Countdown to E3: What to Expect from Zelda at E3 2011 (-72 Hours Remain-)

First off, sorry for the downtime this morning guys and girls. It’s time for us to start making it up to you, and we’ll start by stepping up our countdown to E3 – Majora’s Mask style! 72 Hours Remain until Nintendo’s 2011 E3 press conference. Okay, I’ll admit it’s more like 72 Hours and 20 minutes – but you can’t blame us for being keen right?

Yesterday we had a look at everything we’re expecting to see from Nintendo at E3 from Kirby, to Mario to Pikmon and Kafei, but we mentioned nothing of Zelda. That was, of course, because we are a Zelda-focused Nintendo site after all (I think the name gives it away). So stay with us for the full rundown of what we are expecting to see from Zelda at E3 – in its own feature – from the confirmed to the speculative.

Ocarina of Time 3D

It didn’t get a mention during the actual press conference last year, and given that press copies have been distributed, and we already pretty much know everything we’re going to learn pre-release – don’t expect much here. Being scheduled for release later this month what we can expect – if anything – is a final trailer, and a reminder of the release date.

Skyward Sword

We know that last year’s showing of Skyward Sword was little more than a technical demonstration tech demo. With that said, it didn’t go too well with all of the wireless interference. It did dominate the show floor, but don’t be surprised if Nintendo has one more shot at trying to show – on stage – how well the one-to-one controls work. Perhaps like the 3DS, it is more something that you have to see for yourself though.

We’ve been all but officially guaranteed that Skyward Sword is coming exclusively to Wii later in 2011 – so expect either a release date or a general release period. Because this is the last E3 before release, there is going to be a lot more than just gameplay demonstrations thankfully. I would expect a fleshed out trailer, lots of details on the storyline, and clarification for all of the rumors that are flying around. Maybe even details on the kind of help system in the game.

It will no doubt be playable on the show floor, and we should hopefully get a taste of what the live orchestrated soundtrack has in store for us. Pretty much the worst thing we could hear is that Skyward Sword is being delayed for Project Kafei, but frankly, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Be prepared for E3 to tell us very close to everything we’re going to hear about Skyward Sword before its release.

25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda Series

Iwata introduced us to Zelda’s 25th anniversary logo at GDC, and it has been confirmed that some announcement is going to be made at E3. But what could it be? This honestly very nearly has me more excited than Skyward Sword itself. It could be anything. Nintendo has learned from some issues selling the 25th anniversary of Mario bundle – Mario All Stars – and Miyamoto has said he wants to do something different for Zelda.

What does different mean? Is it not going to be a bundle? Is it going to be remakes, a new game – I honestly have no idea, but this is getting me extremely excited. We’ve already got Ocarina of Time 3D and Skyward Sword making 2011 the year of Zelda, but this is going to be even more awesomeness.

Zelda Williams Secret Shooting

We still honestly have no lead on what Zelda William’s secret shooting for Nintendo was about. It might not even be about Zelda! Seriously though, she was named after The Legend of Zelda series, so it is extremely likely that this shooting is Zelda related. A commercial for Skyward Sword maybe.

Perhaps it’s something to do with Zelda’s 25th anniversary, and how the Zelda series has influenced people’s lives (such as getting named after it). We have no idea – although she took a picture and highlighted that they were in a real building but had a greenscreen as the sky. Maybe alluding to Skyward Sword. Hopefully E3 sheds some light on this.

3DS eShop

Link’s Awakening DS is coming sooner or later, and we might very well find out just how soon that will be. In addition to that, there have been mentions of classic Zelda titles being remade in 3D as part of the classics on the eShop. Could we expect the reveal of the original games coming to 3D classics? Will we hear of whether A Link to the Past is being remade in 3D? Maybe.

There’s also the 10 year old Oracle series, which happen to be Game Boy Color games, and eligible for a release on the eShop. It’s yet another thing we may hear of. If Game Boy Advance titles are announced, then The Minish Cap may be amongst them.

And the rest…

Finally we take a step into the area of massive speculation. With Project Kafei getting its reveal, could we expect the announcement of a new HD Zelda game? With the 3DS we could even expect a new Zelda game coming to the new handheld. Both are entirely unknown. It’s a little bit excessive to expect so much from Zelda at E3, but it might all be delivered.

What we know we’re getting is lots more details on Skyward Sword, and the big 25th anniversary announcement. Ocarina of Time may get a passing mention, but it matters little either way. As for everything else – from the eShop, to the 3DS, Kafei and secretive shootings – who knows what we will hear about all of that. Just three days until we find out.