The Mary Sue

Nintendo Announces New Zelda Games for Wii U, Finally Makes Wii U Appealing

by Glen Tickle Jan 23rd

We've been accused of being too hard on Nintendo since the Wii U launched last year, but I think it's just a case of tough love. That's why I was so glad to see them doing something we can all get really excited about -- new Zelda games! In a Nintendo Direct video released today, Nintendo president Satoru Iawata outlined some big things coming for the Wii U like new games, software updates, and most importantly -- new Zelda!

Finally: The Official Zelda Timeline Releases, is Not One Single Line Like We Always Knew

by James Plafke Dec 27th

If anything has consistently been in contention regarding The Legend of Zelda series, it is if each game coherently fits into one single universe. Nintendo always said yes, gamers always said there is no possible way. Nintendo never really gave us many hints, but an accepted working theory was that Ocarina of Time was supposed to be the first in the timeline, and the original NES The Legend of Zelda (and its sequel) was supposed to be the last. Working with this information, and the fact that a few games in the series (Wind Waker and Majora's Mask, to name two) were directly related to other games in the series, gamers came up with the working theory that if you split the Zelda timeline in two, everything fit into place. Now, with the release of a new Zelda art book, Nintendo has released the official timeline for the series, both satiating our thirst for chronological Zelda order, and also really bugging us that Nintendo has regularly said all these years that everything fits into one timeline when this official timeline shows that, what do you know, there are three separate timelines.

The Guy in Charge of Zelda Has Never Finished The Legend of Zelda

by James Plafke Sep 8th

"I’ve never actually finished it.

I almost feel like there’s still no game more difficult than it. Every time I try to play it I end up getting 'Game Over' a few too many times and giving up partway through. Certainly after playing the original Zelda for the first time, I didn’t ever think that I wanted to make a game like that." Eiji Aonuma, current head of The Legend of Zelda franchise, telling Game Informer that he never finished the first game in the series -- a task many of us completed as children in the '80s and early '90s before we even turned ten years of age -- because it was too difficult.

Twelve Years Later, Nintendo Will Fix the Annoying Water Temple in 3DS Zelda

by Robert Quigley Jun 17th

The central tenet of good game design is 'Don't make it tedious,' and on that score, the Water Temple from 1998's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was not a success. Last year, Ocarina director Eiji Aonuma personally apologized to gamers everywhere for the level, which required the player to put on and take off heavy boots a seemingly endless number of times to raise and lower water levels and flip lots of switches. "I am most sorry that it was not easy for you to put on and take off the heavy boots, that all the time you had to visit the inventory. I am very sorry about that. I should have made it much easier to switch to the heavy boots," he said in a 2009 interview. Now, Nintendo is correcting history: During a roundtable at E3, Aonuma said he felt "evil shame" over the design of the Water Temple, and vowed to make it better in the 3DS remake of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.