Zelda 3DS (A Link to the Past 2) Has a “Big Suprise” at the Beginning, More Details

As we approach E3 more and more interviews are going to be done with a specific focus on games coming out in the later half of the year. One of the most highly anticipated games for the 3DS this fall is the all new Legend of Zelda game, which doesn’t have an official title yet (A Link to the Past 2 is currently as close as we can get). Eiji Aonuma sat down with Edge magazine to talk about Zelda, and while we reported on the 60 FPS in 3D aspect yesterday there were a few details that slipped through our fingers. Chief among them includes the following quote:

“This new title will feature lots of things that are new to the series; right at the start of the game, there’s a big surprise that will shock players,” he told us. “We started out with the new play mechanics, such as Link being able to become a painting and walk along the walls, and then figured out from there how to build a story around them. Rather than forcing elements of the original story into this one, we’ve instead focused on bringing back the characters, so you can see what happened to them after the events of the first game.” – Eiji Aonuma

That’s not all, he goes on to explain that the ability to become a painting is related to the Dark World itself:

“Part of what made A Link To The Past interesting was the way you could move between the Light World and the Dark World and solve puzzles, and we’re planning to bring that back in A Link To The Past 2 for sure,” he told us. “Link’s ability to become a painting will be related to that.”

He then goes on to talk about how he really wants to work on something besides Zelda for the last decade of his career (appears he plans to retire at 60):

“I’m 50 now, so I only have about ten more years to make games at Nintendo. I want to try all sorts of new things before it’s too late – I don’t want to get to the end of my career and only have worked on Zelda. But every time I come up with some good new ideas, they end up being used in a Zelda game! I need a six-month break to get away from the Zelda cycle and focus on something new [laughs]. But I’d probably end up making a game that’s similar to Zelda; after all, A Link To The Past was my biggest influence.”

I can respect that. Everyone wants to do more than one game for their whole career, right? Besides, with a decade or so left it’s probably time Nintendo starts to groom someone else to take over as the lead on Zelda anyways, just like they had to do with Mario and many of the other long running franchises Nintendo controls.