remake next to the upcoming movie.
Nintendo is being weird today, because they are celebrating one of their anniversaries on point. On April 14th 2001, Dōbutsu no Mori was released in Japan for the Nintendo 64, which would later be known as "Animal Crossing". The series has a long crossover history with The Legend of Zelda, where earlier this year we got the 3.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons with Tulin and Mineru as new villagers, as well as various Zelda items.
Today we got a new update (version 3.0.2), which adds a postcard themed after the original game, as well as the "Leaf Statue" item, which serves as a lamp. They've also added the first game's soundtrack to Nintendo Music. It's certainly nothing amazing, but better than nothing
Still, this will make many people wonder what happened to the 40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, which Nintendo has yet to acknowledge in any way or form. But keep in mind that this is normal... at least when it comes to the Zelda anniversaries.
The main difference is that Nintendo has never done any extensive anniversary campaigns for Animal Crossing. It was just another artwork for the 20th Anniversary, for example. The only two series where Nintendo has done extensive campaigns are Super Mario and Zelda (Pokémon is handled by the Pokémon Company). And Zelda always has to wait a little, so it doesn't clash with Super Mario's.
But the Super Mario Galaxy Movie is in the cinemas now and we will get Yoshi and the Mysterious Book next month, so we're getting there. Expect to hear about the Zelda anniversary in a Nintendo Direct in June. And in the meantime, go play some Animal Crossing. It's chill.
It's happening after all. The Master Works artbook for Tears of the Kingdom was released in Japan back in 2024 and Dark Horse has announced that they are going to publish the English version this year, on October 20th. This piece of news came yesterday and somehow flew under my radar, so this isn't some April Fool's joke.
They are also going to release a "Hero's Edition" with some goodies, which is similar to the one for Creating a Champion. I really liked that one, so I might be getting it as well, even though this looks like a cheap knock-off. That basic artwork of the Sages simply doesn't have the same class as the photo of the Champions. And a map of the Depths isn't all that exciting, because there is nothing in the Depths. But I appreciate the idea of mirroring the previous Hero's Edition, and the Secret Stone collectible is a actually an upgrade.
