Absolutely not. Look at Wind Waker HD, it is exactly the same as the Gamecube one, but adding higher resolution textures and shaders, every single element has the same number of polygons. That was in 2013, when the Wii U was only one year old. Now that it's succsesor has been announced, we should consider ourselves lucky if they make a remaster/HD port for this console.

Wait. Shit. You're right.

I was just re-examining them under more scrutiny, and the models at least are exactly the same. The whole thing's been completely retextured, though, but that's insane how models from 2006 can look so good today. Definitely fooled me. Geeze.

But I've legitimately never seen a retexture that good before. Like I never thought it was even possible to make it look that different. Puts all those PC mods to shame. It also makes a remaster looking like the demo far more likely. If all they are doing is retexturing GCN models, that shouldn't be too much for the Wii U to handle at all. I mean, there are effects as well as lighting and reflection tricks as well, but this definitely seems doable.

To get it to look that good, though, they'd need to redo animations and cutscenes too, like what was done in the tech demo. It seems like everything was changed except for the character models. Even Link's eyes and eyebrows have been retextured and are now shaped differently.

Has it really been *that* long? It's incredible how time flies.

Anyways, it'd be great if that was the case. Although I'd love it even more if they reworked the soundtrack, as the MIDI-styled music was already dated in 2006. There's some amazing music in that game that could even more amazing with an orchestra behind it.

They'd have to redo a lot about that game to make it presentable today. Hopefully they do. With Tantulus. No way they aren't working on this.

It will be worse. That's why I hope they would release it for the NX which is supposed to be better than the wii u. Also, the game was released for the gamecube, the wii, and now the wii u as well? Then why not release it in every Nintendo console they make. It's not even the best Zelda game, why release it in three consoles in a row? Just wait for the NX and do it with a bang, with better visuals than that tech demo and people would be impressed. With wii u's visuals yeah the game would look better than the wii version, but so much better to justify another version on the third consecutive console? I don't think so.

No. If it did. It be a remake. Not a remaster.

I doubt a remake is happening, but if it DID happen, it needs to be a remake of the GC version (the original version), not the flipped Wii port. I personally don't want or need to play more waggling, and I waited a month to play the GC version when TP launched anyway, because that was the experience I wanted.

So hopefully they go with that. It makes more sense, with the Wii U not coming with a Wiimote, anyway.

Doesn't shock me.  I've been involved in The Elder Scrolls modding scene for several years and can tell you there are some insane retextures you can get, especially for Skyrim.  Vurt's work on the folliage was a substantial improvement without making any changes to the base mesh.  And there's another mod that gives all the armors much better textures and while the faithfulness to art design makes the change less in-your-face, much like in the case of this demo the details are drastically enhanced.  Retextures and minor tweaks to smooth things out can greatly improve a look without putting in the extreme efforts needed to replace everything.  BUT the one set of assets that will need replacing in TP HD is trees.  Not only was power restricting foliage looks back on the Wii but also there are just better techniques now.  Even on the Wii things improved substantially.  Look at Xenoblade and Last Story, both with better approaches to foliage.

I wonder if they would give players the choice of playing the GCN version or playing with Wii remotes for the flipped Wii version. Would be cool if they did but honestly I'm down to play either version.

I've never seen a Skyrim mod that looked as night and day as TP to the tech demo. They literally look like two completely different games. You're right about the trees and foliage, though. There's a lot of work to be done. Just not as much as I initially thought. It's definitely doable.