Nintendo's latest Direct dropped only last week, while the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda was yesterday, and yet Nintendo hasn't said anything. The bare minimum would have been to share a picture of Link over the years with a caption as simple as "Happy 35th to The Legend of Zelda," and yet, it couldn't even muster up the effort to do that. Where was Nintendo this year?
When it came to Mario's 35th, Nintendo went all out - or at least, their equivalent of all out - with a bundle of three classics ported over, albeit sloppily. On top of this, a new game came out, a battle royale version of the original Super Mario Bros. Both were, unfortunately, only available for a limited time. There's a weird approach to these anniversaries on Nintendo's part, but at least Mario got recognition. It's still being celebrated, funnily enough, with the advent of the Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury release, as well as the items being added to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The one theory on the tip of many people's tongues is that Zelda's fanfare is being saved for Breath of the Wild 2's big info dump given that, in the Direct, Nintendo stated that it had no news regarding the sequel, only divulging that it was in a healthy development state and on track. That being said, Nintendo didn't have to announce anything - nobody expected that, given that Skyward Sword's HD port from the Wii U was already unveiled at its Direct. Rather, all it had to do was share a celebratory post on Twitter, but across the Europe, UK, and American accounts, and even Nintendo's Facebook, nothing was said.
Even at the Direct, a new Mario Golf was announced. Weirdly enough, despite the 35th anniversary wrapping up for Mario already - with five games brought to the Switch - the Direct felt like a celebration of the Italian plumber and not the sword-bearing savior of Hyrule. There are swirling rumors that Nintendo has further ports in the works for Zelda, ones that it will announce and release in celebration of Breath of the Wild 2. That's fair enough, and COVID-19 likely played a role in delaying the plans Nintendo had. It's happened to every single company and to the best of them, so nobody would hold Nintendo to any disdain if the pandemic is what pushed back the Zelda anniversary bundle.
However, given that Mario's 35th collection was somewhat of a disappointment toppled with an anti-consumer limited time approach, people were hoping for more when it came to Zelda and, at the very least, more transparency if not effort and content. Yet, Nintendo did not bring that to the table barring the Breath of the Wild 2 news. Nothing was said of the anniversary - in fact, Skyward Sword's port was attributed to, "We have nothing to show for Breath of the Wild 2, but fret not, here's another Zelda game you can play in the meantime." Has it forgotten about one of its biggest franchises? Maybe. It's upsetting, but it could be worse - just look at the Metroid fanbase straggling with its lack of anything, let alone celebrations of an anniversary. Nintendo sure has weird priorities and approaches while sitting on a goldmine of fan favorites and potential.