‘Nostalgia is one great appeal’
Thanks to a recent Q&A answered by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, we have some more insight into what Nintendo is planning for the coming years of the Switch.
While we really have no clue what’s going to happen hardware-wise (a Pro is likely imminent, which will extend the lifespan of the system into the PS5 and Next Xbox), we do know that the company is interested in bringing more traditionally portable games (read: recently, 3DS) to Switch. It’s already happened for sure, but Link’s Awakening was also used as a vehicle for mining portable nostalgia way before the era of the 3DS.
Furukawa stated during the investor Q&A that “there is a possibility to bring back titles that have previously been developed for handheld consoles. However, within Nintendo, rather than re-releasing past handheld games because of the Nintendo Switch Lite’s release, we are discussing more what sorts of new games we can create for the entire Nintendo Switch family. Within that, we are also considering past titles, but regarding what sorts of discussions are being held in detail, there is nothing I can say at present.”
Expanding beyond that, he cites Link’s Awakening as a “good example” of a re-release, saying that although there is “no clear directive” to remake games as a whole, the last three decades of Nintendo history have a ton of gems to mine, and he outright says that “nostalgia is one great appeal,” backing it up by clarifying: “what’s more important is to create new game experiences, fun and more.”
In short, the Link’s Awakening experiment went well, and Furukawa is really big on tweaking remakes rather than just delivering a 1:1 experience. We’ve seen every which way thrown at us (including the latter with the very authentic MediEvil PS4 remake), but knowing where Nintendo stands, Nintendo seems to have an exciting future ahead of it.
Q&A [Nintendo via Siliconera]
