Good lord...

Yeah, I know. I did a double take on that as well. Really shows how badly crazy some games are in the early development stages. That, or its just showing how crazy Miyamoto can be.

It does make me wonder if he and Nintendo will have the balls (or brief lost of sense) to put Zelda in a science-fiction world. Oh wait, it'll just be Metroid without the loneliness (to put it bluntly).

It's odd that apparently from the beginning it had to be Link who launched with this new Zapper.

Imagine, time travel in a Zelda game? That would be a travesty.

har har

Knowing Nintendo, time travel would end up doing some stupid shit like taking all your rupees but letting you keep your items.  Some sort of "toll" for using their forced time travel or some such.

Terminator-esque time travel?

Remember to crouch! Also, clothes can't pass through time travel, sorry.

So Link with a gun? Can he shoot hookers with it?

Wow that Terminator suggestion is the worst idea I've ever heard.  If you want a clear example of jumping the shark that would have been it.  Thank God that idea didn't go anywhere.

One thing I've learned is that behind-the-scenes stuff often reveals how some really talented people have some shockingly stupid ideas.  I check out all the extras on the Lord of the Rings DVDs and there are some REALLY stupid ideas that Peter Jackson had that didn't make it in.  I listen to a Simpsons DVD commentary and pretty much any time the staff talks about some scene or plot idea that didn't make it or some guest star that they wanted but couldn't get it's always absolutely horrible and yet they're expressing disappointment that they weren't able to do it.  And then there's George Lucas who took it a step further and actually went and "fixed" the Star Wars films so that some of his utterly stupid original ideas were implemented, thus revealing that his masterpiece was a complete fluke.

If Miyamoto was surrounded by yes-men and had free reign to do whatever he wanted we could very well have had Link using a gun given to him from the future.  Man, that is even worse than anything Sega has done with Sonic recently.  Makes you wonder what other sort of franchise-ruining ideas have been suggested in brain-storming sessions.

Aren't we just supposed to be pretending we didn't know Majora's Mask existed?

I don't know Link with a gun could probably take on Master Chief, but Link with a crossbow, he is limited to shooting chickens.

Most likely they have as many stupid ideas as everyone else, they just know when not to push them through.

I plead guilty to that.

I love MM. I was just putting it on like time travel has never been in Zelda.

Personally it sounds to me like he was joking and not at all disappointed that his idea didn't go through... ='D

It's all those "magic mushrooms" I tell you.

Am I the only one who thinks a robot/Terminator link from the future would have been bad ass
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y267/n64/1158102199940.png
"Hasta la vista, navi."

At lease Miyamoto thinks it's a good idea

Stupid ideas like that are necessary towards innovation.  Nintendo, and any other creative company out there, wouldn't get anywhere if their employees were too afraid to suggest crazy things.  Yeah, giving Link a gun may not be the best idea, but that's why it was rejected.  I love how these NWR armchair developers are criticizing a method that clearly results in great products (ex: the Simpsons, LotR, etc).

As for Star Wars, I think it makes way more sense that Greedo shot first.  Can't comment on the other changes since I don't care that much to even know what they are.

I'm totally expecting some sort of "tech" to invade Zelda soon.  They've been skirting around the edges of it for a long time.  I'd love to travel into the far future once or twice in a Zelda game.  They could make it work.  Give Link a beam-sword!

BE THE #1 RANKED ASSASSIN IN HYRULE

Past the gates of Hyrule lies THE GARDEN OF MADNESS

There was already some anachronism in TP with the magnet thingies.

Link needs super missiles.

Magic!

I thought the anachronism started with the camera in Wind Waker.

Link with a gun isn't really that farfetched (not to say that it's a good idea).  He's always had bombs, and that weird clown guy in Twilight Princess was able to make a giant cannon he could shoot dudes out of.  I don't see why they couldn't make a gun if they put their minds to it.

The hookshot is pretty technologically advanced as well, especially in the way it seems to defy gravity and sometimes has a laser sight.

I do enjoy how much everyone complains about every Zelda being pretty much the same, but then when Nintendo actually has a new idea, they bitch even more.

But a gun isn't a good idea, it's a fucking horrible one. No-one is going to shoot down good ideas.

Good ideas are shot down all the time. It's called corporate mindset.

Take a magic wand, bend it in the middle, voilà, gun.

Yeah, I was thinking. From a gameplay perspective, a gun would just be a faster version of the bow. It's not hard to imagine Link using a magical/steampunk-looking gun, but it's harder to imagine a reason why it'd be necessary.

The camera debuted in Majora's Mask.

Link's Awakening has f*cking telephones.

I didn't find the magnet boots in TP even remotely out of place.  The world of Zelda isn't devoid of technology.  It just isn't modern technology.  A gun actually could fit in a world where gunpowder clearly exists.  But it would probably look like some sort of old pirate gun.  There's a big difference between an old timey gun that Link gets from an excentric inventor and a modern gun Link gets from the future.

I wouldn't be totally against the idea of a futuristic Zelda provided the whole thing takes place in a future world.  It's the mixture of the two that would bother me.  But cyberpunk Legend of Zelda could be cool provided they don't make Link some emo metrosexual Square Enix type of character.

To be fair, Link's Awakening is (spoiler tags just in case there are actually goons out there that haven't played the game) a dream... :cool;

Yeah, I wouldn't mind this at all, though something that is still archaic, like an "Industrial Revolution"-esque setting, is what I would want the most...

NO STEAMPUNK ZELDA. THAT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA.  STEAMPUNK IS THE NEW EMO.

I bet the real reason the gun idea was shot down was that someone on the team remembered that guns couldn't be brought back in time in Terminator.  :)

There's already a lot of steampunk in Zelda.  It's just not the focus.  The team just puts in whatever makes the gameplay work.

Frankly, more standard bow & arrow play with Wii Pointy is welcome.

Like Jack Krauser Kill Everyone meets Rambo Hood.

I always thought it was stupid how they made a big deal about how only living tissue can go through the time portal and yet the Terminator is quite clearly a robot wrapped in human flesh.  So if I sewed a gun under my skin I could bring it with me?  The funny thing is the psychiatrist in the film even calls Reese on that and he gives a really unsatisfying answer that sounds like something a demented person would make up to explain his delusions.  The only reason it makes sense to the audience is because we know he's telling the truth as the Terminator quite clearly made it through the time portal. :)

Why would you sew a gun under your skin?  Why not just wrap the gun up in someone else's skin?  Sounds a lot less painful (for you, anyway).

... this is my rifle, this is my gun ... this is for fighting, this is for fun ...

No good.  I thought about just making a gun cover out of skin but I think "living tissue" is an important element.  So a dead skin cover probably wouldn't work.  Thus you have to hide the weapon within yourself like how the Terminator hides his robot body under living tissue.

It's all moot thought because it's clear that the Bill and Ted method is the TRUE form of time travel.

Yeah, no hiding rifles up the A

Or just make a "living" gun, though that'd be kind of disgusting...

that'd be like holding a lukewarm hotdog w/ bun.

They already made a futuristic Zelda game, Star Fox Adventures.

Link's Awakening DX was the debut of the camera.

Every Zelda has had a camera otherwise how would we know what was going on

Eh, Zelda II introduced elevators and no one seems to have minded.

Nobody remembers that game beyond Mr. Error.

Bill: Even so Link would have to know what a telephone IS.

Something like a 1930s sci-fi style lightning rifle might work though if it looks sufficiently mad scientist like.

It wasn't his dream... =)

They had no visible means of working, so they were just magic platforms.  It's basically the reverse of Clarke's 3rd Law, i.e. any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Death to the demoness Allegra Geller! Long live the new flesh -- long live eXistenZ!

Reading this sentence to myself gives me an uncontrollable urge to scream and go into convulsions.  SFA not only is a sh!tty game but is an incredibly historic sh!tty game.  It marks the end of Star Fox as a worthwhile franchise and end of Rare as a worthwhile developer.  It's a rare game where you could honestly say that if it had never existed that gaming history would have turned out better.

Anyway I was thinking a literal futuristic Zelda game, made by EAD, with characters named Link and Zelda in some place called Hyrule but in a completely different setting.  Lasers, spaceships, the whole bit.  It would be incredibly ballsy for Nintendo to do it but I think it would turn out pretty cool.  It would give them a lot of flexibility to do whatever they want without reusing the same locales again and again.

QFT.

Square did it with The Spirits Within. Kinda.

It's called Star Wars.

Actualy they pretty much did do it with Final Fantasy VI.  The previous Final Fantasy's were set in a clear fantasy setting with swords and wizards and such.  Final Fantasy VI has technology like mechs in it.  Then in Final Fantasy VII they took it even further.

Though I'm sure even mentioning Final Fantasy is going to get some people here in an uproar.

I don't really care if they do it or don't but it would be neat.  Or maybe can do a switch-theme and have a Zelda style adventure in a sci-fi setting and a Metroid style first person adventure in a fantasy setting.

They kind of started that in the first game.  The "Sky Castle" is a robot-filled space station.

I'd like to see Nintendo try a sci-fi Zelda in everything but name.  Attaching the Zelda name to the project would just create too many expectations.  Applying the formula to a new franchise would allow them the freedom to be truly creative.

I think if you toss out 90% of what makes a franchise you should go and toss the last 10% too. It just gets awkward if you try to keep things after changing that much (and there's always the temptation to add more similarities which often ends up stupid). Plus the Zelda storyline (like most if not all long-standing Nintendo franchises) is pretty lame anyway, it feels really shoehorned when a recent Zelda game tries to maintain the basic Zelda story while attempting to add depth to match modern expectations. "Evil wizard kidnaps princess and lone hero must save her" was good enough in 198sumthing but these days people expect a story that's more interesting and the whole triforce thing seems to be more of an impairment than an asset lately.

Well, it's not the story that I want them to keep.  I'd just like to see Nintendo apply their strengths in new ways.  If Miyamoto really thought giving Link a raygun would make for a fun game, but there was no way to fit that into the Zelda setting, then maybe he should replace Link with a new character who can use a raygun and who lives in a world where rayguns already exist.

Come to think of it, isn't that basically what he did to Metroid Prime?

Well yeah but a similar premise does not necessarily result in a similar game, depending on how it plays out the game could be nothing like Metroid.

all this mention of reagan has me soo hot right now

YOU TAKE THAT BACK, IT WOULD BE AWESOME!

Besides, I always thought the very first anachronism was obviously bombs.

It doesn't need to be steampunk, just medieval-level mechanics. Davinci sort of stuff.

Nah, Metroid has always had one big difference.  Metroid games are like Zelda games where the entire world is one big dungeon.  I like both series for similar reasons but Zelda having NPCs and villages and sidequests and such makes for a big difference in the atmosphere.  Some parts in Zelda feel safe.  Metroid never feels safe.

But if Nintendo wants to make a third person adventure game with Zelda-style gameplay in a setting where Zelda doesn't fit that would be great.  They did do that on the NES with Star Tropics.  I don't really think they would ever do it though.  These days Nintendo really does think in a franchise first mentality.  If they design a game and feel they can associate it with one of their franchises they will.  So if they design something that plays like Zelda they're going to make it a Zelda game.  Or they would make it an F-Zero spinoff or a third person 3D Metroid game.  They probably would be very relunctant to make The Adventures of Some Unfamiliar Character.  Future Zelda is probably the best option for something like that in terms of how creative the world would be.  Captain Falcon Adventures for example would probably play well but would just re-use the characters from F-Zero X and GX.  Future Zelda allows Nintendo to put a familiar name on the game but not be restricted by the fan expectations for the franchise.  Aside from Link, Zelda, Hyrule and the Triforce and likely Ganon they could do whatever they want.

Gunpowder has been around for at least 2000 years... =)

JUST THINK OF ALL THE BLOOM EFFECTS THEY COULD USE

I do find it weird that the Zelda games, despite supposedly taking place hundreds of years apart, all seem to be stuck in the same era. I liked that Twilight Princess at least took a couple small steps toward an almost Victorian look.

Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Future

Actually i thought the Twilight Palace/Temple looked pretty sci-fi-ish. The Glowing markings all over the place was a big contrast from the other visuals in the game.

the more we talk about this the more I want it and the less likely Nintendo will do it so stop now please.


On SFA, to each his own I suppose. Being one who LOVED the game, also really liked Zelda II BTW, but I was mostly kidding in my post.


To be serious though I think it would be awesome of Nintendo did update Zelda into a futuristic setting like Ian is talking about, it would really get fans in an uproar thought and force them to go back and do a "safe" Zelda again latter on. Maybe that is what Miyamoto meant when he said TW will be the last "conventional Zelda"?


Edit: Fixed spelling mistake, damn I don't know how I missed that.

More like Legend of Zelda: Back to the Future

NOW WITH HOVERBOARDS

SPINNING HOVERBOARDS!?!?!?

I"M THERE!

In the past technology didn't advance as quickly as it does today.  The Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted over 3000 years and yet it all seems to be in same era.  I'm sure some Egyptologist will say otherwise but to the average Joe it sure looks like it is, at least as much as Zelda does.

Ditto with Biblical times.  The Bible takes place over thousands of years but it all appears to be in the same era.

It's not just that. Zelda is supposed to be a timeless epic. It isn't a historical document, it's a legend, and a legend is basically the same basic concepts of good and evil everytime. That's why Zelda can never have a complex modern storyline because the fairy-tale-like clarity of the legend will be lost in the process.

... I guess that could take place in the future, but it wouldn't take place in a complex future, but a future that mirrored the moral and physical simplicity of Hyrule.

Nintendo isn't selling a legend, they're selling a videogame.

The ending to that movie was so terrible.