The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will not mandate usage of the Wii U Gamepad, Nintendo announced at E3 today. The game can be played through even if you own some other Wii U controller- such as the Wii U Pro.
This is, of course, not something that should have been entirely unexpected- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD both supported the Wii U Gamepad, but also worked without it, allowing players to simply use the Wii U Pro controller instead. That said, they made some darn good use of the Gamepad, too- having a persistent map and inventory screen can be helpful in a game like Zelda, after all.
However, in this specific case, this inessential compatibility for the Wii U Gamepad on Breath of the Wild‘s part does raise a question- given that the game is also coming to the NX, could it be a hint that the NX doesn’t have a second screen controller integral to the package, unlike the Wii U? Because if not- then what exactly is the NX controller going to be? Is it too much to hope for a standard controller?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is slated for a 2017 launch on the Nintendo NX and Wii U.
