Abstract:
Nintendo has always been good at re-polishing its popular old games and bringing them to modern platforms. This is nothing new. But starting with this year's "Star Fox", Nintendo's definition of "remastered version" seems to have changed. According to the senior vice president of the studio, in the future, remakes will keep pace with new works and become Nintendo's core business direction.
In an interview with gaming media Polygon, Nate Bildoff, Nintendo's senior vice president of product development and publishing, detailed the importance of the remake to the current studio. "To be honest, I think both new works and remastered versions have a place in Nintendo's product system, and both are equally important." Bierdorf said that it is not difficult to foresee that Nintendo will launch more remastered products in the future.
"Revisiting a game of special significance like 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time' can bring a very strong sense of satisfaction... But equally important is that there are too many people who have never played the original game. For them, the 'Ocarina of Time' remake is a brand new gaming experience in 2026." Bildoff added. The remake of "Ocarina of Time" was officially launched yesterday. Five months ago, the remake of "Star Fox" of similar size was launched exclusively on Switch 2.
These two works seem to usher in a new era of Nintendo remakes. There have been many cases where Nintendo has remastered high-definition old works and put them on new consoles: the quality of the remastered versions of "Super Mario RPG" and "Metrodrome Ultra" on the Switch are close to being completely remade; and this is not the first time that "Ocarina of Time" has been reborn off the N64 platform, as there is another remake on the 3DS.
But this year’s remasters have a completely different texture. Not only are they completely rebuilt from scratch, they also directly use the official title of the original work, neither labeled "HD Remastered" nor "Completely Remastered", and the Switch 2 platform is not even mentioned in the title. To Nintendo, they're the same classic games themselves, just in a new light for a whole new generation of fans - many of whom weren't even born when the originals were released.
Officially confirmed that there will be more remakes in the future, and fans naturally made wishes and nominated them. "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" is probably the most mentioned work currently. As the sequel to "Ocarina of Time", it reused a lot of game materials and the development cycle was very short. There is almost certainly a team within Nintendo already working on its remake.
"Super Mario 64" is another game that players are calling for a remake. We have already welcomed the remakes of "Star Fox" and "Ocarina of Time". If "Mario 64" also joins the remake lineup, then among the four major N64 works, only "Super Smash Bros. DX" does not have a modern remake. Of course, there are some die-hard fans of "Mario 64" who don't want it to be remade - these players firmly believe that the original game is perfect, and anyone who dares to propose a remake will offend them. But now that everyone has seen the excellent level of Nintendo's remake of "Ocarina of Time," I wonder if these fans will change their minds and accept this classic, which pioneered 3D platform jumping gameplay and inspired countless later works, to face modern players with a new look.
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