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A Brief Reflection on Zelda Games Ported to Handhelds


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#1 The Satellite

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Posted 23 January 2017 - 03:38 AM

The Legend of Zelda has come a long way from its initial launch in 1986 on the Famicom, and its overseas release a year later on the NES. What was once a rather ambitious title is now comparatively rather primitive, as technology marched on and expanded future games into more complex, cohesive adventures. This of course even extended to handheld entries, starting with Link's Awakening as early as 1993. Despite releasing on the primitive handheld, it featured graphics and gameplay far more advanced than even the original title, and its quality was debated as to whether it was on par with the most recent console release at the time, A Link to the Past.
 
This trend of Zelda games on handheld systems that, at least in some way, were superior to previous entries continued throughout the history of Nintendo, to the point the handheld systems were capable of supporting a game that was once considered advanced for a previous home console it had released on. This trend almost began with the original Zelda, as Oracle of Seasons was originally meant to be a remake of that game until Capcom decided they wanted to make new entries instead of simply being a remake team.
 
Instead, the honor of first Zelda title to get ported to a handheld system? A Link to the Past in late 2002, or March of 2003 in Europe and Japan, for the Game Boy Advance. I can't exactly tell why this was released. To entice fans with the prospect of a well-liked Zelda game in portable form? Tacked on to the new multiplayer game, Four Swords, to generate better sales? Hastily thrown-together along with Four Swords so that there would be a Zelda title on the system early, using the multiplayer facet to generate hype? It's unknown, but regardless, we had our first ever official handheld port of a previously-console-exclusive Zelda title.
 
A Link to the Past wouldn't be alone on the Game Boy Advance: In 2004, both NES titles would join the lineup, part of the "Classic NES Series" of games that saw several NES titles ported into a Game Boy Advance cartridge. While the quality of the port of A Link to the Past was for the most part decent, the quality of games in this series was reportedly questionable, with some sounds taking a hit in quality and some games receiving questionable changes, although the Zelda titles seemed to mostly escape this fate.
 
While these ports might have been convenient and welcomed by some, they were never truly lauded nor met with widespread enthusiasm. No, that story comes later...
 
The DS titles seemed to not follow up on the trend, presumably because Nintendo couldn't find a way to make "Ocarina of Time: Touchscreen Edition" work on it. However, when the Nintendo 3DS was officially unveiled at E3, a tech demo was released with it: Footage of Ocarina of Time's intro used to demonstrate the 3D capabilities. Obviously, fans went nuts; Ocarina of Time, the best game ever, was being remade for Nintendo's newest handheld system! Except, according to Miyamoto, it wasn't? It was merely a tech demo with the possibility of being made into a full game? Well, whatever the story was, obviously the game was made, with some minor gameplay polishes, a graphical update, and even the inclusion of Master Quest, although mirrored.
 
Obviously, due to being Ocarina of Time, the game was a hit. Some fans, however, just weren't satisfied... thus began the campaign of "Operation Moonfall," composed of many fans of Majora's Mask clamoring for the "overshadowed but darker and clearly more superior sequel" to get the same treatment as Ocarina of Time on the handheld system. The campaign was... to say the least, enthusiastic, consisting of mass support of the project through artworks, message board posts, petitions, and the like. And to their delight, Majora's Mask 3D came to be! Now both Nintendo 64 games coexisted in an updated state on the 3DS handheld, this one with substantially more changes to the game's formula. The graphical update was arguably more intensive, some of the sidequests and menus were tweaked, the boss fights revamped in various degrees, they even added fishing! Some design choices were contentious, but for the most part, Majora's Mask 3D was welcomed by many.
 
So what was next, then? At this point, with Wind Waker HD already released for Wii U and Twilight Princess HD on the horizon for the same system, it was at this point expected that more remakes would release. A Link Between Worlds was halfway there, borrowing the same worlds with some tweaks.
 
But I'll tell you what's next. The latest port of a console-exclusive title to a portable device. It's quite obvious, I'm sure you've already guessed it.
 
Breath of the Wild.
 
Post was written for humorous purposes and potential discussion that may come forth on the subject.


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#2 Cukeman

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Posted 26 January 2017 - 03:34 AM

Super NES games (like ALttP) on the GBA were kind of a no-brainer, games that were fantastic to play and looked great on a handheld compared to what came before, showing that this new device could do what the SNES could and more (okay so the sound wasn't up to par but still). The GBA introduced me to ALttP (a game I'd always wanted to play) and is of course one of my faves.




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