Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom almost became a full-blown Mario Maker

Terada: We were exploring a few different ways to play the game in parallel. In one approach, Link could copy and paste different objects, like doors and candlesticks, to create original dungeons. During this exploration phase, this idea was called an “edit dungeon,” because players could create their own Legend of Zelda gameplay.

Aonuma: They showed it to me and told me to try it. As I played, I started to think that it’s fun to make your own dungeon and have other people play in it, but that it’s also not so bad to put copy-and-paste items into the playing field and create gameplay where they can be used to fight enemies. That was the beginning of “echoes” gameplay. The gameplay shifted from creating dungeons to using copy-and-paste items as tools to further your own adventure.