What About a Zelda Racing Game?

[Zemen]

I'm not at all surprised that Nintendo hasn't tried to do this. How would they do this? The "vehicles" would be like sail boats, horses and if you're a Goron, rolling. There aren't enough main characters for the game to have enough characters to actually be chosen. It would HAVE to be non-canonical because they would need to take characters from each game to have enough drivers to choose from and that obviously would be impossible in a canon racing game. There would also need to be an actual storyline behind it. The whole Mario idea of him just wanting to compete for fun would NOT work in a Zelda racing game. There would have to be something that some evil doer is up to that forces the characters to race to save Hyrule or something, and again, that's hard to do when the canon characters would collide into one game. Also, I'm going back to this, there are not enough vehicle possibilities for this. The courses would be pretty boring, IMO. I've always though that unless it's a Mario game, all games go to racing as a last resort because the series is dying.

Think of the Kirby racing games....terrible. Sonic has been in a real downturn lately and they had a couple racing games that are also HORRIBLE.

Zelda needs to stick with medieval, plot filled fighting. A medieval racing game just would not work out, IMO.

 

[Shnappy]

This is a pretty interesting idea. There are reasons that it could be good, and reasons it could be bad. I personally voted yes, but there are two ways that I could look at it.

Yes! There should be a Zelda Racing Game - A "Zelda Kart" would help promote the series. It really helped the Mario series, along with many other Mario spin-offs, but Mario Kart Wii is one of the most popular Wii games that families own. It's a simple racing game that isn't too hard or violent for small children. Zelda obviously isn't as popular as Mario, and a Zelda Kart would get more people interesting in the other great Zelda games. There are also plenty of characters to use. It would be great with TWW graphics. We could use Link, Zelda, Gannondorf, Tetra, Makar, Medli, and many others. The tracks could also be cool. You could ride through different terrains from various Zelda games, from the 8 bit fields in LoZ to the different Provinces in TP. There could be items to pick up along the race, such as Bombchus, similar to red shells in Mario Kart, there could be the bow, slingshot, and many others. You could unlock new characters, race tracks, and maybe even some of those can be cameos from other Nintendo franchises!


No, it wouldn't be a very good idea to make a Zelda Racing game. - Zelda isn't enough of a cartoony, humorous game to be made into something similar to Mario Kart. Zelda is hardcore compared to Mario's cartoony characters. Zelda is too old to be made into a racing game. Zelda was set in medieval times and a car with a motor just really doesn't fit. It would be hard to set most fields in Zelda to fit a race track, the only ones that could fit would be maybe the Goron Race in MM or the Yeti race in TP. Also, to slap a big checkered rectangle across Hyrule and have a big banner saying FINISH really doesn't fit.

As you can see, I can look at this thing two ways. If they made something like this, I would probably buy it. Heck, I would probably enjoy it. If I enjoy Mario Kart, I would actually probably enjoy something like this even more, as I like Zelda more than Mario. Sure, there will be flaws. But with each of those flaws comes an enjoyable and beneficial feature. Go for it, Nintendo. I'd like to see you try.

 

[zzRICHzz]

how about a spin-off goron racing game?? or i guess they could have made a couple more courses during the goron races in MM

 

[Midna666]

Link has a clean record. No stupid mini-games, cameoes ( other than Soul Caliber, but he owned on that ) unlike Mario, who has Party, Tennis, etc.

Let Link do what he is good at; saving Zelda.

You forgot about Link's Crossbow Training.
Which was a gimmick game, which was only made so people would buy the Wii gun thing.

 

[angelkid]

I have another thought. This could be done, as individual races, each from different games with set characters from the individual games. It would be kinda like lumping together all the zelda races into one game ans making some more.

For example, you could be Link, snowboarding down Snowpeak Mountain. Or you could be WW Link, riding your deku leaf as far as you can without dropping in the water, against ruto men. You could take the WW boat racing course (the one where you have to jump over as many barrels as possible and collect all the rupees.) As Tetra. You could play the Goron racing game from MM. You could even play the OoT Link on Epona race against the ranch owner. Also, there would also be a WHOLE bunch of new races made just for the game.

My only main problem with a Zelda racer would be that obviously, they couldnt use carts, given that it is medieval. So, they would have to use horses or something, and this would just be so so sooooooo slow compared to something like Mario kart. I therefore think it would lose alot of the fun that Mario kart has.

 

[linebyline]

I don't know. I like the idea of each character having their own unique, final-smash-like powerup attack. It reminds me somewhat of the character-specific items in Double Dash.

However, I'm firmly in the camp that says that a Zelda-themed racing game is not a good fit for the series. Instead, I'd rather see some other Nintendo franchises, Zelda included of course, in MarioKart every once in a while. Maybe even make a Super Smash Kart. It's not that much of a stretch: Blue Falcon already appeared in MarioKart Wii.

 

[angelkid]

It's not that much of a stretch: Blue Falcon already appeared in MarioKart Wii.

I never saw this :S. where? I'm pretty sure its only mario characters in mario kart unfortunately. I wish they include some other characters. Even just a cameo.

 

[basement24]

I never saw this :S. where? I'm pretty sure its only mario characters in mario kart unfortunately. I wish they include some other characters. Even just a cameo.

Blue Falcon's the ship / car he drives. It's one of the unlockable vehicles in the game (I believe it's a light-level car?) Captain Falcon (the man himself) is not in the game though.

 

[Zemen]

Blue Falcon's the ship / car he drives. It's one of the unlockable vehicles in the game (I believe it's a light-level car?) Captain Falcon (the man himself) is not in the game though.

That's a little different than there actually being the character in the game. The only way I would like to Link or any Zelda character in a racing game is if they made a Super Smash Kart game which would be like super smash bros with a bunch of nintendo characters except it would be almost exactly like mario kart just with different items and more variety of tracks. Zelda should not have its own racing game. Period.

 

[Immortal_One]

You have some solid ideas with a good basis, but I don't know if racing game would fit Zelda's theme. I feel like the Zelda series is one that is more serious and deeper in ideas than, say the Super Mario Series. I feel like wherever Link is, he has to make his setting serious and solemn. Even in SSBM and SSBB, he gave the sort of "Silent Hero" feel to the games.

I just feel like racing games are good for games that yield more "fun" rather than games that evoke thought and emotion. What I'm trying to say is that the Zelda series seems too serious for a racing game.

 

[Zemen]

You have some solid ideas with a good basis, but I don't know if racing game would fit Zelda's theme. I feel like the Zelda series is one that is more serious and deeper in ideas than, say the Super Mario Series. I feel like wherever Link is, he has to make his setting serious and solemn. Even in SSBM and SSBB, he gave the sort of "Silent Hero" feel to the games.

I just feel like racing games are good for games that yield more "fun" rather than games that evoke thought and emotion. What I'm trying to say is that the Zelda series seems too serious for a racing game.

This is kinda what I was trying to say earlier. The Mario spin offs (tennis, golf, kart) are all cutesy games. Their "plot" always is "Hey, everyone! I know that a lot of us hate each other *glance at Mario and Bowser*, but let's take a break from our fight to save/take over the world and golf/play tennis/race go-karts." And this plot ALWAYS works because Bowser, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Bowser are all comedic villains. Bowser, for instance, always acts outside of his normal villainy to "help" Mario on multiple occasions. Wario is greedy and on more than one occasion his greed is the fuel for him to save the world (he's called upon to stop some evil forces and gets lots of treasure along the way). Waluigi really needs his own game. The point is, those characters aren't the "hardcore, kill everyone" villains that Ganon, or any other villain in the Zelda series, is. The Mario villains don't kill people.

Now here is how this would work out in the Zelda world.

"Hey, Ganon! Want to have a horseback race?" *Ganon looks at you....throws a glowing ball your way that kills you...steals the master sword, destroys it, takes over the world*

It wouldn't work because there is nothing in it for Ganondorf. Him winning a race doesn't decide whether he takes over the world and it doesn't get him vast fortune and fame and he doesn't care about having fun. It only works in Mario because those villains can gain something from it. Bowser gains some sort of fame which he likes because he's full of himself. Wario and Waluigi want the trophies, probably because it's treasure to them. Ganondorf doesn't need the fame (he's already infamous) and he doesn't need the treasure (as he could probably get it with easier methods). It would need, probably, the most well thought out storyline of any game in the series to make it work. Do you really want that thought power wasted on a racing game?

 

[basement24]

"Hey, Ganon! Want to have a horseback race?" *Ganon looks at you....throws a glowing ball your way that kills you...steals the master sword, destroys it, takes over the world*

LOL, this is true. For some reason, I believe that Bowser would enter a go kart race, but Ganondorf would stare at you with an "are you serious?" glare before killing you. I think it works in Smash Brothers though because it's about fighting and trying to destroy your opponent in battle. It fits the ideas of Zelda a bit better than Kart racing would.

 

[Immortal_One]

LOL, this is true. For some reason, I believe that Bowser would enter a go kart race, but Ganondorf would stare at you with an "are you serious?" glare before killing you. I think it works in Smash Brothers though because it's about fighting and trying to destroy your opponent in battle. It fits the ideas of Zelda a bit better than Kart racing would.

It's also hard for me to swallow the idea of the inhabitants of Hyrule being able to use things like cars and trains. It took me a while before I could accept the idea of Spirit Tracks, actually.

 

[dur.i.am]

In my opinion this is another area that is best left unexplored by Nintendo, It will make a mockery of the Zelda Series and it look like another sign of weakness to other companies. I don't think Nintendo will bother putting Link in any games that are not directly a Zelda game unless it is the next Super Smash Bros. Brawl or even maybe Soul Caliber will make a come back to nintendo and Link will be in it again like in Soul Caliber 2.

I think that this if made would be another failure of a game like Link's Crossbow Training, I don't know many people that actually bought this game, Infact I don't think I know anybody that did. I know plenty of people though that bought the main stream Zelda games though, I think that Nintendo should put their efforts into making a new Zelda game for the Wii.

I think that Nintendo could make a racing game that is similar to Mariokart that would have different characters from the Nintendo games but I think this would also be a waste of Nintendo's time, Money, Thought and effort and also a waste of Nintendo's fans time and money. They really should just stick to making main stream Zelda games.

 

[(◕‿◕✿)]

A Zelda Racing Game is definitely not something I would look forward to or like to purchase. I think it's fine with the other games, but I just can't see it working with Zelda.

In my opinion, Zelda is more serious (depending upon the game, and the way you look at it, of course) and considering the dominant element being that of fantasy, I really would not like to see Zelda characters racing around Hyrule in Go Karts. Nonetheless, I do not mind seeing the characters in other games alongside other Nintendo characters, but I wouldn't want a racing game - or spin-off for that matter - which primary basis is Zelda. I think it would sort of delute the sense of fantasy and timelessness of the series.