PixlBit

Huge Definition.

The first demo was a 30-second Zelda HD cutscene of Link entering a spectacular room and fighting a giant spider. The Wii U's HD capabilities turn a simple boss room into a massive and beautiful palace hall, and the spider was incredibly intimidating, full of segmented body ridges, menacing mouth parts, and hair (shudder). It was fluid, detailed, ornate, colorful, brilliant in light contrasts, but a limited experience.

The Wii U controller was simply used to change camera views. The circle pad was used to pan the view, and a button on the screen switched angles from various angles behind the action, above the action, on the ceiling -- all of which took place simulaneously on the television and touchscreen. Another button on the screen changed the scene from day to night, which caused outside light peering in through the large windows to turn on and off instantly. Day and night Zelda mechanics at the touch of a button? There's a game right there. Another button on the screen brought up the dungeon map onto the television, and the rest of the screen was used for the typical display indicators for hearts, keys, and rupees.

HD might as well stand for "Huge Definition," because that's clearly the message of the Zelda demo: huge open spaces and huge enemies are going to be possible on Wii U. The palace hall most closely resembled Twilight's Princess' Temple of Time dungeon. The room was chock full of detail and wall furnishing, open space, statues, pillars, flying bats, multiple stairways, lit torches, and a pool of water. As it crawled along the outside of the windows, the spider shaded the light streaming onto the ground, then smashed the floor as it dropped down from above. The pool's water shimmered, the windows glowed when looked at head on, and changing the scenery to night made the torchlit scene all the more atmospheric.

Having a second player hold the screen and take charge of Wii U Zelda's camera angles could make for some interesting cooperation potential, but I hope that's not all it will do.

Of course, the demo was simply labeled "HD Experience" so it was likely created just to show off the Wii U, but I think it's a good bet in-game graphics will be comparable.