The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was a historically unique title for Nintendo. Billed early in its life as the Legend of Zelda franchise's last hurrah on the last-place Nintendo GameCube, Twilight Princess sought to recapture the attention of customers Nintendo of America figured were chased off by the cel-shaded first entry on the console, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
As GameCube continued to wane, however, it began to look less and less like Twilight Princess, though highly-anticipated as it was, would be able to lift the console out of its woeful position. Nintendo opted for a new strategy: Twilight Princess would still be released on GameCube, but would also see a release on their upcoming "Revolution" console, now known to the world as Wii. The game would remain the same, but incorporate a control scheme that took advantage of Wii's revolutionary new motion- and position-sensing controller, the Wii Remote.
Fast-forward to Wii's 2006 release. Nintendo upped the ante by labeling the Wii version the "definitive version". The stakes for impatient gamers longing to get their hands on the game after years of Zelda-less torture were raised further by this announcement: the Wii version of the game would release alongside Wii itself, and the GameCube version would not follow until a few weeks afterward. It worked beautifully: nearly every Wii sold in the early launch period was sold with a copy of Twilight Princess.
And yet, though the game was inarguably a success (at least on North American shores), it was also inextricably tied to its roots as a GameCube game. While it took solid advantage of some Wii features to enhance key Zelda actions, aiming items with the Wii Remote's sensor primary among them, it took the easy way out with a number of others—and necessarily so, as the GameCube heritage could not be shaken without creating an effectively new game.
Perhaps the worst offender was the way the sword was handled. Swishing the Wii Remote from side to side had exactly the same effect as pushing the sword button had on the GameCube version. There was no recognition of which way you moved the Remote, no acknowledgment of its capabilities. Nintendo touted immersion here, but it was subject to a serious cognitive disconnect. You would simply be waving the Remote around, yet Link would be performing an intricate sword dance that really had nothing to do with your actions except the number of times you moved the Remote from side to side.
I'm certainly not claiming to be any sort of seer, but still did see this coming. Even before the game saw release, I spent a lot of time in thought, wondering: how would a true Zelda game for Wii be controlled? A game that was, in the tradition of the groundbreaking Ocarina of Time, developed with a game system designed around the hardware, rather than asking the hardware how it can support the existing game system?
These are my blueprints for that game.
My intent with these designs is to utilize the capabilities of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to bring back some of the game's legacy in combat that was inevitably lost in the transition to 3-D that happened with Ocarina of Time, while also making the game more natural to play by deriving nearly everything from the pointing mechanic: point at what you want to affect, and affect it. On top if it all, I'd like to see the classic formula spiced up a bit with some things that would either have been impossible or unwieldy given the old way of doing things.
One of the key things I've done is deemphasize locking on as seen in the Ocarina-debuted Z-targeting system. This move brings with it a new freedom for both player and game designer. Enemies will no longer be required to be designed around the controller-imposed requirement that the player must lock on to them to affect them. The player will be able to instruct Link to strike quickly rather than being required to first engage enemies in what I've affectionately dubbed the Z-target waltz. The result is that combat has the potential to once again be more challenging, enabling the designer to toss multiple enemies at you, all ready to strike quickly, rather than have to program them all to engage you one at a time so as not to overload your Z-target finger.
And even while these mechanics are offering challenge and simplifying interaction, they're also providing new opportunities; opportunities that would hopefully inspire new ideas in the game designers' minds.
To play, you'll pick up the Nunchuk in one hand and the Remote in the other, with the Remote pointed at the screen. As in Twilight Princess, movement is controlled by the analog stick on the Nunchuk. A cursor will appear on the screen where you're pointing with the Remote, taking an iconic form reflecting the action you'll take.
The Remote is where most of the action happens. The directional pad is mapped as if it were a set of four buttons; up opens the item menu, left/right cycle through items, and down is your generic action button. A is used for sword swinging, as will be explained later; similarly, B is the universal item-use button; more on that later as well.
The camera, following behind Link with a properly tuned lag, would normally be cast at a slight downward angle to permit the player to easily point at a number of objects that may be outside of Link's reach, as well as provide an invisible circle around Link that is defined by his reach.
The cursor would change color to indicate whether something was in Link's reach or not. Reach matters primarily when using the sword, but also comes into play with picking up items such as pots and bombs. Such things are picked up (when within reach) by pointing at them with the cursor and tapping down on the directional pad. Tapping it again while the cursor is over Link or within his reach will set the item down; tapping while it's out of Link's reach will cause him to throw the item at that spot.
Of course, you'll need to get alternative views of the situation sometimes. If the camera is following you too slowly, tapping C will immediately center it behind you. Holding C will let you look around by moving the Nunchuk.
Lock-on is still available via Z, but works a little differently; you must point at what you wish to lock on to with the pointer before holding Z. Once locked-on, Link's plane of movement changes to orbit the adversary or feature; however, items and weapons are all still used in the same fashion. (I agonized long about leaving this feature in, considering using Z for a Nunchuk-aimable shield instead; I eventually decided—thanks in part to some convincing from our own Cory Faller—that leaving it in might make for some interesting possibilities from marrying the new ideas here with the old standby.)
At any time, you can draw Link's sword and begin hacking and slashing away by holding the A button and swiping the cursor across the thing you wish to attack—provided the thing is within his reach. Rather than map different kinds of slashes to combinations of sword button and analog stick direction and be at the mercy of the combo animations as to what Link actually did sword-wise, you are now in full control over what kinds of swipes Link performs.
This mechanic creates opportunities not seen since Link to the Past: regular-sized enemies with weak points that Link must strike to defeat them. For example, an enemy with a shield would block all swipes that include its shield; you would be required to swipe at its head or feet to damage it; perhaps you could even trip certain enemies by hacking at their feet, disabling them for the final blow. Other enemies might be adept at blocking horizontal swipes with their own swords; vertical swipes would help bring these guys down. Horizontal swipes could also be used to attack multiple enemies at once, if they've had the misfortune to line up in a row in front of Link's blade.
In addition to vertical swipes, horizontal swipes, and all kinds of diagonal swipes in-between, additional moves would also be possible. Holding A and thrusting the Remote forward will perform a stab. (To negate the change in cursor position that is bound to happen when pushing the Remote forward, the stab would always target precisely where the cursor was when A was first pressed.)
To spice it up even more, we can also pay homage to an old Zelda tradition. When Link's hearts are full, aiming at any point outside of his reach and tapping the A button will fire a beam from his sword at that point. The old Spin Attack can be revived, as well: holding A while pointing the Wii Remote off-screen would charge the sword; once charged appropriately, a horizontal swipe across the entire screen would set off the special move.
As GameCube continued to wane, however, it began to look less and less like Twilight Princess, though highly-anticipated as it was, would be able to lift the console out of its woeful position. Nintendo opted for a new strategy: Twilight Princess would still be released on GameCube, but would also see a release on their upcoming "Revolution" console, now known to the world as Wii. The game would remain the same, but incorporate a control scheme that took advantage of Wii's revolutionary new motion- and position-sensing controller, the Wii Remote.
Fast-forward to Wii's 2006 release. Nintendo upped the ante by labeling the Wii version the "definitive version". The stakes for impatient gamers longing to get their hands on the game after years of Zelda-less torture were raised further by this announcement: the Wii version of the game would release alongside Wii itself, and the GameCube version would not follow until a few weeks afterward. It worked beautifully: nearly every Wii sold in the early launch period was sold with a copy of Twilight Princess.
And yet, though the game was inarguably a success (at least on North American shores), it was also inextricably tied to its roots as a GameCube game. While it took solid advantage of some Wii features to enhance key Zelda actions, aiming items with the Wii Remote's sensor primary among them, it took the easy way out with a number of others—and necessarily so, as the GameCube heritage could not be shaken without creating an effectively new game.
Perhaps the worst offender was the way the sword was handled. Swishing the Wii Remote from side to side had exactly the same effect as pushing the sword button had on the GameCube version. There was no recognition of which way you moved the Remote, no acknowledgment of its capabilities. Nintendo touted immersion here, but it was subject to a serious cognitive disconnect. You would simply be waving the Remote around, yet Link would be performing an intricate sword dance that really had nothing to do with your actions except the number of times you moved the Remote from side to side.
I'm certainly not claiming to be any sort of seer, but still did see this coming. Even before the game saw release, I spent a lot of time in thought, wondering: how would a true Zelda game for Wii be controlled? A game that was, in the tradition of the groundbreaking Ocarina of Time, developed with a game system designed around the hardware, rather than asking the hardware how it can support the existing game system?
These are my blueprints for that game.
An Old Paradigm, A New Strategy
My intent with these designs is to utilize the capabilities of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to bring back some of the game's legacy in combat that was inevitably lost in the transition to 3-D that happened with Ocarina of Time, while also making the game more natural to play by deriving nearly everything from the pointing mechanic: point at what you want to affect, and affect it. On top if it all, I'd like to see the classic formula spiced up a bit with some things that would either have been impossible or unwieldy given the old way of doing things.
One of the key things I've done is deemphasize locking on as seen in the Ocarina-debuted Z-targeting system. This move brings with it a new freedom for both player and game designer. Enemies will no longer be required to be designed around the controller-imposed requirement that the player must lock on to them to affect them. The player will be able to instruct Link to strike quickly rather than being required to first engage enemies in what I've affectionately dubbed the Z-target waltz. The result is that combat has the potential to once again be more challenging, enabling the designer to toss multiple enemies at you, all ready to strike quickly, rather than have to program them all to engage you one at a time so as not to overload your Z-target finger.
And even while these mechanics are offering challenge and simplifying interaction, they're also providing new opportunities; opportunities that would hopefully inspire new ideas in the game designers' minds.
The Basics
To play, you'll pick up the Nunchuk in one hand and the Remote in the other, with the Remote pointed at the screen. As in Twilight Princess, movement is controlled by the analog stick on the Nunchuk. A cursor will appear on the screen where you're pointing with the Remote, taking an iconic form reflecting the action you'll take.
The Remote is where most of the action happens. The directional pad is mapped as if it were a set of four buttons; up opens the item menu, left/right cycle through items, and down is your generic action button. A is used for sword swinging, as will be explained later; similarly, B is the universal item-use button; more on that later as well.
The camera, following behind Link with a properly tuned lag, would normally be cast at a slight downward angle to permit the player to easily point at a number of objects that may be outside of Link's reach, as well as provide an invisible circle around Link that is defined by his reach.
The cursor would change color to indicate whether something was in Link's reach or not. Reach matters primarily when using the sword, but also comes into play with picking up items such as pots and bombs. Such things are picked up (when within reach) by pointing at them with the cursor and tapping down on the directional pad. Tapping it again while the cursor is over Link or within his reach will set the item down; tapping while it's out of Link's reach will cause him to throw the item at that spot.
Of course, you'll need to get alternative views of the situation sometimes. If the camera is following you too slowly, tapping C will immediately center it behind you. Holding C will let you look around by moving the Nunchuk.
Lock-on is still available via Z, but works a little differently; you must point at what you wish to lock on to with the pointer before holding Z. Once locked-on, Link's plane of movement changes to orbit the adversary or feature; however, items and weapons are all still used in the same fashion. (I agonized long about leaving this feature in, considering using Z for a Nunchuk-aimable shield instead; I eventually decided—thanks in part to some convincing from our own Cory Faller—that leaving it in might make for some interesting possibilities from marrying the new ideas here with the old standby.)
Swordplay
At any time, you can draw Link's sword and begin hacking and slashing away by holding the A button and swiping the cursor across the thing you wish to attack—provided the thing is within his reach. Rather than map different kinds of slashes to combinations of sword button and analog stick direction and be at the mercy of the combo animations as to what Link actually did sword-wise, you are now in full control over what kinds of swipes Link performs.
This mechanic creates opportunities not seen since Link to the Past: regular-sized enemies with weak points that Link must strike to defeat them. For example, an enemy with a shield would block all swipes that include its shield; you would be required to swipe at its head or feet to damage it; perhaps you could even trip certain enemies by hacking at their feet, disabling them for the final blow. Other enemies might be adept at blocking horizontal swipes with their own swords; vertical swipes would help bring these guys down. Horizontal swipes could also be used to attack multiple enemies at once, if they've had the misfortune to line up in a row in front of Link's blade.
In addition to vertical swipes, horizontal swipes, and all kinds of diagonal swipes in-between, additional moves would also be possible. Holding A and thrusting the Remote forward will perform a stab. (To negate the change in cursor position that is bound to happen when pushing the Remote forward, the stab would always target precisely where the cursor was when A was first pressed.)
To spice it up even more, we can also pay homage to an old Zelda tradition. When Link's hearts are full, aiming at any point outside of his reach and tapping the A button will fire a beam from his sword at that point. The old Spin Attack can be revived, as well: holding A while pointing the Wii Remote off-screen would charge the sword; once charged appropriately, a horizontal swipe across the entire screen would set off the special move.