Nintendo said a few years ago that they wanted to produce and release one Zelda game year from that point onward, since then we have had The Legend Of Zelda Links Awakening, Cadence of Hyrule and Age of Calamity to name a few. We were supposed to get Tears of the Kingdom in 2022 before it was delayed until Spring of 2023, creating a year where we do not receive any Zelda games. There have been big rumours however that we will instead get a duel pack of the HD remasters of Twilight Princess and the Wind Waker… And honestly I’m well up for it.
There is the possibility of Nintendo releasing the HD duel pack as Gamecube games with Nintendo Switch Online but I find it unlikely that Gamecube games will ever come to NSO especially as I feel that the switch is surely coming to the end of it life cycle now. We could get a Gameboy pack that features Zelda heavily in the line-up with the 3 Original Nintendo and Gameboy Colour games, then another pack for the Gameboy advance games including four swords with which Nintendo could easily say “welp there’s your Zelda for the year” and again i’d be up for this… but then I remember how the remake of links awakening was released and this got me thinking.
Ok bear with me and think back a second to February 2019…out of nowhere the Links Awakening remake was announced and it was at this exact point that I needed a switch in my life, and whilst it wasn’t until September the game was released and yes I understand that was 7 months from announcement to actual release, other games have had less time between announcement and release since then with Nintendo seemingly opting for very short lead times between announcement and release – much in the way that Netflix do things. Links Awakening still felt like it was shown off and dropped in such a quick amount of time, the trailer came out blew my mind and had me so friggin happy to see my favourite Zelda game come to modern consoles with updated controls and a cute as fuck aesthetic that when I got it for Christmas that year I played it to completion twice over the course of a few days.
Which brings me neatly back to 2022. Nintendo recently had a direct that was farming RPGs galore and the announcement of goldeneye on Nintendo Switch Online…and a Fist Of The North Star boxing game that, while I definitely need to play I am still mortified wasn’t in the style of the Yakuza-like FOTNS Lost Paradise on Switch instead. We also got the title for Breath of The Wild 2 (Tears of The Kingdom) but absolutely nothing about Zelda games for 2022. This is why I believe we are getting remakes of Oracle of ages and Seasons in the Links Awakening style and furthermore I think it will be announced by the end of October with a Seasons trailer starting with orange leaves to match the autumnal feel of the years spookiest month. These two game are fantastic, the sales of Links Awakening where excellent and it just makes sense for these games to come out this year over Twilight Princess and Wind Waker as they are games that have had like zero love in recent years from Nintendo and it would be technically be a “new” Zelda for this year instead of a re-release of two IP’s we have had a few times now plus it would be wonderful to have these two games in one package as you can probably imagine they where originally intended (they where released on the same day as two separate cartridges Pokémon style (but you know: better) as they where two different games).
With the Nintendo’s recent lacklustre Direct I firmly believe Nintendo still has a couple of surprises for us between now and Christmas and these two games would be a pleasant surprise for all Nintendo fans and Zelda fans alike…also these titles would potentially be as much of a system seller for people who have not bought a Switch as Link’s Awakening was for me and I know my partner would love to play these games again.
Anyway I’ve ranted a fair chunk here, so have a great day and don’t forget to be nice to each other.
Written by Stuart.
Edited by Luke.