Well… how else do you expect me to post this?

It seems that, after years of hoping that a glimpse of a new Zelda title at E3, we know for sure that it will turn up this year (and E3’s not for months yet)!

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told his investors in a financial briefing that “We will show the new Zelda title for Wii at E3 this year.” And that sounds pretty definite to me.

Sure, we pretty much knew this already – and even if it wasn’t going to turn up, I think the whole Zelda community would be brandishing pitchforks outside of Nintendo HQ – but now that the shareholders will potentially be part of that mob, I would bet Nintendo are pretty certain that it will turn up. So look forward to a nice Zelda trailer come June. Whether we see the finished product this year remains to be seen.

Iwata to “show” Wii Zelda at E3 News | Wii | Eurogamer

It appears that Iwata is a very confused individual when it comes to Zelda, as once again he is “Asking”. In Mr Boss of Nintendo’s online series, “Iwata Asks”, he has once again given us a very in-depth Zelda interview to chew on.

This time, it’s all about the history of the handheld games, from Link’s Awakening right up to Spirit Tracks. Iwata is grilling Eiji Aonuma, Toshihiko Nagako and Takashi Tezuka, all who have had their hand in the creation of the portable Zelda games at some stage or another. It’s well worth a read, as it has lots of nuggets of information about the games’ development, unseen design sketches for various elements of the earlier Zelda games, and videos of Link’s Awakening that take me right back to my childhood.

Also, Iwata arrives fashionably late. Stylish.

Read it here.

It seems Viz Media won’t be depriving the Zelda fans of manga for too much longer. While they earlier listed their Phantom Hourglass manga as not coming out for a very long time, they have a surpise under their sleeves. They recently listed the next volume in the series, an adaptation of A Link to the Past, which was written to promote the release of GBA port, as coming out on February 2. Which is in a week’s time!

Older Zelda fans should keep in mind that this isn’t the colour, made-for-the-US manga by Shotaro Ishinomori that was serialized in Nintendo Power way back when. So if you’re hoping from a nostalgic read, you’ll be disappointed. However, this version should be a fresh adaptation of the game, so I would give it a chance. This is the oldest game that Akira Himekawa have adapted (despite being one of their more recent works), so fans of the older games may want to check it out.

UPDATE: It appears I got confused and claimed the Minish Cap manga was not coming out for months, when it’s been out since December. I should have said Phantom Hourglass. Many apologies. It’s been a long week. And also, thanks to The Ocarina for alerting me to this.

Here’s one for all you Brits. I was tempted into buying the latest issue of the Official Nintendo Magazine UK, as despite being a generally overly generous magazine (especially for Nintendo properties…) its free poster set, with Spirit Tracks, Sonic, Professor Layton and many more, and the SEGA sticker set with a Ryo Hazuki avec motorbike was too much to ignore.

Upon opening it when I got home, dreading that the posters I wanted would be on opposite sides, I was meeted with a very pleasant surprise. One, the posters I wanted weren’t on opposite sides. Two, the Spirit Tracks poster was full-size!

Yes, while the majority of posters were a regular freebie-size, A3, the Spirit Tracks poster (featuring the pretty European cover art, with a New Super Mario Bros Wii poster on the reverse), was A2! That’s eight A4 pages, for those who don’t know their paper converion ratios. Granted, there are folds on it, as they had to package it with an A4 magazine, and for some reason the Spirit Tracks logo is quite pixellated, but that aside, it’s bound to look good on any wall!

Official Nintendo Magazine have been known for their great free gifts (often Zelda-themed), but this is one that I felt the Zelda fans should know about. It beats last month’s magnetic Spirit Tracks-themed photo frame, for sure!

I’m still in the middle of exams here in Scotland (I have one in less than three hours), but I have just enough time to share with you this amusing Zelda comic! It asks the deep question – what if there was no save and continue after the Game Over screen? Well, not really, but it’s amusing.

It seems to have been made by a Portugese dude, but thankfully for us, there are no words!

“Distúrbio de Déficit de Atenção” (“Attention Deficit Disorder”) – Tiny Cartridge

As I am currently in the middle of a ton of exams, I have allocated newswriting for the next week to my trusty staff-member companions. The following is from The Ocarina. I have been warned I am not allowed to edit it in any way, shape or form (title included). And who am I to refuse a free news article? So, without further ado…

From the gullets of the Nintendo of America president himself, Reggie Fils-Aime has announced that Iwata and company are more than spouting off a few words about making a great next Zelda console game. Rather, it seems that Nintendo is hell-bent on making the perfect Zelda game. The next installment to the series, tentatively titled “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Breaker”, features what appears to be a mysterious blue character and a sword-less Link, a reoccurring element of the game that originates in the first Legend of Zelda before Link finds the old man in the cave.

Following the announcement, Zelda fans presumably got a little annoyed before reading the next article on Kotaku. In response to the mass reaction, Reggie is misquoted as saying “Cool your jets. We just gave you a good holiday haul, and even a feature-packed Zelda for the Nintendo DS. Just let us finish the game to the best of our abilities, or Miyamoto has threatened to introduce another Triforce-hunting filler. Please don’t pressure us into that again.”

The game is slated for a 2010 release.

Credit: Kotaku

While last we heard, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime was giving us the old “No comment” about the release date of the upcoming Zelda game on the Wii, Nintendo of EVERYTHING president Satoru Iwata thinks otherwise. In an interview with Japanese newspaper Asashi Shimbun (which Kotaku have kindly translated), Iwata claims that the game will be out by the end of the year. No words on what territories he’s referring to, but Zelda games generally launch at roughly the same time worldwide.

In the interview, he also mentions very vague details about what the next DS will do and when it will be released – guess he can’t give everything away!

So, with luck, you’ll all be playing the next big-budget Zelda title this winter. And I don’t think anyone will complain with that!

You can read Kotaku’s article here, if you’re interested.

Those of you who were itching to watch the unofficial Zelda movie that I mentioned in the post below, you’re too late! The movie has been taken down, by request of Nintendo. It seems they weren’t happy with the use of their property, and gave the filmmakers until the new year to remove the film. I’m sure you have better things to spend two hours doing, anyway!

Fanmade tributes are often very bad – you don’t need to look far to see some horrible Zelda fanfiction. But occasionally, fans can hit the mark pretty well. Staff member The Ocarina linked me to the two following pieces of fanmade Zelda works which may or may not fall into that category – you decide!

The first of which is for the music lovers. Zelda Reorchestrated, a fan project dedicated to reworking classic Zelda tracks into convincing faux-orchestrated versions, have finished reworking the entire Ocarina of Time soundtrack. It’s a shame that due to budget, space and quality issues, many older games with great music sound synthesised, something this project aims to counteract. The finished work isn’t actually recorded by a real orchestra, but it sure is convincing! Check it out at their homepage.

The second of which may be more controversial. The fan-made Zelda movie, The Hero of Time, has finally been released online. Many fans have mixed feelings about a Zelda movie, especially after IGN’s April Fools joke a number of years ago. However, I am being completely unbiased about the matter. This one might be good! I haven’t watched it yet, so let us know what you think of it!

Thus ends our community round-up. If you see anything fan-made that you think is pretty interesting, be sure to post it in the comments or in our forums – we’re open to all tips! Now back to Spirit Tracks.