Nintendo boss Shigeru Miyamoto has defended remaking classic games following the release of Star Fox and ahead of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.

• READ MORE: ‘Star Fox’ review: refuelled space-shooter ready for a fresh generation

Earlier this year, Nintendo released a completely reworked version of N64 classic Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo Switch 2 and later this year, an updated take of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time will hit shelves. 

The decision to remake classic titles hasn’t gone down well with a lot of gamers, who’d rather new entries in beloved series’ rather than playing through familiar stories. However Miyamoto has explained the decision to revisit iconic Nintendo games.

“Some people might say there are a lot of remakes, but after five years, a lot of people have outgrown games and stop playing them,” he told Famitsu (translated by Nintendo Everything). “Young people today don’t have the opportunity to play games from 10 years ago, so remaking them to be more playable and releasing them again is a good way to meet the demand. Letting people know the original games also leads to future developments, so we’ve been actively pursuing that recently.”

Not much has been revealed about the upcoming The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake. The game will launch at some point in 2026 and has been advertised as “a legend, reborn”. Similar wording was used to promote the updated take on Star Fox 64, which was released with updated graphics and quality of life upgrades but no major changes to the plot or gameplay. 

A live-action Legend Of Zelda movie is due to launch in cinemas next year, and Star Fox’s Fox McCloud featured in this year’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. 

Earlier this year, Nintendo released the 2002 remakes of the original Pokémon games without any upgrades for the Switch 2. Last year, they did the same with Super Mario Galaxy and its 2010 sequel. 

In other news, orchestral rhythm game Maestro is coming to Nintendo Switch consoles later this year.