Just months after the ground-breaking Ocarina of Time was released, Nintendo announced the next game in the series, Zelda Gaiden, shocking everyone. They even had screenshots of thier next big title, right up on the main page, to help simmer the initial hype. Over the months, more and more news of Zelda Gaiden came out, more screenshots were posted all over the web, strategically being leaked by the bigwigs at Nintendo, and it underwent a few name changes, which just kept getting worse and worse. First, it was Zelda Gaiden, which is a pretty damn cool name if you ask me, but then it was changed to The Legend of Zelda: Gaiden, probably to keep with the tradition of every other installment in the series, which all have "The Legend of Zelda", then a hyphen, then a subtitle. This was a dumb move, but it got worse when they decided this didn't make sense and changed the title completely to "The Legend of Zelda: Mask of Mujula", the most retarded name to ever be given to any game associated with Nintendo.

The game itself is being created using the engine that Ocarina of Time was built on, and should play a lot like it. Most editorials on the game mention a "time limit" for the game, and state that players are given a set time to finish the game. I don't know if it's true or not, but if it is it could very well pass the Virtual Boy in my book as biggest Nintendo screw-up of all time. They better leave that out of the final version. Zelda has always been about taking your time while you explore your surroundings, and a time limit would take the fundamental roots out of Zelda.

Now that you've heard the basic facts on the new Zelda, I'll take this time to give you a few of my own personal opinions of the game. Did anyone notice the timing Miyamoto had with the announcement of Zelda Gaiden? Right when thier competitor Sony had them in the ropes, it was when the charm of Zelda 64 was starting to wear off and Nintendo had nothing going for them. Then, suddenly, Nintendo reports Zelda Gaiden ::keep in mind just a few months after Zelda 64:: Ocarina of Time has just been finished, a game that took 5 years to create, and Nintendo is announcing a brand new sequel in just a year. Also, at the same time he leaks a tidbit of info implying that Nintendo is hard at work creating a Metroid 64, all this info just coming from nowhere. Well, if you ask me, Zelda: Mask of Mujula and Metroid 64 are pure vaporware, Nintendo pulled those screenshots out of thier ass using stuff they already had on Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Immenent delays are inevitable, and we will probably never see Mask of Mujula at all. Metroid 64 is even more obviously nonexistant. If there aren't screenshots for it YET, I highly doubt it can be out by the end of N64's lifespan (which is not long after the next generation Nintendo system is released). I hope I'm wrong, but I have a strong feeling we will never see either of these titles. The most I'm hoping for now is Mask of Mujula in a couple years.