GDC 2017: Nintendo reveals canned Zelda alien game and Breath of the Wild 2D prototype

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been a long time coming and it's finally here (well, in two days)! However, before Breath of the Wild, there was another type of Zelda game being thrown around the offices of Nintendo.

When Nintendo was coming up with the idea for a new Zelda game, they pitched the idea of your normal, 3D Zelda game with a twist, aliens invade Hyrule. They didn't delve too much into exactly what the game would've been about beyond that basic pitch, but you can see a screenshot of it above alongside some very basic concept art that shows off the aliens and more.

To go even further from the series' expected tone and features, Nintendo also considered turning in the iconic hero, Link, into a biker. Yeah, we think it's kind of weird too. It's hard to tell what the game featuring biker Link would've been about, but it's interesting to see what runs through Nintendo's mind when creating a new game.

Nintendo also detailed their pitch for Breath of the Wild! To pitch the game's gameplay, the team built a 2D Zelda prototype that showed off some of the mechanics that Nintendo wanted to include. Despite it being 2D, they describe it as a "legitimate Breath of the Wild prototype". They even went as far as to show side by side comparisons of the 2D version and the final 3D version of the game to show how close they are in terms of gameplay concepts. You can view the video below.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launches March 3rd, 2017 alongside the Nintendo Switch.