The Legend of Zelda: A Link to IP

We are all big fans of the Legend of Zelda series in our household, and have spent the last couple of months re-exploring Hyrule and (trying to) defeat Ganondorf in Nintendo's latest iteration: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ("TotK" for short). In the game, the Hero of Time, Link, acquires a number of new abilities to help his quest, including Fuse and Ultrahand. Using Fuse allows Link to join two objects together, such as an arrow and a monster eyeball, allowing the weapon to have properties of the other items. Ultrahand is used to build machine creations including vehicles, cannons, hot air balloons, and all sorts of other imaginative contraptions.

I was interested to see reports of a flurry of new patent applications from Nintendo relating to specific aspects of the gameplay, including these abilities, as well as elements of the loading screens. Nintendo of course have a reputation of protecting their IP, so it will be interesting to see what happens with these filings in future.

And, of course, this gives me the perfect excuse to start another playthrough of TotK - I just have to see how this patent claim relates to this part of the game. Oh, and stock up on supplies for the final boss battle against Ganondorf...

For instance, Link's Ultrahand and Fuse abilities, some of the game's mechanics, NPCs' abilities, and even its loading screens have all been filed for patent by Nintendo.

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