Nintendo's Next Zelda Game Lets You Play As Zelda [Update]
Today's Nintendo Direct takeaway: Nintendo Switch may be aging, but it's not going quietly.
Nintendo is finally doing it. After nearly 40 years of Zelda adventures, the Japanese game-maker announced today that the next release in the popular series will feature the titular Princess Zelda in the lead, playable role.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch, Sept 26), revealed during a Nintendo Direct showcase, is a largely top-down adventure, with some side-scrolling mixed in—a throwback to the earliest Zelda games.
Zelda’s main move in the game appears to be the ability to copy objects and enemies she’s encountered in the world, to then replicate them elsewhere.
But the main novelty of the game’s debut trailer was simple: Link is gone, and it is Princess Zelda, at long last, who will adventure through Hyrule and save the day.
While Zelda has been playable in spin-off games such as Hyrule Warriors, this is the first mainline game she’ll star in. It’ll arrive in the same year as March’s Princess Peach Showtime—the first game to star another iconic Nintendo heroine, Princess Peach, in 19 years. (When does Mother Brain get her game?)
Nintendo typically has some big releases for the final portion of the calendar year, but the company could be forgiven for having a light late 2024, given the creaking age of the Switch. The system launched in early 2017, and even Nintendo has acknowledged a successor console will be revealed (if not released) by the end of March 2025.
Well, Nintendo is not taking it easy.
The company announced three major releases for the holiday season today and showed two notable Switch games for 2025:
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