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| Andrew Barker |
Some great trivia to be found here.
02.15.15 - 6:31 AM
In a fun and enlightening interview, Satoru Iwata, the head of Nintendo, sat down with Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma to discuss The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D. During the dialogue, Aonuma revealed some interesting trivia about the original N64 version's development.
First, a bit of background. Majora's Mask on Nintendo 64 was originally to be based on Ocarina of Time — Master Quest, effectively the same game but with revamped dungeons. The development team were only given a year to create a new title in the series, so re-purposing Ocarina of Time 's assets made the most sense.
Aonuma: You're right. Since we already made The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, we had 3D models that we invested a lot of time in to build. This all started by (Shigeru) Miyamoto-san asking whether we could make a game in one year if we repurpose the models. But we were already talking about trying to make Master Quest for Nintendo 64DD
Iwata: At the time when Ocarina of Time came out, there was a plan in the works of releasing Master Quest for 64DD.
Aonuma: Correct. We were told to repurpose the dungeons from Ocarina of Time and make a game out of it, and I was handed the baton to make that happen. However, when we made Ocarina of Time, we made those dungeons thinking they were the best we could make. That's when Miyamoto-san asked me to remake them, so I hesitantly obliged... but I couldn't really get into it.
Iwata: You just made the ultimate dungeon, so you didn't want to ruin a perfect formula.
Aonuma: ...So I secretly started making new dungeons that weren't in Ocarina of Time, and that was much more fun to me. So, I grew up the courage to ask Miyamoto-san whether I could make a new game, he replied by saying it's ok if I can make it in a year.
So there you have it, if it wasn't for Aonuma's sneaky side-projects, Majora's Mask may never have existed. You can pick up the new 3D version on the Nintendo 3DS now.
