The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS remake/update is coming Nintendo announced at E3 2010.
While the game initially seemed to be simply a tech-demo and not a full title, it is now likely an actual game as Nintendo officially has it listed on their 3DS web-site under “Nintendo Titles” (first in the list of upcoming 3DS games) and then linked to it via Twitter. This is after the games were initially taken down, then re-posted.
A lot of the confusion comes from this quote by Eiji Aonuma:
Miyamoto: “He [Aonuma] does have from that time one horrible memory that’s lasted with him for a long time, that he would like to try to put to rest and make amends for.”
Aonuma: “You’ve all played the Water Temple? How many people thought, boy that was really tough? I’ve lived with that for the last ten odd years. But with Nintendo 3DS we have touch screen. One of the things I think was problematic or maybe troublesome for you when you were playing through the Water Temple was the fact that you had to take the Iron Boots off, put them back on, take them off, put them back on. what I’d like to do is lay this evil shame I have to rest by implementing the touch screen in such a way that it makes it very natural and smooth and easy to put those iron boots on and take them off.”
Okay that quote doesn’t seem confusing to me, but some say that the pair stated Ocarina of Time 3DS as a tech-demo, which Ferry still believes, and not a real game.
In any case, no other information about the game is known, but from the screenshots, it would seem to be that the game has gotten a graphical upgrade with the textures cleaned up and smoothed over. And it looks like Link has been given a bit of a cartoon-y sheen (and perhaps the world in general), which would help the game fit the general style of the upcoming Wii game: Zelda: Skyward Sword.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be one of the best games ever made. Including myself as you can read in my The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64 review.
At the roundtable discussion about the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and the Nintendo 3DS in general as quoted from above, Miyamoto and Aonuma did reveal that you will be able to change equipment quickly and easily by using the touch-screen. And that this would make certain aspects of the game less tedious and clunky, such as the Water Temple, since you can now simply tap the screen to put on Link’s Iron Boots. Instead of having to press start, wait for the menu to load, then move over to the Equipment subscreen and press A to turn the boots on or off, in order to sink or swim.
It is also likely that they will be making other minor changes to the game while they are at it, as Nintendo typically does with these remakes. Hopefully they add a whole new dungeon that makes better use of the 3D-without-glasses features of the 3DS, like they did with their updated “Color Dungeon” in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX at the launch of the GBC (the color dungeon wasn’t in the original game since that version was black & white. So they created the color dungeon to show off the new color graphics of the Game Boy Color).
Miyamoto did say that having gamers traverse Hyrule with 3D effects so you feel like you are IN THE GAME, was one of the main reasons they built the 3DS. Given this statement, you can also be pretty assured that Ocarina of Time 3D is simply a holdover game to tide us over until they make a Zelda-proper using the 3DS. And this way, they can still say they included a Zelda game at launch, which would definitely be a system seller.
Since Ocarina of Time is considered the best game ever made by most everyone, I doubt anyone will complain about a re-release with all-new 3D effects added. This will be the fourth time that Ocarina of Time has been re-released in America (fifth worldwide if you count it’s release on the Chinese iQue system).
Others include: Wii Virtual Console in 2007, The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition (GameCube, given as a Wind Waker pre-order bonus and includes Zelda 1 and 2, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask) and in updated form as Ocarina of Time: Master’s Quest+Ocarina of Time; a GameCube disc with both games that was given away during a special promo campaign (you had to renew your subscription to Nintendo Power, register a GameCube and two games on nintendo.com or buy a special Wind Waker GameCube bundle to get the limited edition disc).
Hopefully Nintendo will also re-release The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask in updated 3D form on the 3DS after Ocarina of Time. That game, along with The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, DESERVE proper re-releases!
Here is video of the roundtable about Zelda and the 3DS.
And here is a video showing additional screenshots of the game.
Via IGN, Nintendo Twitter, EscapistMagazine.