Shigeru Miyamoto both pleased and disheartened fans earlier this year when he said the next Zelda game on Wii wouldn’t be “radically different” from its predecessors, but the game’s producer, Eiji Aonuma, recently sat down to clear the air a little bit. When the subject came to how this new Zelda would differentiate itself from other games in the series, Aonuma said, ”It is something we used to talk about with Mr Miyamoto, and he and I agree that if we are following the same structure again and again, we might not be able to give long time Zelda fans a fresh surprise.”

“So we have been trying something new in terms of the structure of the Wii version of the new Zelda game this time,” Aonuma says. ”I am really hopeful that people will be surprised with the changes we have implemented for this Wii version.”

When you get right down to it, every single Zelda game (other then the unmentionable ones) since the series’ inception in 1986 has shared essentially the same design template. Get a sword, get a shield, do a dungeon or two and get some cool items, get a bigger sword, do a couple more dungeons and get some cooler items, get the biggest sword, get the Triforce, punch Gannon in the face, save Zelda, credits. Don’t get me wrong, I love Zelda just as much as the next guy, but after Twilight Princess especially, I’m ready for Nintendo to try some new ideas out.