Wind Waker devs say they considered having beams shoot out of Link's eyes

Early in the process of developing the 2003 original The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendo designers considered having beams shoot out of Link's eyes as a means to justify how large they were, it has been revealed.

"Now that the eyes had gotten much larger, we wanted to make their facial expressions richer by increasing the number of patterns for the eyes and mouth," developer Satoru Takizawa said in the latest Iwata Asks interview feature. "Partway through, we even talked about having beams come out of those eyes! (laughs)."

Takizawa explained that Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto said the development team needed to supply a reason for Link's eyes being so big. However, this feature never made it far. As Takizawa explained, "I don't think [eye] beams were really an option, though."

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD launches digitally through the Nintendo eShop tomorrow, September 20, alongside a special $300 Wii U bundle. The packaged version will be released on October 4.

The Wii U's recently announced price cut also goes into effect tomorrow, with the 32GB system dropping from $350 to $300.