Wii U Games: Wind Waker HD, Yarn Yoshi, New Zelda, and More

Nintendo Direct announced a slew of new information about the upcoming releases for Wii U. Undoubtedly the biggest news was that there will be two Zelda games coming for the platform: a HD remake of 2002 GameCube classic The Wind Waker, and a new game.

The Legend of Zelda

Eiji Aonuma, producer of The Legend of Zelda talked about the principles behind the as-yet-unnamed new game. “Our mission in developing this new Zelda game for Wii U is quite plainly to re-think the conventions of Zelda.

“I’m referring to things like the expectation that the player is supposed to complete dungeons in a certain order or that you’re supposed to play by yourself.

“We want to set aside those “conventions”, get back to basics and create a newborn Zelda game so that the players today can best enjoy the real essence of the franchise.”

According Aonuma, the new game “looks like it is going to take some time to complete” so The Wind Waker HD will be released in the meantime. No release date has been confirmed for either title.

Here are a few screenshots from the Wii U version of The Wind Waker. Absolutely beautiful:

Yarn Yoshi

The team behind Kirby’s Epic Yarn are developing Yarn Yoshi, a new game featuring Yoshi (Yoshi!). Takashi Tezuka, director of Yoshi’s Island and Kirby’s Epic Yarn will be supervising the development.

Screenshots:

Shin-Megami Tensei/Fire Emblem Crossover

Nintendo are collaborating with Atlus for a new crossover title using elements of dungeon-crawling RPG Shin-Megami Tensei and tactical RPG ire Emblem. Here’s the teaser trailer. These are their serious faces.

The Wonderful 101

Here’s the new trailer for Platinum Games’ brilliantly-cartoonish The Wonderful 101. It’s going to launch in the first half of 2013. You can read Brett’s hands-on preview here for more details.

Bayonetta 2

A brief behind-the-scenes video of the Bayonetta team hard at work on wireframes and modelling.

Not Xenoblade

Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft have shared some gameplay footage of their upcoming Wii U game. With its grassy landscape surrounded by rocky clifs, it looks a lot like areas of their previous Wii game, Xenoblade Chronicles.

Everything Else

Mario and Mario Kart: Nintendo are working on a new Mario Kart and a new 3D Mario action game.
Pikmin 3: Pikmin 3 game will let you use the Wii U GamePad as a camera to take close-up Pikmin-view pictures and share them in Miiverse.
Wii Party: There’s going to be another one.
Game & Wario: Scheduled to launch in the first half of 2013.
Super Smash Bros.: Still on the way, but will need more development time before details can be revealed.
Wii U System Updates: There will be two major updates in spring and summer that introduce new functionality and speed up the response time of the Wii U
Wii U Virtual Console: The Virtual Console is finally coming to the Wii U in the spring update. The Nintendo eShop will launch soon after that.
Classic Games for 30p: To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Famicom (known as the NES here), Nintendo wil be selling one NEs or SNES game per month at 30p, each month until July. This month’s game is Balloon Flight.
Miiverse on Smartphones: If you need your fix of Funky Barn pics while on the go, you’ll soon be able to browse Miiverse on your smartphone’s browser. Dedicated apps are also on the way.

You can watch the full Nintendo Direct broadcast over on YouTube.