As reviews for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds begin to hit, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the game is far from lacking in terms of quality. As a direct follow up to SNES classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, this new top-down game for the Nintendo 3DS is hoping to reinvigorate the formula that the series left behind quite some time ago.
While it's apparently managed to do that (based on our hands-on time with the game), it's now known that Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto didn't initially like the idea. In fact, the iconic game developer heavily criticized the initial pitch for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds by stating that "this sounds like an idea that's 20 years old."
During the latest Iwata Asks, the development team responsible for creating A Link Between Worlds revealed that the initial idea for the game didn't go over well with Miyamoto. Assistant director and lead programmer Shiro Mouri claimed that Miyamoto trashed the original concept; effectively devastating the team.
"As soon as we started the presentation, I could clearly see Miyamoto-san's facial expression rapidly darkening. I thought, "This is bad..." And then at the end he said, "This sounds like an idea that's 20 years old," that was the killing blow. We were down on the floor."
After having the game dismissed by the famed game creator, the team went back to the drawing board. It was during this time period that the concept to link the title to A Link to the Past came forth and, more importantly, the idea to implement the new mechanics that enable Link to turn into a drawing on the wall. As director Hirosama Shikata claims, it was hard to deal with the criticism but Miyamoto gave the team some input that they took to heart.
“He had ripped it apart so badly that I was distraught. We decided to rethink it from the start, and one day when the three of us were having a meeting, I suddenly said, ‘What about having Link enter into walls?’"
“When we showed this to Miyamoto-san, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ We were stoked.”
Even after several more meetings with Miyamoto, the game wasn't green-lit until a definitive formula was nailed down. Looking at the finished product, it appears that the time spent working on the game has panned out for fans. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds still hasn't hit retailers, but the wait won't be much longer for those who've been anticipating a new Zelda title since the release of Skyward Sword.
Do you think the additions were needed, Ranters? Would you have preferred a different type of Zelda title?
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The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds launches for the Nintendo 3DS on November 22, 2013.
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Source: Iwata Asks (via VG247)