Japanese technology giant Nintendo has unveiled its lineup of video game released for 2016 for its Wii U and 3DS game consoles, including a number of popular titles such as Hyrule Warriors Legends, Star Fox Zero, and Pokken Tournament, reported Shack News.
The Hyrule Warriors Legends and the Star Fox Zero are both scheduled for launch in the first quarter of next year while Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam and Pokken Tournament is expected to hit the shelves spring 2016.
However, one game that is missing with a confirmed 2016 release is The Legend of Zelda game for Wii U. Shack News said, "We noticed its absence when Nintendo released its quarterly financial earnings report in July, and the title still has a 'TBD' (to be determined) associated with its release. Even though this could mean Nintendo might not be able to deliver The Legend of Zelda in time for 2016, adding it to its 2016 release schedule still gives us hope the game will make its debut some time next year."
A separate report by Design and Trend has also dismissed speculations that Nintendo has already scheduled a release date for the high-fantasy action-adventure video game. It added that the Japanese video game company has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda game for Wii U is still in development.
Long-time series producer Eiji Aonuma also denied rumors that the recent release of The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes on 3DS is the reason for the delay in the release of The Legend of Zelda game for Wii U and insisted that each game has its own team of developers.
"We actually have different teams. Sometimes people on the handheld team do work on the consoles, but for this it was a separate team. I want to assure you that the Wii U Zelda was not delayed in any way because of Triforce Heroes," Aonuma told Game Spot.
He went on to say, "Putting this game together, I was assured that multiplayer Zelda can be fun. And in the future, it would be great to implement this again and maybe think of new ways to try it."
But the Game Spot interview, together with Triforce Heroes" director Hiromasa Shikata was very short on details about future development of The Legend of Zelda game for Wii U and the franchise as a whole.
In another interview with IGN Aonuma promised that The Legend of Zelda for Wii U game will feature a "surprise" twist that will address criticisms received by the earlier Wii platform game in the series, Skyward Sword.
"We actually had some feedback from Skyward Sword, where people were saying, 'This is not exactly the Zelda game I was looking for, I was looking for a bigger open world'. Unfortunately, I can't go into details but I'm hoping to put a surprise, or kind of a twist, on my view of an open world game. I hope that you'll look forward to it."
