A Nintendo exec has said the re-release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on Switch 2 doesn’t mean Wind Waker HD will never be ported over.
The original GameCube version of The Wind Waker was released in 2002 in Japan and 2003 in the west, but this was followed by an HD port on Wii U in 2013.
The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD are two of the few Wii U games that have yet to be ported to Switch, and the announcement that the GameCube version of The Wind Waker is coming to Switch 2 has led some to believe that Nintendo will never port over The Wind Waker HD as a result.
However, this isn’t necessarily the case, according to Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of product development Nate Bihldorff.
On Tuesday’s episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, Tim Gettys reported that he had been speaking to Bihldorff at a Switch 2 press event in New York last week, and that the topic of The Wind Waker HD came up.
“I also got to sit down with Nate… and got to ask a whole bunch of questions,” Getty said, “and in typical Nintendo fashion we didn’t get too many answers.
“But I did ask if having The Wind Waker on Nintendo Switch Online precludes it from the Switch 2 getting the actual Wii U port at some point, and he was very quick to say ‘no, all options are on the table’.
“Obviously nothing’s confirmed one way or another, but there are many examples of games that are on Nintendo Switch Online and you can get them in a different way, whether it’s a remake, or the same port version or whatever it is. So, interesting that they didn’t say it’s not happening, but essentially it was ‘never say never’, it’s Nintendo.”
As well as an upgrade from 480p to HD visuals, The Wind Waker HD also features improved lighting, gyro controls for weapons like the bow, faster sailing and gameplay tweaks to make the Triforce quest more enjoyable.
Because the GameCube library is exclusive to Switch 2, a port of The Wind Waker HD would be the only way owners of the original Switch would get to play the game.
There are some titles on Switch Online that are also available in other, improved versions on Switch. The most notable example of this is Super Mario 64, which is available on the N64 Switch Online app but was also released as part of Super Mario 3D All-Stars on Switch.
Nintendo has said that Super Mario Sunshine will be coming to Switch Online’s GameCube app at some point, making that the second game from Super Mario 3D All-Stars to make it to Switch Online, leaving only Super Mario Galaxy left.
