More Zelda details

Following last week's foul-up from a Spanish gaming magazine, which saw a pretty sizable proportion of the Legend of Zelda details Nintendo plans to announce at E3 plastered all over the Internet, more details have now emerged through US magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, in whose pages director Eiji Aonuma has revealed a few more tantalising titbits.

Aonuma-san was coy about the name (it'll make sense when we play the game, apparently; a bit like Wind Waker et al), where the game fits into the timeline, and wouldn't discuss the game's new item (you know, like, er, the Wind Waker, again), but was prepared to talk about Link's life in Toaru Village, where he begins at age 16, and how you control your horse, amongst other things.

According to Aonuma-san, Link's family runs a cattle ranch selling animals to the Kingdom of Hyrule and surrounding towns and villages. Every year the local ranchers meet up for a conference, and this year young Link has been sent as the family representative. Typically, things go wrong on the way.

We've already heard how Link will spend a lot of time growing up and riding around on horseback, but Aonuma-san also confirmed that the horse-riding element will allow for a much bigger world open to exploration, in a similar manner to the boating aspects of Wind Waker - although, this being dry land, hopefully with rather more activity and sights along the way.

Controlling the horse sounds simple - you point and tap the A button to select a speed, and you fire your bow from a first-person perspective, swing your sword and even unseat other riders, which, again, sounds more fun than ship to ship combat. We loved Wind Waker, you know, but that damn boat...

The only other interesting detail to be eked out of Aonuma-san's discussions with EGM is the news that the combat system will be ever-so-slightly refined with more jumping attacks and revised counters. Otherwise, it seems, not much has changed in that department - and fair enough, given how good it was in the first place.

The Legend of Zelda, which is being rather described in some quarters as the last great GameCube game (what about the new Hello Kitty game, eh?), will be playable at this year's E3 and naturally we'll be racing towards it at high speed as soon as the doors open. So you might want to watch out if you're blocking the way.