Nintendo President Talks Zelda on Wii, DS Successor
By Lawrence Sonntag
An interview in the Asahi Simbun with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unveiled some interesting bits of information regarding the next Legend of Zelda title on the Wii and a successor to the Nintendo DS handheld.
Loose translations of the article reveal that Iwata wants to release the next Wii Legend of Zelda in 2010, though there’s no mention of whether this would be a Japanese or worldwide release. This synchronizes with comments that series inventor Shigeru Miyamoto made at least year’s E3, stating that the next Zelda should be showable at E3 2010.
In handheld news, Iwata layed a few of Nintendo’s hopes for the next generation bare. In a rough outline of technological requirements, he stated that “[It will have] highly detailed graphics, and it will be necessary to have a sensor with the ability to read the movements of people playing.”
Oddly enough, Iwata describes functionality that has already been attempted by other pieces of software. As pointed out by Shacknews reporter Alice O’Connor, the DSi can already track motion in the DSiWare title WarioWare: Snapped, and accelerometers have been used in games like WarioWare: Twisted and Kirby: Tilt n’ Tumble.
Naturally, the difference here is that such functionality would be built into the handheld, and possibly used in implementations different than those in the past. Perhaps E3 2010 will be kinder to Nintendo than 2009.
[Asahi Simbun via Shacknews]
