Legend of Zelda Wii U Gameplay Footage Shown, On Track For 2015 Release

Viewers who tuned in to watch The Game Awards, a new awards show for video games produced by Geoff Keighley, got to see gameplay footage of Nintendo’s upcoming Zelda game for the Wii U. The demonstration featured Zelda lead producer Eiji Aonuma, who was playing the game, along with original Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto providing commentary. While playing the game, it was revealed that the new Zelda game would be coming out in 2015. 

The demonstration utilized the Wii U’s gamepad, which showed a zoomable world map while Aonuma controlled Link, the game’s main character. Viewers were able to see the game’s large, open world which featured bright colors and lush vegetation as Link moved around. To help traverse that large world, Aonuma showed that players will be able to set waypoints, from a first-person view, as a way to mark areas of interest and travel directly to those locations.

In order to help reach your destinations, the video showed Link using a sailcloth, which acts like a gliding parachute and was used in the previous game Skyward Sword, as one way to simply jump from great heights and float down to the ground. Aside from the sailcloth, however, Epona was also shown.

One interesting feature regarding Epona, Link’s horse, is that users won’t have to control it in order for the horse to avoid obstacles. It appears that Nintendo programmed Epona to automatically avoid trees, leaving players free to swing their swords and shoot arrows while riding. In addition, players will also be able to jump off of Link’s horse and attack enemies in slow motion while Link is still in the air.