Reinventing a Classic
November 20th, 2006 by Pierre-Alexandre Garneau
Yesterday I went to see Casino Royale with a friend of mine. It’s a great movie that puts a great new twist on James Bond. It’s similar enough that you recognize the suave spy, but different enough that it feels like a breath of fresh air. When the movie ended, the first thing I said to my friend was: “That’s exactly what Nintendo should be doing with Zelda. They need to reinvent that franchise.”
My gripe with the Zelda games is that they’re all the same: same character, saving the same princess, with the same tools over and over again. Nintendo is putting all their creativity in new controllers; it seems they have none left when it comes to making games in old franchises. Zelda needs a breath of fresh air.
Nintendo isn’t likely to to reinvent one of their top franchises — the rabid fans wouldn’t let them (quote from a forum: “Five Pieces of Heart to make a Heart Container? BLASPHEMY!”). So I decided to do it. My goal this week is to take the whole Zelda franchise and transform it into something cool and different — like taking Adam West Batman and turning it into Batman Begins. The platform will be the Wii, of course.
Traitor!
http://download.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_zeldatwilight_vr_gt.mov
Why not make something cool and different than do a remake?
Well, in a sense, doing a remake is different from everything else I’ve done so far on this site since I’ve focused on original material
Anyway, I think it’s a fun challenge to reinvent an interesting franchise. I wouldn’t do it all of the time, but for just this once it should be a fun diversion. I’ll get back on the completely original material soon!