- Author, tom richardson
- Role, BBC Newsbeat
Nintendo has announced that Princess Zelda will star in her own game.
For the past 40 years she's been lending her name to one of the Japanese gaming giant's most popular series.
But the Legend of Zelda series gives players the role of the Hylian hero Link.
That's all about to change with Echoes of Wisdom, a new title revealed in the company's Nintendo Direct preview stream.
In a short trailer, fans saw Link being swallowed up by a supernatural portal, leaving the Princess behind.
The game uses the same top-down perspective and cartoon-style graphics seen in the 2019 remake of the Game Boy classic Link's Awakening.
The trailer saw Zelda creating replicas of objects and enemies found in the world to solve puzzles and battle foes.
Perhaps the biggest reveal of the 40-minute showcase for gamers was the grand finale — a long-awaited look at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
First announced in 2017, the long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed first-person adventure series has launched on Nintendo GameCube.
In a brief preview, fans saw bounty hunter Samus Aran visiting an alien planet and using her famous Morph Ball ability to travel the world.
Nintendo executive Shinya Takahashi, who presented the event, warned fans that they would have to “wait a little longer” for the game's 2025 release.
And no Nintendo Direct event would be complete without a certain plumber.
The latest event kicked off with footage from Mario & Luigi: Brothership – a colourful RPG starring the two.
The rest of the presentation featured a range of third-party titles and updates, as well as another look at LEGO Horizon Adventures.
The platforming mix of the beloved bricks and Sony's futuristic open-world adventure is being released under the PlayStation publishing label.
It follows in the footsteps of Microsoft, which announced earlier this year that it was bringing Xbox exclusive games to rival platforms as well.
Nintendo already made it clear that it won't reveal any details about the Nintendo Switch successor at its latest Direct show.
But the Metroid reveal in particular left fans wondering if any of the titles they just saw would make an appearance in it.
Some big Nintendo games that are released when a new machine goes on sale, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, are available on two consoles.
With the arrival of the Switch's successor, most people were predicting a fairly quiet 2024 for Nintendo.
However, it's important to remember that the original version has sold over 130 million units since its release in 2017.
And while its upcoming Mario and Zelda games might not be major sequels, it shows the company can always rely on its two most popular series to keep fans hooked.
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