The problem with surfergirl is that the person who posts there, who does have some legit sources, also liberally mixes in speculation and less credible rumors and tips that they recieve.

The most direct chain seems to be from EA, and Ubisoft Montreal. Outside of those companies though, I believe there is at least one or two more people in the chain from the source to the surfergirl blog.

For instance, the Sonic RPG, surfergirl had the name in total, but also posted Sonic Chronicles and The Dark Brotherhood as two separate games.

So I'm hoping this story is partially right, that Retro is working on a fantasy adventure game, but that its not a Zelda-spinoff.

Its not, in my mind, a question of whether they are competent to make the games. Its a question of why should talented, creative team like Retro be limited by making another version of the same thing we've all played half a dozen times already?

Prime was a great series for them to start off with, as it was a proven name that wasn't oversaturated in the game market, and had not been done in 3d, or had a sequel on a console in nearly 10 years. It also took place in a more open universe, allowing Retro to still have room to come up some wonderful additions and not be held back by 20 year old art designs for an 8-bit game.

In her comments section, in reply to various questions, she posted a few replies about this game.

In reply to a poster expressing concern about it being more of the same, she replied that "Its different from the other Zeldas."

Asked how the game was described to her, she replied "Epic, cinematic, nontraditional."

Of course this is all quite possibly not true, but if so this sounds as if Nintendo is giving them room to create.

Perhaps a more generous way of looking at this is that Nintendo is, in a way, rewarding Retro for their strong work on Metroid Prime Trilogy by letting them work on a Zelda game, giving them a greater chance at sales and exposure due to Zelda's fanbase, but having it be a spinoff/alternate take, allowing them to make their own stamp on the Zelda universe and mythology.

They made the best Metroid games ever, I think they could fine work with Zelda, which has gotten very stale with the last few releases.

But I don't want Retro's art and design being constrained by a previous set standard like with Zelda. Why waste the talent of artists who came up with things like Quadraxis, the Ing, and the Hunters by having them do another variation on young man with sword and bow, and having him fight even more armored warriors and skeleton men.

Let Retro create new stuff.

Western devs have always been ahead technically and in game design complexity, for years now.

The difference was, they were on the PC in previous years. Now those teams and developers are putting things out on consoles.