Last night, Nintendo went full awesome at E3 and revealed more about the highly anticipated Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They revealed its full name for a start, as before fans couldn’t call it that. It was just “the new Zelda”… so thanks for clearing that up!

We covered the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess recently, only the second time we’ve posted about the legendary and seminal Zelda series (the other time to highlight I am Error) in our four and a half year history.

If this legendary, ever brilliant, and relentlessly influential series hasn’t cropped up in your life before, perhaps now is the time to immerse yourself in Nintendo’s genius franchise.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild

As you can see in the trailer above, Breath of the Wild looks spectacular. If you’re unaware of this series’ history (30 years this time around), the Legend of Zelda games have been hugely influential and remain arguably the most critically acclaimed in video game history. So, it’s quite the big event when one gets released!

The wonderful Skyward Sword was the last console one (released in 2011 on the Wii). In general, the action-action/RPG games see the player take control of Link who has to save Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf.

From there, Nintendo crafts a charming world where the player can solve increasingly complex puzzles in stunning dungeons or just loaf about in the brilliantly imagined worlds.

Breath of the Wild will take this premise and add new layers of complexity and grandeur. This will be one huge open world game. As Nintendo put it, players can:

"Explore the game any way they want because the world is so vast and players are not required to take a pre-determined path. This sense of freedom and vastness will truly come alive in the final game."

There’s a big emphasis on survival this time around and advancing a real life experience. As Link you must:

"Pay attention to changes in climate, as a shift in weather or temperature can affect the environment and his ability to survive in it. A sudden downpour might douse a roaring campfire or a lightning storm might be attracted to Link’s metallic weapons. Players might need to bundle up with warmer clothes or change into something better suited to the desert heat."

This adds in a healthy dollop of the survival genre into the mix, which should be perfectly suited to the Zelda series. Regardless, there are huge expectations here. Fans will be expecting one of the best games of all time here and, as this game will help launch Nintendo’s new consoles, it has to get things right. Based on the company’s recent form on the Wii U, they’re on target to deliver. Whoo! Rock on!

The Graphics Conundrum

Breath of the Wild has largely impressed due to its looks so far. Now, as younger gamers we were impressed by flashy graphics, but as wise older morons we now know a game has to be a supreme slice of compelling brilliance.

Otherwise, it’d be like dating a really pretty person who writes “your” instead of “you’re” whilst believing rap music to be really great.

If one takes a brief scan online, many modern gamers drone on and on vacuously about Nintendo’s consoles having bad graphics.

The reality is the Nintendo Wii and Wii U have graphics which aren’t quite as good as the PS4 and Xbox One and, inexplicably, this has caused a lot of people to those their ship. Indeed, there’s now a huge sect of gamers who associate graphics with games quality, which is bizarre reasoning.

In recent years Nintendo hasn’t bothered itself with pushing graphical boundaries, instead focusing on crafting the gaming experience on a multifaceted level. This is one of the reasons graphics-obsessed mainstream gamers have shifted away from them to Sony and Microsoft so, despite its best intentions, it’s proven counterproductive for the Japanese company.

Breath of the Wild, however, displays a grand scale epic which is sure to merge gameplay awesomeness with the state of the art graphics. Hopefully, this will appease the graphics-obsessed brigade (we don’t have anything against super brilliant graphics – just ensure they complement the experience as a whole, rather than dominating it) and encourage more people to try out the Nintendo experience.

Nintendo NX

This title will launch for Nintendo’s current console, the much maligned but actually rather brilliant Wii U, and its next one: the NX (its current name – this will change).

Launch titles don’t really stand for much these days (they were a big deal in the past), with the PS4 and Xbox One enjoying strong sales despite a woeful set of games upon release.

Thusly, Nintendo’s offering will make the NX the strongest launch console since the N64 hit shelves with Super Mario 64 back in 1996!

It’s odd the industry should swing in this direction, but there you go. We’re bloody stoked for this and, with marvellous timing, the NX and the Beath of the Wild should launch in time to mark the 20th anniversary of the N64. Huzzah!