Wind Waker HD shares team with new Wii U Zelda game

Lessons learned from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD's development are feeding directly into the new Zelda for Wii U. Series producer Eiji Aonuma told Wired about how Nintendo's new system is influencing both games.

"[I]t’s a shared team working on both of those projects, Wind Waker HD and the new Zelda for Wii U," Aonuma said. "Every day, they’re learning something new. As we develop the controls for Wind Waker, they’re learning how to apply those controls in the Wii U version. There’s a feedback process where when something’s discovered in development for Wind Waker, all that information is fed to the Wii U team."

One tough Wii U design decision is how to integrate the GamePad: make using it together with the TV screen essential, or leave the GamePad's screen mostly untouched to make for easier off-screen play?

Aonuma said he will try to accommodate both preferences.

"You’ve got one group that really likes the possibilities that using two screens affords, and then there’s the other half of the group that just likes the simplicity of one screen, they don’t want to bother with two screens. I’m the same way, I’m very fickle. I totally understand where they’re coming from. As a developer, I need to listen to these things and I need to, maybe, make it possible to do either one, do whatever your preference is. "

While Wind Waker HD is by and large a graphical upgrade, players can expect a few gameplay changes, too. Aside from new MiiVerse-enabled Tingle message bottles and GamePad controls, Wind Waker's treasure-hunting third act will get a tune up.

"You had traveled this long distance, invested this time, you got somewhere and the experience was very shallow. The reason for that is that tuning was not complete, it’s not that there was a missing dungeon or something was removed. What we’re doing with this version of Wind Waker is, we’re making those adjustments so that the payoff is there. The payoff seems to match your investment."

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'We could have done more with Zelda II,' Miyamoto says

Shigeru Miyamoto has been making games at Nintendo for more than 30 years. In that time, he has directly overseen dozens of titles, from the landmark Super Mario Bros. to his latest pet project, Pikmin 3. But all those projects don't come without some missed opportunities.

"I wouldn't say that I've ever made a bad game, per se, but a game I think we could have done more with was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link," he told Kotaku.

The sidescrolling/RPG hybrid is a black sheep among the beloved Zelda series. Miyamoto says it never quite took on that vital life of its own.

"When we're designing games, we have our plan for what we're going to design but in our process it evolves and grows from there," Miyamoto said. "In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, unfortunately all we ended up creating was what we had originally planned on paper."

He said hardware limitations were partly to blame: for example, a grating several-second pause when the game transitioned from the overworld to side scrolling segments nixed opportunities to blend the two.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is available on 3DS eShop if you want to see for yourself.

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3DS Legend of Zelda trailer finally gives us a title

The new trailer for Nintendo's 3DS Zelda shows plenty of new and familiar features while finally being kind enough to give us an official name. Titled The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, the combination of classic 2D gameplay and the new wall-hugging ability can be seen in all of its glory below.

Also worth note is the official logo seen on the title screen. A triforce above an inverted, shadowy version of the series icon, the chances of a shadow world within the game have never been stronger. Between this, the gameplay and the new title, the upcoming release is wearing its ties to A Link to the Past on its sleeve.

There was plenty of other Nintendo announced today, so be sure to check out our coverage of the biggest games.

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