Zelda for Nintendo Wii U Won't Necessarily Look Like Tech Demo

The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Wii U home console won't necessarily look like the technical demo showcased by the company during the E3 2011 conference, as the development process hasn't even started completely, so plenty of things can change until it's ready.

Nintendo presented the Wii U last month at E3, to the amazement of many fans as well as video game developers and publishers, thanks to its high-definition hardware and the unique controller with a built-in touchscreen.

Nintendo's famous games designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, already confirmed that we would see a proper, high-definition The Legend of Zelda game for the new console, and now, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has talked a bit, via Wired, about the project.

According to the developer, fans shouldn't think that the actual game will look like the recent technical demonstration presented alongside the Wii U, which saw Zelda hero Link battle a spider monster in a highly detailed environment.

Aonuma likened the situation to the infamous The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, a game that was part of a technical demo for the Nintendo GameCube, with quality graphics, yet ended up appearing in a stylized cel-shaded art style, which disappointed many gamers that anticipated a proper, beautiful Zelda game.

"You probably remember that when we introduced the GameCube, we showed a somewhat realistic Zelda demo," said Aonuma. "And what we actually created was the cel-shaded Wind Waker. So when we show a graphic demo, people think, 'Oh, this is what the next Zelda will look like,' but that's not necessarily the case."

The Legend of Zelda franchise played a key part in the development of the Wii U, as it was used to properly depict the levels of visual quality that the console can render.

"We talked to each other a lot about several elements [during Wii U's development], one of which was, 'How exactly will the HD graphics work?' In doing concepts for that ... we used Zelda assets quite often to examine, OK, how real will we make this look?"

Basically, fans shouldn't automatically believe that the upcoming Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U is going to look like the technical demo pictured above, as Nintendo can easily change its mind during development.