Nintendo has dropped another banger. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time Remake has arrived to fanfare almost matching the release of the 1998 original. But according to Shigeru Miyamoto, around the time that Link was coming face to face with the Great Deku Tree, Nintendo had been struggling to perfect the balance between innovation and execution.
Speaking to Keni Eno in 1996 (via Shmupulations), shortly after the release of Mario 64 and a couple of years before Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto was asked about the rising complexity and polish of Nintendo games, and whether he thought they should offer a sense of escapism. In response, he suggested that the fact Mario and Zelda games were being planned out at the same time meant that the "boundary" between the two franchises had "started to disappear."
Eno's comments focused heavily on the changes between pre-release and retail versions of Mario 64, but Miyamoto's answer was that while early demos might have felt a little more innovative, the polish of the retail version was better. However, "if you ask whether Nintendo should be satisfied as long as the commercial polish is high, I don't think so," he said. "There are two kinds of games - well-made games and interesting games - and the public perception of Nintendo's games has gradually shifted from 'interesting' to 'well-made'. We've ended up pouring a lot of our energy into that side of things."
Miyamoto said that with Mario 64 in the rear-view, Nintendo had "proven we can make a solid 3D action game. Because of that, I think we can aim for something more interesting next time."
It's not immediately clear what that 'next time' was supposed to be, but Nintendo's next big 3D action game would prove to be Ocarina of Time - a title that would prove to push the envelope in terms of both ambition and execution, securing all-timer status and a MetaCritic score of 99 that is unlikely to ever be meaningfully challenged. It would prove to be a highlight in an already-legendary run for Nintendo: Mario Kart 64 and Star Fox 64 launched in 1997, and Banjo-Kazooie, Pokemon Red/Blue, and F-Zero X would launch ahead of Ocarina in 1998, with Mario Party and Super Smash Bros following up in 1999.
But while the original launch of Ocarina of Time makes that balance between ambition and execution clear, the remake muddies the waters. While it's clear that Nintendo has done very well in delivering on its mission to recreate the game, can a remake ever capture the innovation of the original? And while the Switch 2 has given us the likes of Donkey Kong Bananza and Pokopia, it's also slipped a little with the more muted receptions around games like Mario Kart World and Pokemon Legends Z-A.
It's probably impossible to stay on the kind of winning run that Nintendo found itself in during the late 90s, but Miyamoto's assertion - that studios should strive to create games that are both ambitiously innovative and technically excellent - is something that I don't feel like I always see from the company in the mid-2020s. Ocarina of Time might remain a legendary release, but its remake is a reminder of just how much the industry has changed in the last three decades.
To see if Nintendo found the balance this time, check out our The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review.
