Nintendo is releasing a side story to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64 in this fiscal year. Zelda Gaiden is set a few months after Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and peace has been restored in Hyrule. One day, while in the forest, Link meets up with a strange masked man named Stalkid. Stalkid says that he has taken Epona away from Link, and quickly disappears through a door leading to a strange world. Link follows, and sees the world through this door. It looks strange to him, yet somehow familiar. Link steps through.
The first thing Link notices in this new world is a huge moon in the sky. According to the residents of the strange world, the moon is falling to the earth within a few days. Upon hearing this, Link sets off on a mission to avoid the moon by returning to his home world.
Zelda Gaiden will play exactly like the previous Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. However, this time around there will be a gauge in the lower middle of the screen. Sadly, Nintendo hasn't yet revealed how the gauge will come into play. Judging from the storyline, though, one could wonder if it has something to do with measuring time. Backing up that theory is a recent comment from Shigeru Miyamoto in which he revealed that time will pass in real-time. Essentially, the world will be destroyed if you play the game too slowly.
Masks will also play a major role in Zelda Gaiden. Not only will they be more prevalent this time around, you'll be able to use multiple masks at the same time (as shown in some of our new screens). Using certain masks you'll be able to take control of other creatures (notice that some of the screens center on the creatures rather than Link). When Link wears specific masks he is able to turn into other characters - this process will not only affect his appearance, but also his abilities. As an example, when Link wears a Goron mask he transforms into a ball to roll down slopes. If he wears a Zola mask, his swimming skills improve greatly. Throughout the game Link will be required to use these different masks to solve puzzles.
According to Miyamoto, Zelda Gaiden requires the Expansion Pak to play. He says that Nintendo is able to display more enemies, present better enemy artificial intelligence, and more advanced special effects by using the Expansion Pak.
Videogames.com's Sam Kennedy tried out Zelda Gaiden at Nintendo's Space World '99. Here's what he had to say:
"Judging from the pictures that have been released in Famitsu over the past few weeks, I was looking forward to something a little more fantasy based, and that's exactly what I found. Ocarina of Time was a more traditional adventure title, while Gaiden seems to incorporate fantasy themes in the strange world that Link has entered. The strange characters you'll come across, the obscure scenery around you, and the fact that you can now transform into one of the Deku Nuts as you hover around spewing flowers, are all prime examples of this title's departure from the more traditional Ocarina.
The demo I saw at Space World included three main scenarios: the speed tour, the dungeon tour, and the battle tour. The speed tour then offered four sections: a race with Zora, a race with Goron, a race with Epona, and a hunting area with Epona. The Dungeon tour offered a jungle area, a snowy land, and a nuts city. And the Battle tour had a boss battle stage and a battlefield area.
One of my favorite sections of the speed tour was the Goron race. You race by spinning in a ball, very similar to Sonic the Hedgehog. In fact, there's even a spin dash-like move to help boost you along when you need it. I had quite a blast with this.
Zelda Gaiden seemed to look a bit more visually impressive than its predecessor - I noticed certain new effects. For example, when you first enter the water as Zora, there's a really cool water effect that seems so real that it's very deceiving.
Chris Johnston also gave us his impressions of Zelda Gaiden from the Space World show floor. "I loved the original Zelda 64, but I've been a little skeptical of Zelda Gaiden. Screenshots thus far have been in a much different style that the original. Much more trippy and detailed in a more whimsical manner. That's probably for the best since it makes Zelda Gaiden seem like a totally new and different game from Zelda 64.
One of the demo levels that I played was a race with Epona against the Mario and Luigi lookalikes. You have to worry about knocking into these two opponents while still avoiding trees and jumping gates when needed.
The other demo level I tried out was a dungeon. The effect of switching masks is perhaps the trippiest thing I've seen in a video game. It's almost the same kind of effect as when Jim Carrey puts on the mask in The Mask. It becomes an extension of your character, giving Link different abilities.
"It'll be interesting to see how this game fits altogether. While it felt very much like Zelda 64 in the way it controlled, the game itself and the story looks much different. Almost darker, yet more whimsical and fantastic than the original."
The Legend of Zelda Gaiden is currently slated for a March 2000 release in Japan. There's been no word on a US release yet, but I'll try to keep you informed.