In 2020, Nintendo celebrated the 35th anniversary of theSuper Mariofranchise in a big way. It hosted a specialSuper Mario-themed Nintendo Direct presentation, where it announced numerous projects that were in development for its mascot plumber. The big reveals were forSuper Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, aSuper Mario 3D WorldSwitch port with a sizeable expansion, andSuper Mario 3D All-Stars, a collection consisting ofSuper Mario 64,Super Mario Sunshine, andSuper Mario Galaxy.
Since Nintendo went all-out for theSuper Mario35th anniversary, fans have expected something similar forThe Legend of Zeldafranchise in 2021. So far, Nintendo hasn’t said much about how it will be celebratingThe Legend of Zelda’s 35th anniversary this year, outside of theSkyward SwordSwitch port that’s set to launch next month. Nintendo’s E3 presentation is right around the corner, though, so there’s a chance that the Big N could very well reveal more of itsZeldaanniversary plans soon.
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TheNintendo Direct presentation for E3 2021is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, June 15 at 8am PT, and it will consist of roughly 40 minutes of Switch video game reveals. Smart money is that Nintendo will use its Nintendo Direct at E3 2021 to showThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2again, as well as highlightSkyward Sword HD, and if fans are lucky, potentially reveal more about itsZeldaanniversary plans.
That being said, there’s also a chance that the Nintendo Direct at E3 2021 isn’t the bigLegend of Zelda-focused showcase that some fans are expecting it to be. It could be that Nintendo only touches onpreviously-revealedZeldaprojects likeSkyward Sword HDandBreath of the Wild 2, saving its anniversary announcements for a later date. After all, Nintendo only has about 40 minutes to make its E3 2021 announcements, and if it spends too much time onZelda, it won’t be able to feature some of the other games that it has in the pipeline.
HardcoreZeldafans may be disappointed if they tune in to E3 2021 and they don’t see all of what Nintendo has in store forZelda’s 35th anniversary, but that won’t meant that the Big N isn’t still planning to celebrate the occasion in a big way. It’s quite possible that Nintendo has aZelda-focused Nintendo Direct planned for a little bit later in the year, which would match how it handled theSuper Marioannouncements.
With E3 2020 canceled by the coronavirus pandemic, Nintendo didn’t have its usual big June Nintendo Direct. It instead had a special Nintendo Direct presentation a couple of months later that was focused entirely on theSuper Mariofranchise, which meant Mario didn’t have the share the spotlight with any other Nintendo characters. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Nintendo has something similar planned when it comes toThe Legend of Zeldafranchise.
How Will Nintendo Celebrate The Legend of Zelda 35th Anniversary
As it stands,The Legend of Zeldafans already know of at least one way that Nintendo is going to be celebratingThe Legend of Zelda’s 35th anniversary.The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HDis launching for the Nintendo Switch on July 16, givingZeldafans a brand new way to experience the critically-acclaimed Wii title. There’s also a very good chance that Nintendo will be showingmore footage ofThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2after having first revealed it at E3 a couple of years ago, though fans shouldn’t hold their breath for it launching in 2021.
In lieu ofZelda: Breath of the Wild 2’s release datebeing in 2021, there’s a possibility Nintendo could release aZeldacollection instead. There are rumors of a 3DLegend of Zeldacollection that would collectOcarina of Timetogether withTwilight Princess HDandThe Wind Waker HD, but that almost seems too good to be true. Reports indicate that GameStop is expecting some kind ofZeldaannouncement next week, though, so there just may be something to these claims.
AZeldacollectionwould undoubtedly get fans buzzing, but one has to wonder if such a collection will come with the same caveats asSuper Mario 3D All-Stars. As fans may recall, Nintendo pulled some strange moves when it came toSuper Mario 3D All-Stars, only selling it for a limited time and going as far as to pull it off the Switch eShop as well as physical stores. This move was met with backlash from the community, so maybe Nintendo will handleThe Legend of Zeldaanniversary differently, but only time will tell.
Ultimately, any talk ofThe Legend of Zelda35th anniversary plans is merely speculation. All fans ofThe Legend of Zeldafranchise can do at this stage is wait for Nintendo to show its hand. Whether that happens at E3 2021 or some later, unannounced event remains to be seen, however.
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