And then there are the complete remakes which totally retool and reimagine a game. These usually divert from the source material more obviously, and with something hallowed like Resident Evil 4, that’s something I have a natural reticence to given how incredible the GameCube original still is.
But I also accept that for new players who didn’t experience it in the 2000s, OG RE4 can feel a bit clunky. Capcom has led the way in demonstrating how to reimagine a classic in an exciting way that pays tribute to the source without being hampered by decades-old design restrictions.
Which brings us, finally, to Zelda. Specifically, Zelda 1, The Legend of Zelda. Now this is a game that I didn’t play anywhere near close to release (I actually completed it for the first time on 3DS, same with the sequel) and despite its brilliance, I can definitely see how it might be hard for new players to enjoy in the same way. Feel free to fire it up via Nintendo Switch Online and let me know I’m wrong in the comments, but despite its openness and design brilliance, I think the vast majority of new players would bounce off the original Zelda today.
Which is heartbreaking to me. I’ve got a soft spot for Zelda II, too, and to think that those games are increasingly impenetrable and don’t speak to entire generations of gamers is sobering for anyone who loves the medium. Looking at our reader-ranked list of the Best Zelda Games of all time, LOZ sits at number 19 at the time of writing. Number 19 for the game that birthed this series!
This isn’t like the Street Fighter series, either, where it was the second game that laid the foundation for the rest. The Legend of Zelda delivered the series template incredibly fully formed on Famicom.
Looking at another formative title, Super Mario Bros for NES currently sits at number 11 on our equivalent Mario game ranking. That massively enjoyable, accessible, evergreen game, one that shaped the industry and defined an entire genre is apparently only the 11th-best entry in the series.
And you know what? I don’t disagree. Perhaps it’s the destiny of all classics to be superseded into oblivion. It’s certainly a mistake to conflate importance and significance with quality, and nostalgia is always tricksy. As I’ve said, the pace of advancement and near-constant refinement in gaming as a medium is rapid. SMB probably is only the 11th-best Mario game, and LOZ the 19th-best Zelda.
And that’s why it’s time to give The Legend of Zelda the remake treatment. It’s a game that deserves to be showcased and played. People unfamiliar with it, especially younger gamers who adore Breath of the Wild and are losing their minds with excitement for Tears of the Kingdom, should be able to look back and easily trace the lineage from 1986 to today, in a form that’s accessible and attractive to them.
This could involve Grezzo revisiting the Link’s Awakening engine, or a totally new top-down system — I’m game for anything. I could even go for a Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap-style remaster/reskin loving draped across the original code. The game is certainly robust enough to shine without a total overhaul. Can you imagine The Legend of Zelda, but it looks like the key art from the original NES manual? Tunic is a recent game which traded on nostalgia for that manual art, in particular, and integrated it beautifully and mysteriously into its gameplay. I’d play a game that looked like that and played like OG Zelda in a heartbeat.
While movies aren’t a good comparison point when it comes to reimagining classic texts, perhaps the world of literature is, if you go back far enough. There’s no cause to rewrite A Farewell To Arms just yet, but the language of centuries-old novels and other written texts can be a stumbling block for modern readers; Shakespearean lines can be tough to get your head around without sitting down and really dissecting the meaning and the researching the references in the footnotes.
Translating ye olde works into something digestible and contemporary feels more akin to localisation to me, though. The source is naturally obscured in some way and elements will inevitably be lost. But, if it’s a good adaptation, the thrust and spirit and flavour will carry over. Perhaps that’s a better analogy for video game remakes; they’re ‘temporal’ localisations for players who can’t parse the text in its original form.
It’s easy to be cynical about remasters and remakes and decry the dearth of imagination amongst some of the biggest players in the games industry, but Zelda’s 40th anniversary will be upon us in just three years and it feels like a no-brainer to cook up something special for that milestone — specifically something that looks to the past as well as the future. Nintendo famously avoids the obvious as it seeks to ‘surprise and delight’ us all, yet we’ve seen far younger games in the series retooled and enjoyed anew. It’s time to go back to the source.
You know, once we’ve had a few months with Tears of the Kingdom.
