The Legend of Zelda is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and Nintendo has issued a new statement about how it plans on celebrating the occasion. The Legend of Zelda hit the scene in 1986 and changed gaming forever. The legendary franchise has gone on to deliver some of the most innovative and important games of all time, with landmark new releases releasing every single console generation.
Zelda is second only to Super Mario when it comes to Nintendo’s flagship franchises, and so it’s understandable that the company would want to celebrate its 40th anniversary in a big way. In fact, Nintendo has already released a variety of Zelda 40th anniversary merch, along with a Zelda-themed Switch 2 console, to mark the occasion. The release of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake also coincided with the 40th anniversary celebration. But even though Ocarina of Time is now readily available for Switch 2, Nintendo is not done celebrating the Zelda franchise’s 40th anniversary.
Nintendo Has Big Plans for the Future of Zelda
In a recent financial report, Nintendo promised that it will continue to “pursue a variety of initiatives to celebrate” the Zelda franchise’s 40th anniversary. Nintendo said that these initiatives will expand beyond games, alluding to the Zelda live-action movie releasing on April 30, 2027. It added, “We will make the series even more appealing by offering different ways to enjoy it, both for those who cherish its earlier titles and for those discovering it for the first time.” The wording there is especially important, as it suggests Nintendo is going to re-release more classic Zelda games in the future.
As it stands, the vast majority of main series Zelda games are readily available to play on Switch 2, as are many of the spin-offs. However, there are still some missing. Four Swords Adventures is a classic GameCube game that can’t be played on Switch 2, and Twilight Princess is missing as well, as are the DS and 3DS games. There have long been rumors that Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD are getting Switch ports, but those still have yet to be confirmed at the time of this writing.
With the GameCube version of Wind Waker playable through Switch Online, one would hope that Nintendo would prioritize bringing Twilight Princess to the Switch 2 instead, but maybe both games will eventually escape their Wii U prisons. It’s also possible Nintendo is planning more full-blown remakes ala Ocarina of Time, and if that’s the case, the most obvious choice would be Majora’s Mask, as it would be able to share many assets with the OoT remake.
Perhaps more 2D Zelda games will get the remake treatment. Link’s Awakening was remade for the original Switch to a great deal of fanfare, so why not do the same for the Oracle duology or even A Link to the Past? Whatever Nintendo has planned for the Zelda franchise, one thing fans can count on is that plenty more games are in the pipeline.
- Released
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November 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
