Nintendo Update Leaks Potential Return of 11-Year-Old Legend of Zelda Game

January 3, 2026, 5:35pm

A new Nintendo update has potentially leaked the return of an 11-year-old Legend of Zelda game and a forgotten 3DS game. It’s hard to believe, but 2015 was 11 calendar years ago. 2015 was also a pre-Nintendo Switch world. In 2015, Nintendo fans had two options: the 3DS or the Wii U. Considering the massive commercial failure of the latter, many apparently chose the former.

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If you were playing the 3DS still in 2015, and you are a Legend of Zelda fan, then you likely purchased The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, a spin-off from Nintendo EDP and Grezzo that released on the 3DS, and nothing else since then. In other words, it’s been stranded, but it looks like this may be changing.

40th Anniversary Trademark

As YouTuber Mike Odyssey points out over on social media platform X, Nintendo has filed for a brand new trademark of The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. And it has done this amid the 40-year anniversary of the franchise, which is this year. To this end, it’s reasonable to speculate that the 3DS game is being ported or remade for Nintendo Switch/Nintendo Switch 2, and will be both revealed and released soon. That said, it would be a somewhat random Zelda game to bring back, unless it’s getting some type of spiritual successor, but this also seems unlikely given the game’s critical reception, commercial performance, and the demand for a follow-up in 2026.

A Forgotten Zelda Game

For those unfamiliar with the 3DS game, it is the second original Legend of Zelda game for the Nintendo handheld following A Link Between Worlds. The Nintendo exclusive sold somewhere between a million and two million copies, which isn’t great by Nintendo standards, but by no means was it a flop. Meanwhile, it divided and underwhelmed some critics, as evidenced by its 73 on Metacritic, which is a bit low by the standards of Nintendo, though its smaller spin-off games typically are in the 70-80 range.

All of that said, and as always, remember to take everything here for what it is: speculation. There could be nothing to this trademark renewal, but the timing ot he anniversary certainly makes it noteworthy. Meanwhile, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum. Would you be interested in a Nintendo Switch 2 version of this 3DS Zelda game, or is there another Zelda spin-off Nintendo should bring back first?