Rightfully earning the last laugh at E3 2016, Nintendo’s Zelda show wound up winning the day.
Let’s start this off by eating some crow. I didn’t track down any exact quotes of mine, but back in April when Nintendo confirmed that the new Zelda would be the only game playable at E3 2016, I likely guffawed. I might have said something like “well, they sure as hell gave up this year.” It seemed like yet another arrow to the heart of E3 following EA’s split, Disney’s demise, and Activision’s lack of booth.
Now, in the glimmering afterglow of E3 2016, Nintendo’s top brass can confidently march out of Los Angeles with head held high: they brought a single game to the biggest show in town and that game freaking slayed. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might not bring home every single “Game of Show” award, but it will assuredly go down as one of the defining games of this E3. From the expansive open-world sandbox demo to the Disneyland-esque booth design, Breath of the Wild left an indelible mark on the event and anyone who paid attention to it.
A multitude of reasons back up the effectiveness of its debut and presentation, but a few specific notes about the game stick out to me.
Bold New Ideas
A while back, Producer Eiju Aonuma made comments about how the new Zelda would change up the staid formula every 3D Zelda had used for close to 20 years. Dude didn’t bury the lede; he changed up the formula in a big bad way. It’s to the point where you look at Breath of the Wild, and truly it is not like Zelda games that came before it. Now we might dive into the final game and notice more similarities to the formula than first met the eye, but for what we saw at E3 2016, this is a whole new (open) world with overt influences from series outside of Nintendo’s purview.
Sold the NX Better Than Microsoft Sold the Scorpio
We still don’t know what the hell the NX is, but we know that Breath of the Wild will be on it, so instantly, the NX has a major selling point. The impressiveness of the new Zelda on top of the confirmation that it will be the same experience on both Wii U and NX showed off the NX in a brilliant (though still mysterious) light. Judging by the absurd rush to play Zelda every day at E3, this game might be a better marketing tool for NX than an actual console reveal. Maybe just maybe holding back the NX reveal was a good idea.
Spoiler-Free Sense of Mystery
Outside of Link being asleep for 100 years and Ganon being the villain, little was confirmed about Breath of the Wild’s story and setup. That means that whatever scraps were peppered through the demo stood out more. The only official word on the story comes from Aonuma, who just pointed to his shirt when asked, which bore the Shiekah eye symbol - first seen in Ocarina of Time. Maybe Breath of the Wild is 100 years after Ocarina of Time? Maybe it’s after Wind Waker? Twilight Princess? Skyward Sword? Four Swords Adventures? Wand of Gamelon? Who knows, but man, is it fun to think of what the details are of this world, what the unseen towns holds, who that old man is, why Koroks are there, why the Temple of Time looks like its ripped out of Ocarina of Time, why Twilight Princess’ Bridge of Eldin seems to be there, what that floating thing in the distance is, what castle is that, who is that mystery voice (Zelda?), why is Link wearing blue, what does a main dungeon look like, what is the meaning of life, where is my car, what year is it?
Shield Snowboarding
How freaking rad is it that you can take your shield off your back and then ride it down a mountain? Like seriously - how awesome. SSX somehow got tossed into a Zelda game. Throw “It’s Tricky” onto the soundtrack and some dope ramps and Breath of the Wild could be the best extreme sports game in recent memory.
