Article by: Justin Amirkhani

It’s been called one of the greatest games of all time, but on June 19th The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is getting a Nintendo 3DS remake that aims to revitalize the classic for a whole new generation. At a hands-on preview for the game we had the opportunity to sit down for a 1-on-1 interview with Matt Ryan from Nintendo of Canada to talk about Zelda’s legacy, what it takes to protect that legacy, and why this of all games is the focal point for the 3DS launch-window success.

I think the thing with the franchise is that what we call the core audience in the video game industry are people who play games a lot and naturally want a lot out of their games. I think there are a lot of different franchises that fall in to that category, but the Zelda franchise was one of the first. Even back on the NES, if you’ve played the original versions, the level of work that goes in to the games and the caliber of developers that work on it is extremely high. Like the Mario franchise, it’s one of our prizes and Zelda gets a little bit more put in to it because it needs to deliver hours and hours of great gameplay with challenges and puzzles and fun. If you’re not going to put a lot of time and effort in to playing a Zelda game, you’re probably not going to get very far but the true Zelda gamer is looking for that type of experience and wants it to be challenging and rewarding. That’s what Zelda really offers; the games are always amazing; the graphics have always been amazing no matter what system they’re on.

The reason Ocarina of Time is so highly acclaimed is because it changed this genre of video games – where exploration and adventure were part of it – in to something totally new. The way that you could explore in the first version of the game wasn’t really offered to that level of quality in anything else. Ever since then, you can pit it against a lot of other games – even current ones – and the level of quality Zelda provides is still better. I don’t mean to say that Ocarina is better than what is out there now; it’s just that it was a true game changer when it came out. So, when you take it and put it in a 3D environment without glasses and enhance the graphical fidelity like we did, the 3DS gamer is going to love it.

It looks beautiful, it’s definitely one of our biggest franchises on our newest system, and the touch-screen controls really add something to the Legend of Zelda games. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks have their own touch-screen controls but this is a different way to play and use the touch-screen. For example, in the previous version, admittedly it was quite annoying to use some of the menus. You had to dig to find your sheet music for the ocarina and you had to dig deep to get those metal boots and swap them. The reality is that with the touch-screen it’s just a lot easier and it makes the game a lot more fun because it happens in real-time, meaning you don’t have to turn off the gameplay in order to get to the things you need to complete the game.

There’s some new ways to experience the game as well. Master Quest isn’t new, but looking at the way this version of Master Quest looks and the level of difficulty, there’s another way to play it. Boss Challenge mode is something that’s really cool where you get to go in and play all the bosses you’ve defeated in sequence, and that’s pretty intense.

Well, we have ported The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a couple of times already; we ported it to GameCube and we’ve ported it to Virtual Console. We stuck true to the franchise though; we didn’t really change the gameplay for the most part. Well, not even for the most part; you can use the N64 game guide to get through the Nintendo 3DS version, so we haven’t messed with the original version. What we did was make the controls a little easier to access and more appropriate for the platform, that’s where the touch-screen has come in.

What we also did was mess with was the artwork by literally going in and retouching the graphics; a lot of the still scenes and landscapes have been totally redone. Even the way Link looks is a lot crisper, so we did mess with it that way but I don’t think there’s any gamer that’s going to be upset with that one. Especially in 3D without the need for glasses, adding that layer of depth that the Nintendo 3DS offers is another way we’ve played around with the original and changed it, but it’s all for the better. We’re pretty confident that the Zelda fans are going to like it but I think you’re right that a lot of people have been waiting for this game to get a Nintendo 3DS and when they get a chance to see it they’ll be quite content.