HEY! LISTEN! Nintendo's doing another Zelda game.

Nintendo has announced they will release a new Wii Legend of Zelda title in 2010. Yay?

I mean, look: I am a fan of the franchise's past work. Link to the Past is almost certainly one of the best SNES titles out there. Ocarina of Time is, in spite of some flaws, engrossing and memorable with its open world (which seemed so huge back then) and then-impressive artistic touches. I really liked about 70% of Wind Waker. And though I haven't spent much time with Majora's Mask, there are people out there who insist that one is the best of all. But still, despite - or perhaps because of - my personal history with these games, I really cannot say I'm especially interested about this until I know more details. It's just that I don't think I am alone in thinking that another Zelda that's structurally similar to the previous entries would be a snoozefest. By now, most of us have slung our share of boomerangs, smoked more than a few Dodongos, been annoyed by various "helpful" fairies, and rode numerous hookshots to higher ground. If this is just another repackaging of the same old game with some tacked-on Wii controls, it will be disappointing to say the least. Instead, Nintendo should be looking at this as an opportunity to try to really do something unique. We know they're capable of it; Super Mario Galaxy was a great deal different than previous 3-D Mario adventures. They've even done this with this franchise when they made the mind-bending Majora's Mask. But this is also why it's so frustrating when they do make a game that's nothing but nostalgia (like, say, Super Smash Bros. Brawl) - they've proven they can be innovative when they want to. So maybe they will do something crazy like shoot Link into space or something. But I doubt it.

Also, while we're on the subject, when was the last time Nintendo came up with a totally new intellectual property? WiiMusic and WiiSports don't count. Was it Nintendogs? Does that count, even?