Summary
- The Legend of Zelda series has found success with open-world games like Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom.
- Fans are eager for classic dungeon-oriented Zelda games to make a comeback alongside newer open-world titles.
- Rumors suggest remasters like Wind Waker & Twilight Princess could soon join the Nintendo Switch lineup, appealing to nostalgia.
The Legend of Zelda is in between projects right now, but still riding out the success it's enjoyed throughout the Nintendo Switch’s life. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom took a bold approach in reimagining the series’ classic adventure formula, turning The Legend of Zelda’s once-linear quests into an open-world journey driven by player creativity. Needless to say, this paid off, and both games became some of Zelda's best-selling titles and examples of model open world design. It may take some time for the next major Zelda installment to come out, but fans have plenty of dynamic journeys to occupy themselves with in the meantime.
Still, there is a place for the old style of more contained and dungeon-oriented Zelda games. Veteran players have maintained that they would like the classic Zelda formula to be revisited at some point, even as Zelda's developers assert that the open world will remain the series’ focus for the time being. It's likely just a matter of time until a new Legend of Zelda taps into nostalgia for its top-down or early 3D days, but Nintendo also has the opportunity to couple such callbacks with a full-on classic revival if it plays its cards right.
Retro Legend of Zelda Remasters Would Be A Welcome Sight
While several 2D Legend of Zelda games are available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service, fans have been expecting the system to get more classic Zelda than that for quite some time. Hot on the heels of the Skyward Sword HD release, rumors sprang up suggesting that the Wii U remasters of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess would also receive Switch ports. They both became common predictions for Nintendo Directs covering otherwise dry-looking seasons, and discussions about them have persisted long enough to keep up with increasingly credible rumors like those concerning the Nintendo Switch 2.
Remasters, Remakes, and Re-Releases Could Be In Zelda’s Future
At this point, there's no telling whether The Wind Waker HD or Twilight Princess HD are actually coming out. If they are still happening, then 2024 is the ideal time for minor Zelda releases given Nintendo's dwindling release schedule, and Tears of the Kingdom’s 2023 launch being too recent for the next big game to be ready. There’s also the possibility that the Nintendo 3DS’s Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask remakes could also get console remasters at some point, potentially turning the Nintendo Switch ecosystem into the prime place to play almost every Zelda game.
The Next Legend of Zelda Could Be A Throwback Game
Giving players the chance to relive Zelda's history would already be great, but could be even better beside a complementary new game. Just because mainline Zelda titles are expected to follow in BotW and TotK’s footsteps doesn't mean a classic dungeon-crawler is out of the question. Whether that implies another open-world Zelda game with more legacy DNA than its predecessors, or a smaller spin-off that plays similarly to A Link Between Worlds or the 2019 Link’s Awakening, fans are due another old school offering after a whole console generation spent on innovation.
Real and Reminiscent Retro Zelda's Would Make Great Counterparts
Both new and old Zelda games could coexist with adjacent releases, and seeing them side-by-side would make it clear just how far the franchise has come. Regardless of the retro point of comparison being Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, or anything in-between, and whether the new title revisits top-down gameplay, the result should illustrate how modern Nintendo interprets the Zelda series’ tenets. At the end of the day, though, just one of these games launching on the Switch or Switch 2 would make a lot of The Legend of Zelda fans happy, and that's reason enough to keep hoping they'll arrive.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Released
- May 12, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Action, Open-World
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- Metascore
- 96
