Zelda: Ocarina of Time and WoW: Forever Are the Right Kind of Remakes

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Why are video game remakes everywhere? The answer may be straightforward: original ideas are difficult to develop, while modern games demand more time, money, and resources than ever. Even a sequel to a proven hit can be a costly gamble. Publishers, meanwhile, need dependable releases on a faster schedule. Remakes help fill that need—and keep older games in circulation in an industry where rapid advances in technology can quickly make classics feel dated.

Hands on with the Ocarina of Time remake | Point It Out!

All of that is true. But could the people making remakes have motivations beyond learning Unreal Engine 5, bridging a gap between major releases, or responding to market demand? This week offered a resounding yes: two remarkable new takes on some of gaming’s most influential works arrived on back-to-back days. They are The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and World of Warcraft: Forever.

A few months ago, I argued that we should be clearer about what we want from remakes. These are the kinds of projects we’ve been hoping for.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake brings a masterpiece to a new generation

Nintendo’s outstanding Switch 2 remake preserves the heart of an all-time great.

WoW: Forever’s beta felt like magic. What comes next is anyone’s guess

Blizzard’s retro MMO is approaching unfamiliar territory, but its early promise is hard to miss.

The two projects share a thoughtful approach to updating classics, though they take different paths. Both introduce smart modern touches without losing sight of what made the originals special. Ocarina of Time stays close to the original game’s story and design, while its striking new visuals make a dramatic leap forward.

WoW: Forever, by contrast, retains the original World of Warcraft art style, enhanced by a quietly impressive rendering update. It also builds on the original game’s foundations with substantial additions and meaningful changes to its underlying systems. Its planned progression cap and focus on “horizontal” expansion aim to rethink not only WoW, but the wider MMO and live-service model.

In interviews, developers from both teams have described a desire to protect and pass on something essential in these games’ design—something they believe has become less common in modern releases.

“We were discovering things together”: Ocarina of Time’s original creators found new surprises in the remake

Nintendo’s leading Zelda producers discuss the remake and what lies ahead.

In a Nintendo “Ask the Developer” interview, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma explained that he wanted the remake to help a new generation of developers—many of whom had worked on Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—understand the intricate systems behind classic Zelda games.

“By learning the game structure and development style behind the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and by actually rebuilding it as a full remake, it may trigger new insights that they can carry forward into future development,” Aonuma said. “If we could achieve that, I thought it would be incredibly valuable. That’s what led us to the conclusion that now is the right time to revisit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time once again.”

It’s striking to imagine that sharing knowledge inside the studio may have been one of Nintendo’s chief reasons for undertaking such an ambitious production. Yet that kind of long view is very much in keeping with the company’s approach.

I watched the WoW: Forever beta alongside the Blizzard developers who made it

This grassroots reimagining of classic World of Warcraft has big ambitions, though its team intends to remain small.

At Blizzard, the idea of a “Classic Plus” version of WoW took hold among developers around the same time it gained traction in the WoW Classic community. That overlap is unsurprising: many members of the WoW Classic team are longtime fans of the original. The small, ambitious group first explored the concept during the Season of Discovery event, then brought the idea to company leadership.

Lead Forever designer Kris Zierhut, who says he had “drifted away” from modern WoW, described the project as a chance to imagine an alternate history for the game.

“Imagine if that team from 2004 — you know, Jeff Kaplan, and Eric Dodds, and Tom Chilton, and Scott Mercer, Pat Nagle, all those people — they’ve given them two more years to develop the game and add more stuff to it and perfect it,” he said. “What would they have done with the time?”

Aonuma and Zierhut aren’t simply trying to preserve landmark games as museum pieces. They want to dig into how those games work, discover what they can teach today’s developers, and reconsider what progress may have left behind: an adventure shaped by craft rather than sheer scale, or a live-service game that values the journey as much as the endgame.

Both remakes were created with care, enthusiasm, and a clear sense of purpose—and that comes through in the games themselves. They celebrate their source material while making it inviting to a new generation. It’s easy to dismiss remakes as cynical cash-ins or convenient schedule fillers, but they can also be distinctive creative works in their own right.

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