Nintendo Co. Ltd. recently released a handful of new screen shots of Zelda Gaiden, the follow-up to the Nintendo 64 hit Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Although a release date for the United States has not yet been announced, we couldn't resist giving all you hardcore Legend of Zelda fanatics a sneak peek at these great screenshots! Zelda Gaiden is slated to be shown at the coming Space World show in Japan at the end of August, and we'll have more details on the game then. For now, take a look at these screen shots and start dreaming! Keep in mind that these photos are from a work in progress and details are highly likely to change before the game is completed.

Young Link takes a ride on Epona the pony! Notice the new meter at the bottom of the screen. We can only speculate at this point, but it looks like it might be some kind of Hyrulian sundial. Also, the background scenery looks totally new, so we can assume that the action in Zelda Gaiden will take place in new areas of Hyrule. It also looks like young Link has the bow in this photo, though this detail will probably change in the final game.

Here's another shot of young Link, this time with an impressive mural of some sort in the background. The designs on this wall do not appear to match any that are present in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Notice the unusual icon on the Down-C Button-- it appears to be some kind of fruit or berry of some sort, though it could also represent a Deku Scrub's head.

Zelda Gaiden introduces all-new enemies to threaten the intrepid Link. In this shot, Link battles what looks like a humanoid Gohma. The icons in the upper right are very intriguing in this shot. It looks like two of them feature "masks"-- the Bunny Hood and Goron Mask. The Blue Button indicates "Jump" and the Up-C is "Navi" of course. Of course, this impossible sitution may be changed in the final game.