Shigeru Miyamoto once indicated that he would like to see The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past recreated on Nintendo 3DS, taking advantage of the handheld’s stereoscopic 3D.
“I think A Link To The Past,” he had shared with 1UP when asked which game he would like to see remade on Nintendo 3DS. “Do you remember Xevious? It’s two-layered and I really wanted to create that at the time. So to see Link To The Past in two layers would be quite attractive for me.”
We know that those conversations continued according to Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and it appears that it nearly became a reality, before a whole new adventure was born in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
The Cutting Room Floor has shared unused assets discovered in the Nintendo 3DS exclusive, designed by field planner Ryutaro Kanno and dungeon planner Takayuki Ikkaku. There are two sets of such leftover areas, which had looked to painstakingly recreate Lost Woods and Zora Lake while Ikkaku had started to create some entirely new areas that weren’t included in the final release.
It isn’t unique to Nintendo that unused assets can remain in the final release, but it’s certainly interesting to see what had potentially been on the cards during development!
