Nintendo has been known lately for introducing Star Fox (and even Pikmin) into the Super Mario universe, but with the remake of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2, it decided to be a little more careful.
In the castle courtyard, where Link meets Zelda, you may have noticed that the character portraits of Mario and his friends aren’t in the Switch 2 version of the game. If you’re wondering about the thought process behind this, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma explained how the team didn’t want to break the immersion.
Here’s what he had to say in the same conversation with Game Informer:
Eiji Aonuma: “Certainly, at the time, when we put those (portraits) out there, I don’t think anyone thought it was too bad. Maybe there was a more carefree or more comfortable approach to this sort of thing. But looking at it now, like if a player were walking through that area, and given the general way that we’re creating this world and giving the player this form of expression, if they look up and wonder, ‘Why Yoshi Is he there?” We don’t want this moment to interrupt their experience of the world like that. So we’re feeling things a little differently this time.”
If you recall, the 3DS game also had Skyward Sword artwork hidden in certain locations, and that also disappeared from the Switch 2 remake. According to Aonuma, the same reasoning applies here: the team didn’t want to “interrupt the player’s experience by seeing something that has no relation to what they’re currently doing in the game.”
Even if these easter eggs have disappeared, certain references to the Mario series remain intact since they are part of the character design:
“You’ll remember that there’s a design element on Talon with Bowser on it, and that’s part of the original character design. So we haven’t changed that. It stays as is.”
Gn tech
