Gossip Stone: Do You Think Nintendo is Actually Planning Any Special Events for Zelda’s 30th Anniversary?

Last month, we all celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Japanese release of The Legend of Zelda on the Famicom. All of us… except Nintendo. The recent Nintendo Direct surprised a lot of fans in a bad way, with a severe lack of Zelda content, even though it would have bee the ideal time to discuss the 30th anniversary. At this point, many worry that we are not going to see any Zelda coverage at all until E3. This would include any possible celebratory events, if there actually are any. Do you think Nintendo will actually be holding any big events for Zelda’s 3rd decade?

Join the discussion after the jump!

I think we can all agree that the Zelda series’ peak of excitement in recent years was the 25th anniversary. New merchandise like Hyrule Historia, a grande new game on the Wii, the Symphony of the Goddesses; it was huge, and everyone was talking about it for years. Now, though, we are faced with the question of what comes next – what else can be done to celebrate. This year, we already know that we will get more of the kinds of things that we got five years ago. More movements with be added to the Zelda Symphony’s shows, more new merchandise like dog tags and trading cards, and of course, the big one, Zelda Wii U. Other than that, though, we have no indication that there will be any sort of big reveals beyond more news on the game we still know so little about. Compare this to the only other Nintendo series matching Zelda’s size: Super Mario. It had it’s 30th anniversary last year, and the only big thing that really came out of that is Super Mario Maker. This was huge, but it was the only notable event for the celebration. Zelda, perhaps, will not be very different. Zelda Wii U has been referred to as a game that will bring change on the scale of Ocarina of Time, so it will be a massive undertaking. Perhaps asking for more – asking for as much as the 25th anniversary – is expecting too much of them.

Now granted, I could be wrong. For all we know, Nintendo could be putting on their hype train pants, preparing to steal the show at E3, bringing us news about some big special event. But honestly, I doubt it. After so much unnecessary secrecy about it, they will need to put so much focus on Zelda Wii U to make the proper impact, and that will leave little room for talking about some other big reveal related to the series. Also, a video I recently viewed by HMK made a very good point: if Nintendo makes their big reveal of Zelda Wii U content at E3, will that leave enough time for them to market towards casual gamers before the release of the game this year? Whether it will or not is up for debate, but the point is, the same could be said about a 30th anniversary celebration. It would be silly to have a big event next year, if the celebration is this year, but would a few months of fan knowledge after E3 be enough time?

What do you guys think? Will Nintendo have some big event this year in celebration of Zelda, or are people getting their hopes a bit high? Drop a comment below.