Friday, June 13, 2014

Majora's Mask 3D or Bust!

Aonuma hears the fans. The fans ask for Majora's Mask 3D and he listens and he acknowledges... but while it's nice that Nintendo is actually listening to their fans, it's entirely worthless if they don't do anything.

If I'm unhappy with something in Minecraft, there are many ways to tell Jeb and Dinnerbone, like Twitter or reddit or their bug report system. They listen and if they agree, they will change the game to make more like the fans want it to be. If I'm unhappy that I can't access the GBA shop in the Virtual Console versions of the Oracle games, I can post it on Miiverse. And maybe they'll listen. But nothing will change.

What's good it good for that you can tell the people at Nintendo about what you want, if they don't care? And if they even start to tease their fans about it, to play with them or to make a joke, the relationship gets very unhealthy. So, in case Majora's Mask 3D won't be happening, Aonuma walks on very thin ice here.

The good news is that there weren't any news about Grezzo, the developers of Ocarina of Time 3D. Last year around this time they were occupied with the Flower Town game for the 3DS StreetPass lobby, so they were not able to do anything Zelda. So far I haven't seen any news about them, they are not working on Codename STEAM or something (it actually didn't feel like there have been all too many 3DS games).

When they announced that Grezzo was working on the Four Swords Anniversary Edition, I was happy to learn that we have now an entire team dedicated to improve older Zelda games and maybe to work on new Zelda titles in the future. And I was sad to see them make some flower game instead of Majora's Mask 3D.

Some fans now hope that they save Majora's Mask for something bigger, like an HD remake or a remake for the next handheld system or even a sequel. But the reality is that Majora's Mask wasn't popular with the masses. In school I had a couple of friends who really liked Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time, much like I did. But with Majora's Mask they lost interest in Zelda, while I got in it deeper and deeper. It's a game that the hardcore Zelda fans enjoy and celebrate, find fascinating and like to play. And Aonuma already admitted to that.

The thing for me is that Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask belong together. The development of Majora's Mask started as a N64DD addon for Ocarina of Time under the title of "Zelda Gaiden". It would later turn into a standalone N64 game, but both games share the same engine, the same interface, the same controls, as well as many graphics, models and sounds. The two games are siblings.

This also makes it easier for Nintendo. Fans are asking for something with Majora's Mask, Majora's Mask 3D is the cheapest way to "satisfy" them, because half of the work was already done with Ocarina of Time 3D. They can reuse all the assets, much like they reused all the assets in the original N64 game.

But you can't just separate the two. From the first moment I played Ocarina of Time 3D, I wanted the same for Majora's Mask. I imagined how amazing the game would look like on the 3DS, especially with the moon hovering over you in 3D. But this also works the other way around. If they made Majora's Mask HD, fans would ask for an Ocarina of Time HD, the game was much more popular after all. And why wouldn't they? What you do with one of the games, you better do with the other.

If not, it would be like releasing New Play Control! versions of Metroid Prime and Pikmin, but not their sequels. It would be like making an HD remake of Super Mario Galaxy, but not Super Mario Galaxy 2. It would be like releasing Phantom Hourglass on the Wii U, but not Spirit Tracks. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask simply belong together.

And that's the whole reason, why I want, why I need Majora's Mask 3D - not Majora's Mask HD or some Majora's Mask sequel, but Majora's Mask 3D.


No comments: