Monday, May 15, 2017

Zelda Smartphone Game?

According to Wallstreet Journal there is a The Legend of Zelda title in development for smartphones. This doesn't surprise me all that much, in fact I'm currently preparing my E3 2017 speculations and this has been on my bullet list. Well, a new top down Zelda game to be accurate, either for smart devices or Nintendo 3DS.

I'm also expecting a "Nintendo Phone" to be announced at E3, where Nintendo might develop something in cooperation with Apple. I'm personally not a Smartphone gamer and I'm not even using one at the moment, but a Smartphone specifically designed for the Nintendo fan would certainly catch my interest.

Anyway, after Breath of the Wild there will be a clear split in the series. Modern Open World Breath of the Wild style 3D Zelda games and classic top down Zelda games, primarily developed for handheld devices. I would have preferred another follow-up to A Link Between Worlds, because the game was just beautiful and after all Nintendo is still strongly supporting the Nintendo 3DS, where soon they will release the New Nintendo 2DS XL. Tri Force Heroes was released end of 2015, which means that this year there could come another title from the handheld Zelda team following the typical two year development cycle. But instead of making a third game for the Nintendo 3DS, they probably focused on a smartphone game.

Of course a Zelda game developed for touch devices would follow the control style of Phantom Hourglass:


So, you touch to move in the direction of your finger and you touch the item icon to use items. A "Nintendo Phone" might offer some additional input like a D-Pad, but the game has to be playable with touch only to support all the phones out there. But it's possible, Phantom Hourglass has done this before and it worked quite well for the most part.

I wouldn't even be opposed to the idea. I started with Link's Awakening on the GameBoy, so handheld top down Zelda will always have a special place in my heart and I would love to see it going in the future, even if it means going mobile like that. And while I spent about 60 minutes in a tram each work day, I'm not playing my Nintendo 3DS there, because it's too valuable. I can see myself playing a new Zelda game on a smartphone, though.

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