Rumour: The Wind Waker HD May Have An Additional Difficulty Level

I would LOVE to play a zelda game where I had to actually watch my heart count closely! Bring on the difficulty please!

... rather have additional CONTENT if they are happily charging full price for what is essentially a HD remaster.

I remember playing this as a small Cuddles and all I remember is being on a boat. All the time.

I'm missing something, right?

As long as they let you choose the difficulty settings before beating it once.. I hate games where you can only choose hardmode after it's beaten.

Woah, slow down with the hype. Pikmin 3 hasn't come out in the states yet.

@Peek-a-boo I was hoping they would take the time and add the cut dungeons, but alas... I think they are charging $49.99 however, which isn't quite full price, but more than other HD remasters.

will wait on a price drop for this one, skyward sword was a tenner before long. and there is less value in this product, methinks.

Im definetly picking this up since my game store sells wind waker for gamecube for $50 loose.

In case anyone doesn't know, there is an eShop page on the Wii U eShop but it says the game IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE WII U PRO CONTROLLER!

Wait a minute, in the original SPOILER after you beat it you could play again with Link in his pajamas...I can't remember for sure, but was that slightly more difficult or not?

Iike a ZELDA fan that I'm, I will buy this game at day one and I still have my NGC original version!!!

"More challenging" is not specific enough. I have to know in what way it's more challenging before I show any interest.

@Joshers744 No,it was the same difficulty level. All I remember being different aside from the obvious is that when characters speak Hylian,it's translated.

Oh yes please...I would love this. I kind of get frustrated because I'm not spending enough time fighting moblins and such because they're such pushovers...would love to feel as if I'm a bit weak compared to the rest of enemies in the dungeon. Extra sea battles and ambushes by octos/seahats/etc would make the boat ride a little less boring as well.

@GamerDaddy Did You try Hero Mode in Skyward Sword?

This would actually be great news
Hopefully it would turn out like OoT 3D with a Master Quest, where some dungeons and puzzles get remixed and rearranged. Skyward Sword's Hero Mode seemed a little lazy compared to that, so a MQ would be pretty awesome and practical to have in WW.

@Cuddles quite a lot, actually...

As the Gamecube is the one Nintendo system I never played, I'm extremely excited for this.

And yes, a bundle would be a very smart move indeed to help move more systems.

@GamerDaddy Oracle of Seasons / Ages are available on the 3DS e-Shop, you know.

I never played WW since I traded my GC in for a PS2 round about that time... I certainly learned a harsh lesson regarding that trade off

Shark island, just remember that place and the other hole on Outset island that seems to be continous, whilst increasing the enemies and difficulty. Worst memory from playing through Wind Waker and discovering those two things.

If the hardware bundle rumor is true I may take that opportunity.

It started out at $50, but I guess it went back up to $60. They really need to consider charging less for this, though. So many HD collections on other consoles fit two or three games in one package and sell it for $40. And I know Wind Waker HD might have a few new features, but the difference in value is enormous. Even at $40 it would still be twice as expensive as it should be compared to other games. I just don't think I can justify paying full price a second time.

(Final Fantasty X and X-2 for example. Both games for $40, and those aren't small games, either.)

Ahhh great so now those people complaining about no new content get there end of the bargain. Due to how long a single play through could be Ima have to play the Master Quest first.

I was already planning on purchasing this remake regardless, but the possible inclusion of an extra difficulty mode makes that purchase that much sweeter.

@Senario To be honest with you, I wasn't okay with them charging full price for OOT 3D either. And I'm pretty sure there isn't a huge difference between what Nintendo is doing with this game and what other people are doing with theirs. This is just an upscaling too, just along with a few more fine touches like shading and such. They're not remaking it. In fact, it doesn't look that much better than what people have been able to achieve with the Dolphin emulator.

If this game does turn out to have a Master Quest type mode, then I will have no problem paying in order to experience that, though ideally it should be priced at $40. I gladly payed full price for Ocarina of Time 3d simply because it was worth the money, and if this news turns out to be true Wind Waker HD will be well worth it as well.

@DerpSandwich Still, for those who didn't play this, it's a completely new game to them. I don't think Nintendo was aiming at those who played till they got sick, but people who wants nostalgia with a fresh coat of pain or people who never played this, and they will gladly pay the price. Also, this is a complete remake (if you don't believe me, look at the textures of the E3 trailer), not an HD upscale like the other $40 ports and it has even new features.

@GamerDaddy
Either you are a cautious gamer, or amazingly good... because watching your hearts is not to be taken lightly!

I'd like to see a Master Quest for Windwaker, and wouldn't mind seeing a packaged deal, either. That might get some Wii Us blowing off the shelves.

@DerpSandwich
After watching the Emulated version's videos, and playing (and watching) the HD version at Best Buy, I can say that the emulated version had several stability issues, and the HD upgrade version was better and smoother.
(@DerpSandwich below)
It is being "remade", to fit with a second screen. If you don't want it, then don't get it.

@Beta I understand that it will be worth it for people who have never played the game. It's just frustrating being a primarily Nintendo gamer and knowing that people on the other systems get all this sort of stuff for way less. Nintendo likes to milk every last penny that they can from a game. (Sort of like how their games take years and years to go down in price.)

And I've seen the footage and screenshots. Touching up/re-texturing =/= remaking. At its core they're using the original game files and upscaling them. It's not even close to the full development of a game. No matter how much smoother they're making it, it's still mostly the same game with all the same models--not a remake.

Whatever man! Wind Waker is an absolute gem of a game! It doesn't need no new stuff hell it doesn't even need to be in HD seeing as the cube one still looks so damn gorgeous this remake will be mine

Would you guys believe that I only played the standard quest in OoT 3D because I can't even get past The Great Deku Tree in the Master Quest?

@AlexSora89 I don't want to believe that. Did the Golden Skulltulas get you or something?

@DerpSandwich Wait, then all remakes aren't remakes either because at the core it's the same game. Of course it's the same game. It's a "remake" which is something old being remade, so at the core it's the same. But as for the pricing, I cannot argue about that because I'm right there with you that it should've been cheaper, but I won't really complain about. As for the game not going down in price, don't most games that sell monstrously don't go down in price that easily?

@ WiiUExposed: Nope, I blame it on Gohma' hatchlings, who always gang up on me. Outside of the proper boss battle, that is.

@Peek-a-boo , an HD remaster of any Zelda game is worth the price.

If they want to do a Master Quest-type remix that helps make the game feel fresh again and a little more challenging, that'd obviously be an amazing treat, but I'll gladly settle for enemies that can actually take more than a quarter of a heart from Link's health.

Taking a few hits from almost any adversary in TWW was almost never a big deal, because Link was just too durable for them to be true threats - especially later in the game, when you'd managed to put together some extra heart containers.

Oh, it's a rumor? I thought everybody already knew about it. A friend of mine who works for a PR agency related to Nintendo told me about this two days ago, and I thought it was common news.
So, yeah, tehre definitely is a new difficulty setting available.

I see people all over the internet just calling this an upscaled Gamecube game.... The amount of work that went into this substantial.

Go look at the videos on youtube of people playing Wind Waker on Dolphin @ 1080p... It doesn't look no where near as good as this HD remake.... I think people need to really examine the definition of port vs remake.... I think Sony started the confusion when they started uprezzing their old games and calling it a remake..

Just from the video/screenshots of WWHD, we can see all new backgrounds, completely remade. Assets being spruced up. Self shadowing. Dynamic lighting... animations feel much smoother. Visually you can tell the game has had substantial work far beyond just upscaling to a higher resolution.

@Peek-a-boo sigh, its not a uprezzed port like what Sony does.

@DerpSandwich Sorry to pick on your comment when others made similar complaints, but your comment has already started a conversation.

I'm not the type, at least lately, to purchase a game at release. It doesn't fit my budget unless I prioritize for it. Still, $50 to $60 is not asking a lot for the experience we get from quality titles such as WW. You have to consider the development costs are likely increasing with each console generation as more detail is devoted to textures, polygons, music, testing, etc. ( http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Video_game_costs ). Now consider that games have not gone up in price since around the SNES, and somehow Nintendo is expected to still turn profits. I'm not saying that the industry or Nintendo or even developers need your sympathy, but that we are getting quite a deal for the enjoyment time to price ratio, especially when we expect each new game to take longer to complete or look visually stunning. I'd wager that most gamers spend more time with one or two games than most other forms of media combined in a given week. It'd be interesting to see a poll.

Anyways, the industry will probably reach a saturation point soon and will implode due to this balancing act of development costs and competitive pricing. Bring on the indies in undies!

BTW, "experience" Proteus if you want an interesting low-low-def style with enough substance (e.g., randomized environments) to keep you intrigued.

@Beta No, there's a difference. Take movies, for example. Take a movie's original print and remaster it. Touch it up, maybe even add some new special effects, and release it in HD. That's not a remake. It's a remastering. Take the original idea and write a new script based on the same story, or maybe even use the same script and shoot the movie all over again with new sets and actors and everything. That's a remake.

Take a game's files and touch them up, add features, etc. That's a remaster, or just an HD version. Literally build a game from the ground up based on the design of an older game. Everything from scratch. (Like Resident Evil on the Gamecube.) That's a remake.

Wind Waker HD is not a remake. They're not remaking any part of it. (Key word: "making") They're just improving what they already have.

I disagree about the 3D Ocerina being the definitive version it looks awful on my 3DS XL. (The Gamecube PAL Master Quest is what I play it is the only 60hz none portable PAL version. Incidently it came with the Wind Waker preorder which I played through once and didn't really enjoy certainly not enough to pay full price for it again regardless of graphics). I might pay £20 for it maximum and probably only if I physically pass somewhere that has it in stock and I see it and don't want anything else more at the time.

@Peek-a-boo There's no confirmed price tag yet :/

@DerpSandwich The remakes I have played I haven't liked they normally involve making the game loads easier. (Dracula X Chronicles).

Quite liked Bionic Commando rearmed but I never played the original.

The original Castlevania the Adventure is dire so the remake of that had to be better still think it wasn't that great though.

I think I won't like DuckTales what I have seen of it they have added lots of filler which is one of the things in the original I liked (The other being the controls that are being made not the default).

The best examples of ones that are better are the Saturn versions of stuff like Thunderforce III / IV (Gets rid of the slowdown and graphical annoyances of the originals).

Thing about this is there is nothing really wrong with the original. (Other than it not being that good).

Remake is one of those things that ends up telling you nothing.

@startropics3 Look at the quality of Super Mario World and how many it sold and the extra costs of making cartridges and then look at New Super Mario Bros Wii and how much it sold. It should have had a reasonable amount of effort put into it but it didn't. I just won't be buying any more of them. There is no reason to not put at least double the amount of levels and playtest them enough to make sure they are fun to play.

@DerpSandwich Regardless of how much work is being put into it, I think Wind Waker HD is fairly priced. The gamecube version had a similar price and it wasn't any better of a game. The PS3 HD collections are an interesting comparison, but I think those publishers are seriously undervaluing their games.

A Master Quest would be much better than just a higher difficulty level.

@Goginho Yes and I really liked it better but I had to beat the original to get to Hero mode. I'd love to play hard mode the first time through.

@LinktotheFuture yes master quest for this would be amazing!! zelda games nowadays are too easy and need a vamp such as master quest.

I love this game and have explored every inch of The Great Sea, but have always felt the difficulty was very low. Many enemies barely cause any damage. I would love to dive right into Hard mode! >

@Peek-a-boo Here's the thing, and I say this with all due respect of course. Just because a game is a remaster, or re-release, or re-imagining, or re- anything, doesn't diminish the value of the game. It just means there's a chance you may have played it before, and if that's the case, you have to ask yourself if you feel like paying full price for the game again. The fact is, people hype themselves up over a remaster like it's a new game, then get upset if new content isn't added for that full retail price tag. Additional content doesn't have to be added- the game is what it is. It's a game they sold before, and are selling again now. If haven't played it before, the remastering of the game is a way to sell it to a new audience- but it's not meant to be a new game for those who played it in the past. And they're not ripping you off by charging full retail and adding no content. The game is worth what it's worth, whether you've played it before or not. But for the record, the game is listed on Amazon for just $49.99. And considering they've fixed the fetch quest near the end, sped up sailing speed, and balanced other quirks of the original, even adding a separate difficulty (unconfirmed), I'd say they've gone above and beyond for a re-mastered edition.

I have no interest in this game to pay more than 20 bucks for this game being I have my gc copy still. Ill pick it up late in the consoles life when its cheap.

@JaxonH agreed 100% I want it but not for much money being I already have my gc copy.

@unrandomsam Not sure on the credibility, but I found sales numbers here: ( http://www.mariowiki.com ). SMW - 20 million; NSMB Wii - 14.7 million as of March 2010. So it looks like NSMB Wii sold at a faster rate than SMW, which makes sense given the increased popularity of Mario. I don't see what sales numbers have to do with your argument. Are you suggesting that people will still purchase Mario titles regardless of the titles' length and quality? Or are you saying that profits are higher now because cartridges were expensive to manufacture? Or are you simply dissatisfied with new Mario titles in general?

You could try renting a game before buying it.

Well, there is game pad off tv play I assume and an additional difficulty? I'd pay whatever the new Battlefield costs for that.

Wind waker is by far the best legend of Zelda I've played
in my opinion. I've played it over and over and I cannot wait to play it in HD. Day one purchase

I really don't feel a need for this game, unless everygame in the series gets an hd treatment, why this one? why not twilight or even the 16bit ones? this is a waste of resources for yet another new Zelda game we could have, Nintendo, I can see your laziness...im not impressed

@Peek-a-boo Additional difficulties ARE new content + didn't they say they were adding some new levels/dungeons/tid-bits?

@GamerDaddy Yea I feel you. It wasn't an issue to me, I enjoyed it the first time around, but it seems reasonable enough imo to have a hard mode from the beginning to choose from.

Cant wait as never played the original WW release so for me at least its all new.

@Prof_Elvin_Gadd

Didn't they say they cannot add removed dungeons because they've already used those in different games.

@Prof_Elvin_Gadd they can't, they said they already used those dungeons in later games.

@element187 oh my some one with some seance. iv bean saying for ages that the "HD" games on PSN aren't actually "HD" there just "up-Scaling" it to be on a HD Display.. witch revolted in fandom hate on me -_- i admit some are True "HD" Remakes but allot are not.. itherway im looking forward to the Wind Waker HD i wasn't a huge fan of the original but i did enjoy it alot and would love to play it again

@Finntendo and @Sogeman Ok, I had forgotten they said that.

Any additional dungeons would enhance the game, as they were supposed to be there in the first place. However, it's not that big of a deal, the game is still good.

_{Just hit report and let us take care of it. -Lz}

@startropics3 This is what I am looking at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

New Super Mario Bros Wii - 28 million

Super Mario World - 20 million (SNES - But it was a pack in game which I think are usually less profitable and the carts were expensive to produce at the time).

I think they are not putting the effort in that they did with Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros 3.

They rushed out the Wii U one. They could have play tested it and made it actually good. (Space isn't a premium now they could have just provided it with 200 levels that were all fun to play). Something was different maybe with carts getting the bugs allowed them a significant amount of time to play test and tweak the levels I don't know.

I have played the Newer mod more than the Nintendo official game. (And enjoyed it more than the DS game / the 3DS game or the Wii official game).

I enjoyed Donkey Kong Country Returns / Kirby's Adventure / Warioland Shake Dimension. Much more as they seem to have not lost what makes them good. Really do think it is just a question of effort.

I know I'm late to the party, but I'd love it if there would be a WiiU hardware bundle with WWHD as I haven't played the original version.

@unrandomsam I see your point. SMW is a fav of mine, and I don't think it needs improvement. The selling point of NSMB seemed to be the simultaneous multiplayer aspect, and of course Mario. The development teams and directors likely changed for the new title, so I wouldn't expect a similar game. I only played through the first two worlds on NSMB, so I won't critique it, but I did enjoy playing with a friend.

The updated Wind Waker's selling point is HD and Zelda. There is little risk involved because you know what you are getting, and if it moves systems, then all the better. It's definitely a safe move by Nintendo, but, for how long it takes them to make a quality new title (e.g., Pikmin 3), who can blame them?

@Prof_Elvin_Gadd
Board seems to edit posts nicely. But I apologise for my duh-ing, just makes me frustrated when people go on and on about one thing even it's said several times why it cannot be done ( I assume certain people keep reading these Zeldanews).
Ah yes, any additional stuff would improve already great game. If not using those they originally planned, design a few more. Or MQ would be cool.. I actually started MQ for OoT and couldn't even finish Deku tree and then I moved on to next game since I have too much them yet to play (I've slipped from my idea that no new game until the one I'm playing is finished)

Depending on the details, I may yet have a reason to pick up this game! If this difficulty setting actually involves new challenges and puzzles rather than an 'enemies don't drop hearts' mode then woooh.
Still pissed about them not updating the soundtrack.

Wouldn't surprise me!