Hyrule Blog: Rewind Reviews

This blog is 14 years old now as of this month and together with 36 years of The Legend of Zelda that's 50 years of Zelda goodness. Well, it doesn't really work like that, but nevertheless I have been preparing something for Hyrule Blog. Actually, the timing is more or less a coincidence, where I have been working on this particular project in the background for quite a while, over one year in fact...

Last year was the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda and even if Nintendo wasn't in the mood for big celebrations, the fans found their own ways of honoring the series. With the 25th and 30th Anniversaries I did this by replaying the majority of Zelda games, where for my 30th Anniversary Replay List I've gone through all Zelda games that are playable on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U – which were all of them except for Four Swords Adventures. This undertaking ended right before Breath of the Wild was released and I came to a closure with the series at the time, where from now on I will be mostly sticking to the new releases on the Nintendo Switch, like Skyward Sword HD last year.

Instead, I've decided to revisit my past as a Zelda fan in a very different way: by translating my old German reviews (and previews) to English. As you may or may not know, I was writing for ZeldaEurope (now found under ZeldaChronicles.de) between 2011 and 2016 – mostly news and guides, but also some reviews.

For the most part this endeavor didn't clash too hard with this blog, because my work on ZeldaEurope was about sharing information, mostly the news, while this blog is more focused on my personal experiences, opinions, and predictions. A review is an informal opinion piece, however, where it fits both a news site and a blog rather well. Originally, it was even my goal to translate some of these reviews right away, but this felt like too much mindless busywork at the time, so I couldn't do it.

Now that several years have passed, however, it was actually interesting to revisit these texts and translate them. It's also a nice preservation of my work from that era, where the ZeldaEurope main page is already a relic and the original reviews can't be found there any longer (only in the forums)... Having it all together here on this site simply felt right for a nice collection and also filled some gaps in those years.

A few additions or adjustments were made to these articles whenever I felt like it was for the better or that something critical was missing. But it wasn't my goal to rewrite history here, so these opinion pieces still reflect what I thought of the games all those years ago and not necessarily how I feel now, though I'm still content with most of it.

Everything was also translated by myself. I know that I could have used DeepL or something similar to speed things up tremendously, where it even delivers some very good results, but I really wanted it to be my own words, for better or worse. After all, this was all about dwelling in the past.

The (p)reviews got posted on their original dates to this blog to preserve the history and to avoid putting them out of context. You can find them all under previews and reviews, but this post will also feature a complete list of what has been retroactively added to this site, for your convenience. Feel free to check any of it out in case you're interested. It's a lot to go through and it's old stuff, so I don't really expect anyone to read all of it, but I think that having such a large collection of reviews is certainly of good value for this blog.

In addition, I've also been updating the year reviews and year previews from that era, because the ones I wrote for ZeldaEurope were much nicer and more extensive. But that's not really as important as all the following...

Main Games:

• Skyward Sword (Preview)
  
• A Link Between Worlds (Preview)
  
• A Link Between Worlds (Review)
  
• A Link Between Worlds – StreetPass
• Tri Force Heroes
• Tri Force Heroes – Coliseum
  
• Tri Force Heroes – Den of Trials

Ironically, the Skyward Sword preview was first written for this blog, then got translated to German for ZeldaEurope, and now translated back again, because I removed the original and couldn't find it anywhere... Back then I wrote it here out of habit, without considering that I've only signed the NDA for ZeldaEurope and not this blog, so this is how this back and forth came to be. But now, almost 10 years later, it shouldn't really matter and it's good to have it back where it belongs.

Still, the preview for Skyward Sword might not actually be that interesting, but the one for A Link Between Worlds is, because it effectively describes my first journey through that game's Hyrule. Sadly, I haven't written a game journal for A Link Between Worlds, because I had an early review copy, but thanks to this preview I feel like the entire A Link Between Worlds section is a lot more wholesome now. I also went over some other posts from that time, adding images and such, while I was at it.

In case of Tri Force Heroes I have also added a collection of all Drablands Diaries easter eggs. Previously, I had only posted these on Miiverse, where I was too lazy to post it all a second time on this blog. It seemed redundant, but since the Miiverse is gone by now, it feels like a good thing to have it all here preserved. Coincidentally, there is a big overlap between the Miiverse era and my time at ZeldaEurope, where I made good use of my screenshots posted on Miiverse for some of the reviews and other posts.

Both A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes also have a small follow-up review for a bigger feature in the game, which seems to be a trend among top-down Zelda games, where the remake of Link's Awakening also got a separate Chamber Dungeon review on this blog.

Remakes & Remasters:

• The Wind Waker HD
• Majora's Mask 3D
• Twilight Princess HD

Ocarina of Time 3D was actually one of the first Zelda titles to get a review on this blog, so it's nice to finally have the follow-up present as well with Majora's Mask 3D, even though it had to receive a good amount of criticism. And the reviews of The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD might have some relevance in the future, should these two remasters ever get ported over to the Nintendo Switch. Then it will be very nice to have my reviews for them at the ready as a reference.

Similar to Tri Force Heroes, I've also added a guide from my Miiverse journeys in The Wind Waker HD, where this one is for the hidden Tingle Statues.

 

Virtual Console:

• Oracle of Ages & Seasons (3DS)
  
• The Minish Cap (Wii U)
  
• Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks (Wii U)
• A Link to the Past (N3DS)
  

These aren't really reviews of the actual games, instead they are all about the different Virtual Consoles experiences on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Those are some short reads and I mainly did it for the free downloads at the time, not going to lie. Some of it may also be redundant from what I've already written on my blog at the time, so feel free to ignore these reviews.

Hyrule Warriors:

• Hyrule Warriors (Preview)
  
• Hyrule Warriors (Review)
  
• Master Quest Pack
  
• Twilight Princess Pack
• Majora's Mask Pack
• Ganon Pack

Translating all the reviews for Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U was a big chunk of the work this year, where the game got both a review and preview back in 2014 and also a review for every single DLC pack, which was absurd. Today I would probably review the Hero of Hyrule Pack as a whole, especially since Nintendo now prefers to only offer the entire DLC as a purchase option, like they did with the Expansion Pass for Age of Calamity. But it's still interesting to read how the game has slowly developed into what it is today with the Definitive Edition, where important features like a restart option for Adventure Mode battles got added piece by piece.

Other Reviews:

• Symphony of the Goddesses
  
• NES Remix & NES Remix 2
• The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

One of the very first reviews was actually not for a game, but for an event: the Symphony of the Goddesses in Berlin. Though, this was more of a report, not a real review. I posted about the event on this blog as well, specifically about the merchandise, and promised to add a short English summary later, but I have never delivered... until now. Sorry! Well, to make up for it I've translated the whole thing.

The rest are all titles that were released in 2014, Zelda's "Year of Crossovers", where this was the big focus next to Hyrule Warriors, which came out in the same year. And these reviews are definitely mixed, where I wasn't very fond of the new Super Smash Bros. titles at the time. The most positive one is for Mario Kart 8's DLC, which certainly beats the lackluster Booster Course Pass. And NES Remix is one of those curiosities that I've been completely ignoring on my blog, where now it's nice to have at least something present.

2021 – Year of the Ancients

If you were to say that 2021 was a good year, then most people would probably burst out laughing. It was a good year for The Legend of Zelda, though, where there were many similarities to the year 2016, which is where the 30th Anniversary of the series took place. Back then we got the release of Twilight Princess HD, the release of Hyrule Warriors: Legends and all of its DLCs, as well as some small goodies for said anniversary, like new amiibo or the Arts & Artifacts book. It was also the year before Breath of the Wild came out, where Nintendo had a lot to show about the upcoming new Zelda game during E3.

Well, in 2021 things weren't as extensive, but still similar. In the early year we didn't really know what would await us, but the ice was quickly broken in February's Nintendo Direct, which is where the Expansion Pass for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for Nintendo Switch. The rest of the year was then laid out at E3 2021, which announced the new Game & Watch system for Zelda, but also gave us another trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, which is supposed to come out next year.

Now, Age of Calamity already came out last year, but a game like this always lends itself as a platform for some DLC, where the Expansion Pass came in two waves – one in June and one at the very end of October, called Pulse of the Ancients and Guardian of Remembrance respectively. All combined the DLC added three new playable characters, new weapon types for Link and Zelda, eight new story scenarios, five new stages, ten new enemies, 36 new Challenges, and plenty of new Quests. It's not something that can keep you as busy as all the DLC for Hyrule Warriors: Legends in 2016, but it had more quality to it and expanded the game on all fronts.

Between all of this Nintendo has also released Skyward Sword HD, where Skyward Sword was the last 3D Zelda game from before the Nintendo Switch era to yet to be remade or remastered. The original Wii title was released ten years ago, during the 25th Anniversary, where it now basically was the next in line. Its upscaled graphics look beautiful in HD and the new button-only controls made the game a lot more accessible. All the control options still aren't fully ideal, however, and the remaster was completely devoid of any new content.

The game also came with some merchandise in the form of Special Edition Joy-Cons and an amiibo of Zelda and her Loftwing. The latter looks lovely, but sparked also some controversy with its ingame functionality, where the amiibo is used as a key for a new fast travel system, which lets you return to the sky and back to where you were at any time.

Speaking of merchandise, for the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Nintendo has released a Game & Watch system for the classic NES title, which also includes its younger sibling, Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, as well as the original GameBoy version of Link's Awakening. In addition it comes with a playable clock and timer based on the NES games, and a the Game & Watch title Vernim, which now stars Link as the playable character.

It's a neat, little system, but this was it for the 35th Anniversary. For some reason Nintendo has decided to not do any major celebrations this time, no 35th Anniversary logo, campaign, books, or anything else. (Keep in mind that the release of Skyward Sword HD officially didn't have anything to do with the anniversary, much like Twilight Princess HD in 2016.) And to be fair, 35 years isn't as special as a quarter century or another decade. Still, Super Mario Bros. also got such a Game & Watch device and many more things in 2020 and early 2021, including a whole theme park in Japan, where as a Zelda fan you can't help but feel a bit left out.

But of course this is nothing what fans of the Metroid series had to endure for the last decade... And here it's good to see that 2021 finally gave the franchise a real treat.

Enter Metroid Dread. After almost 20 years we finally got the long awaited sequel to Metroid Fusion and this game was certainly worth the wait. The E.M.M.I. can be a bit of turn-off initially and the controls take some getting used to, but overall MercurySteam has done an excellent job of crafting what's easily one of the best Metroid games in existence, which shines with its fast-paced, smooth gameplay, as well as lots of replayability.

The game also came with a Special Edition, which included a steelbook, an artbook, and some holographic art cards. And two amiibo, one for the new Fusion Suit Samus and one for the E.M.M.I., were also released this year.

As with Zelda, Nintendo didn't celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Metroid in any major form, but Metroid Dread in itself already did a good job with that. Both the art items in the Special Edition and the unlockable endings pay tribute to the main games of the series, while many of the story elements from the Metroid series also come together in Metroid Dread.

So, both for Zelda and Metroid this was overall a good year and we can be looking forward to more from these franchises.

The Game Awards 2021 Incoming

This Thursday (or the night to Friday in Europe) the Game Awards will take place yet another time with a lot of fanfare, where I'm here to basically tell you the same thing as last year: this show loved Breath of the Wild, where it featured a lot of premieres for the game. And this could lead to something...

In 2014 we saw the first ever gameplay of Breath of the Wild, presented by Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto at the Game Awards. In 2016 we got the second major trailer for the game at the Game Awards. And in 2017 the The Champions' Ballad DLC got a trailer and released during the Game Awards. There is quite the history here, where this trend could be continued with the sequel. What I'm saying is that we might get to see some more footage for the next big Zelda game later this week and that's of course very exciting for everyone. Yes, everyone.

There are even some rumors about this. Geoff Keighley himself has posted on Twitter that they have been working on a world premiere for about two and a half years, since the last pre-pandemic E3, which is also when the sequel to Breath of the Wild has been announced. The timing is suspicious, so this led some fans to believe that he might mean Zelda here, but naturally this could be tied to pretty much anyone who was presenting at E3 back in 2019, so this doesn't necessarily have to do anything with Zelda at all. Plus, "world premiere" insinuates that this is a completely new reveal, something never before seen, but technically having some first gameplay footage or even a new trailer would also be a world premiere, where the usage of this term got somewhat inflated in the past.

Then there was also a post from Samus Hunter, a leaker who seems to be a trustworthy source, where it implies that there could be some of the following things:

• A new trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild
• A 35th Anniversary concert held at the Game Awards
  
• Collaborations with other games
  

This sounds very promising. I'd love to get more 35th Anniversary celebrations, because the Game & Watch thingy in itself was not all that satisfying. Collaborations with other games could even include a potential Zelda content update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is something I've been looking forward to, but also the usual skins in other titles, like Monster Hunter. In any case, Zelda news are (almost) always good news, so let's hope for something!

Update: Well, that was a bust. Nothing from Nintendo at all. But I'm happy that Metroid Dread won the Best Action Adventure category. It's well deserved and certainly my game of the year!

Got the new Zelda Game & Watch

This has arrived in the mail today – Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda. It's the only 35th Anniversary item so far, but it's nice to have it as this modern retro system.

It's actually quite small, much smaller than I expected, where you can see the dimensions of the system against a normal Nintendo Switch game box in the above photo. It's 11cm x 6.5cm. Here is another comparison against the Nintendo Mini Classics version of the original Game & Watch Zelda:

It's not as small as a GameBoy Micro, but it's quite similar. It's also very light, where it feels a little bit cheap. The buttons could also be better, but the display is overall quite good.

Similar to the Special Edition of Metroid Dread, the box comes wrapped in a protective plastic casing (not pictured), where this time it even has some things printed onto it, like an Octorok. And I really like this development. Yes, there is a good argument against it, because it creates more plastic waste, but I'm not throwing it into the garbage anyway, because I like that it keeps the box protected from damage, so I put the box back into the casing. And since this one has things printed onto it, people might not throw it away anyway.

There is only the game device and its cardboard stand included, however, so there's nothing in the box to recharge the battery (correction: there is actually a small USB cable, it was just hidden inside the stand). It's just standard USB-C, so it's fine and you can use whatever you have for your Nintendo Switch to charge it. Also, there is even a sheet with Gold Points for MyNintendo included, so you get something there for this purchase, even though it's not Nintendo Switch related.

Well, I've already been playing a little bit with this thing and a separate review will follow in the next days, so I don't want to get too much into things here with this post. This is just to show some photos. But I can already spoil that my favorite thing is probably the playable Timer.

Overall, Zelda II - The Adventure of Link feels like the real star of this whole thing, instead of the original The Legend of Zelda. This is not only because of the fun timer, which is based on Zelda II, but also the fact that this device lets you play the Japanese version, which is quite different from the English one. And it's my first time actually experiencing this version.

Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda Announced

Happy 35th Anniversary, The Legend of Zelda! Here's a new Game & Watch system for you! I hope you didn't expect a theme park or anything, because that's all you get. At least it's better than the one for Super Mario Bros., right...?

Well, in any case, this is not necessarily what you would have expected out of the 35th Anniversary, where this is about as interesting as getting a bunch of new amiibo five years ago. But here we go... In the least this comes with a variety of games:

• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II - The Adventure of Link
• Playable clock based on The Legend of Zelda
• Playable timer based on Zelda II - The Adventure of Link
• Link's Awakening (GameBoy version)
• Game & Watch: Vernim (starring Link)

Now, if you're asking, "what happened to the actual Game & Watch Zelda game?", then you probably have a better memory about this than most Nintendo employees. To be fair, it used to have two screens, like a Nintendo DS:

But this didn't stop from them adding it to the Game & Watch Gallery 4 for the GameBoy Advance (and Wii U Virtual Console), where it used a condensed layout that fits a single screen. They could have done something similar here as well.

There also used to be a "Zelda Game Watch" as a second LCD title, which would have fit the screen just fine, but this was a licensed product made by Nelsonic, where Nintendo may not really have anything available here.

Instead you will have to settle for Vernim, some whack-a-mole with Link, which isn't exactly exciting. And the rest of the games are all titles that can already played on Nintendo Switch in some form, so this shouldn't be very interesting for newcomers to the Zelda series.

But this is actually the first time they've ever re-released the GameBoy version of Link's Awakening, because there was Link's Awakening DX for the GameBoy Color available since 1998, so this was the preferred choice for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.

I personally always liked the classic, monochrome GameBoy version of Link's Awakening a little more, because this has been my first entry to the series and I wasn't the biggest fan of the coloring in the DX version. I'm even considering to play it one more time on this, but it might really hard to return to this game after the excellent Nintendo Switch remake.

Nintendo Direct E3 2021 Roundup

Now, that's one satisfying Nintendo Direct, if you're a Zelda and Metroid fan. It's probably not the hype machine that many have wanted, but it was very much on par with my predictions from two weeks ago. There was a new trailer for the Breath of the Wild sequel, the first DLC for Age of Calamity, the next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate challenger and even a new 2D Metroid title, called Metroid Dread.

Let's go over all of these topics briefly, with follow-up posts about the bigger topics coming later today and tomorrow.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate x Tekken

Well, that was actually one of the biggest surprises of the Nintendo Direct. Just earlier today a completely different character had been "leaked", where I was mentally getting ready for that, but then Kazuya came and stole the show.

This certainly wasn't one of the wildly speculated characters, mostly because we already got the Heihachi Mii outfit together with Min Min earlier in this Fighters Pass. Why didn't they save this Mii costume for Kazuya? Well, it feels like a weird decision, but this certainly shifted the speculation scene away from Tekken, though getting another Bandai Namco character after all their work for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate seemed always likely. It's just that people were expecting a Dark Souls or Tales Of character instead.

It's another classic fighting game rep after Ryu, Ken and Terry, where this inclusion is absolutely well deserved and it's glorious to see all these fighting game icons coming together in Smash. But at the same time it's somewhat boring, where this is not a fighter for me personally. The trailer was funny, though, especially when he dropped Min Min and Kirby. And it was really smart to start with Ganondorf to tease all the Zelda fans right away.

Metroid Dread

Well, here is our 2021 title, Nintendo game of the year. It's good to see something in the quality of Metroid: Samus Returns on the Nintendo Switch, but I already dread the game (pun intended) for its E.M.M.I. enemies, just like I dreaded being hunted by the SA-X in Metroid Fusion or the Space Pirates in Metroid: Zero Mission.

But the game looks very cool overall and there will be a follow-up post coming up!

Age of Calamity – Pulse of the Ancients

As expected, we got out first look at the first DLC wave for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and it's even coming out later this week. The content isn't really what was expected, though, where there really is only one new character and it's not Robbie or Purah, but a playable Guardian. And Link gets the "flail" made out of Guardian parts.

The only expected thing here was the Master Cycle Zero, but even that came as a surprise, because like the Sheikah Slate, this doesn't get used by Link this time, but by Zelda. It does make sense, though, and was a cool surprise. More on this topic later this week.

35th Anniversary of Zelda

This was easily the biggest disappointment of the Nintendo Direct. I didn't expect them to say much about the 35th Anniversary, mainly because the focus will be still on Skyward Sword HD and Age of Calamity for now, but Aonuma downright confirmed that they don't have any major plans for the 35th Anniversary. There will only be another Game & Watch thing for Zelda, which is basically just copying one of the things they did for the 35th Anniversary of Super Smash Bros. – lame! It doesn't even have the actual Zelda Game & Watch game for some reason...

Well, anyway, maybe Nintendo wants to focus on Metroid's anniversary for a change? That would be something... Maybe they could do a Game & Watch system for it? And it seems like Aonuma's team is too busy with the sequel to Breath of the Wild to deal with anything else. Speaking of...

The Legend of Zelda: Uhm... Skyward Sword for Real?

They saved the best for last with a new trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, without revealing its actual title or release date, just a generic 2022. This should tell us that the game most likely won't be released before E3 2022.

But the trailer was a surprising change of direction from the first one in 2019.. quite literally. The game seeks out to be what Skyward Sword could have been with its new expansive sky world, which is really cool. There will probably multiple posts coming up about this new trailer, so stay tuned!

About Skyward Sword HD... nothing new here was announced yet, so the remaster really might only offer the new control scheme and the teleportation amiibo as new features and nothing else. But let's wait for Treehouse to show it.

35th Anniversary of Zelda

Today 35 years ago was a very special day, where each and every one of us were sitting in their traditional Japanese houses and inserted their copy of THE HYRULE FANTASY ゼルダの伝説 into their Famicom Disk Systems for the very first time. A day we surely will never forget!

Well, to be fair, most Zelda fans (including myself) weren't even alive back then and probably also not living in Japan, but the Zelda series is celebrating 35 years of existence nonetheless. It's kind of an odd anniversary, though. The 25th Anniversary was special, because there you're celebrating a quarter century, which is important enough. And with 30 or 40 years you're entering another decade. 35 years on the other hand is just right in the middle of those anniversaries and probably only an excuse to celebrate.

But celebrate we will, if the 35th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. is any indication. In the end these anniversaries are just a marketing ploy anyway, but we're usually getting some goodies out of this, which can be quite exciting. We Zelda fans sure do love us some merchandise.

There seem to be many people confused out there why Nintendo hasn't brought up the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda already, despite the fact that they've just announced The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD and special Joy-Cons for this game. But this is actually quite normal...

For the anniversaries of Super Mario Bros., which take place on September 13th, Nintendo usually likes to start and announce things earlier in the year, while for Zelda they wait a couple of months, so that these two anniversaries don't clash and don't take the attention away from each other. In case of the 25th Anniversary of Zelda they started things at E3 2011, where they had the first big orchestrated concert for the series. And with the 30th Anniversary they didn't even bring it up until September 2016 with a couple of new amiibo and the Arts & Artifacts artbook.

When it comes to what Nintendo could do for Zelda's 35th Anniversary in 2021 and early 2022, it's really easy to just copy what was done for Super Mario Bros. in the last months:

• Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda
• The Legend of Zelda 35
• The Legend of Zelda 3D Collection
• Nintendo Switch Zelda Gold Edition
• Zelda Items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• ...
  

But this would be lame and we already know for a fact that Nintendo likes to do something different for Zelda's anniversaries... That doesn't mean that none of these things will be happening, for example the Zelda items for Animal Crossing: New Horizons seem likely in any case. However, the vast majority of things will be something different and we're probably not getting that Zelda theme park anytime soon. A Zelda movie or TV series on the other hand? This would be really something else (even though we know that they are already making a new Mario movie).

Now, here's a number of ideas what Nintendo could potentially do for the 35th Anniversary:

 

1) The Wind Waker HD + Twilight Princess HD

Well, yes... this isn't really all too different from the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, which came out last year. However, we would be dealing with true HD ports here, ports that might even see some new features, because the Tingle Bottles and Miiverse Stamps don't have their original use anymore.

If they were to add Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask to such a collection as well, they most likely would just be emulated, however, similar to Super Mario 64 in 3D All-Stars. But those games are probably best put towards a Nintendo 64 collection for the Nintendo Switch Online service, which is long overdue. In any case, Skyward Sword HD already proves that Nintendo would sell HD remasters of the Nintendo 64 Zelda games on their own, for sure, so don't expect them.

But to add a little spice to the collection, they could offer an HD remaster of Link's Crossbow Training. This isn't really something that Nintendo would sell on its own, where originally it was part of a bundle with the Wii Zapper. But in an HD collection together with Twilight Princess HD, where Link's Crossbow Training could borrow all HD assets from this title, it would fit really well. And ideally this wouldn't be a time-limited deal.

 

2) Golden Pro Controller

The above collection could go hand in hand with a nice custom Zelda themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, like this one:

Of course they could also do an entire golden Nintendo Switch, similar to red and blue Switch for Super Mario, but this might be a little bit too much at this point, especially since we're already getting the Skyward Sword HD Joy-Cons. A Pro Controller on the other hand? You can never have too many of those.

3) Armor Sets in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons are cool and all, but the Zelda series does have its own platform to do something similar: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The game will be updated via DLC in 2021, but it could also get some free goodies, like additional armor items.

Curiously, out of the 107 armor pieces in Breath of the Wild, only 60 of them made it into Age of Calamity. And out of those missing, the majority are cameo items from other major Zelda titles:

• Hero set
• Hero of Time set
• Sheik's Mask
• Phantom Ganon set
• Fierce Deity set
  
• Majora's Mask
• Tingle's set
• Hero of the Wind set
  
• Island Lobster Shirt
• Hero of Twilight set
• Midna's Helmet
• Zant's Helmet
• Hero of the Sky set
  
• Phantom set
• Ravio's Hood

All of these would be perfect for celebrating 35 years of Zelda and they could even add a couple more that weren't part of Breath of the Wild. For example there could be a Goron Link outfit for Daruk. They could give the Mask of Truth to Impa (like in Hyrule Warriors). Or Zelda could get outfits based on past princesses. And so on.

 

4) Dungeon Maker

In the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which came out in 2019, Nintendo and GREZZO have first experimented with what basically was a small dungeon maker. The "Chamber Dungeon" was very basic, but it was founded on the simple grid layout that was utilized by all the dungeons in the original The Legend of Zelda. The dungeon rooms have always the same square shape with their entrances placed at the center.

If nothing else, they could still update Link's Awakening and add a remake of the first Zelda dungeon with Aquamentus as a new boss to the game, as a small way to celebrate the anniversary. However, it will be two years by then and this was more than enough time to expand the idea into its own Zelda title, using the same engine and visuals as Link's Awakening.

This could lead to a sophisticated dungeon maker, where you can fully create your own chambers and so on. And as part of the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, it should also feature various remade dungeons from the first game as an example or part of a single-player experience.

Such a title would also lend itself to multi-player support, where you could design dungeons for more than one player. This would hit multiple birds with one stone, where this could be a dungeon maker, the next multi-player Zelda and a way of celebrating 35 years all in one.

Nintendo Direct February 2021 Roundup

Now this is what I call a satisfying Nintendo Direct... Pyra / Mythra for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was already a good start. I'm not a fan of Xenoblade (yet), but these two ladies have been on my list of likely characters for the DLC, where the only surprise is that they've put Rex aside completely. But I don't mind... Quite the opposite!

Then we finally got the confirmation that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will get DLC later this year... Much later in fact, with two packs hitting in June and November. This will give me plenty of time to grind with all characters for those "new challenges" and "newly added challenging enemies".

As expected, there weren't any news about the 35th Anniversary just yet. I assume that this is going to happen later this year, maybe around E3 in June, when the first Age of Calamity DLC gets released and we'll probably learn more about the sequel to Breath of the Wild.

Still, we did get some Zelda news this direct with the announcement of Skyward Sword HD, which will be released on July 16th, alongside a special pair of Joy-Cons. I've been expecting this title for so long, it's actually surprising that I didn't have this on my list yesterday, but this was because I was putting this into the category of potential 35th Anniversary stuff. However, Twilight Princess HD also wasn't part of the 30th Anniversary, so this is history repeating itself and makes sense overall.

Speaking of Twilight Princess HD, I still think it's possible that we will be getting some sort of collection as part of the 35th Anniversary later this year, featuring both The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, but maybe also the Nintendo 64 Zelda games.

But overall it sounded like the sequel to Breath of the Wild won't come out this year, which is why we're getting the obligatory filler title(s). This could truly be history repeating itself from 2016, where we've spent the 30th Anniversary with an HD remaster and new content for Hyrule Warriors throughout the year, before Breath of the Wild got released in early 2017.

I will write dedicated posts about all of these announcements later today... But now I need to catch some sleep, so good night!

Nintendo Direct February 2021 Predictions

It's happening...! Tomorrow! Nintendo just announced the next major Nintendo Direct on Twitter. And this feels almost surreal. Nintendo fans, including myself, have been expecting a proper Nintendo Direct for a long time now. It almost felt like they were done with the format for good and instead just will do single game announcements in the future...

But take a look at the expectations here, after Paper Mario: The Origami King had been released. Well, the Mario game is a different one, but the situation is the same: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is now available and thus it's time for some news about what's on Nintendo's horizons.

Of course a part of the Nintendo Direct might focus on upcoming games that we already know about, like Monster Hunter Rise or New Pokémon Snap. But there certainly will be some surprise announcements there as well and with 50 minutes there is plenty of time to announce all sorts of things. Like a new 2D Metroid...

Two years ago they've shown us the remake of Link's Awakening and history could repeat itself here with remakes of the Oracle games... maybe? But it's probably too soon for this and it seems like GREZZO has been working on something else, anyway.

About Zelda overall, I've recently seen a lot of people with high expectations for news about Zelda's 35th Anniversary, which will start this Sunday, February 21st. But I say "start", because Nintendo usually doesn't celebrate such anniversaries on date and instead does something later during the year. There was just recently stuff for Fire Emblem's 30th Anniversary, which officially began in April 2020... The 35th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. is also still going.

And remember the 30th Anniversary of Zelda in 2016? Yes, me neither... Despite having multiple games released in March 2016, including Twilight Princess HD,  they didn't bring up the 30th Anniversary before September 2016 and then only for some amiibo and an artbook. I think the 35th Anniversary will get more interesting, but that doesn't mean that Nintendo will do something early.

So, I wouldn't hold my breath for any Zelda news just now... Except for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which is in desperate need of some DLC and updates. They might even shadow drop some of it tomorrow... We've been over the possibilities for this, where you can take a look at my DLC suggestions from last month. But part of it would be bringing back all the armor items from Breath of the Wild, which were based on other major Zelda games and which would be perfect as a first anniversary celebration.

Speaking of DLC, Nintendo practically confirmed that we'll be seeing the next Challenger Pack for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the Nintendo Direct. This is great news and if I had to take a wild guess, I would probably go with Monster Hunter, because this would go perfectly hand in hand with the upcoming release of Monster Hunter Rise.

Well, see you after the Nintendo Direct!

Dawn of a New Year – 2021

The year 2021 marks the 35th Anniversary for The Legend of Zelda and with that we can look forward to an interesting year, filled with surprises, new Zelda games and goodies. Well, the 30th Anniversary only had a bunch of amiibo and an artbook under its banner, so it's not a given that every anniversary will be celebrated extensively, but we also got Twilight Princess HD and Hyrule Warriors: Legends in 2016, so it was still a strong year.

The new Hyrule Warriors already got released in 2020, but Age of Calamity will most likely see some additions in the form of updates and DLC throughout 2021. Additional playable characters, new Challenges and outfits, maybe even a new map or mode – there are many possibilities here. In the very least the Lucky Ladle and Training Sword might become available for purchase.

From the prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild we will then slowly, but surely move to its sequel, which was already teased at E3 2019, but hasn't been shown ever since. We have learned very little about the game so far, where only Nintendo knows when it will be released. It might be that it's ready for late 2021, as the highlight of the 35th Anniversary, or it could be that we won't be getting it before 2022. It's really hard to say right now, but it's likely that Nintendo will tell us more about the game this year.

And with the 35th Anniversary Nintendo will probably distract us otherwise. The biggest candidate is arguably an HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which will be getting 10 years old in 2021 and therefore could follow in the footsteps of The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD. Speaking of, Nintendo loves porting their Wii U games to the Nintendo Switch, where Super Mario 3D World will be next, and the Zelda HD remasters could follow, maybe even in a collection.

Otherwise there is always the possibility of getting a new top-down Zelda experience in some form. It might be a little bit too early for GREZZO's next Zelda project, e.g. remakes of Oracle of Ages & Seasons or a new multiplayer title, but maybe we're in for a small surprise here.

To celebrate the 35th Anniversary early on, they could do something with the original The Legend of Zelda for example. While GREZZO hasn't touched the remake of Link's Awakening since launch, its Chamber Dungeon feature would be absolutely perfect to include a remake of the first dungeon from The Legend of Zelda, with Aquamentus as a new boss enemy. As a free update this would be really cool.

But as the 35th Anniversary of Super Mario has taught us in 2020, you can never know what to expect. Except that we shouldn't expect the same things, since they always like to do something different with Zelda's anniversaries, like the concerts in 2011. An anime movie based on Breath of the Wild could be amazing or maybe we hear something from that rumored Netflix series...

However, while marveling over all the options that Zelda's 35th Anniversary could bring, let's not forget that it will also be the 35th Anniversary of Metroid. Nintendo has yet to celebrate any anniversary of the Metroid series, where its always overshadowed by its older Action Adventure sister, but 2021 could finally bring some news about Metroid Prime 4 and maybe a new 2D Metroid.

In any case 2021 should give us lots of new things to talk and be excited about... So, Happy New Year, everyone!

Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct

This Nintendo Direct happened today and confirmed various rumors that we've heard over the course of the year: a Super Mario 3D World port, a new Mario Kart and a Mario 3D Collection. Here's the overview of the biggest announcements:

• Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. – a handheld version of the original Super Mario Bros. (and The Lost Levels) for true retro fans.
• Super Mario 35 – it's like Tetris 99, but you're playing Super Mario Bros. against 34 other players and defeated enemies will be sent over to your competitors. Only playable until end of March.
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury – the long expected Wii U port comes with another game attached to it, but we don't know much about it yet. Oh, and there will be Cat Mario and Cat Peach amiibo.
• Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit – an augmented reality game, where you can turn your living room into a Mario Kart track. Comes with kart toys that have cameras.
• Super Mario All-Stars – now available in the Super Nintendo collection of the Nintendo Switch Online service.
• Super Mario 3D All-Stars – a new collection, which is only available for a limited time. It includes Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. However, these are not remasters, just plain ports with higher resolutions.

The latter seems quite underwhelming. When we first heard rumors about this, I had actual HD remasters in mind, but this would have been too good to be true. But this way it's something I'd definitely skip, because I can play Galaxy and Super Mario 64 just fine on my Wii U, while I never liked Super Mario Sunshine to begin with.

So, this somewhat reminds me of the The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the GameCube, which was also released under the premise of having as many Zelda games playable on the system as possible (which meant all of them at the time). But it's kind of weird that they didn't include Super Mario Galaxy 2 as well to have all major 3D Mario games on the Switch...

Super Mario 3D World was fun (except for 100% completion because of the final world) and I'm curious about the "Bowser's Fury" expansion. It sounds like "Ganon's Fury" and "Cucco's Fury" from Hyrule Warriors, so maybe it's a mode where you can play as (Cat) Bowser.

My favorite out of these items is probably the Game & Watch thingy and I would certainly buy a similar offer for Zelda, especially if that were to include the original Zelda Game & Watch game as well.

Mario Kart Live also looks like quite some fun, but it's probably not very practical and in the end you'll just go back to playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Overall I'm not very happy with the current direction of Mario Kart.

But anyways... this is a lot. A LOT! I personally didn't expect that Nintendo would do as much for a 35th Anniversary, because it's a rather odd number, but some of it is probably a result of 2020 in general and this gives me hope that 2021 will be a big celebration of 35 years of Zelda.

There are a lot of things that they could do here, other than releasing the sequel to Breath of the Wild in that year:

• Skyward Sword HD
• The Wind Waker HD + Twilight Princess HD + Link's Crossbow Training HD
• Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda
• Link's Awakening Chamber Dungeon DLC based on the first Zelda game
• Remakes of the Oracle games
• Hyrule Warriors 2
• New amiibo
• Something akin to the Four Swords Anniversary Edition

 

We can only hope. Of course they tend to do something different with Zelda's anniversaries compared to Mario's, so I wouldn't necessarily expect a 3D Zelda collection or the Game & Watch thing. I also wouldn't expect all of these things to happen in the same year, so some of this is definitely material for 2022 or later. And if we're really lucky, we will be getting something this year already. So, these are just possibilities and we'll have to see what of it will run under the Anniversary banner.

And there's also Metroid's 35th Anniversary, where they could offer the Metroid Prime Trilogy HD, along with a collection of 2D Metroid games and the next 2D Metroid. But it would be the first time that Nintendo is celebrating Metroid's anniversary in any form, so it's best to not expect anything here...

Zelda HD Collection?

This idea has been on the mind of many Zelda fans ever since the Nintendo Switch became a thing: a collection of Zelda HD remasters, which ports both The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD over from the Wii U and adds more to the list.

Ever since the rumors in March that Super Mario could be getting a similar collection this year for its 35th Anniversary, I've been considering the same for Zelda and putting some more thoughts into this. Such a "The Legend of Zelda HD Collection" could come to Switch next year and potentially include the following four titles:

• The Wind Waker HD
• Twilight Princess HD
• Link's Crossbow Training HD
• Skyward Sword HD

As for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, it's only a matter of time before these two HD remasters will be ported to the Switch, just like the rest of the Wii U library. Enough time has passed to not make it feel completely ridiculous for every Wii U owner. And for Nintendo it's easy money, but it also makes sense to bundle them somehow, because we would steep into ports of ports with these titles. There has to be a limit of what Nintendo can sell as a standalone full price title and putting them together wouldn't feel like the cheapest effort of making good money with video games ever, even though they probably would sell just fine on their own...

Additionally, both games made good use of the Wii U GamePad for maps and alike, which would all be lost in the Nintendo Switch versions. So, they might even end up as inferior versions when compared to their Wii U counterparts. But if you put them together on one cartridge, no one can really complain about the value.

And Link's Crossbow Training HD would be a fun bonus for the whole package. It's not a game that you would ever expect to return on its own, where even on the Wii it was just meant as an addition for the Zapper. Here half of the work was already done by Tantalus with the remaster of Twilight Princess, where its assets for the updated graphics could be used to remaster Link's Crossbow Training as well, since the game was pretty much just a mini-game add-on for Twilight Princess, re-using its environments, enemies and so on.

Finally, there's Skyward Sword HD, which always felt like the natural choice for an HD remaster on the Switch with its Joy-Cons and all. In the past I was convinced that this would be released as a standalone title, simply because that's how it was for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD. But there are three good reasons here, why this might change with Skyward Sword...

1) The game is pretty much the anti-thesis to Breath of the Wild, which has become by far the most successful entry in the series. Aonuma even admitted that the starting point for the development were the shortcomings of Skyward Sword with its restricted world and lack of exploration. So, to put focus on such a different 3D Zelda game, which does the complete opposite of the Zelda game that made many people buy a Switch in the first place, might not be the best idea at the moment. But putting this in a collection of various older Zelda titles would easily prevent any wrong impressions.

2) Even if you try to reduce the motion controls of Skyward Sword as much as possible, getting the sword combat to work without the Joy-cons would probably be very difficult or unsatisfying. As a result the game would only be playable with Joy-cons and not in handheld mode, which could be a big reason for people to not buy the game, especially for owners of a Nintendo Switch Lite. But bundled with The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, which both work with traditional controls, these people would still have something to play.

3) The Zelda series has gotten a new brand styling with Breath of the Wild, where everything is made in a flat design. The logos of both Breath of the Wild and Link's Awakening are in plain white against a background, for example. However, for an HD remaster of Skyward Sword this would probably feel odd and not like a good fit. It should keep the logo and menu design of the original, similar to The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, since it's really just supposed to be a remaster and not a new thing.

A "Zelda HD Collection" could be sold in the new brand styling, however, where the cover and the main menu are in the same style as Breath of the Wild and Link's Awakening, while it keeps the logos and everything else of the HD remasters the way it was. Problem solved.

With all of this in mind, it really feels like a good idea to put these three or four titles all together in one package. It would be an amazing way of celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Zelda, while dodging any complaints that would come with re-releasing these titles on their own for the Nintendo Switch.

No Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask HD?

Well, some fans would probably want the two Nintendo 64 titles as well and you can't blame them, but this would really be too good to be true all at once, which is why they weren't considered for this list.

For making the above collection Nintendo could hire Tantalus again, the studio responsible for remastering Twilight Princess on the Wii U. They could apply their expertise on both Link's Crossbow Training and Skyward Sword, where the latter would already generate enough efforts for this project, and then put everything together.

Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the other hand would need full-fledged remakes, something done from scratch again, where this would increase the effort for such a collection significantly. Probably even to the point where Nintendo would need to hire another studio in addition. But GREZZO was already busy with remaking Link's Awakening, where the Oracle games should come next and not the N64 games again.

Remakes of the N64 titles were already done for the Nintendo 3DS by GREZZO in the last decade and doing this yet again might be a little bit too early, both for the developers and for the customers. Nintendo is even still selling New Nintendo 2DS systems and both of the previous remakes. And if Nintendo 64 games get added to Nintendo Switch Online eventually, you will be able to play Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the Switch anyway...

Also, keep in mind that we're talking about games here, where each remaster and remake so far has gotten a dedicated standalone release with years of development. Even if the Super Mario HD collection turns out to be true, this still might be a little much to ask from Nintendo's forces. The above vision is already optimistic as it is, so it's best not to expect anything more than that.

And new remakes of the Nintendo 64 games shouldn't be something that's done on the sidelines. They deserve releases on their own, starting with Ocarina of Time, with gorgeous graphics, new features and alike. This is something that I can see happening in the future, but not necessarily on the Switch where such remakes for the GameBoy Color Zelda games should have priority.

Global Collectible?

Let's say such a collection happens, it would be nice if all these games were to offer a collectible that spans all titles. Something to unlock artwork and additional goodies in the main menu, similar to the Credits in the Metroid Prime Trilogy.

This would go hand in hand with the fact that both The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD had special Miiverse features that would be in need of replacement on the Nintendo Switch, since the Miiverse is history now. In case of The Wind Waker HD these were the Tingle Bottles, while Twilight Princess HD had the stamp collection.

It would be a shame, if Tingle wasn't to get something new to replace the Tingle Tuner a second time and if all those chests in Twilight Princess contained a ton of useless Rupees again... So, an idea would be to have something here that lets you unlock things globally in the HD collection.

This could be something simple as scrolls, like "Ocean Scrolls", "Twilight Scrolls" and "Sky Scrolls". They could contain a bit of lore as an extra and would give you access to artworks and other goodies. Maybe additional scrolls could be unlocked via amiibo to also give you stuff from other Zelda games.

With Skyward Sword HD they could even tie this into new features. For example they could expand the sky world a little bit and add more to its islands. Or they could let you go on a full night-time exploration later in the game, where you're hunting for Poes or special Goddess Cubes or something similar, which in return rewards you with the new global collectible.

And in Link's Crossbow Training HD they could add new secret targets throughout all the levels, maybe one per level, which will score you with these scrolls.

In any case it would be nice to have something that spans all games in the collection, as an incentive to play them all.

About the Super Mario 35th Anniversary Rumors

So, there have been some incredible rumors going around about the Super Mario franchise and its 35th Anniversary, see for example on videogameschronicle.com. If these rumors from different major sources are to be trusted, Nintendo will celebrate Super Mario's 35th birthday big time with various remasters/ports of most of his 3D games to the Nintendo Switch, as well as a new Paper Mario title.

The 3D titles include the following:

• Super Mario 64
• Super Mario Sunshine
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Super Mario 3D World Deluxe

Rumors about the latter have been going around for a while now together with an enhanced port of Pikmin 3. And a enhanced port of Super Mario 3D World seems very likely in any case, since this takes the least effort. In the end Nintendo will probably have ported all major Wii U titles to the Nintendo Switch that didn't get a direct sequel (like Splatoon 2 or Super Mario Maker 2). So, this is entirely possible.

But getting HD remasters of three of Mario's previous 3D outings almost sounds too good to be true. Unlike a port of a game that was already in HD, this will take some significant amount of effort, but Nintendo has hired various studios in the past to do their remasters for them, like GREZZO or Tantalus in case of Zelda.

Speaking of Zelda, if these rumors hold true, then this could translate to Zelda next year as well. So far it was questionable whether Nintendo would be celebrating a 35th Anniversary to begin with (it's not a decade, nor a quarter century), but if they're willing to use this date for advertisements, it could lead to a similar line-up in 2021 for Zelda.

We're talking...

• The Wind Waker HD
• Twilight Princess HD
• Skyward Sword HD
• Oracle of Ages & Seasons
• The sequel to Breath of the Wild

Not necessarily all in one year, but all being in development. Skyward Sword HD still might come even this year, but more about this in the next post...