Like Mario, Zelda Series Should See 2D And 3D Games Going Forward

There is no need to argue about whether old-school, top-down The Legend of Zelda games are better than Link’s 3D adventures in Hyrule. Nintendo seems happy to continue making franchise installments in both genres.

Speaking with BBC, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma discussed the future of the series after the recent release of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. “And so we will also have those dynamic 3D Zeldas (like Tears of the Kingdom) as well,” said Aonuma. “But in addition to that, we’re also hoping that we can continue with these 2D top-down Zeldas.”

Aonuma came to this point after Echoes of Wisdom led him to “realize that there’s still a lot of possibility for these top-down Zelda games as well.” Beforehand, the Zelda producer questioned whether the top-down games could feature new elements. Obviously, they can, as Echoes of Wisdom doesn’t even star Link because his sword “got in the way.” This helped Zelda become the star for the series for the first time (please ignore any CDi games).

That wasn’t the only novel thing about the recent Switch exclusive, either. Echoes of Wisdom features the franchise’s first female director with Tomomi Sano. Additionally, Shigeru Miyamoto wasn’t credited on Echoes of Wisdom, a first for the mainline series.

If you didn’t know, Echoes of Wisdom can actually be beaten in under an hour, thanks to a glitch. For more, check out GameSpot’s The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom review.