Is New Content Coming in Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D?

Something new is being added to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS. That's about all we know at this point, but it's noteworthy regardless. This news came at the tail end of a conversation, featured in Nintendo's latest "Iwata Asks" column, between legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.

Is this simply a reference to Master Quest and the enhanced control methods? Perhaps, though it seems a bit unlikely as we already know about the control changes, and Master Quest, though technically new to the original, N64-based Ocarina of Time, isn't exactly fresh material.

We'll see.

Although the two Nintendo execs didn't get into more detail about these "new features," they did discuss the reasoning behind doing a remake of Ocarina of Time in the first place. Considering the original is considered by many to be the greatest game of all time, why even revisit the title?

Miyamoto gave two primary reasons for bringing Ocarina of Time to the 3DS - environment and ease of use. For the first, Miyamoto explained that he thought Zelda's 3D environments would see a considerable boost from the 3DS's stereoscopic abilities. In short, he wanted to see Hyrule in 3D. Add in the fact that the original game featured, at least by today's standards, primitive character and world models, revisiting the series made sense. In fact the master designer noted that younger audiences weren't even playing games when Ocarina of Time first came out 13 years ago. (A scary thought, if you ask me.)

The second justification for Ocarina's remake came with the ability to improve the game's handling and functionlity. Concepts like moving item and map control to the touch screen will make the already-classic gameplay even better. Miyamoto reaffirmed that Zelda has always been about learning a handful of key abilities, which then evolve seemlessly throughout the remainder of the game. The designer also highlighted Ocarina's particular lack of complexity and sense of freedom as possible reasons the game's reputation has endured all these years. To this day it is still regarded as one of the finest products ever produced.

As soon as I find out what these new Zelda features are, I'll bring them to you. Fingers crossed these aren't references to just the Master Quest. In the meantime, let me go cry in a corner now that I've realized 13 years have passed since I first played Ocarina. I'm old...