Though Nintendo hasn't gone as big on remasters as some other platform holders and publishers, and in the Switch era has often opted for straight up ports on multiple occasions, The Legend of Zelda franchise has nevertheless had its fair share of improved entries. These have mainly come in the past couple of generations, of course, with 3D and HD entries.
The lovely Jon Cartwright tackled the big question in a recent video on our YouTube channel - which Legend of Zelda Remaster is best? The focus is on five games of recent-ish times, below, not including the remake that we had of Link's Awakening.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
Jon talks through the merits of each and then does a snazzy tier list at the end - it's a nice way to spend 27 minutes of your time.
So, grab a beverage and a comfy seat - enjoy!
Further Reading:
Comments (52)
Twilight Princess HD and Ocarina of Time 3D. Majora's Mask 3D has watered-down gameplay.
My favorite remake will forever be Wind Waker HD. It's just so beautiful looking + Swift Sail is amazing.
Skyward sword shouldn't even count.
For me it has to be ocarina of time or wind waker
wind waker for me is the best
Best Zelda remake is Wind Waker HD imo. It brings QoL improvements without ruining anything from the original.
Skyward Sword benefits the most from its remaster - fewer mandatory tutorials and a brand new control scheme, making it the most improved remake of the bunch.
Twilight Princess benefitted a lot from its remaster graphically - a rather muddy looking GameCube game looks great in HD, and a few new additions help improve the gameplay too.
Wind Waker benefitted from gameplay and QoL improvements, but a shift in its lighting and shading style made it lose some of its cartoony charm.
Ocarina of Time looks graphically improved and implements a new system of equipping boots that helps cut the tedium of certain sections of the game.
Majora's Mask makes too many changes that miss the point of what made the original interesting. The redesigned boss fights are much worse, and the changes to Deku hopping and Zora swimming in particular absolutely ruins a huge portion of the experience. Worst remake of the bunch for sure.
Wind Waker HD. A beautiful and near perfect title that only improved.
I only played 2 of the remakes. Out of those two, I think Ocarina 3D was really good. I thought Wind Waker was too, but to a lesser extent IMO.
@UltimateOtaku91 Give me one single reason the remake of Skyward Sword shouldn't count as a remake.
Majoras mask 3D.
I want a total remake of this game, and a sequel (get Navi back)
I think Ocarina of Time, because it has some nice changes.
Majora's Mask 3DS made it far more accessible to modern audiences as the original game has been very hard or expensive to find on original hardware (also excluding emulation). Yes, several aspects were a downgrade (and hopefully this will be fixed in a future re-release/remaster) but for me and probably millions of Zelda fans this was the first and only way we could experience this hidden gem in the Zelda series.
Without mods, Ocarina of Time 3D. With mods, Majora's Mask 3D: Project Restoration, easy!
@Bret it was more a straight up port than a remake/remaster
Majora’s Mask
The Zora swimming and reworked boss fight are a shame, but they added:
Gyro aiming
Save anytime
Reworked Bomber’s Notebook
Fishing Minigame
Improved song of double time
Reshuffled item placements to make more sense
More minor QoL
If you played the original, maybe you were a little disappointed, but for a player like me who first experienced it on 3DS, I would take all of these QoL over being able to swim fast without holding down a button.
@Bret mostly reuses assets from the original game with some improved textures. That's generally more the mark of a port or remaster as opposed to a remake.
@malcire @UltimateOtaku91 And these other games didn't do that? The only games on this list with significant new assets are the 3DS ones.
@Bret
idk but if its a remake it belongs in the remakes pile along with awakening, as stipulated in the article.
but i have a feeling the person you replied to is trolling lol
edit - that last part, maybe not. cheers!
guys the article is specifically about remasters not remakes.
I haven't played Skyward Sword to this day. When it originally came out, I was playing my Xbox more. I really should play this game on the Switch.....but I just purchased The Witcher before Christmas.
My vote is for Twilight Princess, but I'm partial to that game. In terms of improvement over the original, I'd vote for Wind Waker, but TP was my favorite game to play on this list.
@EarthboundBenjy I agree. I'm still hoping for new remakes of Ocarina of Time and, especially, Majora's Mask.
@mjharper The graphical upgrade of Twilight Princess HD is amazing, it's not just the resolution but all kind of textures. Also, Twilight Princess is one of the best games Nintendo have ever made.
Great video. Some annotations:
@Bret Twilight Princess HD has reworked assets and textures. I've played them all and this is definitely my favourite remaster. I didn't like The Wind Waker HD as much because the original somehow looks better without the exaggerated effects of the remaster and the cartoony graphics are not hard on the eyes.
Oot3D is by far the best looking compared to the original game and there are really good QoL improvements. WindWaker would be secon place for me. They made it even more beautiful than before and also added good QoL improvements. TP is sharper now but also shows it age in the remaster and SS loses it's watercolor astethic in the distance so both are last place for me.
Of the remasters that I played so far, Wind Waker HD is the best. Has a lof of QoL improvements, it tones down the most dumb quest in the original, the gameplay additions are just fantastic, and those new light sources, just made the original unplayable!
I don’t care if these are ports, bring these, all of these to switch!
The best has to be ocarina of time 3d.
If you have played the original then you know especially the pal players of the game.
In my opinion the one that was benefited the most with the remaster is Majora's Mask 3D. I probably wouldn't have re-played it gathering all the masks if it hadn't been remastered.
Obviously either MM3D or WWHD. So many tiny improvements to those that add up. OoT3D stuck far too close to the original, and TPHD should barely even count.
OoT or MM for me. I loved the originals but they've aged like milk.
Although I will say that WWHD did a better job of keeping to the original aesthetic than OoTHD. That Dark Link fight in particular did not translate well.
@1UP_MARIO Oh the PAL days, boy! Deformed and slowed-down games like Super Mario 64.
WW may not be my favourite zelda but that art style is ageless and the HD edition could be ported to switch and still look as great as any other new game.
While it's my personal favorite PRE-BOTW 3D entry, Wind Waker HD is the worst because Nintendo removed the ability to invert the Y axis and therefore unplayable for so many gamers.
Ocarina of Time 3D and Wind Waker HD. Would still love to have Wind Waker on my Switch. Sold the Wii U as it was garbage hardware.
I hope we do get TP and WW on Switch eventually :/
@Banjo- every pal owner needs a everdrive
Windwaker HD for the QoL and OOT 3D for the visual leap.
Still keeping my fingers crossed that BotW2 will have some Windwaker inspired sea exploration, and not just Skyward Sword inspired sky exploration.
I've only played the OoT remaster. I bought it specifically to bring it on a canoe trip a number of years ago. Was pretty awesome playing in the mountains and forests of the deep backwoods.
That bl**dy first person mode in Wind Waker HD trails SO MANY unintended problems with it. It's an afterthought that almost breaks the controls. Mostly with the boomerang - if I remember rightly, when you're aiming the boomerang while sat in the boat you end up with a completely different arrangement of turn/move/look logic than anywhere else in the game. It's a mess. STRAIGHT TO BOTTOM TIER.
@UltimateOtaku91
Why if twighlight princess and wind water count then skyward sword should. The only ones that were true remakes are ocarina,majora and links awakening.
Majora is probably my favorite off them all( didn’t play the og) but the best is probably wind waker.
I've got to give it to the WiiU remakes. Say what you will about the WiiU, the ability to have a map and item screen constantly at your fingertips while you play the game is groundbreaking for Zelda, and no future ports of Wind Waker or Twilight Princess will ever be able to bring that to the table again.
Link's Awakening DX. There's not any remake that comes close to adding as much to a game as the DX version did.
Ya forgot Link's Awakening DX!!
Wind Waker HD is great… Though the removal of a big optional feature, and replacing it with a lesser, now dead, feature… It kinda stings.
I’d go and say my ahorita “remaster” style releases have been that, and Ocarina of Time (and A Link to the Past on the GBA.)
Wind Waker. I really wish it would come to Switch.
@EarthboundBenjy No, Skyward Sword is among the worst, since all the improvements don't make up for how badly the motion controls were downgraded (and the traditional controls of course don't even match up to the lesser version of the motion controls). It, like Majora's Mask, had its gameplay significantly weakened.
@Bret yeah. None of them are remakes. These are all remasters at best. Skyward is more comparable to a Port since other than some control and UI things, it's pretty much the same game.
Wind Waker. Wind Waker is the best one.
Link's Awakening DX was great too, though.
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