While browsing Amazon UK today, I came across something very interesting: volumes 3 and 4 of the upcoming Zelda manga! Yes, it looks like Viz Media are planning on releasing Volume 3, which covers the events of Majora’s Mask, set directly after Ocarina of Time, and Volume 4, which will jump through time and introduce us to a completely different Link as it covers Oracle of Seasons. This seems like pretty good confirmation to me - unless someone at Amazon HQ was bored and decided to photoshop the books’ covers perfectly, I’d say they look quite legitimate. They will be released, according to Amazon, on February 3 and April 7, 2009 respectively. In the meantime, the first two volumes, an adaptation of Ocarina of Time, will be released in early October and December. I’ll be sure to let you know when the first volume becomes availible (as manga is often sold earlier online than the street date)!

Do we have the book for you. “The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy”, a (clearly unofficial) 288-page book by Luke Cuddy promises to answer all those burning questions you have about the series.

 With both young and adult gamers as loyal fans, The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved video game series ever created. The contributors to this volume consider the following questions and more: What is the nature of the gamer’s connection to Link? Does Link have a will, or do gamers project their wills onto him? How does the gamer experience the game? Do the rules of logic apply in the game world? How is space created and distributed in Hyrule (the fictional land in which the game takes place)? How does time function? Is Zelda art? Can Hyrule be seen as an ideal society? Can the game be enjoyable without winning? The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy not only appeals to Zelda fans and philosophers but also puts video games on the philosophical map as a serious area of study.

The book is released November 28 by Open Court publishing. Until then, you’ll have to find something else to argue about on the internet.

Zelda and Philosophy - Amazon

After the previous news post regarding the Zelda manga, I did some digging (which proved difficult as the official Viz website is very slow and buggy right now). Eventually, I came across the Viz Kids official website (strangely enough by squinting at an image in a blog post), and details on the site confirmed a few things for us.
 
First, the “bad” news. The Zelda manga is definitely part of the Viz Kids series. The good news? Despite this, the manga is unflipped, in the original right-to-left format. So unless owning a book with the word “kids” on the spine is too much of an embarrassement for you, you may now take your panic hat off and continue to look forward to your Ocarina of Time manga this October.

Zelda Manga - Official Information

Some news from the San Diego Comic Con which may or may not be bad: The Ocarina of Time manga being translated and released in the English-speaking world by Viz Media is to be released under their kids label, otherwise used almost solely for another Nintendo franchise - Pokemon.

What does this mean for the manga? While the original manga is unlikely to be ridden with graphic violence, we may be seeing some minor edits, and chances are, the books will be “flipped” from the original right-to-left Japanese reading format (as most translated manga is) to an English left-to-right format. While these are minor aspects, they may frustrate manga purists - in the manga fandom world, “flipped” is a dirty word.

Good news too, though - Viz also announced that the manga would be released bi-monthly, implying that further adaptations would be released following the two-volume Ocarina of Time adaptation.

Viz Media Anime/Manga Comic Con Press Conference ’08

Despite a rather lacking E3 conference, Miyamoto eased fans’ worries by reassuring them new Zelda, Mario and Pikmin games are currently being developed. In an interview with the Telegraph, he mentions:

“Making these ‘traditional’ games is what I am best at. Because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be 50-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams.

So there you have it. Zelda’s in the making, and Miyamoto is, as always, keeping a stern eye on the development team. There’s your tidbit for today.
Why am I even posting this? It’s my birthday.

At the E3 Nintendo Developer Roundtable, one last (possible) Zelda tidbit was pushed our way. When discussing Wii Music, Nintendo said they would make use of songs in the public domain when selecting musical tracks for the game such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, but they will include some licensed tracks. Which licensed tracks would come the cheapest to Nintendo? That’s right, their own. Considering at the E3 press conference, a (embarrasing) Wii Music demonstration used the Super Mario Bros. theme, I think it’s safe to say that there will be some Zelda music in the game.

Nintendo fans will also be pleased to hear that during this roundtable, Shigsy confirmed that a new Pikmin was in the works. So - after E3, you have your new Zelda, you have your new Pikmin, you just know absolutely nothing about them. Satisfied?

While I don’t think anyone thought otherwise, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed to IGN that Nintendo’s in-house Zelda team is working on the next Zelda for Wii. While making no official confirmation of a new DS Zelda in the works, he did mention that there are two separate teams working for each platform, implying so.

“The Zelda team in particular always works on Zelda titles. The core members of the Zelda team have for a very long time now been focused on Zelda games, and continue to focus on Zelda games, so they are hard at work and working away. And then, of course, we have the DS Zelda team as well, so even there we’re having some switching of people in and out where the DS team is mixing in with the Wii team and working on the Wii version.”

When asked about what new innovations the next game will hold, his reply seemed to be “A lot, but not too much”.

“I don’t necessarily think it will change that drastically, but I think that Zelda is a franchise that does need some big new unique ideas. And so the team right now is very focused on trying to find those ideas.”

Read the brief interview here

Thanks to CorvosKK for pointing this out in the comments section!

It’s hard to write a lengthy news article about something that didn’t happen, so I’ll make this brief. Nothing in the way of a new Zelda title was announced at Nintendo’s E3 press conference this year - the most we got was the mention that the Mario and Zelda teams are “Hard at work on new games”, by Satoru Iwata.
 
The conference was made up mainly of “non-gamer-friendly” titles such as Wii Sports Resort - which makes use of the newly announced Wii Remote add-on “Motion Plus” for more precise remote sensitivity, Wii Music - which has been in the making for a while, and Animal Crossing: City Folk - the only Nintendo game announcement which would be of any interest to “gamers”. The second most hotly-anticipated yet non-existant title, a new Kid Icarus game, was also a no-show.
 
If any news or tidbits make their way into the open during the remainder of the expo, I’ll be sure to report on them here.

It’s almost that time of year again - E3 begins on June 15th. E3 was, up until recently, the biggest video games expo there was, and while it has been shrunk somewhat in recent years, it is still a respected event, and many companies use it to make major announcements.

Nintendo’s press conference will be held on the 15th at 9AM in the California-based event. There are some things which are almost certain to be announced - Nintendo have been teasing about a new Animal Crossing game for a while now - but will the next Zelda game be announced? I’d guess that if we’re going to see a new Zelda game within the next 18 months, then yes, there will be. Twilight Princess was first unveiled at E3 2004 (who can forget Shigsy swinging his Master Sword and Hylian Shield about to introduce the game?), and given the series’ greater success in the West than the East, E3 would be the perfect place.

Be sure to check back next week - I promise to drop everything I’m doing to give you all the info you need on Zelda’s future.

After months of speculation and frustration, Nintendo of Europe have finally decided that we Europeans are worthy of Super Smash Bros: Brawl. My copy arrived yesterday (as I have my own special way with games retailers), and I’ve given it an hour or two. I think it’s great - what about you? Leave us a comment below!