Ocarina of Time 3D

Nintendo gave in to something fans had been demanding for a long time last year when they finally released a remake of the N64 classic Zelda title, Ocarina of Time on the 3DS. Talks of a new Zelda game have been circulating for a long time now, and several ideas have been thrown around- a completely new title, a Majora’s Mask remake, or maybe a A Link to the Past remake (not exactly for the 3DS, though). And now it looks like fans aren’t the only ones confused between these choices.

During an interview with IGN, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto said the team is still deciding between a Majora’s Mask remake or something to do with A Link to the Past (either a sequel or a remake).

“We haven’t quite decided yet, whether we’re going to do A Link to the Past, because there’s also the possibility of doing a remake of Majora’s Mask,” Miyamoto said. “his is something we’ve certainly been talking about and doing a little bit of experimenting with, to figure out which way we’re going to go.”

He said he cannot announce anything right now and that Zelda fans around the world are going to have to wait a little more. “We have so many goals right now,” he said. “We’re always looking at expanding our audience and giving people the opportunity to get their hands on 3DS and see what kind of fun gaming experiences they can have.

“And now, we’re also tasked with pushing the Wii U. So we have lots of good opportunities in terms of thinking about which Zelda game is going to be best for which purpose.”

Well, we would certainly like to see all three of those, but if I had to pick one, I’d go with the sequel to ALttP. All three are equally tempting, though. Which one do you want to see? Tell us in your comments below.

Whereas the Nintendo 3DS might have performed sluggishly at retail on the hardware front, on the software front, it seems to have done pretty well for itself, with two games (Nintendogs+Cats and Super Street Fighter IV) breaching the million units sold mark within the first month of the handheld’s launch.

Add another game to that list of million sellers. Predictably, it is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, the excellent 3DS remake of the seminal N64 game. In their quarter earnings statement, wherein they revealed sluggish hardware sales for the DS, 3DS and Wii, slashed their profit forecast earnings by 84%, and announced a massive price cut for the 3DS, they also revealed software sales. Ocarina of Time 3D has sold 1.08 million from its 16th June release date through to the end of June, with 270,000 of those units having been sold in Japan, and the rest coming from the west.

This, of course means that with the 3DS’s 4.3 million lifetime sales, one in every four 3DS owners now has a copy of Ocarina of Time. That is some impressive software penetration there, although it also points to a lack of any worthwhile alternatives for quality software on the system (a situation that Nintendo aims to rectify with its Fall lineup, which includes Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Kid Icarus: Uprising).

[Thanks Eurogamer!]

Nintendo UK marketing manager James Honeywell says the 3DS’ in built software and its applications are the real “killer apps.” While speaking with CVG last week, before the system’s launch, he said, “I actually think that the killer app is the software that is built into the console. With the AR games, the Mii maker, the quests and the ability to swap Miis, those are the killer apps and people should take the time to have a go on those. I’m sure they’ll be surprised at the level of depth and ingenuity that is already there.”

The 3DS does have a tonne of features that can keep 3DS owners distracted for a long time, even without games.

However, games do matter to us, and especially when they’re as big as Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart. When asked when the two will be released, Honeywell said that Nintendo were planning a 2011 launch for Mario Kart 3DS.

When asked about The Ocarina of Time 3DS’ release date, he said: “I know from personal experience of being on the sampling tours that the game everyone ran to was Zelda, to get their first experience of it in 3D, so we know it’s hotly anticipated, and hopefully we’ll be making an announcement fairly soon so people will be able to find out when they’ll be able to go and get it.”

Stay tuned for more info.

We recently sat down with Rob Saunders, Head of Communications for Nintendo UK and we talked about if the 3DS Ocarina of Time remake will be more of a re-imagining of the original OOT, or a conventional remake.

When we asked what kind of a remake Ocarina of Time 3DS will be, Saunders said, “I think it really depends on what that game looked like first time round.

“Take, for example, Super Mario Bros on the NES. If you were to bring that straight out again today I think a lot of people would scratch their heads. However, with the New Super Mario Bros: You can tweak it, you can update it, you can sharpen it and you can change the character models, the environment. But the core mechanic of that 2D side-scrolling game play remains the same.”

He carried on: “So with some games, like Ocarina, you’ll see a much more ‘faithful’ reproduction but I think with some other games you need to tweak them and bring them into the modern era, so to speak, so it depends on the title.”

In this very interview, Rob told us that Nintendo is already working on a new home console which may include 3D technology.

Here’s the full interview.