Nintendo recently knocked down the price of the 3DS to stimulate sales. While the device has great potential, it needs more AAA titles to entice buyers. Really the only front-line title it has on shelves is Ocarina 3D; a fifth of all 3DS owners in the UK own this game and it’s easy to imagine that even more in the US and Japan have it. But it’s another case of Nintendo resurrecting the horse only to beat it again.

Now there is a call to remake Majora’s Mask on the 3DS. This movement has a bit more merit to it–it would be nice to see this lesser-known, somewhat maligned title step up and be recognized by a new generation of gamers. The same strategy could be utilized as before; namely, that the game engine is already there and will make development much easier.

Nntendo should go one step further.

New, original Zelda games could be made using the now-finished Ocarina engine. This is essentially the same strategy Nintendo used during Majora‘s development; by reusing the Ocarina engine, development time was reduced to just one year (compare to the original development cycle of Ocarina, which was over four years long). Now that the 3D engine has been done and most of the necessary textures are already there, a new Zelda game could be whipped up in a matter of months.

More stories could be told exploring other splits of the Ocarina timeline, or entirely original, standalone stories could be told (vis a vis Link’s Awakening and Oracle of Ages/Seasons). Even a side story covering other parts of Hyrule not seen in Ocarina, or parts of Termina that weren’t featured in Majora (Termina would especially be nice to see, as we’ve already seen every square centimeter of Hyrule many times). But by now I am merely embellishing my point.

A whole new world of portable 3D gaming is out there, just waiting for Link.