The Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time quietly removed some of the original's famous Super Mario references — and Nintendo has now explained the thinking.

"You don't want to interrupt the player's experience," the developers said, per Nintendo Life. The logic: a Mario cameo that lands as a charming wink in one era can yank players out of Hyrule's atmosphere in a modern, more visually grounded remake.

The original 1998 game was famously stuffed with them — most memorably the portraits of Mario characters visible through the castle courtyard window. Some of those touches survive in the remake, as Nintendo Life notes it was some but not all references that got cut.

There's a mild irony in the timing. Nintendo has recently gone the other direction in Mario's own universe, dropping Star Fox and even Pikmin crossovers into Super Mario games. The company's stance seems to be that crossover gags suit Mario's anything-goes tone but sit less comfortably in Zelda's, where immersion is the priority. For remake purists, it's one more line-item in the ledger of what the Switch 2 version changes versus preserves.