The winners of the “Make Your Own Zelda Flipnote” contest have been announced and the selected animations can be viewed over at the contest portal.

As a treat for all the winners, they got to have their flipnote evaluated by some of the Zelda development team, including Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma.

While the winners from the other regions are supposed to be revealed over the course of the next two weeks, you can view them early by going to the European and Japanese contest sites.

Remember that awesome piece of chalk art Nintendo commissioned to be done during Comic-Con? Well, the artist Eric Maruscak recorded the entire drawing session and put together a time-lapse video showing the massive Ocarina of Time piece come to life over the course of the four day convention.

Maruscak’s website has a ton of other chalk drawings he’s done for various cons, but there’s also a few galleries featuring his non-chalk-related work. Definitely worth giving a look.

Announced back at E3, the downloadable version of the GBA’s Zelda: Four Swords will be making its way to the eShop sometime next month.

As a part of Nintendo’s continuing celebration of the Zelda franchise’s 25th anniversary, they are making the game absolutely free.

So far, Nintendo has remained quiet regarding the possibility of including updates like online multiplayer or enhanced graphics for anyone playing on the 3DS. Though, I suppose it’s okay if neither feature makes it in. It is a free game, after all.

Source: Infendo

In celebration of the Zelda series’ 25th birthday, Nintendo is holding a contest for anyone with a DSi or DSi XL with Flipnote Studio. Zelda-themed animations made with the free program can be entered for a chance to have it evaluated by members of the Zelda development team, including Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, Takashi Tezuka, and Yoshiaki Koizumi – and have it posted on the Zelda 25th Anniversary site.

If you need some inspiration, the Anniversary site has a new page chronicling the series’ history.

Complete rules on how to enter can be found on the Zelda Flipnote page.

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Folks in Europe will be able to enjoy symphonic renditions of classic Zelda themes when the Zelda 25th Anniversary concert series heads to London later this year.

The concert will be held on October 25 at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale on August 8 care of Ticketmaster.

Expect to see more info on the London show posted on the concert series website in the future.

Source: Cubed3

Tickets for this October’s Zelda 25th Anniversary Concert go on sale later today at 4:00 p.m (PST), but Nintendo taking 15 percent off the admission price with a special promo code.

If you are planning to attend, why not save some money by entering the code: ZELDA on the payment page.

It’s not clear if this deal will work on the $129 VIP tickets that get you access to a Meet and Greet and autograph session.

Source: E-mail

In an interview with Industry Gamers, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma said that he would like to try working on something new. However, it seems that whenever he comes up with a new gameplay idea, his thoughts somehow end up tying the idea to the Zelda series.

“Yeah, the truth of it is I always want to work on something new,” he acknowledged. “It just turns out that as I’m coming up with these ideas along the way, I realize, ‘Y’know, this could really work on a Zelda game.’ And it sort filters back into it and in the end, we come back into another Zelda project. So in some ways, it’s a bit of a challenge for me personally that Zelda ends up becoming this pool of my ideas and it keeps absorbing the ideas I have and they get integrated back into Zelda games. But that’s just sort of the way it’s flown for me.”

Aonuma started work on the Zelda series back in 1998 with The Ocarina of Time. That’s a pretty long time to devote to one series, and I can’t blame him for wanting to mix things up.

In the full interview, Aonuma goes on to talk more about the Zelda series and the Wii U.

Source: Industry Gamers

That Wii U tech demo Nintendo had of Zelda running in 1080p at E3? Don’t expect the next actual installment in the Zelda series to look like that.

In an interview with Wired, series producer Eiji Aonuma said that people shouldn’t believe that the tech demo will be indicative of Zelda on the Wii U. He went on to remind people of the infamous GameCube tech demo and how that looked nothing like The Wind Waker,

“You probably remember that when we introduced the GameCube, we showed a somewhat realistic Zelda demo,” said Aonuma. “And what we actually created was the cel-shaded Wind Waker. So when we show a graphic demo, people think, ‘Oh, this is what the next Zelda will look like,’ but that’s not necessarily the case.”

I personally wouldn’t mind another cartoon-style Zelda on consoles. Thanks to the cel-shaded look in The Wind Waker, the game has aged exceptionally well against other games of its time.

Source: Game|Life

That’s what you get when your entire society’s cuisine is based solely on rocks.

As you’ve likely guessed, it’s another animated gem from Zac Gorman over at idrawnintendo.

Both the European and American Club Nintendo websites suffered a minor technical error over the weekend which made some members unable to claim the free soundtrack CD when they registered their copies of Ocarina of Time 3D.

Nintendo of Europe has publicly addressed the issue and will soon be contacting anyone who was able to register but not get the free CD.

Nintendo of America has also acknowledged the error and have extended the deadline to register the game to midnight (PST) tonight.

Source: Nintendo.co.uk, Club Nintendo