Zelda, At Last

Zelda is finally getting her own game

Echoes of Wisdom hits the Switch on September 26th.

The Verge

Without question, growing up, my favorite game was The Legend of Zelda.¹ From the golden cartridge on down, it was simply a magical game. I liked Mario, but I loved Zelda. And that's exactly how you say such a phrase, the games were known shorthand as "Mario" and "Zelda". That made sense given their actual titles, but where as "Super Mario Bros." featured Mario as the main playable character, "The Legend of Zelda" featured Link as the main playable character. This would lead to some humorous situations over the years where wannabes would talk about how much they loved playing as Zelda when they clearly meant Link.

Well that's finally changing, per Charles Pulliam-Moore:

After years of playing second fiddle to Link in her own franchise, Princess Zelda is finally getting a video game of her own this fall.

During today’s Direct presentation, Nintendo revealed The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the franchise’s first game to follow as Princess Zelda herself embarks on an adventure to save the world from destruction. After Ganon bests Link in battle, Zelda is left to her own devices to battle hordes of monsters that descend upon the game’s take on Hyrule (which seems heavily inspired by 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake).

At first, I thought the game looked perhaps too cartoony and childish for my taste – especially in the face of the Zelda (but really, Link) Switch titles, Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild. But actually, watching the gameplay video (below), this game looks incredible. The "echo" concept is brilliant. Also, who am I kidding? Wind Waker remains one of my favorite Zelda (but really, Link) titles.

While I still think Nintendo has waited far too long to move on from the original Switch – we're well past seven years into its lifespan now, and likely to go past eight years before we get the 'Super Switch' or whatnot – it's impossible to argue with their continued IP dominance. Zelda movie wen?

One more thing: as Riley Testut quips on Threads: "The fact they didn’t call this “The Legend of Link” is a travesty".

¹ Technically my favorite version of "Zelda" is A Link to the Past, the SNES variant.