With a lot of people excited for the prospect of the (unconfirmed) use of WiiMotionPlus in the confirmed-but-technically-unannounced upcoming Zelda Wii title, tongues are wagging about the changes that could be made to the Zelda formula. Aside from one - which belongs to Shigeru Miyamoto. In the most recent issue of Nintendo Power, he stated “I don’t think it’s going to be that radically different”.

So there we go. It’ll be Zelda as we know it, with a few tweaks. Much like every other Zelda title since Ocarina of Time. Well, can’t complain with that!

We at Zelda Elements have seen a lot of LoZ cosplay in our days. Any character from Link, Zelda, to Sheik. But this is quite a new addition. Many dog owners like to dress up their pets, but I haven’t ever seen a dog in cosplay. I’m not entirely sure what I think about it, but it’s interesting in any case. Take a look for yourself.

Canine Cosplay

Those wishing to continue pretending there is not going to be another Tingle game, stop reading now.

A Japanese teaser website for the new Tingle game went live today. It seems to have a Wario Ware vibe, and you can do, well, not very much. You can sign up for… something, get your fortune told, or… something, or be told to come back on the 18th for what I can only assume is a video. It would be much easier if I could read Japanese. Interestingly, note the website’s icon at the top of your browser - Mario! How strange.

Well, I guess we know nothing more about the game as a result of this post. But give it a week, and there should be a video to horrify us!

Nintendo of Japan

My, oh my. It appears that everyone’s favourite… “orientation-ambiguous”, moustached fairy is set to appear in another game.

I’ll let you take that in for a moment. Ready? Okay. It seems that in popular Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, a teaser ad appeared featuring Tingle, a bright pink background, and Japanese text that simply reads “Fairy?” Good to see they’re toning down the camp. Tingle’s on his way back, and he’s as flamboyant as ever. No word on console - though a DS release, as with the previous titles, seems likely, don’t rule out the possibility of it being a WiiWare or DSiWare title.

Tingle’s last proper mouthful of an adventure, “Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland”, was an odd title, where the aim of the game was to collect as much money as possible. It was never released in America (they believed that, for some crazy reason, there just wasn’t a market for the game), but an official English translation exists in Europe. It remains to be seen if this new title will be released outside of Japan. I’m sure a lot of people are secretly wishing against it!

View the teaser image here:
http://www.zeldaelements.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/tingle_famitsu.png

Find out more about Tingle’s previous games here:
http://www.zeldaelements.net/othergames_tingle.shtml
http://www.zeldaelements.net/othergames_tinglesballoonfight.shtml

In typical “Espy can’t keep track of his manga releases” fashion, today I was in town, and spotted that the fifth volume of Zelda manga, Oracle of Ages, is now availible. It’s nice to have such a regular release schedule, though I haven’t even read Oracle of Seasons yet!

There’s little else to say, really. Surely I don’t need to come up with an unique, witty way of saying “There’s a new manga volume out” every two months, do I? Buy! Enjoy!

Nintendo of America released an extensive list of potential release dates for the DS and Wii earlier today which includes Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Looks like we can expect this title to hit American shores in Holiday 2009! I hope we learn a bit more about this game before that release date. There isn’t too much information out now besides a few videos and official art. I guess we’ll have to wait a bit longer!

While us Zelda fans didn’t get much on the Wii side of gaming this year, we do get an inside look as to what might be for the coming years on the Wii. A bit of concept art was released for a special group of people during E3. Well, that art has been released to the public!

http://kotaku.com/5279554/first-look-at-new-zelda-games-concept-art

There isn’t much to analyze though. Link doesn’t have a sword. Who the heck is that figure on the front? Lots of unanswered questions! Let the speculating begin!

You can either discuss this here….or in our own forums!
http://www.zeldaelements.net//forums/viewtopic.php?t=2871

Leaving the Zelda fans not quite empty-handed at the end of E3, Nintendo have made public some new screens and a video of Spirit Tracks. And they sure are similar to Phantom Hourglass. It’s become quite clear that this game is intended as a sequel to PH (though maybe not in plot), and you’ll be getting more of the same. If you like PH, you’ll like this! If you didn’t like it, well…

The official Japanese link is below - though these are probably everywhere on the internet righ now, so you can most likely take your pick of where to view them.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n10/e3_2009/details/ds_zelda_spirit_tracks.html

I liked this E3. E3 was good. For everyone! Except 2009. New Mario Galaxy! 2010. New Metroid! 2010. New Xbox and PS3 motion controllers! 2010. But there wasn’t even a hint of the new Wii Zelda, until the Miyamoto roundtable that took place at eyebagging 2am (ok GMT) where the granddaddy himself showed journos a quick peek at some art for the next game. Kotaku reports that it was in a Twilight Princess style, with a Link of similar age and another mysterious character who different sites describe as “Zelda in a blue dress”, “a young Zora woman”, or even “an impish character with a blue helmet.” So something was blue, then.

He also mentioned that it may or may not be MotionPlus exclusive, depending on how well the new peripheral sells (I’ll be pretty disapointed if it isn’t) and that it will be shown and released in… you guessed it.

Yes, E3 is here again. And Zelda fans waited hopefully to see if this was the year for an announcement of the next big-budget Zelda title. But alas, while the Nintendo press conference was bound to make Nintendo fans happy, with two new Mario Wii games, a new Metroid title and the return of Golden Sun (ignoring the new Wii Fit game and the re-announcement of Wii Sports Resort), there was neither a Deku Nut or Dodongo in sight.

This makes five years since Twilight Princess was first announced at E3 04. Nintendo are certainly making the Zelda fans wait very patiently. At least we can rest assured that Nintendo are taking their time with it for a good reason. Right?

Oh, but it’s not completely bad news. DS game Spirit Tracks was on the showroom floor, so expect some impressions (a.k.a. “How much is it just like Phantom Hourglass?”) to pop up on the internet very soon.