The Legend of Zelda series has seen many successes over it’s near 40 year lifespan starting with the Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System to Echoes of Wisdom on Nintendo Switch. But over the years Nintendo has cancelled Zelda games, and today I’m going to take a look at some of the lesser known Zelda games explored by Nintendo, and then cancelled.

The Legend of Zelda series has seen major successes with arguably some of the best games ever made including A Link To The Past (SNES), Ocarina of Time (N64), Twilight Princess (Wii) and Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch). Even though Nintendo has seen great success with the Zelda franchise, some Zelda games never saw the light of day and were cancelled at varying stages of development. Today we’re going to uncover the details of some of these including direct sequels and spin off games.

Zelda Tactics

There once was a Zelda tactics game in the works, again with Retro Studios. The Zelda tactics game was pitched to Nintendo in 2004 with the codename Heroes of Hyrule and it was planned to launch on the Nintendo DS handheld console. The game would have three playable characters that were learning about Link battling Ganon.

The YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming managing to get a pitch document relating to this project and it revealed some details about the game and story. Heroes of Hyrule would have focused on a book found by a boy and the book would evolve over time as more pages were found. New areas and story elements would be unlocked through these found pages. Battles would take the form of tactical RPG battles similar to Fire Emblem or Into The Breach. The game would also have traditional Zelda puzzle elements, which sounds great, but I can’t imagine how that would come together. Unfortunately the idea was shelved, as Retro Studios were assigned the latest Donkey Kong project.

Twilight Princess Side Story

Shigeru Miyamoto asked the team to explore ways to reuse assets from Twilight Princess to come up with a quick successor resuing the world and the assets. The idea was to create an “extra story” or “side story”. The team started coming up with ideas, however, they grew too large in scope and complexity and ultimately the idea was shut down.

Zelda II Remake on Super Nintendo

Zelda II was a very different game to the first Legend of Zelda adventure on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Super Nintendo offered more power and capabilities, and Nintendo were planning to remake Zelda II for the console. The Super Nintendo had the Super FX chip, which offered Mode 7 graphics for Super Mario Kart and Star Fox, and Nintendo wanted to use this technology with The Legend of Zelda to bring the franchise into the 3D space. Unfortunately plans changed and this idea would be revisited again with Ocarina of Time years later on the Nintendo 64 console. Plans for a Zelda II Remake were shelved, and instead Nintendo went ahead and worked on A Link To The Past.

Sheikah Action-RPG

Back in 2007 a Sheikah JRPG was in development with Retro Studios. The Sheikah have come to the forefront of Zelda lore in recent years with a starring role in Breath of the Wild, but back then much less was known about the secretive tribe. The Sheikah have had a major impact on the series, with Impa coming to mind as Princess Zelda’s bodyguard in Ocarina of Time, and all the Sheikah technology found in Breath of the Wild.

According the one of the developers on the project it was described as “an experiment gone wrong”. Paul Tozour, a programmer on the prototype, said the combat was overly simplistic describing it like a version of whack-a-mole. Tozour stated in an interview: “There were four or five wolves, maybe six, and they would just be in their idle state waiting to pounce at you, then they’d jump one-by-one and you’d go ‘whack’. So that’s literally all it was, just detecting when the player swung the Wii Remote. If so, the wolf dies, and if you don’t do it correctly, you take damage.”

As well as the combat, the game included traversing an overworld and when the player arrived at a point of interest the game would transition into a battle sequence, similar to random battles found in Pokemon or JPRGs.

Retro Studios work with Nintendo on a number of titles, including the Metroid Prime trilogy and Donkey Kong Country. They were prototyping a Sheikah JPRG, but then leadership within Retro Studios changed and the project was put on the shelf for good. This game was due to explore the origins of the Mastersword, a theme that would be picked up in Skyward Sword, released in 2011, so perhaps elements of that game did see the light of day, just not in the format they originally intended.

3D Classics: The Legend of Zelda

Nintendo worked on 3D versions of classic Zelda games as part of a line called 3D classics. Nintendo reps had a working prototype that was shown at E3 2010, however the games were cancelled early in development.

Zelda 3

After Zelda 2, Nintendo starting working on a concept called Zelda 3. Link would be able to explore three locations, and they would all be connected; actions taken in one world would affect the other.

Shigeru Miyamoto also wanted to implement a party system in Zelda 3, which would be similar to the combat from Dragon Quest. Miyamoto’s original plan was to include a party consisting of “the protagonist, who’s a mix between an elf and a fighter, a magic user, and a girl.” He even revealed that the fairy from The Adventure of Link was intended to be a party member for “Zelda 3”.

“Ever since I started making the first game in the series, I’ve been saying that the third Zelda will feature a party, one that consists of the protagonist, who’s a mix between an elf and a fighter, a magic user, and a girl. The fairy that appeared in Adventure of Link was actually a party member designed for Zelda 3.”

“A girl who looked a little like a fairy and whose role consisted of reconnaissance. Like the characters in action games that don’t engage enemies in combat but rather go and scout out the surroundings and return to you safely. It’s also fun when action adventure games lets you choose who to send out. That’s the sort of thing I’m thinking I’d like to put in Zelda 3.”

Ultimately the concept was simplified and two worlds were decided upon and the party system wasn’t implemented and A Link To The Past was born out of these concepts.

Goron Rolling game

In 2010 Japanese game developer Vanpool started working on another game in the Tingle series after it’s previous attempt at a Tingle horror game was cancelled. This new game was inspired by Ripened Tingle’s Balloon Trip of Love, where you would use pachinko balls to defeat enemies.

Vanpool pitched the idea of a rolling Goron game that would use the touch screen. Nintendo rejected the idea and suggested Vanpool use another character. The game ultimately morphed into something else completely called Dillon’s Rolling Western, which was a Nintendo 3DS eShop game about rolling armadillos in a western setting.

Skyward Sword Second Quest

Nintendo had planned a second quest for Skyward Sword that would have allowed players to play as Princess Zelda. This would have been a fully-playable adventure from Zelda’s point of view after she landed on the surface. The idea was never used, but the setting for the story was used in the cinematic after the game’s ending.

Ura Zelda

Nintendo released the disk-drive add on for the Nintendo 64 called the 64DD. Nintendo wanted to release a Zelda game on the system because they know Zelda sells consoles and accessories. The project in question was called Ura Zelda and it would enhance the already excellent Ocarina of Time.

Shigeru Miyamoto wanted a persistent world where if you chopped down a tree it would stay there, or footprints would stay in the mud. Unfortunately the 64DD wasn’t a success and Ura Zelda was paused. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom brought back some of the planned enhancements, plus loads of info got leaked from Nintendo in 2020, releasing loads of previously unseen plans.

Eiji Aonuma was given the responsbility for Ura Zelda. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of remixing old Ocarina of Time dungeons, and was given permission to create an entirely new Zelda game, and this would end up releasing as Majora’s Mask.

Aonuma directed Majora’s Mask, while Ura Zelda was developed in parallel. It was designed to use the existing Ocarina of Time cartridge, in conjunction with the 64DD add on. It would include remixed dungeons, different loot locations and new story events. Miyamoto also wanted to include some form of “network technology”.

Ura Zelda would eventually released as Ocarina of Time The Master Quest on Gamecube in 2003 as a preorder bonus for Windwaker to help preorders of that game. However, many of the planned features were cut or cancelled including a persistent world with permanent consequences of the player’s actions, new story events, more quests involving masks and the ability to use the GB Camera to create masks for Link, and the use of “network technology”.

Wind Waker 2

Nintendo originally planned a sequel to Wind Waker. They had a similar idea to Ocarina and Majora’s Mask, they wanted to reuse some of the assets from Wind Waker because development time and costs had started to rise on the more powerful platform. Eiji Aonuma and the team started working on Wind Waker 2.

Wind Waker saw a backlash, especially in North America, with calls for a much more realistic Zelda game, similar to Ocarina of Time, but using the graphics capability of the Gamecube. Wind Waker also didn’t sell well in North America, which made the Japanese developer nervous. Series producer Eiji Aonuma would discover that this was because The Wind Waker’s cartoon-ish visuals had alienated the upper-teen audience that represented the typical Zelda player in North America — the series largest market.

At the time, Nintendo was already planning the next Zelda game for the Nintendo GameCube. Tentatively titled The Wind Waker 2, the game would use the same cel-shaded visual style as The Wind Waker but would take place on land instead, with Link riding on horseback like in Ocarina of Time. During the initial stages of planning, the development team would discover that Toon Link’s proportions didn’t lend themselves well to horseback riding, and while an adult version of Toon Link had already been contemplated for the original The Wind Waker, the team felt this wasn’t the solution they were looking for.

Wind Waker 2 was cancelled and a new Zelda game was built from the ground up and would eventually release as Twilight Princess. Concept art of Link as a adult in a Wind Waker style does exist, plus Midna was originally planned in the same graphical style also.

Let me know in the comments what you think.