Author: John Lortie

Parts of the Eastern United States are currently swarmed by periodical cicadas, a kind of cicada that appears every 13 to 17 years. The insects spend the majority of their lives underground before surfacing for a handful of weeks as adults to reproduce and further the cycle. Their short time above ground gives scientists little chance to study the behavior and changes that have occurred within the bugs since the last emergence. However, researchers studying periodical cicadas have a secret…

Nintendo’s recently published Switch 2 sales forecast anticipates 15 million consoles sold by March 2026. On paper, The Big N seems positioned to meet, if not eclipse, that projection. Considering more than 2.2 million people entered the Japan-exclusive Switch 2 purchase lottery, there’s definitely demand for the new system! The original Switch is still doing well, too, with 152.12 million sold across its hardware revisions. The company has certainly proven that the basic concept of the Switch and its successor,…

Nintendo has spent recent years “breaking Zelda’s conventions.” The Era of the Wild gave us, among other gameplay changes, an open world, non-linear progression, weapon durability, a dedicated jump button, and a softer focus on dungeons. Echoes of Wisdom meanwhile featured a playable Zelda, dungeons to tackle in any order, puzzles with seemingly infinite solutions, and more. That’s not to say that Zelda’s conventions weren’t broken before 2017’s Breath of the Wild. Four Swords introduced multiplayer, which was brought back in…

Hyrule’s hero wears a Green Tunic and a matching hat. For decades, this statement helped define Zelda. While Link would occasionally don a different color to boost his stats or provide him environmental abilities, the base clothing for each game was always his trusty green garb. That’s changed in the last four Zelda games (I’m counting Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity here to help illustrate my point). Now, that standard green tunic is a reward for completing a challenge. Breath…

The wait for the Zelda movie is a little more bearable now that we know its release date of March 26th, 2027. You can mark it on your calendar and anticipate buying your ticket. You can also look forward to learning more about it between now and then, since any other details we know surround its initial announcement. In the meantime, let us direct your attention to The Legend of Zelda: Rising Darkness, a fan-made feature film that might help tide…

Have you heard? We’re getting a Hyrule Warriors game set during Tears of the Kingdom’s Imprisoning War! Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a canonical Zelda story coming to Switch 2 later this year. It promises to bring all the hack and slash, player-versus-army mechanics of the prior two Hyrule Warrior titles to the founding of the Era of the Wild’s Hyrule. Comments I’ve seen online show the news of Age of Imprisonment took many of us by surprise. When…

The Minish Cap’s Wind Tribe’s existence didn’t begin in the sky. Its people lived on the land before turning their sights skyward to protect the Wind Element. Those same folks then left Hyrule to live in the clouds high above the kingdom.  The Wind Tribe isn’t Zelda’s only sky-dwelling group, nor is it the first in the series’ timeline. It was, however, the first one to make an appearance in a Zelda game. I was awestruck when I played The…

Nintendo of America’s Vice President of Product and Player Experience, Bill Trinen, confirmed the prices of Breath of the Wild’s and Tears of the Kingdom’s Switch 2 upgrade packs while talking to IGN. The interview covered an array of topics relating to the new console and the games announced for it. When asked about the thought process behind pricing of upgrade packs, Trinen included in his answer: For somebody who has bought Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the…

Part of The Legend of Zelda’s appeal to me is its replayability. No matter where I am in my life, I can boot up any given Nintendo system and launch into a realm I know and love. I enjoy my regular romps through Link’s Awakening, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Ocarina of Time. I’m willing to bet you have at least one or two Zelda games you return to occasionally. Today, we’re looking at the other ones – the games…

The Zelda series has some great music. It’s inspired countless musicians, composers, and arrangers. It’s played in concerts around the world. And while not everyone likes every piece that’s come from the series, many adore much of it. Not all Zelda music is equal (as we’ll see in the Musical March Madness), and neither are the scores of the series’ games. For today’s Daily Debate, we’re asking you which Zelda soundtrack rises above the rest to stand the test of…