- writer, Tom Richardson
- roll, BBC Newsbeat
Nintendo has announced that Princess Zelda will star in her own game.
For the past 40 years, it has been the name of one of Japan’s most popular gaming giant series.
But the Legend of Zelda series has cast players in the role of Hylian hero Link.
That’s about to change with Echoes of Wisdom, the new title revealed during the company’s Nintendo Direct preview stream.
During a short trailer, fans saw that Link was swallowed by a supernatural portal, leaving the princess behind.
The game uses the same top-down perspective and cartoon graphics as the 2019 remake of the Game Boy classic Link’s Awakening.
In the trailer, Zelda is seen summoning replicas of items and enemies found in the world to solve puzzles and fight enemies.
Perhaps the biggest reveal of the 40-minute trailer for players was a long-awaited look at the grand finale – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
First announced in 2017, it is the long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed first-person adventure series that debuted on the Nintendo GameCube.
In a sneak peek, fans saw bounty hunter Samus Aran navigate to an alien planet and use her famous formball powers to traverse worlds.
Nintendo CEO Shinya Takahashi, who hosted the event, warned fans that they would “have to wait a bit” for the game’s 2025 release.
And no Nintendo Direct event would be complete without a certain plumber.
The latest opened with footage of Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood – a colorful role-playing game starring the pair.
In addition to numerous third-party titles and updates, there was another look at LEGO Horizon Adventure later in the show.
Sony’s mix of popular classic platformers and futuristic open-world adventures is released under the PlayStation Publishing label.
It follows in the footsteps of Microsoft, which announced earlier this year that it would bring Xbox-exclusive games to rival platforms.
Nintendo had previously made it clear that it would not reveal any details about its successor, the Nintendo Switch, at its recent live presentation.
But Metroid’s reveal in particular has fans wondering if any of the titles they just saw will appear.
Some major Nintendo games appear when a new console is released, such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is available on two consoles.
With a successor to the Switch on the horizon, a fairly quiet 2024 is expected for Nintendo.
However, it is worth noting that the original version has sold more than 130 million copies since its release in 2017.
And while the upcoming Mario and Zelda games may not be major sequels, they’ve shown that the company can always rely on its two most popular series to delight fans.
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