Rumor: Nintendo May Re-Release Zelda: Link Between Worlds For Switch

Nintendo has been contacting journalists for pull quotes regarding the 3DS title, prompting rumors of a Switch re-release.

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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has often been cited as the best game in the longrunning series, and Nintendo 3DS players are currently able to relive those 16-bit glory days by picking up The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, a 3D-enhanced remake of the SNES classic. Now, just over four years after the remake's initial 3DS release, Nintendo has been contacting journalists requesting permission to use pull quotes from past reviews of A Link Between Worlds for some yet-unknown purpose. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many players and internet sleuths have taken this as a sign that the company is looking to re-release the title for the Nintendo Switch.

Shacknews' sister site Modojo was one of the outlets contacted by Nintendo, but despite the company reaching out, we haven't been given any firm word on what Nintendo wants to do with the information. The Reddit collective has an idea, of course — many users of the site are certain that Nintendo is working on a Switch re-make. A 3DS re-release seems a little iffy, not only because the game is already on the 3DS, but also because most of the biggest 3DS franchises have already jumped ship toward the more robust Switch hardware.

If not for a Switch release, it may be possible that Nintendo is looking to give the game a budget-oriented Nintendo Selects release — A Link Between Worlds has already been made available as a Selects title in Europe, but no budget version of the game has yet been released in North America. Until we hear proper word from Nintendo, however, all such thoughts are mere speculation. Either way, we'll report back as soon as we hear any new information about what Nintendo may be planning for the future of the revamped Zelda title.

Guides Editor

Kevin Tucker is a core component of Shacknews' powerful guide development team. For questions, concerns, tips, or to share constructive criticism, he can be reached on Twitter @dukeofgnar or through e-mail at kevin.tucker@shacknews.com.

From The Chatty
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    January 5, 2018 3:20 PM

    Kevin Tucker posted a new article, Rumor: Nintendo May Re-Release Zelda: Link Between Worlds For Switch

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      January 5, 2018 3:23 PM

      This would be a good gap filler for 2018 and I would happily double dip.

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        January 5, 2018 3:27 PM

        True. LBW used the 3DS's 3D effect well, but didn't rely on it.

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          January 5, 2018 4:04 PM

          It didn't, but it was definitely helpful in some of those tall Death Mountain caves.

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      January 5, 2018 3:30 PM

      Oh shit that'd be awesome. Never had a chance to play that before.

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        January 5, 2018 3:32 PM

        It's an amazing entry in the series.

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          January 5, 2018 3:35 PM

          GOTY 2013 and an easy top 5

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            January 5, 2018 3:59 PM

            I think it's my #4 overall.

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            January 5, 2018 4:11 PM

            Holy shit, that was 2013? Where the fuck did the time go?

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              January 5, 2018 7:05 PM

              Yeah. My wife got me the Zelda 3DS XL for Christmas that year. I played that game all throughout the holidays.

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            January 5, 2018 4:41 PM

            How important is the 3D effect?

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              January 5, 2018 4:46 PM

              Its nice and really well implemented. Things like flying and walking in the walls as a painting look great. Its not necessary from a gameplay standpoint though, it just looks cool

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            January 5, 2018 4:46 PM

            It was my GOTY that year for sure. I've not really thought out how I would rank Zelda games, but it would rank highly (LttP would be #1 since that is tied with DOOM (the original) for my favorite game of all time...but beyond that I know that ALBW, BotW, and Zelda1 are almost certainly in the top 5. Fuuuuck...picking five games would be Sophie's Fucking Choice™ because I love OoT even if I was dissappointed by it at the time (and the 3DS version fixes most of the things I didn't like), and Wind Waker is an amazing game that I love a lot even if there are things I didn't like about it at times (the triforce fetch quest towards the end and the occasional bit of overly long travel time when nothing would happen...it was awesome at first but if you did a lot of sailing it started to feel a little empty out there and I ended up missing the large land based land-mass which is why I loved BotW soooo fucking much as it combined that feeling of exploration with a huge overworld).

            I actually like Twilight Princess better as a game than OoT...I think it plays better and I think it has better dungeons and despite its flaws (the entirely too long tutorial area in the beginning, and the wolf sections that made things drag at times, and other things I'm certainly forgetting) I think its better parts are a refined and better realized 3D Zelda following the traditional formula than OoT. I also think its woefully underrated because of issues beyond judging it on its own merits. Its biggest sins that get it looked down on were that it was too much of the same, that it felt like an attempt to placate people who reacted badly to Wind Waker by giving them the OoT sequel they demanded, and that people were starting to get tired of the Zelda formula that had kind of been defined and refined in LttP and codified in OoT. Those are all things that are really outside the quality of the game itself. Oh fuck I just realized that I got to going on and on about TP for way too long so I'm splitting this off into its own paragraph or block or whatever.

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              January 5, 2018 4:55 PM

              There's a lot of Sophie's Choice in terms of the games just outside the top 5. BOTW, Link To The Past, Link Between Worlds, games like that are super easy.

              What's harder for me isn't just Wind Waker or Majora's Mask, where does Link's Awakening go? That's almost a cult game in the series where people who've played it rank it among the best but its this old thing on the Gameboy so not many people have. I almost want to put it in my top 5 just to draw more attention to it.

              Where I deviate from many people is where I put the majority of 3D Zelda games. OoT is obviously important but I have my share of problems with it. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword have flashes of brilliance but they're 10 hours of good content buried in 35-40 hours of restrictions and fat.

              Its why BOTW was the break the series needed, it put the focus back on adventuring instead of linear sequences of puzzles. Its not for people who like linear or what I call "linear open" games (Assassin's Creed, HZD), but for me it took the series back to the promise of the original.

              A Link Between Worlds seems to bridge both, where it has a more open structure (there is only one difficulty gate halfway through) but at the same time it retains the puzzle room started by A Link To The Past. I reckon they'll incorporate that into the next 3D Zelda, but we'll see.

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                January 5, 2018 4:58 PM

                Oh fuck, I meant to mention Link's Awakening...that is another tough choice. Having replayed it recently (after originally playing through it in 1993) it holds up well too.

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                  January 5, 2018 5:28 PM

                  Great game that established some conventions that stayed with the series. Its towns filled with suspicious oddballs were inspired by Twin Peaks and they've been in every game since

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                    January 6, 2018 3:53 AM

                    I really need to play that one, I semi-recently found my GBA (still had a charge!) and also my mom's catalog of Gameboy games (she was into portable gaming way before I was), which included Link's Awakening DX, and this post got me to test it; thankfully the save data/battery still works.

                    I'ma go solve problems on an island!

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          January 5, 2018 9:16 PM

          [deleted]

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        January 5, 2018 6:30 PM

        dude, what? probably one of the best zelda games. it felt like they took link to the past and made a 2.0 of it with a new story and game mechanics. it's too bad they're not doing a follow up of it. i'd prefer it over another breath of the wild tbh

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      January 5, 2018 4:05 PM

      I'd like to think it's for the Virtual Console launch......

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      January 5, 2018 4:28 PM

      YES! Fuck YES!!! I've been hoping and saying I've been hoping they would do this for a while now!

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      January 5, 2018 4:48 PM

      [deleted]

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      January 5, 2018 4:59 PM

      Id play it again, although I'd love for them to port windwaker and twilight princess from the WiiU. Mainly due to the fact I want my switch to have everything on it.

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      January 5, 2018 5:04 PM

      [deleted]

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      January 5, 2018 5:41 PM

      [deleted]

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      January 5, 2018 7:06 PM

      Wonder how much they'd gussy up the visuals, a 3DS game isn't gonna look great rendering at 720p.

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        January 5, 2018 8:30 PM

        I bet the base assets are way higher resolution, just need to put some paint on the textures.

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        January 5, 2018 10:06 PM

        Imo art direction looks bad to begin with but the game scales well with resolution if you look at the citra emulation screenshots/videos and at least in handheld mode would look OK. Fully blown up on a 65" 4k tv probably not as much.

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        January 5, 2018 10:16 PM

        3DS games emulated at higher res look great

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      January 5, 2018 11:32 PM

      My bet is they will re-release the Wii u 3d Mario this year too.

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        January 6, 2018 5:24 AM

        Mario Galaxy collection (and Metroid Prime digital bundle) would be awesome to have.

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          January 6, 2018 5:51 AM

          this - i never completed the Metroid Prime series. that would be amazing

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          January 6, 2018 6:05 AM

          They did that on the Wii U :D

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      January 6, 2018 3:23 AM

      I’d buy that multiplayer link 3ds title again. That was actually a lot of fun

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      January 6, 2018 5:33 AM

      God if Nintendo did it right I’d rebuy so much shit for the switch ecosystem.

      It’s scary thinking if they did virtual console right what kind of massive cash piles they can dump on themselves.

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      January 6, 2018 8:43 AM

      Yes. Very yes.

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      January 6, 2018 9:41 AM

      Man, this would be the best

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