The first part of the Iwata Asks Twilight Princess interview has been posted by Nintendo on the official Wii site, which you can read here. In it, he speaks with young developers working on the project about what it means for a game to be a “Zelda” title. Nothing new as of yet, but an interesting read all the same.

Kirbutashi from the NeoGAF forums has posted this new piece of artwork from the latest issue of GamePro:

Here’s hoping for a hi-res public release soon.

Journos in Australia and Japan have seen a brand new Twilight Princess trailer, if reports are to be believed. American journalists have been invited to spend two days with the game this week, so there’s a strong chance that they’ll get to see it, too. Keep your ear to the ground (preferably this ground) all week, and hopefully we’ll have some exciting new stuff.

Update: According to Chandra from Official Nintendo Magazine, the new trailer (and the revelations it contains) are embargoed until the American release so the story isn’t ruined for people. It’s nice they give American gamers that benefit, unfortunately Japanese, European and Australian gamers aren’t given the same “privilege”…

Just as Link finds Rupees within rocks, I too have found two great new affiliates hidden in the darkest, deadest corners of the internet. Well okay, they were pretty bright, alive, and more in the “open centre” than the corners, but they still deserve a looksie.

The first site is the much improved Zelda Dimension. Still growing, they are founded on a core of unique features like their interactive Great Sea Map, and their Cameos section which highlights cameos by other Nintendo characters in Zelda games. The second site is new big boy Zelda World, a site that has also gone from strength to strength this past year. They have a neat image gallery with some exclusive artwork (check out this beauty), and a fan-submitted library for fiction, poetry and articles. Please, check them both out!

They’re tiny! Better than nothing, the first shows off an on-foot battle on the ever-gorgeous Hyrule Field, while the second shows off a horse-back battle. Normally, we’d be scouring these videos for tiny clues, but all I spotted was Hyrule Castle surrounded by twilight, and a mysterious ‘2′ icon with an arrow pointing to the right, both in the first video.

For once.

I know there are a lot of Matt-haters out there, and I understand that’s an inevitability because of his connection with Nintendo fans. Please cast away your doubts and listen. In his latest blog post, Matt reveals that he (and, presumably, a bunch of other journos) have been invited to NoA to spend 48 hours with Twilight Princess, and that we should have hands-on impressions of the final build in a little over a week. He ends with the words, “November belongs to Zelda,” comforting for the die-hards, but perhaps a bit scary, too.

If you wish to avoid megatonian spoilers, I suggest you stay off the internet for a few weeks. Lord knows I’m going to!

Link’s Awakening - Maps

Evil Sponge has created these fantastic maps for Link’s Awakening. He thought they were too big but they’re pretty perfect, so check them out if you’re playing the game. 

Following the success of their Oni Link statue, First 4 Figures have announced the next statue in their Zelda line, Skull Kid. It will be priced at around £60, or $99 in moon currency, making it quite pricey. Personally, I can’t justify buying one, but if you have a disposable income and you’re a huge Zelda nut, this would be a very cool purchase.

You can read the full press release, and see more pictures of the statue, at their website.

Oracle of Seasons - Items

Hey ho Bassanio! What’s this? An updated Items page for Oracle of Seasons, with new colour images from the Japanese manual, all cleaned up to make them look brand-spanking new? I believe it is! What can we call such a bizzare update in the middle of a Zelda news drought?

It’ll have to be a “rainy day” update, because we’re in the awkward position of having a rainy, well, month or two, really. Unlike some Zelda sites, we don’t strive to be GoNintendo by re(re)porting general Nintendo news, and that often leaves us in the sticky situation of having nothing to report until the brain-splattering, Earth-shattering arrival of Twilight Princess. But, as I’ve said once too-often, this Christmas is going to be a very Zeldary one, not just because of our avalanche Twilight Princess coverage but we should have more, seemingly random, updates like these for the fans of the older games. Diddly-doe Antonio, hurrah, hurrah!

Any visitors to Wikipedia today will be greeted by Majora’s Mask as the site’s featured article. I’m not quite sure how articles are chosen to go on the front page, but it’s a pretty hefty (if slightly messy) document, and a good entry for people who have never played the game.