New Zelda name, trailer

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 May, 2005

Sorry, WHO is a werewolf!?

As well as unveiling Revolution and Game Boy Micro today, Nintendo also took the opportunity to push its biggest remaining GameCube title, The Legend of Zelda.

You're bound to see the trailer itself online soon enough - and indeed can now if you download our video of the conference from Eurofiles - so we won't spoil it, but it did introduce a few very interesting points.

Chief amongst these was the name, which is now confirmed as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And twilight is clearly a significant theme, because in addition to the horseback fighting by night and other themes, it became apparent during this year's trailer that Link is, in fact, some sort of werewolf. No we're not making it up.

At a certain point in the trailer, he morphs into a wolf-like creature, and a catlike woman then mounts him and rides around, fighting enemies and clearly navigating dungeons. It's intriguing, and we hope to learn much more about it this week as we get to actually play Twilight Princess on the E3 show floor.

Closing a press conference is a difficult art, but Nintendo seems to have hit upon a formula that works: run a Zelda trailer. And, not content with the whooping and hollering this sort of practice generally prompts, this year the company showed the trailer and then brought out producer Eiji Aonuma, who didn't say anything about the game but did tell us that the trailer would be distributed on DS game cards to all of us after the event. Yep.

It's okay; we'd hate us too if we were in your position.

We'll bring you impressions of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess later in the week.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • itamae #1 7 years ago

    "At a certain point in the trailer, he morphs into a wolf-like creature, and a catlike woman then mounts him and rides around, ..."


    /wipes tea from screen

    She what and what now? :-D

  • Freek #2 7 years ago

    That's not even the half of it, the midget cat women has a hat out of wich an orange claw apears with wich you can atack enemies.

    So much for all the "it's realistic so no more stylised orignal gameplay elements" comments.

  • petebritish #3 7 years ago

    looks superb would just like to see a definite release date for the UK.

    I remember last years E3 and seeing the 1st trailer.No more trailers Nintendo, just get the game out already!!

  • freedumb #4 7 years ago

    'So much for all the "it's realistic so no more stylised
    orignal gameplay elements" comments.'

    Why anyone would want a Zelda game to be realistic is beyond me. The whole concept is that of a fantasy other-world, full of surreal elements, whether its cel-shaded or not. Its supposed to be more imaginative than realistic, is it not?
    Edited by freedumb at 17/05/05 @ 22:38

  • Killerbee #5 7 years ago

    This and Final Fantasy XII are probably the top two games I'm looking forward to over the next year or so. Looks as though the Gamecube will at least bow out with one last hurrah.

    Any news on when it's actually due out?

  • Chtulie #6 7 years ago

    Been playing the trailer over, and over, and over...

    A thought, here's kinda hoping for the next one (after this one) that they'll go for a Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Totoro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicäa, the forthcoming Howl's Moving Castle, etc. etc.) styling, I mean, everythen else in the Zelda games since they went 3d feels a lot like a videogame excursion into that same realm of imagination Miyazaki seems to be a resident of. By now Hyrule, through all it's incidental information rich detail (the jewelry, the armour, the embroidery, and so on), seems as rich and almost as real as an imagined nation and culture in a Mayazaki movie.

    Now, back to watch that trailer again and again and again and again...

  • twinbee #7 7 years ago

    Some of the puffs of smoke are also cel shaded :p

  • binky #8 7 years ago

    This better be out before 360 and ps3 swallow it whole :/

  • AnotherMartin #9 7 years ago

    afaik it's using a modified Wind Waker engine, so I'd be suprised if we didn't see some cell shading in there, or at least be reminded of it.

    Looks great either way, can't wait.

  • smelly #10 7 years ago

    "afaik it's using a modified Wind Waker engine, so I'd be
    suprised if we didn't see some cell shading in there, or at
    least be reminded of it. "

    There's a HELL of a lot more to a games engine than the graphics. Graphics rendering probs only really takes up about 1% of the engine.

  • gamesb*tch #11 7 years ago



    An appearance by She-woman cat-type thing? Her super power is to be sick on your slippers??

  • skybluesam86 #12 7 years ago

    I love those small cel-shaded elements. Look stunning.

  • tiddles #13 7 years ago

    yup, looks like they've kept some of the cell-shading for effects and some details on the characters (perhaps to distinguish between "real world" characters and more spirit-y types?). Personally, I think it's going to work really well - those who want a more "solid" Zelda will be happy, while the beautiful stylisation of Wind Waker will still play a role. Can't wait for this one... and it's actually on a console that exists! ;)

  • jawolf #14 7 years ago

    looks beautiful, it in some ways reminds me of Ico in some areas(lighting and the design on the cube thingy that comes out of sky). Come on Zelda Twilight Princess and Wanda and The Collusus, we need some _fun_ .

  • Teeth #15 7 years ago

    "Graphics rendering probs only really takes up
    about 1% of the engine."

    lol, you what?

  • ProfessorLesser #16 7 years ago

    Damn, and I thought Krystal was gonna die with Starfox Assault...

  • Burton2000 #17 7 years ago

    the whole wolf thing is simple if u watch it cosely

    one day while walking thru the woods he is turned into a wolf by some mysterius power. he is then some how take to a tower and locked up while he is a wolf. then the cat like thing comes in thru a vent and helps wolf link excape and to repay the debt he lets the cat like thing ride on his back while hes a wolf. posibly this cat like thing will b the new navi goin hey whats that hello and generaly winding u up.

  • Tonka #18 7 years ago

    I like the name. It's less susceptible to puns than 'Wind Waker' (my italics) and apparently it hints to some Lady Hawkesque Japanese story.

  • Tweakmonkey #19 7 years ago

    This looks amazing. Is there any other game that looks as rich as this? I'll be importing this one on release.

  • siro #20 7 years ago

    The Miyazaki Style is certainly beautiful, but would it fit? I can't imagine any other game with graphics like those but a traditional 2D adventure (which btw I'd play for sure, then).

    Hmm, on the other Hand the past sequences in Howl's moving castle with its nice green and colorful flowers certainly fits the Zelda-bill.

  • Burton2000 #21 7 years ago

    now it all makes sence y a wolf was howling at the end of the second trailer released.

  • timo180 #22 7 years ago

    Not to be pushy, but are we going to see EG's impressions of the Zelda E3 demo(s)?

  • Galvanizer #23 7 years ago

    I hope you guys realise that Eigi Aonuma is a BIG fan of Miyazaki's movies. Hint why Zelda games seem to relate to them so much?