If I had to rank every 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Legend of Zelda game, the highest 2D offering would come in at fourth place. Care to guess what it is? Wrong. It’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Minish Cap. A Link to the Past ranks just behind it, thoug♏h, so you were close.

While the future of Zelda is clearly going to build on the foundations set by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Breath of the Wild (that’s number one) and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom, I can’t help but reminisce about Link’s Game Boy adventures every now and then. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask, by the way. I di♑dn’t get on with Tears of the K🔜ingdom, sorry.

I was chatting about the beauty and limitations of modern Zelda with a friend recently, and spent some time reminiscing about classic dunge🍬ons and single-screen exploration. They pointed me in the direction of the 2D version of Breath of the Wild that Nintendo showed off at GDC in 2017, and now I’m obsessed.

Nintendo's 2D Breath of the Wild Prototype

Hidemaro Fujibayashi, game director of Breath of the Wild opens the talk by describing himself as the holder of the Triforce of Courage when it comes to Zelda development. He has the courage to come to the development team with wild ideas and p🍎resent them “no matter how ludicrous they look”. However, his prototype for Breath of the Wild is anything but ludicrous.

Around 18 mi🐬nutes into the hour and a half presentation, Fujibayashi grants the audience a rare insight into Nintendo’s development process, showing a 2D vision of Hyrule with Breath of the Wild’s innovative mechanics. This was how Fujibayashi shared his vision with the🔯 team – merging the familiar, old-school aesthetics with the new ideas that made Breath of the Wild so special.

Prototype versus finished product

In all honesty, I doubt this game would have the same magic as Breath of the Wild. Link’s first Switch adventure was defined as much by its creative mechanics as it was by its geꦍnre-pushing exploration. Gliding from mountaintops and running into wonderful side quests on your travels made Hyrule come alive in a way it never had before, and I don’t think you can replicate that in two dimensions, let alone with such a retro style.

Breath of the Wild had the perfect blend of new-age physics systems and open-world exploration, but there are two reasons why only the latter has been copied by other games in the seven years since. First of all, the physics system is incredibly hard to replicate, and doubly so if you don&rsq🀅uo;t want to be seen as ripping off Zelda (although few games care about that when implementing stamina wheels and gliders). The second reason is that, while the physics system in Breath of the Wild – and to an even greater extent Tears of the Kingdom – is an incredible feat of engineering, it’s not as marketable.

Prototype versus finished product

We're Never Getting Another 2D Zelda Game

“Go anywhere, do anything” is easy to get gamers on board wit🍌h. It’s been the mantra of thousands of games since open world sandboxes were introduced. “Go anywhere, do anything, just like Breath of the Wildꦗ” is the unspoken advertisement emanating from countless game trailers in the half-decade since the genre-redefining Zelda title changed the meaning of open world exploration.

There’s no simple mantra with the physics system. “Light arrows on fire by shooting them through campfires in order to set boxe🦋s alight,” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, yet it’s far more impressive than a glider from a technical standpoint. The magic of Breath of the Wild’s exploration comes from the meticulous design of Hyrule, rather than the exploration tools themselves – which is why it’s no coincidence that none of the games simply emulating gliders and stamina bars have the same sense of fulfillment when explorin🌃g their worlds. However, movement techniques are far easier to market.

Prototype versus finished product

All that’s to say that a 2D Zelda game with Breath of the Wild’s physics could be immense fun, hugely satisfying to play, and a change of pace from the sprawling 3D Hyrule that we’ve grown accustomed to. Without Breath of the Wild’s creative exploration, I think it could grow a little stale, but who’s to say it couldn’t give us the physics manipulation on a smaller scale? A Link to the Past-size Hyrule that you can chop, burn, and freeze your way through in tw♑o dimensions.

This 2D prototype of Breath of the Wild was exciting enough to sell the development team on the game’s premise, so it must be pretty good. And after burning out on the New Zelda-style open worlds, it could be just the change I need. I doubt there’s any way Nintendo will let anyone see more of this prototype than it already has – with all the secrecy at the company, it’s amazing we’ve seen this much – but I must try. If you’re reading this Nintendo, if you browse TheG💙amer on your lunch bre🍎ak Fujibayashi, can I have a go please?

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