Some interesting things have been found within the depths of the Wii U lately, and it could mean a Zelda game heading to home console this holiday season.
On October 12th, eagle-eyed fan NWPlayer23 dug around in the Nintendo eShop code and found that there is a logo for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess buried among the already available games on the service.
That same listing appears to have been updated with Twilight Princess HD, suggesting the game could be getting a full remaster a la The Wind Waker HD.
It’s a strategy that both makes sense and doesn’t, all at the same time. If the information turns out to be correct, Nintendo is likely trying to placate the lack of a new Zelda release this year; the game that was supposed to be coming this year has been delayed to 2016.
As far as a remaster, however, there likely isn’t much that could be done with Twilight Princess that hasn’t been already realized. The difference in hardware power between the Wii and GameCube is not the same as the difference between something like the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, for example, or the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.
In fact, Microsoft argued that a Halo 3 remake wouldn’t gain much from a graphical boost on Xbox One, and subsequently released the game as part of The Master Chief Collection with only a boost in framerate helped along by the additional processing power of Xbox One.
From a business standpoint, the move may make sense if it manages to sell consoles. However, the remake of The Wind Waker only garnered about 1.4 million in sales worldwide, and probably wasn’t responsible for a large number of console sales. Perhaps a better idea would be to put even more of a marketing push behind Super Mario Maker, a game that has sold over a million units in its first month on the market and is currently bundled with the Wii U console and a special edition amiibo figure.
If this rumour does indeed result in a remaster of Twilight Princess, the game would likely be released within the next two months as a surprise to gamers. It would also make sense to release in March of 2016, but that may be too much Zelda for a single year. Of course, with Tri-Force Heroes hitting 3DS in just a few weeks, Twilight Princess HD in March, and a new console Zelda later in 2016, Nintendo fans will certainly have nothing to complain about other than a lack of time spent with loved-ones and friends in exchange for some key-finding, puzzle-solving, Zelda-saving action.