Topic: What's happening to handheld Zelda?

Any guesses what the handheld series will look like after the Switch?

If you mean the top-down Zeldas, they'll probably be fine.

The top-down Zeldas will look just as ugly as ever. Somehow...

Given that top-down Zeldas haven't been on home consoles since Four Swords Adventures (if that doesn't count then A Link to the Past), I think they will be ditched in favour of only 3D Zeldas given what Switch is.

I think we'll see both on Switch.2D Zelda can probably be made in far less time than the 3D ones and Zelda sells so I'd be surprised if they stop making them.

I've never played Link Between Worlds,is the 2nd screen used much?I was hoping we might see it on VC,or possibly a remaster.

If you ask me, and as much as it pains me to say it, I don't think you can sell a 2D game for full price at retail anymore and reach the mainstream (outside of fighting games and Rayman, I guess). Zelda would be the series that could get away with it, but is it worth it when the eShop is a thing?

I'd love for Nintendo to make more eShop exclusive titles, especially if they can sell them at a lower price. They could put all their "2D series" in there, like "retro" Zelda games, mainline Metroid games, Advance Wars titles and the like.

@OorWullie Mostly for inventory stuff and for placing markers on the map. It's well worth playing, the non-linearity and item rental gives it its own personality. It's a great game to speedrun.

Nintendo sold us 2D Mario on the Wii and Wii U, so I don't see why the Switch can't have a 2D Zelda.

The real question for me is what scale will Nintendo games be, and how will pricing reflect this? Handheld games have typically (and necessarily) smaller in scale, and cheaper, than console games - what will happen on the Switch? Maybe we'll see a full price, triple-A Zelda title once every 4-5 years, and smaller, cheaper, 2D Zeldas more frequently? Perhaps a system along the lines of what @MarcelRguez has suggested.

Well BoTW will be out a few months after the Switch most likely and I don't think Nintendo will just leave it at that for the next 4-5 years or however long the follow up to it takes. I'd imagine the prospects of a (or even multiple) smaller Zelda games to be quite likely.

Having a think about it, knowing Nintendo they'll come up with some sort of gameplay-based gimmick related to the Switch and/or 3D vs. 2D Zelda. Maybe a game where switching between perspectives offers new puzzle opportunities?

It's really simple... Making a top down zelda for a home console, where people are expecting every new Zelda game to be a carbon copy of OoT, would seem underwhelming. Also, they require less power and suit the handheld playstyle well.

However, since the switch is also a portable, nothing is stopping Nintendo from making games they deem suitable for portables. In this case, both Zelda styles can coexist.

And they should. If the Vita taught us anything, is that pretending a portable is a home console is a ticket to failure town. Nintendo will need to produce games that fit the needs of both home and handheld consoles if they want their new console to survive long enough.

Of course, preferably this also includes different price ranges.

@Shinion That's where remasters come into play. There's nothing stopping games that have been remastered be remastered again, I'm sure Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask HD remasters would still sell great.

That's an oversimplification. People want those games on the go, they just don't want inferior versions/spin-offs of questionable performance. Not to mention the fact that you could play those games on other consoles as well. With Nintendo's games, that won't be the case.

If people want a full-fledged console Zelda, they have to get the Switch. The Vitas was the low-budget alternative, the Switch is the default platform.

Link Between Worlds was too good to be true. So we'll get a lot of campy Zelda titles after Breath of the Wild and a LTTP style zelda in 20 years.

I could see both styles coexisting on the Switch; the 3DS, as a handheld, had an original 2.5D Zelda and two 3D remasters. I don't think it's a stretch to see a similar pattern going forward.

They better not. The 2D ones would probably be quicker, cheaper, and easier to play on the go. They're already abandoning the distinction between handheld & console, so why uphold a now-defunct tradition? The only reason they shouldn't make another top-down Zelda game, is if they can't make it worth our while. And honestly, people ate up Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks when the standards were higher, I highly doubt they're that deprived of new ideas at this point.