Capcom Producer Says He Threatened Miyamoto to Push Zelda-Inspired Game Boy Color Project
Hennadiy Chemеris
A recent interview with Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto revisits the long road to a Game Boy Color Zelda project that was supposed to grow into a trilogy. He said the plan was to remake the original The Legend of Zelda for the handheld, but the talks with Nintendo eventually stalled.
According to Okamoto, Nintendo initially refused to agree to the project, and the negotiations quickly stalled. He said he told Shigeru Miyamoto that he would make the game himself if necessary, then warned that Capcom could release an identical game with different characters and simply give it another name.
I especially like Zelda. But Nintendo wouldn't port it to Game Boy Color. So I told Mr. Miyamoto I'd produce it myself... but we couldn't come to an agreement. So in the end, I threatened him. I said if Nintendo's not up for it, we'll release an identical game with different characters and just call it something else.
Okamoto said the threat helped move the negotiations forward. Even so, the original remake of The Legend of Zelda was never finished because of development problems, and the planned trilogy was reduced to two games.
Instead of three releases, Capcom and Nintendo eventually put out Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages in 2001. The companies later worked together again on The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, which was released in 2004.
How far should a developer go when a dream project gets stuck in talks?
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