The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is, by most standards, a pretty faithful remake to the original game, but Nintendo wasn't scared to make changes where necessary. I was a little bummed to learn the fun references to the Super Mario Bros. series had been removed, not to mention some Zelda: Skyward Sword art that was in the Ocarina of Time 3DS remake, but with how carefully Nintendo positions every game, remaster, and remake into its existing portfolio, I'm not at all surprised.
In case you aren't a Zelda historian, the original game has several Mario references including character portraits and heavy design influences on characters like Talon, Malon, and Ingo, who strongly resemble Mario, Peach, and Luigi, respectively. It makes a lot of sense as Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 were both being made at the same time, but 30 years later, the remake doesn't share that same connection to Mario 64. That's why the portraits have been removed from the remake, even though it's still pretty clear Talon, Malon, and Ingo have doppelgangers hanging out in the Mario universe.
"Certainly, at the time, when we put those there, I don't think anybody thought it was too big a deal. Maybe there was a more carefree or comfortable approach to that sort of thing," Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma tells Game Informer. "But looking at it now, like if a player is coming through that area, and given the overall way that we're, you know, creating this world and giving the player that form of expression, if they look up and they think, 'Why is Yoshi there?' We don't want that moment to interrupt their experience of the world in that way. So we're feeling a little bit differently about it this time."
Similarly to the original Ocarina of Time and Mario 64, 3DS Ocarina of Time released around the same time as Zelda: Skyward Sword, which explains the crossover references there. And likewise, they were removed from the new Ocarina of Time remake so as not to distract from everything else going on.
"I do remember at the time the designers on the 3DS version were really interested in placing Easter Eggs like that throughout the game, and the timing of the release of Skyward Sword was such that it was perfect to go ahead and include that. So I said, 'Okay, sure,'" says Aonuma, but same as before with the Mario 64 references, "you don't want to interrupt the player's experience by seeing something that's unrelated to what they're currently doing in the game. So for that reason, we decided not to go that way."
Game Informer was kind enough to consider the feelings of Skyward Sword director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who took part in the same interview, but thankfully it's all water under the bridge.
"It's really as Mr. Aonuma said. There was an underlying concept in what we were going for, so no hard feelings there," he says.
