Nintendo has brought a new surprise for fans – a new Zelda title where players will finally be able to play as the princess from the legendary fantasy series.
Nintendo has racked up more than 140 million Zelda sales since the first title was released in 1986, making it one of the most successful franchises in gaming history and delighting generations of fans across multiple consoles.
The new game, “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,” will be released for the Switch console on September 26, according to a statement from Nintendo.
The games’ many versions generally revolve around the heroic elf Link, who spends most of his adventures trying to save Princess Zelda, who, more often than not, has been kidnapped or has mysteriously disappeared.
But this latest release will be led by a female character.
“This time, Link has disappeared. Now it’s up to Princess Zelda to take on the role of protagonist,” said Eiji Aonuma, producer of the Zelda series, in a video released by Nintendo.
Gameplay footage released by Nintendo shows that “Echoes of Wisdom” is similar in style and substance to 2019’s “Link’s Awakening,” the top-down puzzle-platformer that boasted a cute cartoon design and was, in turn, a reboot of the 1993 Game Boy classic.
Zelda teams up with Tri, a mysterious fairy, and together they use magical powers to create echoes, which Nintendo describes as “imitations of things found in the environment.”
“Recreate these echoes whenever you want to solve puzzles and defeat enemies,” Nintendo said in its announcement.
“Use echoes from water blocks to reach new heights, make bridges with old beds, throw rocks at enemies – or find your own creative combination of echoes to do things your way,” the company said.
The Zelda franchise has long been praised for its engaging puzzle solutions and innovative gameplay that encourages players to freely explore and solve problems in different ways.
The open-world gameplay style has become a major feature of more recent titles, with 2017’s “Breath of the Wild” becoming one of Nintendo’s most successful and critically acclaimed titles.
That game’s sequel, last year’s “Tears of the Kingdom,” sold 10 million copies in just three days.
The release of a new Zelda game is the second surprise announcement Nintendo has made in recent weeks.
In early May, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said the company plans to release a sequel to its popular Switch console by March 2025.
The announcement was welcome news for fans who have been looking forward to the prospect of a possible successor to the 7-year-old Switch for years.
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