Shimizu was fascinated by the possibilities of a Zelda game on Nintendo 64, in particular the 64DD disc expansion which would be announced at the show, and created a demo focused on chanbara (Japanese sword fighting) for Space World ’95. The tech demo footage of Zelda 64 was masterminded by Takao Shimizu, a designer who had previously worked on multiple titles for Nintendo, including The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. While fans basked in the majesty of Super Mario 64‘s playable introduction, Nintendo had yet another equally important game to show off: Zelda 64. Despite the limited selection of demos to play, fans were enthralled with Super Mario 64, in particular- its 3D environs and the extrapolation of Mario’s 2D adventures into the third dimension were truly stunning.
He wanted Nintendo 64’s debut to be focused and to show the system in the best light possible.Īs such, the 1995 edition of Space World featured only two playable titles: Super Mario 64 (at about roughly 50 percent completion) and Kirby Bowl 64 (a title that eventually evolved into Kirby’s Air Ride on GameCube). He spoke about removing the demos at length not long afterwards, decrying the video game industry for, he believed, essentially just throwing games at the wall until one of them stuck. The move was polarizing among the development team members who had worked on the demos, but Yamauchi was steadfast in his decision. Nintendo 64 represented a monumental shift in how people would be playing video games for years to come, boasting three-dimensional graphics unlike anything that had come before.įor Space World ’95, Nintendo staffers had worked hard to provide roughly twelve playable demos for fans to experience, but in the eleventh hour then-company president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to pull all but two of them from the show floor. Space World was a glimpse into what was new, what was next. Space World was essentially Nintendo’s own version of E3 where it would show off its upcoming games and consoles to countless fans who awaited the annual event with bated breath. Nintendo Space World 1995: Within the Makuhari Messe Convention Center near Tokyo, Japan, throngs of people had gathered at Nintendo’s seventh Shoshinkai video game trade show. We’re going to spend the next week celebrating this incredible franchise and we’re kicking things off with this encore presentation of The History of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!
The Legend of Zelda is officially 35 as of this past Sunday, October 21.