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| How will the Wii U change the Legend of Zelda? Hopefully, not at all. |
Last year, the Wii U launched with lots of fanfare and only ONE game from Nintendo's Brand Name franchises (Super Mario Bros U). Now Nintendo is about to launch a revamped Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (one of the series most underrated games behind Majora's Mask) in early October, but there's a conundrum that faces Nintendo. How do they revert back to simple controls after the advanced controls of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword? Before you think it's not a big deal, Nintendo has done this before with a Brand Franchise to mixed results when they revamped Metroid: The Other M.
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| Despite it's cartoony look, The Wind Waker was one of Zelda's darkest game. |
Before Wii U's launch, the Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword impressed many as the final big name game for the Wii. Nintendo combined their Wii Motion Plus into the game and featured a much more "motion anticipating" combat style. IGN rated Skyward Sword as a PERFECT TEN and a Masterpiece. In the review, it said, "This will change the way Zelda games are played." That's pretty high praise for the game franchise that changed adventure games forever time-and-time again. You thought this franchise could struggle moving from console to console, but Nintendo has kept Zelda fresh and consistently upgraded their style and controls. From the jump to 3D with Ocarina of Time to motion controls in Skyward. (Note: Twilight Princess' motion controls were not as thorough as Skyward's refinement.) Nintendo tried to remake the franchise's look in The Wind Waker, but fans were outraged with the cartoony look... that is until they played the game. The Wind Waker was one of Zelda's tougher and darker games in the franchise. Now Wii U is set to release the updated HD version, but one can look at it as a retro game and simply not a new addition. However, what is the future of Zelda on the Wii U with the touchpad controller? They don't have the controls that Skyward or Twilight Princess used. Unfortunately, I don't have the answer either.
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| Metroid: The Other M was a sharp departure from the nearly perfect games Nintendo released for the last decade. |
If you remember Nintendo switched around Metroid's style and controls TWICE. Metroid Prime switched from a third person adventure to a first person shooter. Some gamers were skeptical since Samus Aran would switch into a ball, but then the skeptics were proven wrong. Metroid Prime put you under Samus' helmet and gave you the control of the universe's most feared bounty hunter. When Metroid Prime graduated to the Wii, Nintendo used their motion controls perfectly to give the gamer Samus' arms as well as her eyes. The right arm (the Wii Remote) was the arm cannon and the left was the free hand. Gamers weren't just sitting on the couch. They were engaged. Then Metroid: The Other M was released. While Other M decided to try and flesh out Samus as a character (whereas most Nintendo characters are mute) reverted back to a third person formula and entered first person mode as a pivot point with nothing more. Scanning objects was nearly jettisoned from the game completely as Samus would enter cinematic cut scenes to give exposition. The game was rated 8.5 as opposed to the 9.5s of it's three predecessors, but if you click on this video, you'd think it's a 0. After playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption lately, I'd have to agree these games are CLEARLY superior to the franchise's latest installment. However, Nintendo listens to it's consumers and changed Zelda back to it's more realistic look. Will Nintendo switch Metroid back to a first person shooter?
The point is that controls make the game just as much as story does. I understand that you can plug in the Prime series at any time and play them. Same is true for Zelda, where you can download any game or simply play them on the Wii U- which is still backwards compatible. The thoughts expressed here is on the future of these franchises and what to do besides changing things up for the sake of just changing things up. Metroid Prime was a complete reconstruction of a dormant franchise. Zelda is not. Hopefully Wind Waker is a retro game, not a sign of things to come for arguably the most popular console franchise today.
