If you grew up playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, you probably remember the little things that made it unforgettable. The sound of a few ocarina notes transporting you straight back to Kokiri Forest... Navi yells "Hey! Listen!" at the worst possible moment... getting lost in the Water Temple for what felt like a week... that first ride across Hyrule Field on Epona…
This Thursday, November 5th, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes back as a full remake on the Nintendo Switch 2. Not a port, and not an old game with a fresh coat of paint. Nintendo rebuilt it from the ground up. It's USD $59.99 digital or USD $69.99 for the physical copy with a textured foil cover (TechSpot), and it only runs on Switch 2. Nintendo first teased it at the June Nintendo Direct and locked in the date during its Zelda 40th anniversary stream in September, as The Verge reported.
So before launch day, we wanted to take a look at why this game still matters so much, what's actually changing, and the question we keep asking each other around the office: should you play the original or the remake?
Why Ocarina still matters
When Ocarina of Time hit North America in November 1998, nobody had really figured out 3D action games yet. How do you fight an enemy when the camera can swing anywhere? Nintendo's answer was Z-targeting. Hold a button, lock onto your enemy, and circle around them. It sounds simple now, and that's kind of the point. Almost every 3D action game since has its own version of it.
The list of things Ocarina got right the first time is long. A context-sensitive action button that changed depending on what Link was standing next to. A day and night cycle. A huge open field connecting everything. Songs you actually played to solve puzzles and move the story forward, and that have been stuck in people's heads for nearly 30 years (Song of Storms, anyone?). It still sits at a 99 on Metacritic, which tells you how critics felt about it then and now.
It has also never really gone away. It came to GameCube on the Master Quest bonus disc, showed up on the Wii's Virtual Console, got a full remake on 3DS in 2011, and is part of Nintendo Switch Online today. Very few games get that kind of second, third and fourth life.
What's new in the Switch 2 remake
The biggest changes are in how Link moves. The original never had a jump button. You ran off a ledge and the game decided whether Link hopped across. The remake gives you a dedicated jump, a sprint, and a camera you control with the right stick, something the N64 controller's single stick just couldn't do.
Nintendo's "What's New" trailer covers the rest:
-
Rebuilt visuals, fully voiced cutscenes with expanded dialogue, and a full orchestral score.
-
Gyro aiming for the slingshot and faster item switching.
-
Ocarina songs you can hum (or play on a real instrument) into the Switch 2 microphone, with regular button controls still there if you'd rather not serenade your console.
-
Threads of Time, an optional log that tracks your current objective and recaps the story.
-
The Hall of Fallen Foes, where you can rematch bosses you've already beaten.
-
Time keeps moving inside towns now, so Castle Town finally has a real day and night.
It also isn't as one-to-one as a lot of fans expected. IGN's hands-on preview found redesigned puzzles, including parts of the Forest Temple, new dialogue, and even a new way to get the Kokiri Sword. GameSpot called out the jump button as the change that makes it feel modern. Not everything landed for everyone, though. Eurogamer wasn't sold on the English voice acting, and Game Informer felt the combat can still show its age.
Why remake it again?
Fair question. It's already been remade once, and you can play the original on Switch Online right now.
Series producer Eiji Aonuma answered it himself in Nintendo's Ask the Developer interview (Nintendo Life has a good summary). A lot of today's Zelda team has only ever worked on newer games like Breath of the Wild. Having them rebuild Ocarina by hand was a way to teach them how the original was put together, and maybe "trigger new insights" for future Zelda games. Nintendo also wanted players who grew up on open-world Zelda to try a more guided, story-paced adventure. Not every new 3D Zelda has to be to the same blueprint of Breath of the Wild...
The remake was built in-house at Nintendo and directed by HokWai Ng. And if you're wondering whether Nintendo feels the pressure, Aonuma told AFP he's nervous about how fans will react. He also gave a lot of credit to the younger developers on the team, some of whom had never played the original before starting.
Original or remake: which one should you play?
Honestly? Both, if you can. They're two different ways to spend time in the same Hyrule, and they give you different things.
The case for the N64 original
The original is the game exactly as it was designed. The fixed camera and the auto-jump aren't just old-fashioned quirks. The dungeons were built around them, so the timing, the pacing and even the frustration (looking at you, Water Temple) are part of the experience. Then there's the hardware itself. The three-pronged controller, the C-buttons as your ocarina, the Rumble Pak buzzing when the Stone of Agony picks up a secret, and that gold cartridge clicking into the console.
That's a big part of why we build N64s here at HHL. If you want to play Ocarina the way it shipped in 1998 but on a console that's actually yours, our N64 Custom Console Builder lets you design it and our team builds it to order. Already have an N64? A tired joystick is the most common thing we see on these controllers, and a GameCube-style joystick for N64 is an easy fix. If your N64 needs to play nice with a modern TV, the Hispeedido Digital HDMI Kit is worth a look too.
The case for the Switch 2 remake
If you've never played Ocarina, or you bounced off the original's camera years ago, the remake is probably the easiest way in. The jump button, the free camera and the Threads of Time log take care of most of the things that trip up new players today, and the orchestral soundtrack alone is going to give a lot of us chills. If you know the original by heart, the redesigned puzzles mean you won't be able to just play it from memory.
Here's a fun bit of history. For a lot of people, their second trip through Ocarina happened on a GameCube controller, thanks to that Master Quest disc. But if you want to experience the remake to the best of its ability, our very own ProGCC 3S is a Pro controller that works on Switch 2. And with our new ProGCC 3S Custom Builder, you can design your own before you set foot back in Kokiri Forest.
See you in Hyrule
Whether you're dusting off an N64 or picking up a Switch 2 on Thursday, it's a pretty great week to be a Zelda fan. We'd love to see what you're playing on. Tag us in your setup, and if you have any questions about our builders, questions on products, or just want to give us some feedback, you can reach out to support@handheldlegend.com.
Happy adventuring, and don't forget to talk to the Owl. Actually, maybe skip the Owl…
**Disclaimer:** Hand Held Legend is an independent retailer and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Nintendo. This article is independent editorial content intended to inform and engage the retro gaming community. All Nintendo-related trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.
