Echoes Of Wisdom Shows That 3D Zelda Needs 2D Zelda (2024)

Everybody knows that The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake was great, but now we know that Nintendo thinks so, too. The chibi remake gave a Game Boy classic a new lease of life, with an interesting twist on the aesthetics and faithful adherence to the original gameplay.

The game apparently sold nearly 6.5 million copies, more than The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD or Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. That’s a sizable return on what was presumably a reasonably shrewd investment on Nintendo’s part. A moderate success. I wanted the developer to make more cute remakes. Do HD-2D A Link to the Past! Do cel shaded Minish Cap! But Nintendo went one better.

In yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, the company announced The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, an entirely new game in the series created in that stunning toybox aesthetic of the Link’s Awakening remake. It’s everything Zelda fans could have asked for and more.

Firstly, it looks stunning. Secondly, we can play as Zelda and Link is the one trapped away in an alternate dimension. Thirdly, it looks like the Hyrule of the Game Boy era. Fourthly, the echo mechanic looks like it will bring the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom creativity to the old school Zelda formula. I could write an article on each of these things. For the most part, my colleagues already have. But I want to talk about business. No, don’t close the tab! This will be fun, I promise!

Nintendo is being incredibly clever with Zelda. This is one of its most iconic series, up there with 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, and other, non-Mario series. Heck, Zelda outsells Pokemon these days. So you’d forgive the developer for just relying on the biggest releases to satisfy fans’ appetites.

If the Zelda developers just released a mammoth Tears of the Kingdom-level RPG every six years, most fans would be happy. You can lose hundreds of hours in the modern vision of Hyrule, naturally stumbling upon incredible stories around every corner and behind every breakable pot. The physics engines of these games alone are a technical marvel, before you even think about getting a game this complicated to run on a Nintendo Switch, of all consoles.

In between those gargantuan releases, we have smaller, but just as important, games. These are your Link’s Awakening remakes, your Hyrule Warriors musou spin-offs, your Cadence of Hyrule crossovers. These are just as important for the Zelda series as the enormous Game of the Year contenders.

Firstly, they keep the series in players’ minds. Nobody’s going to forget Tears of the Kingdom in a hurry, but hundreds of games have been released in the past 13 months. A new Zelda game means it becomes a part of the 2024 zeitgeist, which is more than a year-old game could hope to be.

This is a more sustainable method of game development. Echoes of Wisdom will take fewer resources to make than Breath of the Wild 3. It will be a smaller game, a shorter game, it doesn’t look like it has an open world. But it’s got a beautiful art style, a unique mechanic reminiscent of the modern 3D games’ physics-based creativity, and Zelda herself at the wheel.

These smaller Zelda interludes also offer a change of pace from what we might call the ‘main series’, the traditional triple-A open-world affairs. For those players who don’t quite get the modern Zelda games, or those who would like to return to the classic RPGs of years gone by, you’ve got options. You’ve got new old Zelda. You’ve got a classic RPG with all the modern sensibilities, mechanics, and quality of life updates you’d imagine in 2024.

And for everyone who loves Tears of the Kingdom, you have a breath of fresh air. You have something a bit different to sink your teeth into. A new Zelda story with a different presentation and different mechanics to those you’ve spent dozens, if not hundreds, of hours mastering. And you don’t even have to emulate it, or play on the awkward Nintendo Switch Online platform.

Nintendo understands what makes Zelda tick. It understands what fans want. It understands that variety is the spice of life. From its perspective, it can hit more demographics, give developers more opportunities, and make more money (the break even point on Echoes of Wisdom is surely far lower than that of Tears of the Kingdom). From our perspective, we get more Zelda, more often. What’s not to love?