First off, hello everyone. Have been here for years but have never joined a forum before, thought it time to join in! Anyway, enough of that:

I noticed that the 3DS shop will have these "Classics with 3D makeovers", yet we all seem to assume that Zelda: OOT and Starfox are retail releases. Could it be these are indeed the first examples of these 3D make-overs? or am I just being silly. I look forward to your opinions.
_{edited the title to be a bit more descriptive -- TBD}

Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing. If N64 games can show up on VC, then they can't be that big, and I don't know if converting them to 3D would make them so much bigger, so downloads seem conceivable. Nintendo stands to make more money if they cut out the retailers and people who sell their games after they play them, and downloads are generally cheaper for the consumer too.

Agreed, the graphics aren't incredible either so perhaps that suggests they are downloads.

Perhaps being a bit optimistic here, but if Nintendo packaged one of these downloads with the system it would really get the user base online. But if I suggested this to Nintendo I would just get a series of funny looks.

Considering both were N64 titles, and Nintendo is only talking about GB and GBC games being available via download, i can't see them not being retail releases. another thing to consider is that Nintendo only just gave us information on the Virtual Handheld being officially available for 3DS, and they've been touting the remakes (as well as other retail titles) ever since E3; that could possibly be another official clue that these remakes will be retail.

Plus they can sell retail for $30-40 whereas they could probably only get $15-20 max out of a download. And they love their monies.

I like Retail games better, so I can Trade them in for cash when I'm done with them.

Digital games are OK but, once your done with it, your done, theres no trading back for cash and your stuck with a game that you may or may not have liked.

I think both games will be retail, so far only retro handheld games are confirmed for the Virtual Handheld service.

They'll be retail. They wouldn't put as much effort in if it were a downloadable game.

That is indeed plausable. It would be quite nice to see a polished and graphically beautiful downloadable game on a premium handheld such as the Nintendo 3DS is. Afterall it would help to eliminate people taking the game and trading it after playing it, it would also help to push more people online thus giving the transition from retail to digital distribution a big boost and in turn helping Nintendo make good on their promise to make their online offersings a lot better than in the past.

It's a remake, so it's no longer a Nintendo 64 game and could take up much more space than the original

@iphys and TokyoRed: what you're both missing, though, is that the downloadable market isn't NEARLY the same size as the retail one. not all of gamerdom is made up of this forum. even on other gaming forums, downloadable games don't receive the acknowledgement retail ones here. even if it's as mainstream a title as StarFox 64 or Ocarina of Time, it's still, technically, a niche market. all in all, Nintendo has MUCH more to gain by going the retail route.

They did say the store would have 3D versions of classic games, and that wasn't restricted to GB/GBC though, although I'm not sure how many systems they consider "classic," but N64 games might qualify. If these games really only have the 3D added, then it's kind of hard to justify the expense of say $40 for a retail release when you can get N64 games for $10 on VC. I'm not sure if I'd be willing to pay more than $20 for a remake of an old game if the only new thing is the 3D and the 2D version is going for $10.

Plus, I think they're trying to get people to switch to using the 3DS online more, so downloadable games make sense if they're feasible and if they get people accustomed to buying games that way. I'd much rather have the games right on my system/SD card than have to worry about messing around with a bunch of little cards, especially with a portable system. Retailers get about half of what you pay for a game, so selling games retail doesn't really mean more profit for Nintendo: it basically means consumers are expected to pay twice as much, which reduces the demand for the product. As a consumer I find it way easier to be able to buy games online without having to leave my house or worry whether the store has the game in stock, so downloadable games should be the way to go -- it's just that Nintendo hasn't done enough to advertise this and get people to get their systems online so far. The vast majority of people should be able to get their systems online at home, and if not, at a wifi spot.

Most likely they'll be retail releases, as they haven't said they're the "Classic 3D Remakes" they advertised for the 3DS Shop. But who knows? Maybe they'll do both a retail and a downloadable release. The games are certainly small enough, it would really raise the profile of the 3DS online, and all the other points up there. But they wouldn't want to miss out on sales, as bro2dragons pointed out. It's not unheard of these days to do a disc release of DLC, so it's a possibility. Alas, in all likelihood, the 3DS shop will take years to reach the point where they would release these games in that shop.

Where have you been in the past few weeks? No one said the only update to OoT was 3D. The graphics and item selection got overhauls and there's no telling how much else has been added.

The only thing I heard about the game was they were keeping the bugs in it, which sounds like a lazy remake, but I honestly haven't been following that game because I'm not a Zelda fan.

I'm leaning toward retail, because the graphics in the OoT remake have been redone. That seems like going beyond a "3D Makeover."

Retail because Nintendo is definitely going to charge full price for both games even though they are a decade old. And no one will buy it online if it's 34-39 bucks.

If it were split into chapters, people would.

Um the point most of you are missing is that starfox and ocarina remakes have completely new graphics, same style, but new graphics none the less.

The 3d "classics" are the exact same graphics just converted to 3d.If it's only past handheld games that get this 3d "makeover" That mean it's only converting pixel to 3d pixel (unless they ever do it to a ds game). Also we don't yet know the download limit of the 3ds shop (what was the wii- 35mb?) Meaning we don't know if it's even possible for these more detailed than pixels games to be downloadable.

Besides--- Does it really matter?

What bugs? Keep in mind this is a remake, not a port