YouTuber SnazzyAl recently uploaded a fan-made trailer revealing what The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time might look like running on the Nintendo Switch. This video is among the latest of hundreds the channel has produced, each showing how older video games and movies would benefit from today’s graphical technology. Other popular videos on the channel demonstrate how The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima will eventually look running at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. For older titles SnazzyAI has remastered, such as World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, these videos are an exciting look at what might have been if these games had been developed in a different time.
The call to remake or remaster Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo Switch is not a particularly wild notion, of course. In fact, as one of the most popular games Nintendo has ever made, this entry in the Legend of Zelda series has already had a re-release on the GameCube and an enhanced version made for the Nintendo 3DS. This latter version, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, is considered by many to be the definitive way to experience the game’s story.
According to Nintendo Life, SnazzyAI used the Ocarina of Time 3D trailer to demonstrate what the game would look like on the Switch. The major differences between trailers is the jump from 30 to 60 fps and from 720p to 1080p. To achieve this, SnazzyAI says they first downscaled the initial trailer and AI upscaled it back up to 1080p in order to interpolate the video to 60fps. In other words, by downscaling the initial Ocarina of Time 3D trailer into a lower resolution, they could create more frames between key moments, a necessary addition to produce the much smoother 60 fps image.
The result is undoubtedly the best that Ocarina of Time has ever looked. As the video is simply a remastered version of the 3DS trailer, there is no actual new content; however, fans of the title will immediately notice how much better the game performs. This is especially true for those who have only ever played the game on the Nintendo 64, where it performed at a somewhat choppy 20 frames per second. In 1998, of course, gamers were too busy being amazed at the game’s visuals and overall quality; today, a framerate that low would be an unavoidable downside.
As this year marks the Legend of Zelda series’ 35th anniversary, it is not out of the question that Nintendo might embrace this idea. After all, Nintendo frequently goes big to celebrate anniversaries in their franchises, and anything pertaining to Ocarina of Time would almost certainly be welcomed with open arms by fans. This is especially true considering that this year marks the 10th anniversary of Ocarina of Time 3D, and the Super Mario series recently saw the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars for the plumber’s 35th anniversary. Regardless, SnazzyAI’s trailer shows us that a remastered Ocarina of Time would certainly be a beautiful sight.
Source: Nintendo Life