Shigeru Miyamoto is not to be trusted. The iconic video game designer behind the Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong series (as well as many other Nintendo classics) is prone to flights of fancy and thinking out loud. It was in 2008 that he first teased that Nintendo was working on a third Pikmin game and it didn’t materialize for years after that. He casually mentioned in interviews in the late 1990s that there would be a Super Mario 64 2, only confirming years later that the game never got off the ground.
So when Mr. Miyamoto said in 2012 that he was considering making a sequel to the essential Super Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, smart fans knew not to put too much stock into it. He wasn’t kidding, though. Nintendo is making a sequel to that game, and it will be out on the Nintendo 3DS later this year.
During a Nintendo Direct video presentation on Wednesday, Nintendo announced a new The Legend of Zelda for Nintendo 3DS. While the game’s title isn’t settled in the United States just yet, in Japan it’s called The Legend of Zelda: Kamigami no Triforce 2, an explicit numerical sequel to A Link to the Past and the first numerical sequel in the series since 1987’s The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.
Like the 1991 original, the new 3DS game presents a top down view of Link’s world as he explores Hyrule and the dungeons that dot the land. One tweak to the formula, however, is that link can become a drawing and enter the walls of dungeons. The game shifts to a close up view, altering the player’s perspective and revealing routes that aren’t visible from above. It’s the sort of perspective manipulation Nintendo experimented with in Super Mario 3D Land, but on a much larger scale.
The question now is: Who is making A Link to the Past 2? Nintendo has hired outside developers to make many of its 3DS games. Retro Studios in Texas helped make Mario Kart 7 while Next Level Games built the newly released Luigi’s Mansion 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D was actually developed by the independent studio Grezzo. New Zelda titles on the Nintendo DS though, have been developed by Nintendo EAD 3, the studio managed by Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Tezuka’s involvement would certainly guarantee A Link to the Past 2’s heritage, as he was the man behind A Link to the Past’s first follow up, the 1993 Game Boy title The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
We’ve contacted Nintendo to find out who is making the game but have yet to hear back.
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