Here comes the obligatory flashback; it's 1998, you're on Thanksgiving break, and you're spending that first Monday of the vacation in line at a Toys "R" Us nervously clenching the reservation ticket for the new Nintendo 64 title that the top gaming magazine in your room, Electronic Gaming Monthly, just recently quoted as “THE game to own in 98”, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time —well, maybe you didn't do this, but my dopey-ass 12-year-old ass sure did.
That holiday break will go down as one of the best memories I've ever had as a kid. I couldn't tell you a damn thing about the food we ate, the weather we got, or the relatives we had over, but boy, howdy could I go on about all of the routes I feverishly scratched down to solve the Lost Woods like a maniac—or the epic struggle of whack-a-mole that I waged against Volvagia. Nearly 30 years later, the 64-Bit Zelda entry has steadily lost its sacred cow status and become a more polarizing entry that's contested for its reverence among players more than anything else, especially after the 2011 remake for the Nintendo 3DS, where the portable revision received marginal technical upgrades despite being on vastly superior hardware to the “Fun Machine” of the 90s. Flash-forward to now, and I'm 40, my back randomly hurts, and I just slotted in the new Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake into my Nintendo Switch 2. Despite being a taller, hairier version of myself who's worried about entirely different things like climate change and my credit score, I was still able to experience the same magic I felt all those years ago as a kid, and then some.
I'll be the first to say that while Ocarina of Time isn't the first game on everyone's wishlist for a modern remake, Nintendo and Monolith Software were able to really outdo themselves here, as they not only reproduced that cherished experience I've held onto for so long—they've improved upon it in a way where anyone can really see what all the fuss is about, in a way where they didn't have to “be there” to get it.
So, let's get to the shiny, wet-looking elephant in the room before anything else, and talk about the visual overhaul that the Switch 2 iteration implemented into the Hero of Time and his journey; the graphical style of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo Switch 2 looks absolutely stunning. While everyone is free to take Takaya Imamura 's statement about the Ocarina of Time remake's art style being an homage to Miyamoto's love of puppet theater with a grain of salt, the marionette-like character designs and the diorama-like veneer of the environment's composition do lend some credence to that impression. Although the visuals can be ever so slightly inconsistent in terms of the degree to which Nintendo has applied this shiny new coat of paint, the blemishes are few and far between in the grand scope of the play-through—and were honestly only noticed when a magnifying glass of granular proportions was used to scrutinize the scene in question.
The style really does infuse a new sense of life into action on screen—especially thanks to the extra frames of animation. With the Ocarina of Time remake sliding the N64's paltry 20 FPS all the way up to the standard 60 FPS, this adds even more character to the eccentric personalities of Hyrule, whether they are friend or foe. Sure, the enhancements have admittedly diminished some of the characters' unique quirks or aura (I'm looking at you, Bombchu Bowling Alley girl). However, the character is still there, especially since many key moments of the adventure have been cinematically revamped with brand-new, voice-acted cutscenes. This is another nice touch that bolsters the theatrical feel of the Hyrulean crusade into an even larger-than-life experience that builds on the legacy of Ocarina of Time's iconic grandeur; while it's a little bewildering at the beginning, it quickly grew on me as I progressed through the campaign.
The only issue I honestly have with these new dramatized renditions of the key story beats in the Ocarina of Time remake is that, despite everyone getting their presentational glow-up, our pointy-eared mute protagonist is still, well, a pointy-eared mute. Similar to the issues I've taken with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Link has evolved far beyond his origins as the nameless protagonist whose lack of personality beyond courage or bravery only endeared him as a cipher for the player to immerse their own sense of self into the heroic role. He's far more fleshed out as a character. Hell, Nintendo even knows it because unlike the 1998 original, players aren't able to name the swordsman themselves and are subjected to the narrative referring to him as “Link” from the very start. If we're going to go that far, you might as well go all the way and give the guy some more agency in the plot development beyond some pantomimed expressions or proxy interpretation from Navi. It's just silly at this point, especially when you add in the fact that the new Legend of Zelda movie is scheduled to hit theaters in less than a year from now—let the little guy say his piece already!
Quibbles with Link's lack of input aside, there's still an impressive attention to detail in this iteration of the classic that has consistently wowed me in every session—like the fact that Link's dynamic ability to jump on his own without the need for a context-sensitive interaction with the edge of a platform is accompanied by the appearance of the “Roc's Feather” adorned on his signature cap. This is an item that's iconic for granting the ability to jump in the portable outing of The Legend of Zelda franchise and thus acts as a genuine layer of fanservice that adds to the experience of game instead of simply just pandering to it.
The new orchestral score is an entirely different beast to wrangle. It doesn't just seamlessly complement the upgraded aesthetic of the game; it's completely changed how I feel about the soundtrack, thanks in large part to the enhanced dynamism of its overall sound design. Many of the trademark bops known for their extremely catchy notes, like Saria's Song or Gerudo Valley, are more sonically charged with the addition of symphonic strings and horns. This really improves what were already incredibly impressive pieces composed around the limited tech of the N64's compressed MIDI output.
Likewise, many of the more subtle tracks, like the Lon Lon Ranch theme or Sheik's theme, use a more stripped-down arrangement of the instruments, creating a more acoustic version that better matches the serenity or emotion the scene is meant to convey. I know this sounds silly considering all of the time we've been exposed to orchestral renditions of Ocarina of Time through productions like the various The Legend of Zelda concert tours over the years, or the dozens of rearrangements we've heard in the Super Smash Bros. series of games but this particular showing of the 2026 version's soundtrack still managed to hit different—and I couldn't be more impressed with the showing that was composed for the remake.
As I hinted before, with Link's new ability to defy gravity whenever he damn well pleases, the Ocarina of Time remake also includes loads of quality-of-life improvements that optimize the frankly antiquated pace of the series' first foray into 3D. Honestly, they're all brilliant yet subdued tweaks that do a lot to finesse the overall experience.
In addition to the Fairy-guy's new leaping ability, Link can now sprint at a much faster pace than his default run by holding down the A button after a roll, which will thankfully reduce the absurd levels of “ehYuh” or HiYUH” sounds within the immediate vicinity and make travel on foot a far less taxing ordeal to contend with.
The big (yet maybe not so big?) change to the game is that the Ocarina of Time remake was remade with the same engine used for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—meaning that the entirety of its world is a fully rendered 3D space with a fully controllable, free-roaming camera that does away with all of the old pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera perspectives that were used in the N64 original.
Despite how familiar this world is, this revamped overhaul to Ocarina of Time's version of Hyrule delivers the same evocative sense of odyssey as trekking through Breath of the Wild—especially with the new tweaked day-to-night cycle, adding a more balanced time lapse to transitions that are way less jarring than they were before. I will say that, as large as this approach made the world of Ocarina of Time feel, there were some instances where the game loses some of the intentionality of its design once freed from the technical shackles of its older hardware. Link's first visit to Hyrule Castle, for example, where he needs to stealthily infiltrate the grounds past the keen eyes of the castle guards, feels way less harrowing without the fixed-camera perspective areas. I easily flew past this portion within mere minutes. It just didn't carry the same weight as the 1998 original, which had pared me down with a memorable challenge and a moment to ruminate on.
In terms of direct gameplay, Players will now have a pseudo-journal to help track their major progress with the new “Threads of Time,” which helps chronicle the various stages of progress for both the main quest and the somewhat vital side quests they'll need to undertake—like the collection of crucial bottles or inventory upgrades needed for the more demanding quests later down the road. Granted, these entries are still written in the typical cryptic fashion expected from The Legend of Zelda. It's nothing like what you'd see with the Animus of Assassin's Creed, or Dandelion's logs in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but the addition of such a system is still helpful in trying to keep your progress on track—especially when the heroic errands start to grow bigger in scope. Despite this new way to chart your objectives, there's unfortunately no form of a tracker present for the vast amount of collectibles to find in Ocarina of Time—which is definitely a big bummer in contrast to all of the other enhancements. Not to get too specific, as I hilariously do not wish to spoil what is almost a thirty-year-old game, but there are over a hundred collectibles to find in the Hero of Time's journey to thwart the Gerudo king. This High-Definition version adds a few dozen more to the pile—without any kind of checklist or tracker to help manage any of the chaos that hunting these shiny baubles will bring you. This. frankly, sucks, especially near the end-game. To their credit, the development team did replace the Stone of Agony with an entirely new mechanic that better fits the updated experience of the Ocarina of Time remake that I can get behind. I encourage y'all to seek that out for yourselves, as it's far more satisfying than stumbling around every nook and cranny waiying for your Rumble Pak to go off.
The new controls and UI are also a nice touch that quickly improve upon the admittedly clumsy assignment of the Nintendo 64 controller, as now, instead of items being assigned a dedicated button input for the limited face buttons on hand, players will now get to navigate through a dynamic item wheel on the fly with the L and R buttons. This also pauses the action on screen so Link can safely choose whatever is needed, and said item can be used by pressing the ZR button. This was a little strange within the first hour of the game, but I quickly got the hang of it. The new Ocarina menu system was also a welcome improvement, as players will now have a reference menu for all of the songs in the game and their specific notes, along with a brand new acoustic fingerprinting system where players will actually get to hum the melody of the song they want to play directly into the Nintendo Switch 2's microphone to have Link play it on screen. This, as gimmicky as that may sound post-Wii and Kinect, is undeniably cool as hell (mainly because it actually works with scarily accurate precision).
The last thing I'll say about the game on a technical level is this title may be one of the most beautifully optimized pieces of software for the Nintendo Switch 2. Whether I played in handheld mode or on the vibrant OLED screen of my Sony Bravia TV, the immaculate colors, framerate, and overall on-screen performance never faltered for me. If there's one game to really sell the technical prowess of Nintendo 's suped-up hybrid console, it's hands-down this game.
I could recommend you so many dumb old video games that are still an amazing time to enjoy in their own right, even to this day. And yet, no matter how good I believed Ocarina of Time to be, I always felt like I had to recommend to those curious about it with more caveats than I would with any other old game because it's place in gaming history. I really attributed the majesty of the first Zelda entry on the Nintendo 64 as this ephemeral moment in video games that helped evolve what they are and how grand they could be. However, it has since been exceeded ten times over by subsequent releases in the franchise and similarly grand epic adventures like Shenmue or Okami—which I would have a far easier time referring folks to play instead.