Joystiq [Nintendo]

Nintendo Dream magazine interviewed members of the Phantom Hourglass development team, including Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma, Phantom Hourglass director Daiki Iwamoto, and assistant director (and former Flagship Zelda team member) Hidemaro Fujibayashi. Judging from the responses of the developers, the brilliance of Zelda may be attributed to tough competition from a game that would have seemed like a non-competitor a few years ago: Brain Age.

Originally, Phantom Hourglass was set to be a smaller, quicker game, but Aonuma describes the pressure from the upstart training game:

"At first, we had the idea of creating a good game in a short time. We thought Brain Age was our rival. Brain Age's like that smart transfer student. The Zelda Team's not in the top places, but it studies hard. And then comes this transfer student and easily gets the first place without studying. That's very frustrating. After three long years, we finally finished Twilight Princess and the transfer student's the one that's smart and cool and gets the first place? Damn it (laughs)!"

This is only the first part of the interview, but it's a nice, long read about the game that's going to bring Zelda back to the masses.

[Via NeoGAF]