TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 13,211
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Staying in the lupine.
It's been a good year for Nintendo: between Star Fox - the N64 classic with a dazzling facelift on Switch 2 - and the newly-launched and utterly fantastic Ocarina of Time remake, the platform holder is having a good run. And that's before you get to the likes of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, Mario Tennis Fever or any of the Switch 2 re-releases of first-party Switch games, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
As popular as its other games are, though, you have to admit that 2026 has been a banner year for Nintendo's remakes - both Star Fox and Ocarina of Time have commanded plenty of headline-grabbing attention over the past 12 months, and it's a fact that isn't lost on the company. In a new interview with Polygon, Nintendo's Nate Bihldorff - senior vice president of product development and publishing - says that wholly new games and remakes of classics are of "equal importance" to the publisher going forward.
"I do think that new games and remakes both have a place in the Nintendo stable, of equal importance to be honest," Bihldorff told the site at the Ocarina of Time's launch event in New York City. "There are fans of every single IP that we have out there. Of course, having new games in those series is wonderful, and I look forward to them as much as anyone else does, but there’s also a deep satisfaction in revisiting games that were very, very special, like Ocarina of Time… But it's also important to think about how many people had never played the original, and for them, the remake of Ocarina of Time is going to be an absolutely brand-new, 2026 experience, and one that I just cannot wait for them to get their hands on."
There's more interesting stuff in the interview, as Bihldorff outlines his views on the strenght of the Nintendo roster - "it doesn't matter how excited I am about Donkey Kong Bananza at launch; there's always going to be more games that are coming down the pipeline" - and that the release pipeline continues to look as strong for the Switch 2 as it did for the Switch. "There's one constant that has been consistent through my entire career at Nintendo, and that's that you can pretty much set your watch by the idea that we're going to be coming out with stuff," Bihldorff told Polygon.
Ocarina of Time is off to a very strong start; aside from being critically adored, the game has taken off virally - I can't move on my own feeds for clips of the game, people reminiscing about their original memories of certain locations, or long posts about the nostalgic elements of the title. Star Fox, meanwhile, has 1.17 million copies worldwide since its launch earlier this year on the Nintendo Switch 2, making it the ninth best-selling game on the platform (this is via Nintendo's financials yesterday). I expect Ocarina will outpace that.
Whatever your personal opinon on remakes in games, you cannot deny that it is a large part of the industry - and it seems Nintendo is keen to ride that wave as far as it'll go.
With all that said, when will I get my Pokemon Black and White remakes, then?
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2)
Nintendo Switch 2Read more: Full article on www.eurogamer.net
What do you think about this?
It's been a good year for Nintendo: between Star Fox - the N64 classic with a dazzling facelift on Switch 2 - and the newly-launched and utterly fantastic Ocarina of Time remake, the platform holder is having a good run. And that's before you get to the likes of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, Mario Tennis Fever or any of the Switch 2 re-releases of first-party Switch games, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
As popular as its other games are, though, you have to admit that 2026 has been a banner year for Nintendo's remakes - both Star Fox and Ocarina of Time have commanded plenty of headline-grabbing attention over the past 12 months, and it's a fact that isn't lost on the company. In a new interview with Polygon, Nintendo's Nate Bihldorff - senior vice president of product development and publishing - says that wholly new games and remakes of classics are of "equal importance" to the publisher going forward.
"I do think that new games and remakes both have a place in the Nintendo stable, of equal importance to be honest," Bihldorff told the site at the Ocarina of Time's launch event in New York City. "There are fans of every single IP that we have out there. Of course, having new games in those series is wonderful, and I look forward to them as much as anyone else does, but there’s also a deep satisfaction in revisiting games that were very, very special, like Ocarina of Time… But it's also important to think about how many people had never played the original, and for them, the remake of Ocarina of Time is going to be an absolutely brand-new, 2026 experience, and one that I just cannot wait for them to get their hands on."
There's more interesting stuff in the interview, as Bihldorff outlines his views on the strenght of the Nintendo roster - "it doesn't matter how excited I am about Donkey Kong Bananza at launch; there's always going to be more games that are coming down the pipeline" - and that the release pipeline continues to look as strong for the Switch 2 as it did for the Switch. "There's one constant that has been consistent through my entire career at Nintendo, and that's that you can pretty much set your watch by the idea that we're going to be coming out with stuff," Bihldorff told Polygon.
Ocarina of Time is off to a very strong start; aside from being critically adored, the game has taken off virally - I can't move on my own feeds for clips of the game, people reminiscing about their original memories of certain locations, or long posts about the nostalgic elements of the title. Star Fox, meanwhile, has 1.17 million copies worldwide since its launch earlier this year on the Nintendo Switch 2, making it the ninth best-selling game on the platform (this is via Nintendo's financials yesterday). I expect Ocarina will outpace that.
Whatever your personal opinon on remakes in games, you cannot deny that it is a large part of the industry - and it seems Nintendo is keen to ride that wave as far as it'll go.
With all that said, when will I get my Pokemon Black and White remakes, then?
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2)
Nintendo Switch 2Read more: Full article on www.eurogamer.net
What do you think about this?