New Zelda Wii U Gameplay Footage

Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, made an appearance at the Game Awards in Las Vegas last night to share brand new gameplay of a title every Nintendo fan has been talking about since E3: Zelda Wii U. 

Eiji Aonuma–producer on board with the Zelda series–and Shigeru Miyamoto came together to discuss what has become of the development for Zelda Wii U. Aonuma took the time to show off a number of the features that have found their way into the next iteration in the franchise.

The footage first shows the main protagonist, Link, atop a hill. Aonuma used a pair of binoculars to look around the environment and set beacons to direct where he wanted to go. The beacon marked the location on the map (which is found on the Wii U Gamepad). They even showed the map, and zoomed out on it to give fans a sense of the overall scope of the world. Later on, Aonuma jumped off of an extremely high ledge to show that they have brought back the sailcloth from Skyward Sword, which will make traversing this world a lot easier.

They also showed off gameplay of riding Epona. It appears as if the controls on a horse are a lot more fluid than ever been before. Aonuma said he barely touches the control stick at all to maneuver the horse around. Epona is smart enough to keep galloping on her own, and doesn’t run into any obstacles–because really, what horse would honestly run into a tree?

The freedom of control on Epona allows players free reign over the camera angle, as well as multiple options for combat, like swinging a sword, blocking with the shield, or using the bow.

Aonuma even showcased the ability to vault off the back of the horse into slow-motion, giving players time to aim with the bow.

There is plenty to see in the new gameplay footage for Zelda Wii U. While we haven’t received an official release date quite yet, they did say that it would probably be released after the new Star Fox in 2015.

The next few months are probably going to be dry of anything about Zelda Wii U. It has come as a huge surprise that we are even getting this much news about it now, considering Nintendo had previously announced that new footage should be expected around E3 2015.

Make sure to keep checking back for more news on Zelda Wii U, if and when it comes.