Email: Aonuma still intent on ruining Zelda

Greetings Malstrom.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Zelda; just something I never got into growing up. But I did find the trailer for the new LttP to be rather exciting. However I think a dark shadow looms over this game. Coming from Aonuma in a Japanese Nintendo direct video:

“The world of Hyrule has been reborn in a highly realistic stereoscopic vision, which will feature a new story and new puzzles to be solved.”

Source: http://www.siliconera.com/2013/04/24/the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-to-the-past-2-has-been-in-the-works-since-2011/

According to Aonuma, what we should be anticipating is stereoscopic graphics, puzzles and story. No mention of gameplay, skill or new content. Well just dandy.

Anyway you’ve probably said about all you have to say on Zelda, so I will digress with something else I’ve wanted to recommend. Have you heard of the game Kerbal Space Program? It’s an in-development rocket flight simulator. You build your own rocket, then launch it and can undertake various missions. While it is a sandbox type game right now, it is very strictly tied to how you make your rocket (weight, amount of fuel, etc) and how well you can control it. Very tough learning curve, but if you can figure it out you can get into orbit, and even visit the moon and other planets. Like Minecraft, I got into it by watching YouTube videos from people like kurtjmac and Scott Manley. Not sure if it’s your cup of tea but I thought I’d give it a push.

Thanks for all your insight as always.

Well, that is depressing to hear. Nintendo only has one opportunity to reboot Zelda. Should they fail, the franchise will become lost. As a series, Zelda is in big, big trouble. The amount of money it costs to make is not bringing in the results it should (hardware sales, software sales, etc).

From where I’m sitting, I cannot possibly believe they cannot see what we would want in a New Legend of Zelda. People ask me, “Why do you keep repeating yourself?” It is because when Nintendo keeps doing the wrong thing, I keep repeating what I believe is correct. Through sheer force of repetition, I hope it communicates over. There is no way they cannot have gotten the message.

They just can’t possibly believe in it. If NSMB DS wasn’t originally a Super Mario Land sequel started for the GBA, Nintendo would have contextualized NSMB as ‘3d Mario gameplay but in 2d’ with collecting crappy-ass stars multiple times in a stage. But NSMB DS went on to sell a gazillion copies that not even Nintendo could deny (and they did try to deny it as both Iwata and Miyamoto public statements reveal).

What is wrong with these ‘game gods’ when it comes to understanding the appeal of the games that made them ‘gods’? How in the world can Sakamoto possibly think the appeal of Super Metroid was about maternal instincts or the gamer ‘wanting to know more about Samus’? I suspect these guys just imagine a game they want to make, and they try to jam the Nintendo IP into it. They use hamster logic to justify the IP fitting this ‘new type of game’. So someone like Aonuma thinks New Legend of Zelda is a definition when he, himself, hated Legend of Zelda (which Aonuma has stated publicly). How would someone like Aonuma know what makes Zelda good? He doesn’t. Yet, he keeps being the spokesman for Zelda even classic Zelda. It is beyond baffling.

I’m still waiting for some interviewer or investor to confront Nintendo on this subject. (The subject being trying to redefine the classics in order to justify their ‘creativity experiments’.)