Nintendo stirring up the Zelda: Breath of the Wild hype machine

Nintendo’s social media channels have been ablaze with short clips of footage from the upcoming Zelda title Breath of the Wild on Wii U and the NX, showing various abilities and locations from the game.

These videos have been drip-fed on Nintendo’s Facebook and Twitter feeds regularly over the past fortnight, which makes it feasible to think there is more information on the way – hopefully in the form of a Nintendo Direct finally announcing the NX. [It’s got to happen sooner or later right? – Vook]

For those who will be attending the 2016 EB Games Expo in Sydney, a limited amount of spots to play a demo of Breath of the Wild will be available for winners of a competition. Check out the details here, and good luck!

The most recent video features Link using “runes”, which appear to be magical abilities that can be used for exploration, puzzle solving, and combat. Link is seen in the video freezing water into columns of ice to jump across, levitating a treasure chest out of a river, creating bombs, and launching an explosive barrel on a delay.

Also featured was a range of Link’s weapons, including a two-handed sword with area-of-effect damage, a battle-axe, a fire sceptre, and the rather morbid use of a Bokoblin arm to defeat a Bokoblin.

An earlier video showed off the “Magnesis” ability, where Link produces a glowing magnet to manipulate metallic puzzles and fetch treasure chests from afar. According to the most recent video, it appears Magnesis is one of the many runes Link will use during his adventure.

The lovable little tree-folk Koroks are also shown in another video, with Link chasing down the hidden creatures in a hide-and-seek quest.

Of course we can’t forget the video of a dilapidated-looking Temple of Time, showing a range of gorgeous sweeping camera angles.