Nintendo tested HD graphics for two other Zelda games as well

The HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker started out as a tech demo by series lead Eiji Aonuma, but it wasn't the only game his team experimented with.

Speaking to Polygon last week in an interview, Aonuma said that while working on graphic approaches for the next Zelda Wii U, the team experimented with three existing games.

"When we were thinking about the new Zelda for Wii U, which is something we're actually working on, we needed to experiment with a variety of graphic styles and it was part of that process we took some existing Zelda games and made them HD just to see what would happen," he said. "In doing so we realized that the Wind Waker graphic style, the art style, really represented well on the Wii U given the graphic capabilities of the new system. It really brought that world to life."

Aonuma said the other two games they experimented with were 2006's The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and 2011's The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, both of which are Wii titles.

While the experiment was part of the reason Aonuma decided to remake The Wind Waker in HD, he said that doesn't mean the other two will get the same, HD treatment.

"I can't say that the possibility is zero that those will be made into HD, but right now I need to work on the next installation in the series so I don't have the bandwidth to do that right now," he said. "But maybe it will happen if someone else does it."