Out of nowhere, Nintendo announced Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for the Nintendo Switch. A sequel to the original Hyrule Warriors and a canonical prequel to Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is being positioned as the Switch's big holiday release for 2020, set to launch on November 20. Pre-orders for the game are available now, with Nintendo confirming what fans get if they decide to pre-order the new title.
As revealed by Nintendo, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity's pre-order bonus is the Lucky Ladle weapon. In Breath of the Wild, Link was able to utilize soup ladles as weapons, and so this is clearly a nod to that feature. It's unclear if there will be other ladles that players can collect in the game, and it's also unknown exactly what kind of bonuses the Lucky Ladle gives Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity players, if any.
A unique weapon is pretty standard fare when it comes to pre-order bonuses, but there's a catch with this one. Nintendo has stated that the Lucky Ladle weapon will only be available to those that pre-order the digital version of the game. It noted that fans pre-ordering the physical version of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity may have the opportunity to buy the Lucky Ladle weapon as DLC at a later date. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't elaborate as to why this discrepancy exists.
In any case, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is still generating up quite a bit of excitement. If nothing else, it should give Zelda fans something new to play in the Breath of the Wild world while they wait for more substantial information on Breath of the Wild 2, which hasn't been seen since its initial announcement at E3 2019.
Unfortunately, it's now starting to look like more Breath of the Wild 2 news won't be at all coming this year. The Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity announcement has gone a long way in filling up the rest of Nintendo's 2020 release schedule, with Super Mario 3D All-Stars dropping in September, Pikmin 3 Deluxe coming in October, and now Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in November. It's possible that the Big N has a surprise Nintendo Direct up its sleeve to finish out the year, but that remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what the company has in store for Zelda's 35th anniversary in 2021. Maybe new content will be released for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, or maybe fans can look forward to Switch ports of classic Zelda games. After all, a possible Skyward Sword Switch port leaked online last month, though it still has yet to be officially announced by Nintendo.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity launches on November 20, 2020, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
