Ocarina of Time remake revives a Zelda dream killed 15 years ago

Back at E3 2011, an orchestra swelled while a montage of every The Legend of Zelda game flowed behind the stage, and Shigeru Miyamoto took the podium. Nintendo used the moment — the series' 25th anniversary — to announce a remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 3DS and to showcase new hardware they said would be more powerful than the Wii.

On the show floor, Nintendo set up a Zelda tech demo to illustrate what the Wii U could do. It wasn't a finished game: users could only control small flourishes with the touchscreen, altering the time of day, the camera, or pulling up the minimap. Still, it presented Zelda in 1080p, with shadows, bump mapping, and particle effects, and the under-two-minute encounter ended before the boss was even defeated, leaving people wanting more.

Fifteen years on, that demo's influence is resurfacing. Nintendo confirmed an Ocarina of Time remake with a brief clip of Link sleeping and a teaser that suggested a saturated, Pixar-like art style.

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