Log InJoin 



Zelda: A Link to the Past Sequel Headed to 3DS

Zelda: A Link to the Past Sequel Headed to 3DS

During a Nintendo Direct announcement Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, announced a number of "new" titles which will be arriving for the 3DS and Wii U later this year.

Of the many reveals, a sequel to the 1991 classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the most interesting. It will be available this holiday season for the Nintendo 3DS and will incorporate a few new gameplay twists thanks to the newer 3DS hardware. Incorporating 3D aspects into the more traditional isometric perspective means more depth to gameplay. Sample video showed Link bouncing between levels vertically in a stone dungeon. Another new tool has Link turning into a 2D drawing which will be integral to the game's puzzle system.

"By moving in the walls, your viewpoint changes and you can see the connections within the area that you couldn't observe before," Fils-Aime said. "This new mechanic will play a key role in solving puzzles in the game."

Many other first-party 3DS games were announced during the Nintendo Direct video. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is slated for August 11. A new Professor Layton game called Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy was revealed by Level-5 and will land in Europe in late 2013 and North America in 2014. The much lauded fan-favorite Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound will make its way to the Wii U later this year as well. Yoshi's Island will be receiving a new iteration on the 3DS and while no release date was provided gameplay video was available to view. An official release date of August 4 was also revealed for Pikmin 3.

Many of the announced games are of existing franchises, some of which date back 20 years. While this is understandable from an economic perspective it is still disappointing. The 3DS had a tremendous price drop shortly after release and the Wii U had next to no flagship titles. Nintendo will obviously sell millions of units from their stable of well known and much beloved franchises. It might be time however for them to start developing more franchises so they have something "new" to release in the future.

Image by: Nintendo