Zelda Wii and a 'broader audience'.

^ Yep. It has now been confirmed that the new Zelda will sport Motion Plus. Unfortunately, that is all we will probably know about it until at least the Tokyo Game Show in September...though more likely E3 2010.

I hope that it means appealing to the female audience, rather than the little kid audience. We've had enough of those watered-down games for kids, and it's time Zelda returns to its former glory. Of course, this could be wishful thinking, but it sounds good.

Then again, this game could turn out worse than TP, judging by the direction Zelda is going...

Originally Posted by IkanaGeneral197

I hope that it means appealing to the female audience, rather than the little kid audience. We've had enough of those watered-down games for kids, and it's time Zelda returns to its former glory. Of course, this could be wishful thinking, but it sounds good.

Then again, this game could turn out worse than TP, judging by the direction Zelda is going...

Yeah, no, I don't think they meant "Zelda Kart Soccer" when he said more appealing to a broader audience. Miyamoto said that they were changing the direction of Zelda, and that TP would be the last "traditional" Zelda we would see for a long time. He also mentioned that the series was going through some "fundamental changes", none of which (unless you count the M+ anouncement) he has as of yet revealed.

He also said Link/the series is "maturing". I'm...not exactly sure what that means beyond the fact that we're seeing an older Link, but I think it should give you enough console to assure you that it won't turn into Zelda and Link's Happy Party.

Originally Posted by Cafe Mocha

^ Yep. It has now been confirmed that the new Zelda will sport Motion Plus. Unfortunately, that is all we will probably know about it until at least the Tokyo Game Show in September...though more likely E3 2010.

Where was it actually confirmed it would use M+?

Originally Posted by Aleitheo

Where was it actually confirmed it would use M+?

IGN...lemme see if I can link it for you...hold on.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/994/994637p1.html

I hope it turns out like Mario Kart Wii. You can play it both casually and hardcore, depending on the settings.

But then again, Zelda has never had many settings allowing for harder play (besides the 3-heart quest).

Originally Posted by Valhelm

Man of World

lol

Originally Posted by Valhelm

did they say it would come with demo play and will be MotionPlus compatible? I think it'd be pretty cool if it had the Wii MotionPlus.

MotionPlus has been confirmed (It's even MotionPlus exclusive) as was stated above, but demo play has not been confirmed.

A common misconception when trying to make a video game appeal to girls is adding a lot of pink and butterflies and disgusting corny romance. If this happens, I'm suing the company. No offense men, but you tend to not know in the least what women want, and its certainly not that. Having a main female character is nice, but I don't want games to be easier or "girlier" because more women are supposed to play it. That would be downright insulting.

If it's rated M, at least it won't be kiddy.

Lol, wasn't the Zelda series originally created for children? And now it's teen rated...this logic is screwed. O.o I'm pretty sure Zelda is a game for anyone. I probably could never think of a series with a more diverse fanbase. And just for your concern...the Zelda team has a lot of women in it's development team...infact a chick wrote most of the story to TP...>_>

WW and SMG were appeals to a wider audience, and we all know how those turned out.

Miyamoto has been on the "wider audience" wave for years now, but it still ends with quality games.

Originally Posted by Darth Alec

WW and SMG were appeals to a wider audience, and we all know how those turned out.

Miyamoto has been on the "wider audience" wave for years now, but it still ends with quality games.

Meh, I'm not liking the path he began taking with WiiFit and all that stuff.

There was SMG and thats about it that he has done for core gamers lately

Originally Posted by Aleitheo

Meh, I'm not liking the path he began taking with WiiFit and all that stuff.

Wii Fit and Wii Music were never designed to hit us where more "hardcore" titles hit us, they were designed to hit an entirely different niche altogether, and did so brilliantly.

There was SMG and thats about it that he has done for core gamers lately

And is that so bad? Miyamoto doesn't develop every "hardcore" Nintendo title. Compared to other Nintendo consoles, the Wii is well on track with excellent first party titles.

Originally Posted by Darth Alec

Wii Fit and Wii Music were never designed to hit us where more "hardcore" titles hit us, they were designed to hit an entirely different niche altogether, and did so brilliantly.

I know they weren't made for core gamers, thats why I said he was taking a different path

And is that so bad? Miyamoto doesn't develop every "hardcore" Nintendo title. Compared to other Nintendo consoles, the Wii is well on track with excellent first party titles.

I know he doesn't work on all the titles, I was saying it was the only hardcore title he recently done

Originally Posted by Aleitheo

I know he doesn't work on all the titles, I was saying it was the only hardcore title he recently done

And it performed, did it not? The point is, he is still clearly capable of delivering his magic, even on this new path.

Originally Posted by Darth Alec

And it performed, did it not? The point is, he is still clearly capable of delivering his magic, even on this new path.

And its just one, its the point I am trying to make. Nintendo have noticed how much more they can get from casuals, this has dramatically affected games for core gamers.

That and it can also end up in them trying to appeal to a wider audience by making core games more casual which does not always end up like SMG did

Originally Posted by Aleitheo

And its just one, its the point I am trying to make. Nintendo have noticed how much more they can get from casuals, this has dramatically affected games for core gamers.

The Wii has had it's fair share of quality first paty hardcore games, certainly not as much as before, but they have been AAA titles.

That and it can also end up in them trying to appeal to a wider audience by making core games more casual which does not always end up like SMG did

This is true, but then again, as SMG, it might not happen.

Again you people and this core and casual BS. Seriously give it up.

Miyamoto obviously meant that this new Zelda is gonna be very different and aiming it in a direction the series has never seen. If it means its more "core" than oh well. I doubt its aiming at being more "casual".

The Wii itself was aimed for everyone, whether it be "core" or "casual". Hence the name Wii!
*sigh*

Originally Posted by Valhelm

Many of you, and myself, waited for weeks for E3 2008 to finally come. We waited in sweet anticipation, and begged for a new Zelda title for the Wii. What we got was a list of 'casual' titles, videos of old people and toddlers playing on the Wii and an anouncement. An anouncement of a new Zelda game. That was much less than most of us had hoped for, but we still knew that a game would be made.
But then, in early june, the unthinkable happened.

" We want this next Zelda title to appeal to... to a much broader audience than any game before." Shigeru Miyamoto, from an IGN video interview.

When I heard those words, my hopes shattered. I knew that the next game would be a minigame collection with a hub known as 'Hyrule', and that, if I bought it, I'd be controlling a very young link as he whacked the cartoon-like and lovable enemies with large hammers. I had a (mental) siezure. The game would be terrible, horrible.
But then, concept art surfaced. It was certainly not what I expected. It showed an older Link, looking very similar to the Link in Twilight Princess, behind a girl that seemed to be the bastard child of the Master Sword and the Fairy Queen from the Wind Waker. I didn't know what the poster meant in the slightest. Soon afterword I went to a dave-and-busters-esque arcade run by Steven Spielberg and SEGA. They had one arcade game there, made by SEGA, about a young, newly married couple that battle hordes of giant insects and other small, but now large, creatures with automatic shotguns that have limitless ammunition. I noticed, however, that one of the protagonists was female. Suddenly I knew what Miyamoto's then-cryptic words meant.
By a broader audience, he didn't mean Grandma and Little Johnny. He meant girls. Know I understand why a girl was featured so prominently on the piece of artwork for the game. I predict that the next Zelda game for the Wii will have two playable protagonists, Link, and the girl on the poster. This, actually, seems like a pretty good idea. I imagine Link and that girl doing a co-op battle, battling hordes of bokoblins that are surrounding the hero and heroine.
Or maybe, maybe, instead, the girl would just be an important, but tragically unplayable, character and would not battle with you, preferring instead to be another Navi or Midna.
I hope it's the former.



Your thoughts?

I cringed when you said "battling hordes of bokoblins that are surrounding the hero and heroine." I think they are a disgrace to Zelda games. They are weak and provide no challenge whatsoever. If I was head of the Zelda team I would take any enemy that provides no challenge out of the games and create new monsters that actually do - just to get rid of the disgraceful memories/thoughts of what those weak enemies were.

Also, Miyamoto might mean a lot of different things when he means appealing to a broader audience etc etc. Hopefully this new Zelda won't be a hub of minigames for old people/toddlers called Hyrule. Hopefully, he has picked up on the fact that Zelda needs to re-innovate (in all ways - not just in a certain aspect) and thats what he said the team had been doing. I'm beginning to dream that the new Zelda game could innovate in sword-fighting/combat, puzzle-solving, dungeons, side-quests - every way possible and also introduce a nice new mythology that still has the core elements (Link, Zelda, puzzles-solving, combat) and brings in something really new, exciting and fresh like MM did with the side-quests/masks aspect. Except that the game should have that later aspect as well =) You might actually be right on the whole females thing though. Miyamoto has already talked about making the game have more choice-making... or something along the lines of that, just this itself could bring a broader audience so people have a choice about what they want to do in the game.

It's almost for certain that "appeals to a broader audience" means "uses intuitive motion controls that feel natural," since that's been the Wii's express mission in terms of making gameplay accessible to everybody since they first revealed the motion controller.

Also, "casual game" has usually referred to a game designed to be picked up and played by a non-hardcore gamer who may not be interested in playing a game for more than an hour or so before putting it down again.

Almost every Mario game ever made fits this category - that's right, I said it: Mario is and has always been a casual game. The Sims series and its predecessor, the SimCity series, fit this category. Animal Crossing fits this category. The Wii-series games obviously fit this category and are the Wii's most well-known series.