For those of you who weren’t satisfied with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (and there were a lot of you … we know) Nintendo has finally decided to cowboy up and admit that they are working on a brand new Zelda game for the Wii. When we will see the first official announcement for this game? This summer’s E3! More importantly, it is going to be a major change from other chapters in the Zelda franchise. Unlike other Zelda games, this game will actually be … Easy? Wait, wait, wait, what???

Yes, apparently the most casual action adventure game out there just isn’t casual enough for the big wigs at Nintendo. Miyamoto, father Nintendo himself, said that this new Zelda will be taken in a different direction. Other Zelda games arise via expanding off a concept video. This Zelda game had the concept before the first video demo was ever made. That concept? Easy!

Apparently, Nintendo thinks that Zelda’s big flaw is that it simply isn’t accessible to most gamers. So they have been on a big research kick, trying to find “new ways to play” this old series. Apparently the first fruits of this new design philosophy were the DS touch controlled Zelda games, but Miyamoto thinks they can do even better. “We are trying to make Zelda, which has become very complicated, easier to play,” he said, confirming that Nintendo is trying to reach the lowest common denominator with their new Zelda title. Congratulations Miyamoto you have just kicked Zelda off of the short list of hardcore titles your system had going for it.

Eiji Aonuma, producer of the Zelda franchise, had a different take on the whole Zelda change. Apparently, he feels as if Zelda has just gotten old. The same old action adventure formula can only keep gamers amused for so long. Aonuma wants to find new and different ways for gamers to play Zelda, ways that portray the whole series in a different light. That’s a pretty cool plan, but we all remember the last time Nintendo did something like that to the Zelda franchise. That was Zelda 2, and there hasn’t been a departure from the original Zelda series formula since.

Hopefully Zelda’s new direction isn’t something that just panders to casual gamers. We know that they are basically a goldmine, but Zelda has one of the strongest fan followings out there. If Nintendo takes away the hardcore aspects of Zelda that made the franchise good in the first place, they will have a lot of angry fans on their hands. Either way, we will give you the latest updates on the Zelda franchise as they become available from E3 this summer.

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