Majora’s Mask Battles Link to the Past for a Remake

Nintendo has found itself with a real puzzle: trying to decide whether to remake Majora’s Mask, A Link to the Past, or create a new game entirely. This divisive issue strongly splits Zelda’s fanbase, as despite Ocarina of Time’s occasional position as the greatest game of all time, the second-tier fan subsets usually support either Majora’s Mask or A Link to the Past as the greatest game in the series.

About a year ago, Nintendo mentioned the possibility of a Majora’s Mask remake. The title would take assets from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and series producer Eiji Aonuma highlighted how easily the game would work as a portable title.

Then, in April, Shigeru Miyamoto voiced the potential for a port or remake of A Link to the Past. If entirely remade, the new version would take better advantage of the handheld’s 3D capabilities than Majora’s Mask, and freshen up the originally 2D world of the SNES  title. In an interview with IGN, Miyamoto admitted that he is working to decide which direction the designers would go.

“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. This 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,” Miyamoto said. Miyamoto also pointed out that the team is tasked with pushing the Wii U as well as the 3DS, and that Zelda might also have a role in that objective.

“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,” Miyamoto said.

Design-wise, both Majora’s Mask and A Link to the Past could benefit from the Wii U treatment. Majora’s Mask’s Bomber Notebook could come to life as a live PDA on the Wii U touchscreen, where A Link to the Past could give the player constant access to the game’s complex map, and a second overlay of the Dark World to help the player navigate. I’d love to see both get remade and a new title, but Miyamoto and Aonuma have directed the series more than long enough to know the which will be the right call in the end.