Princess Zelda finally stars in her own game

Nintendo has announced that Princess Zelda is to star in her own game.

For the past 40 years she's lent her name to one of the Japanese gaming giant's most popular series.

But the Legend of Zelda series has cast players as Hylian hero Link.

That's all about to change with Echoes of Wisdom, the new title revealed at the company's Nintendo Direct preview stream.

During a short trailer fans saw Link being swallowed by a supernatural portal, leaving the princess behind.

The game employs the same top-down perspective and cartoon-style graphics seen in the 2019 remake of SNES classic Link's Awakening.

In the trailer, Zelda was seen conjuring up replicas of items and enemies found in the world in order to solve puzzles and battle foes.

Probably the biggest reveal of the 40-minute showcase for gamers was the grand finale - a long-awaited look at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

First announced in 2017, the long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed first-person adventure series launched on the Nintendo Gamecube.

In a brief preview fans saw bounty hunter Samus Aran navigating an alien planet and utilising her famous morph ball ability to traverse the world.

Nintendo executive Shinya Takahashi, who presented the event, did warn fans they'd have to "wait a little longer" for the game's 2025 release.

And no Nintendo Direct event would be complete without a certain plumber.

The latest opened with footage from Mario & Luigi: Brothership - a colourful RPG starring the duo.

Alongside a range of third-party titles and updates in the rest of the presentation there was also another glimpse of Lego Horizon Adventures.

The platforming mash-up of the beloved bricks and Sony's futuristic open-world adventure is being released under the PlayStation Publishing label.

That's following in the footsteps of Microsoft, which announced it was bringing Xbox exclusive games to rival platforms earlier this year.

Nintendo had made it clear beforehand that it wouldn't be revealing any details about its Nintendo Switch successor at its latest Direct show.

Company president Shuntaro Furukawa has said more details on the new console will emerge before March 2025.

But the Metroid reveal in particular got fans wondering whether any of the titles they'd just seen would be making an appearance on it.

Some big Nintendo games released when a new machine goes on sale, such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have been available on two consoles.

With a successor to the Switch on the horizon, most were predicting a fairly quiet 2024 for Nintendo.

It's worth remembering, though, that the original has sold more than 130 million units since its release in 2017.

And while its upcoming Mario and Zelda games might not be major sequels, it showed that the company can always rely on two of its most popular series to keep fans ticking over.