Nintendo Officially Hates Me

As a Zelda fan there is only thing that I really want right now. Something that I've wanted for at least two years now: a Special Edition Nintendo Switch (bundle). They've kept doing it with the Nintendo 3DS on every single instance and this taught me that I should patiently wait for the inevitable Zelda Edition. Because if I buy a normal Nintendo Switch now, I will definitely regret this later on. (Especially if all the rumors about an improved Switch coming next year are true.)

Now, I've been very patient and despite Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the excellent Link's Awakening remake, I've resisted the urge to buy a Nintendo Switch. Thankfully, I was able to borrow one from someone to occasionally play these titles or otherwise it would have been really hard to wait. But this won't be an option for the upcoming Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, because with such a big game I'll need a savegame of my own from the start.

So, I've been hoping that maybe, just maybe they'll do a bundle for this game. A nice Sheikah Slate design would be perfect and should have been a thing with Breath of the Wild from the start, where they could now make up for it...

And today I got Nintendo of Europe's reply in the form of a press release e-mail with the following "beauty":

Well, great... Just what I wanted... Not.

Of course this doesn't exclude a potential Age of Calamity bundle. But the timing feels like a slap in the face.

Age of Calamity: Battlefields?

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity takes place in the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild during the war against Calamity Ganon, where many of the game's locations will be transformed into typical battlefields for a Warriors game.

We already know for a fact that this game won't be open world (like Dynasty Warriors 9) and we're getting isolated stages here, because the Japanese eShop provides us with some screenshots with the UI (see NintendoEverything), where you can see the map:

So, there are restricted paths to take and like in the original Hyrule Warriors you probably won't be able to swim or climb. There also probably won't be any major use of verticality in the environments, because you can't display two overlaying areas on the map. In a way this will let you experience the world of Breath of the Wild in a more traditional fashion, similar to how the worlds were build in games like Twilight Princess.

On first glance it also seems like the areas are more faithful to the originals, unlike the stages in the first Hyrule Warriors, where everything was only loosely based on the locations from the original Zelda games and they took many liberties. Skyloft was one of the most notable examples there. But everything in Age of Calamity looks like it was taken directly out of Breath of the Wild.

And from the trailer and all the screenshots for this game we can already compile a list of battlefields that will definitely be playable:

• Hyrule Field
• Zora's Domain
• Gerudo Town / Desert
• Akkala Citadel
• Breach of Demise
  

Hyrule Field seems to be the starting area, similar to the battlefield of the same name in Hyrule Warriors. And it seems the campaign will bring you to Zora's Domain soon after, where you recruit Mipha as the first Champion. In the above screenshot you can play either as Link, Zelda or Mipha, where this might be a level early in the game.

In any case there are plenty of more places in Breath of the Wild that could serve as potential battlefields:

• Hyrule Castle / Hyrule Castle Town
• Great Plateau
• Fort Hateno
• Faron Woods / Lake Hylia
• Lanayru Wetlands
• Eldin Canyon
• Death Mountain
• Hebra Mountains
• Tabantha Frontier
  
• Great Hyrule Forest

Some of these locations are basically a must for the story alone. (Warning: Breath of the Wild spoilers incoming!)

We know that there has been a decisive battle at Fort Hateno. We know that the Sheikah brought Link to the Great Plateau afterwards and that Zelda brought the Master Sword to the Deku Tree and then went to fight Calamity Ganon on her own at Hyrule Castle. So, all these locations should be covered by stages.

Otherwise... wherever there are ruins of battle in Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity might go there to explore them and show us how the places looked like before they got destroyed. We can even see what is one of the many villages in one of the screenshots:

Here it looks like Zelda is actually the one responsible for that village's destruction with those many bombs...

But it seems like Koei Tecmo has studied the ruins in Breath of the Wild and used them to create new landmarks. It actually might be really interesting to replay Breath of the Wild after Age of Calamity, simply to see how the areas were used as battlefields.

 

Last but not least, the Divine Beasts will probably be used in some fashion as well. We can already see them freely roaming through Hyrule in the artwork and trailer, which is pretty awesome and where they could even become playable similar to Ganon in Hyrule Warriors. But they most likely will act as smaller battlefields themselves, once they get possessed by Calamity Ganon.

Age of Calamity: Joke Weapons?

If you pre-order the game digitally via the Nintendo Switch eShop, you will get a little pre-order bonus in the form of the "Lucky Ladle" with a Pot Lid as a weapon for Link:

That's probably a tier / variant of Link's normal sword and shield set and this feels kind of similar to the 8-Bit weapons that we got in Hyrule Warriors, where this probably won't be the only one. And here are some ideas for more of such joke weapons:

• Zelda using the Tingle Tuner instead of the Sheikah Slate
• Mipha fighting with a Wooden Mop
• Daruk crushing things with a Spring-Loaded Hammer

Would be hilarious to see all of this.

In any case, I hope that you will be able to get the Lucky Ladle otherwise, because I'm not going to pre-order the game digitally...

Age of Calamity: The Signs Were There

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity pretty much came out of nowhere today as a fantastic surprise reveal and I don't think many people have expected this. Even I didn't really expect anything for the rest of this year and I usually tend to be quite optimistic (maybe a little too optimistic sometimes) when it comes to future Zelda games and contents, looking at all the possibilities.

And I did have a new Hyrule Warriors game on my radar for quite some time now. Actually, I've even said the following thing at the beginning of this year:

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

And I'm kind of embarrassed that I didn't follow this sentiment any further, because I had the right idea there and it would have been interesting to explore it. Well, later this year I felt like it might be too early for a new Hyrule Warriors, but in reality we've been getting a new Hyrule Warriors every second year now:

• 2014: Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
• 2016: Hyrule Warriors – Legends (Nintendo 3DS)
• 2018: Hyrule Warriors – Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch)
• 2020: Hyrule Warriors – Age of Calamity (Nintendo Switch)

Of course, the Definitive Edition didn't really have anything new (except for two costumes), but here's where the real new game was probably already in development, making this biyearly release possible. (At this point you might be asking whether this rhythm will continue, but if we're getting anything in 2022, it probably will be an expansion to Age of Calamity based on the sequel to Breath of the Wild. But let's not go there yet, because this is way too early...)

Otherwise, it was kind of suspicious that Nintendo was going to re-print the amiibo of the four Champions later this year. This has been in the news and it's not an unusual thing, but the timing was suspicious, because it's not like we are getting the sequel to Breath of the Wild this year. But with a new Hyrule Warriors, which has the Champions as its focus, this makes so much sense. You'd probably want those amiibo more than ever.

 

Also, we knew that the voice actors of Zelda and Revali from Breath of the Wild have been working on something, where it seemed a little bit early for the Breath of the Wild sequel. But a new Warriors game with focus on their characters certainly explains it. It all makes sense now.

Overall, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity makes so much sense that it almost hurts. Breath of the Wild is a game in a post-war Hyrule, where we've only seen glimpses of that war. The battle against Calamity Ganon is the perfect setting for a new Warriors game and it doesn't really need much else. No complicated time travel story, where everything comes together. Just this war.

Of course it's kind of a shame that the characters from the first Hyrule Warriors probably won't return here and that we probably won't be getting any classic characters that didn't become playable in that game (like Linebeck, Cole, Demise, Hilda and so on) any time soon, but the focus on Breath of the Wild is a good thing and allows for an amazing experience.

When Hyrule Warriors first was announced and they've introduced us to Link, Impa, Zelda, Cia and Volga, I totally expected this game to focus on its own Hyrule and setting, which looked really cool and cohesive. But then we got Midna and the focus shifted to representing all those different characters from all those different Zelda games, including the "Toon Zelda" games, where the cohesiveness vanished in favor of making this a celebration of the Zelda series.

This wasn't bad and Hyrule Warriors turned out great, but Age of Calamity now has the chance to regain that cohesiveness by focusing on this one war and one setting. Of course it could still be that they're throwing in some things and characters from other Zelda games (Wolf Link would be possible, since he also appears in Breath of the Wild), where it's still too early to tell. But the focus on Breath of the Wild looks very promising and there is no need to do anything that the first game already did, because that's already on the Nintendo Switch.

Age of Calamity: Potential Fighters

Well, finally there is something to talk about in 2020 for us Zelda fans! And there is no better topic than discussing potential playable characters in an action game. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was announced today and already showed us footage of the following six characters in action:

• Link
• Zelda
• Mipha
• Daruk
• Revali
• Urbosa

None of them should be particularly surprising and the Champions were expected additions to any new Hyrule Warriors game. But this one is a little bit more special, because it focuses on Breath of the Wild and the battle against Calamity Ganon from 100 years ago alone. So, this means we probably won't be seeing Tingle, Midna or Cia in this game.

Also, both Link and Zelda got a complete makeover and will certainly play differently from their counterparts in Hyrule Warriors, where Zelda is now fighting with the Sheikah Slate for example. So, this will be an all-new roster.

The original Hyrule Warriors on Wii U launched with 13 characters (which was before Cia, Volga and Wizzro became playable) and we might be looking at a similar number. And believe it or not, but there are more than enough candidates here...

One might be already visible on the main artwork for the game, which you can see above. There is a small, white Guardian, who is fighting alongside Link, Zelda and the four Champions there. Koei Tecmo was quite talented when it came to making original characters and character designs for Hyrule Warriors and they might continue this trend with Age of Calamity. And it certainly makes sense to have some sort of unique Guardian as a fighter, since the Guardians and the Sheikah technology are very important to the story.

The egg Guardian might also be Link's new companion, basically as a replacement for Proxi, because they'll need someone or something who speaks for Link. It could also explain how he uses technological bombs without the Sheikah Slate. The little Guardian could even be one of Link's weapon types, where it's possible that characters might have different weapons again. On the other hand, it would be the first Guardian to communicate and it could also be someone else's weapon, like Impa's.

At least for Link and Zelda it would make sense for their personal development, where Zelda probably should have a "Hylia" moveset of sorts and Link will get the Master Sword again. There could also be horses and Link might even get the Master Cycle Zero for the fun of it.

Otherwise it doesn't really take many original characters to fill the roster, because Breath of the Wild has a lot to offer on its own. First, let's make a list of characters, who potentially could have supported Link, Zelda and the Champions during the war somehow:

• King Rhoam
• King Dorephan
• Young Impa
• Purah
• Robbie
• Hestu

It would be nice to see the two sturdy kings fight, where there were even legends of how King Dorephan took out a Guardian all by himself. Well, here he could take out hundreds. But of course the focus will certainly be on Mipha as a playable Zora.

The young Impa can already be seen in the trailer from what it seems, where she kneels next to Link in an audience with the king (the little egg Guardian is in front of her in the same scene). We can only see her from behind, but the hair looks a lot like Paya's, Impa's granddaughter from 100 years later, and she wears the same hat as her older self. And it will certainly be interesting to see her younger design here, because if there's one thing that Koei Tecmo is good at, then it's pretty characters.

There should also be Purah in some form, where she is another candidate for a playable character, together with a younger Robbie. Though, the latter might be the least likely out of the many Sheikahs, but he should definitely appear, so that we can see his younger self. In a similar fashion, we might also get to see the court poet, who was the teacher of Kass, where this could turn into another original character. Whether all of these Sheikah will become playable or not, is a different question, however.

The other tribes are all nicely covered by the Champions, except for the Korogs, where Hestu with his Maracas would be the perfect candidate to represent those. But he's more of a fun character, who probably shouldn't be involved in the great war against Calamity Ganon in any serious way.

So, there probably will be a story mode, where you unlock Zelda, the Champions and the Sheikah as playable characters, while side characters like Hestu could become unlockable in some additional mode. And of course this wouldn't be a Warriors game without some DLC, where both of this could be used to even go for characters from 100 years later:

• Riju
• Sidon
• Yunobo
• Bludo
  
• Teba
• Kaneli
• Kass
• Kilton
• Beedle
• Bolson
• Pikango
  
• Monk Maz Koshia
• Master Kohga

With the exception of Sidon (as a young child), Maz Koshia, Master Kohga and maybe Beedle, none of these should appear during the war against Calamity Ganon. But adult Sidon and the rest of these could potentially become playable as some extra characters outside of the main story.

 

However, with Sidon, Riju, Yunobo and Teba you would have characters that are basically weaker versions of the four original Champions. They do have some of their abilities, but not all of it. Like Yunobo effectively only has Daruk's Protection and nothing else. Teba is the one who gets the closest, but he's so similar to Revali that it doesn't make him very interesting. So, this leaves us primarily with some of the other characters...

If you don't know who Maz Koshia is, he's the Sheikah Monk responsible for the "Final Trial". With over 100 monks in Breath of the Wild, it kind of makes sense to have the most special of them playable in Age of Calamity somehow.

And again, there are some fun characters here, like the two merchants, Kilton and Beedle. The latter is recurring character in the Zelda series and probably should have been already playable in Hyrule Warriors before, but they can now make up for it and add him using his crazy backpack.

Master Kohga is the first example of an evil character, who could become playable in this setting. In Hyrule Warriors you could play as the villains, including Ganondorf, Ghirahim, Zant and Cia, where there could be a similar turn in Age of Calamity. However, this will mostly lead to these four guys:

• Waterblight Ganon
• Fireblight Ganon
• Windblight Ganon
• Thunderblight Ganon

Every other enemy, including the Yiga Blademaster and Lynels, seem to be unplayable units... Considering how the game will have to take a dark turn at the end, you might not be able to play as any bad guys at all, because it would be too macabre. The Blights are also quite large and having all four of them would feel kind of lame, because that's just roster padding.

But it's not impossible and Koei Tecmo could even come up with some new villains, e.g. the Yiga master during this age. "Master Kohga" is just a title after all and there easily could have been one at the time. Maybe someone who feels a little bit more threatening...

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Announced

Already game of the year! This looks absolutely amazing and completely came out of nowhere, but this only adds to the excitement. With the 35th Anniversary of Zelda next year, I didn't really have anything on the radar for this year, but it's certainly nice that we're still getting such a big title for Zelda fans in 2020.

It almost looked like 2020 is going to be a blank year for Zelda, except for the Cadence of Hyrule DLC stuff. But Hyrule Warriors to the rescue! The timing couldn't have been any more perfect and this will be a great game to pass the time until the sequel to Breath of the Wild gets released.

As you may know, I'm a huge fan of both Hyrule Warriors and Breath of the Wild, where I've put about 800 hours of play time into each of these titles. So, getting the love child of these two games is a huge deal. It also makes so much sense...

When discussing a potential Hyrule Warriors 2 in the past, it was always clear that the focus will be on Breath of the Wild, mainly with making the Champions playable and adding locations from that game. Even before Breath of the Wild was released, the Champions felt like playable characters from a new Hyrule Warriors game.

The big twist here is that the new Hyrule Warriors game will exclusively focus on Breath of the Wild and its characters, but this also makes so much sense in many ways. First of all, we already have Hyrule Warriors in its Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch with 29 fighters and tons of content, where this doesn't become obsolete with a sequel right now. Instead we will have one Hyrule Warriors game for classic Zelda and one for Breath of the Wild.

And with that they don't have to come up with some crazy story of how everything came together this time. They will instead focus on actual events in the Zelda timeline, which previously have been only explored via flashbacks and where fans have been begging to learn more about them. Age of Calamity might even become "canon" in the timeline and act as a companion piece to Breath of the Wild.

So, this is a really good idea and there is so much stuff that they can do with Breath of the Wild alone, where we'll be looking at potential fighters in a separate post right after this one! But the world of Breath of the Wild is so huge, there's more than enough battlefields for one entire Warriors here alone.

Imagine a battle at the Akkala Citadel or the decisive battle at Fort Hateno. We might be able to finally experience all of these events in great detail and even take action there. We might be able to see Hyrule Castle Town before it was destroyed. There is so much potential here, it almost feels like Breath of the Wild was made with a new Hyrule Warriors game in the mind.

Plus, it really looks beautiful, where Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is using the same graphics as Breath of the Wild. While the character design was superb, the first Hyrule Warriors didn't always look that nice otherwise, especially with the environments. But Age of Calamity looks like a lot more on par with the quality of the main game.

Now, all this needs is a nice Christmas bundle with a slick Breath of the Wild themed Nintendo Switch, which is what should have happened three years ago already. Or otherwise I'm going to be one unhappy Zelda fan, when I really have to buy a regular Switch after all this time to play this... Please, Nintendo, use this opportunity and give us a shiny bundle!

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...