Legend Of Zelda Wii U Not Confirmed For 2016 Yet

When Nintendo said that the Legend of Zelda for the Wii U was moved out of its holiday 2015 release this year and that it wouldn't be appearing at this year's E3 during the Nintendo press conference, it left a lot of people to assume the game would launch in 2016. However, that may not be entirely accurate.

According to a report by MCV UK, they note that Nintendo's software listing for the Wii U exclusives Legend of Zelda and Devil's Third in their recent financial listings don't indicate an actual 2016 release date for either game. I don't think most people are surprised with Devil's Third but it definitely puts a small cloud of disappointment over the heads of people who have been desperately awaiting new info on the game.

The report doesn't necessarily state that The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U won't be released in 2016 and the financial report doesn't necessarily state that the game won't release in 2016.

For now, Nintendo has been extremely reticent about dropping details on the open-world adventure game. What we do know is that the game sees Link as the main character but we don't really know what the story is.

The gameplay is action-oriented and players are capable of venturing around a massive world, picking up apples, interacting with the game world and fighting off baddies. One of the key aspects of the combat is that players are capable of slowing down time to pick shots during shooting arrows and whatnot.

One of the key elements of the game is that if you can see a location on the screen, you can go there.

It's been mentioned before during the initial delay that the team discovered some new possibilities for The Legend of Zelda and they wanted to explore those options.

The game's graphics and open-world capabilities have set a pretty high bar for what people are expecting from The Legend of Zelda. Due to the delay and Nintendo's recent announcement for the Nintendo NX, this has led a lot of people to start speculating on whether or not the first-party exclusive could turn out to be a cross-generational release for the Wii U and the Nintendo NX.

Of course, there's nothing really to suggest that the game is a cross-generational game given that we know next to nothing about the actual capabilities and details on the Nintendo NX. For all we know the console could be an actual successor to the Wii U and could be a full console, or it could be a micro-console... something that bridges the gap between Wii U games and Nintendo 3DS titles. It could be a tablet device or it could be a Nintendo phone... an nPhone for all we know.

The reality is that all we know for sure is that The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U has been pushed out of 2015 and won't be showing up for this year's highly anticipated E3. Given that Nintendo has labeled the game as TBD – to be determined – could mean many things, such as a 2016 release with no actual date, or it could be a 2017 release. We don't know. Hopefully the delay isn't as bad as it looks and the game is coming sooner than later.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.