The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (2026 Remake – Nintendo Switch 2 Review)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Released November 5, 2026
Directed by HokWai Ng
Developed by Nintendo
$59.99 fed a Goron to a dragon in the making of this review.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead. For a remake of a twenty-eight year old game. 

Back in 1996, I asked for a PlayStation with Crash Bandicoot for Christmas. We had consoles in my house, but the PS1 was MY first console that I actually wanted. By the way, anyone who thinks those kiosks at stores don’t create new owners, I’m proof positive they do, because THAT is how I discovered Crash. As a non-gamer, those “hey plumber boy” ads didn’t mean squat to me. I was only 7 years old and, while Crash was a fine game in 1996, probably the most telling thing I can say about it is that gaming didn’t stick around in my life. Crash Bandicoot was fun for me, but not life-changing, and soon after gaming fell so far off my radar that I doubt I even powered-up my PlayStation in 1998, which is ironically the year that gaming became my obsession. In July of 1998, my parents took me to look for birthday present ideas and, after playing Banjo-Kazooie on a kiosk, I asked for it and the Nintendo 64 required to play it. My parents even threw in Mario Kart 64 as a sweetener, though I sincerely don’t think I put thirty minutes into it for the first year I owned it. Not because Mario Kart 64 sucked or anything. But I had the game I wanted. The game that changed my life.

To say that I was satisfied with my 9th birthday presents is an understatement, as I couldn’t put Banjo-Kazooie down for the next three months. When I had 100%ed the game, I was so heartbroken and listless that the adventure was over that it freaked my parents out. So much that, no joke, they immediately rushed me to the store to get another game. The clerk-recommended Super Mario 64 saying it was “way better than Banjo-Kazooie” but 9 year old me didn’t agree. Now, Super Mario 64 is a masterpiece in a vacuum, but when I was 9, it felt like a massive step backwards from Banjo. I didn’t know anything about Mario 64 being the first 3-D game of its type or how it was a miracle to have been as good as it was. None of that stuff mattered to me. Mario 64, simply put, didn’t hold my attention, just like had been the case with every post-Crash PS1 game.

Chances are gaming could have fallen off my radar just like it had after Crash Bandicoot. Then my father took it upon himself to get me this game that had been called “the greatest game ever” by non-gaming sources like Time Magazine or Entertainment Weekly. The game was called Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it sounded like the type of adventure that Banjo offered. Lots of stuff to find, bosses to fight, puzzles to solve, etc. The opening sequence with Navi crashing into the fence got my attention as being funny in the same way Banjo was. Once it had my attention, it never let go of it. When Ocarina of Time was over, I had now played two all-time classics that brought 9 year old me into incredible fantasy worlds and left me ready for the next video adventure, whatever form it took, and video games were now a permanent fixture in my life.

So, while I give Banjo-Kazooie credit for getting me into gaming in a big way, Ocarina of Time is what locked gaming in. It might very well be the most important piece of entertainment in my life. And I never played again. I did have the Master Quest, but I never finished it, and I didn’t even bother earnestly trying the 3DS remake. I wanted whole new adventures, and the concept of nostalgia was lost on me until recently. Hell, even though the Nintendo 64 changed my life, I’m still not really nostalgic to replay Nintendo 64 games. The look isn’t charming in the same way that pixel art is. So when I see this:

Maybe my personal memories of that moment are sweet, but I’m also very grateful that I didn’t have to wait very long for games to start looking better than that. I literally can’t believe anyone wishes the blocky, pointy early 3-D style would make a comeback. Saying you wish more games looked like N64 or PS1 games to me is like saying you long for the days when gasoline was loaded with lead. Plus, from my experience, it’s next to impossible to get kids excited for games on it. My nieces and nephew all loved Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but they had NO interest in playing *my* first Zeldas. I can deal with the above graphics. It’s what I grew up with. But getting kids of 2026 to play games that look like that is a tall order. So, how do you do it?

Yep, that’ll do. Nintendo already discovered that the Disney model of remaking old movies in a new format is like a license to print money. The creative work is already done for you, so all you have to do is replicate what happened in the original format beat-for-beat in the new format and let the change over do the heavy lifting. Except, those Disney projects that turn animation into live action are some of the most unwatchable and soulless cash-grabs in media. I never once felt watching ANY of them that they’re labors of love. But that’s NOT the case with Ocarina of Time 2026. You have to love a game to admit that it could benefit from a facelift like this:

Nothing about this remake screams “easy money.” Hyrule looks and feels like a real world that you’re running through. It’s a world that I found myself deliberately walking slowly through just so I could enjoy the sights and sounds. The last time a game like this did that to me, it was the Shadow of the Colossus remaster.

When I saw the trailer for Ocarina’s remake, I felt like I could finally return to the Hyrule of my childhood in a way that didn’t put unfair nostalgia on it. It wasn’t exactly the game that changed my life, though the game is so damn good looking that I have to admit that, even if it had just been a graphical upgrade, I think this would have been good enough to counteract my nostalgia. Mostly. I do have some issues that will have some fans screaming bloody murder, but certain design choices that worked on the Nintendo 64 don’t make a whole lot of sense when the game now looks like this:

Take the character models. Some of them are excellent. Ganondorf changed from this:

To looking like this:

Awesome, right? And most of the character models are that good. So, like, why did they give Kaepora Gaebora human eyes, turning it into the creepiest nightmare fuel imaginable?

Do you know why this broke my immersion? Because if *I* had been the adventurer armed with a sword and slingshot, the moment this unholy abomination talked for the first time, *I* would have whipped out my slingshot and shot it right between the eyes, then stabbed it so many times that all it left behind was a puddle. Serious question: would you miss it? Because I honestly don’t see what this f*cking owl does for you besides interrupt the flow of the game multiple times and occasionally assist in fast travel before you fully power-up the Ocarina of Time. Or how about the witches that serve as the boss of the final proper dungeon? They look like they come from an entirely different style of game.

I could buy that those two character models come from the Link’s Awakening remake, but they don’t fit Ocarina of Time 2026 at all. I know that they had bulging bug eyes in Ocarina of Time 64, but I assume that’s just one of many things done because they were limited in ways they could give the characters personality within the limits of the Nintendo 64 technology. They don’t have those limits anymore. And to all the sycophantic apologists who hand wave every critique with “it’s a kid’s game” hey, so is this:

And this.

And this too:

Ocarina of Time manages a LOT of different styles of enemies and humanoid characters and I can buy most of them belonging in this world, but I can’t buy those witches. They take the bug-eyed evilness thing too far. You know, it is possible to do that look without creating unrealistic cartoon villains. Don’t think so?

And I’m not even joking: just do their eyes like that. WHY NOT?! Or why not just rework the entire sequence? Clearly they have no problem doing that. The famous “escape the crumbling castle” sequence returned, only they removed the timer, which SHOULD change the dynamic. Some people are outraged by the change, but I thought it was fine. You see, the crumbling castle now literally breaks apart around you. It feels like you could be eating a ceiling sandwich any second now. The whole sequence is incredibly well-dressed and presented in a way that properly gives weight to the sense of urgency.

And because it does such a good job at it, you don’t need a progressively shrinking clock to create an artificial sense of tension. Not when the set dressing and music do THIS good a job. Timed or not, I honestly thought I could die from making the wrong moves during this sequence. Tension achieved, completely organically. That’s an example of a positive change based around the technology upgrade that they DID do. So, why keep any model that doesn’t match the rest of the game in 2026? Like, you don’t have memory limits anymore! Did EVERY Great Fairy have to look like this?

And we didn’t need the Ian McKellen cameo in 2026.

So while I have no objection to a comedy boss or a cartoon sketch where the bosses get actual halos and begin floating up to heaven, I sort of do when the whole game isn’t like that. Ocarina of Time is NOT all like that. This is really the first time anything this Bugs Bunny-like happens, AND THIS MARKS THE POINT WHERE YOU’RE READY TO FIGHT THE LAST BOSS! Even as a 9 year old I thought they took this whole bit too far, and that was with Nintendo 64 quality graphics. With THESE graphics? It’s incredibly jarring and just plain out of place.

This whole thing reminds me of how they ruined the best joke in the Super Mario RPG remake. In Mario RPG for the SNES, a little boy knocks out Mario by shooting him with a toy cannon and it looks so violent and impactful that’s it’s F*CKING HILARIOUS. In the technologically advanced Switch game, a couple low-impact nerf balls hit Mario and then he spins around and faints like a total drama queen. Gag ruined. Ocarina’s remake’s funniest part is also ruined. Of course I’m talking about the squabbling sound effect, which is completely missing in this updated version, replaced by a spoken version of the same scene. Personally, I thought the sound effects were a lot funnier than the actual dialog. It’s still silly though, and this is too late in the game for a silly tone. If they insisted on a Looney Tunes sketch, then the witches should have been a much earlier boss. The solution is obvious: just give players the mirror shield earlier in the game. Why not? It’s not like it gives you some kind of incredible advantage that would wreck the rest of the game.

And since I’m complaining about things that bugged me in 1998, I might as well say that I always thought Ocarina of Time’s final “dungeon” was weirdly weak. It’s the first “Costco Dungeon Sampler Pack” in the franchise that has bite-sized callbacks to previous dungeon themes, only I found the rooms to be too damn easy. You have to clear out six of these, then climb a giant staircase where you fight a couple lizards, skeletons, and knights before the big final battle with Ganondorf, which itself is sort of a rehash of the Phantom Ganon battle from earlier in the game. None of the rooms feel like they’re of the “greatest challenge” variety. They feel like deleted scenes, frankly.

But that’s all my big complaints. Ocarina of Time 2026 really does prove the 1998 original is a masterpiece. I remembered Wind Waker as my favorite Zelda game UNTIL I replayed it. Now that I just replayed a juiced-up version of Ocarina of Time, I think it’s a safe bet that it’s my favorite Zelda ever. To the 9 year old brand new gamer me, I remember how real the world of Hyrule felt. Far more real than anything I experienced in Banjo-Kazooie. Twenty-eight years later and that land now looks real too. So do the monsters. Here’s a peahat:

And here’s Morpha. And yes, when the battle started, I embarrassed the sh*t out of my family by shouting “IT’S MORPHA TIME!” Of course I did! I’m a f*cking loser! What did you expect?!

And maybe I’m just easily impressed but I was blown away by the boulders during the death mountain climb.

That’s why I found the inconsistent art direction so frustrating. Because sometimes Ocarina of Time pulls off graphics so hyper realistic that I’d stop moving just to take a moment to appreciate that, in 2026, I can still be left awestruck by a video game’s appearance. I wish I could go back in time and show this to my 9 year old self and say “some day, games will look this good. You don’t even have to wait that long. By the way, you’ll live to see the Warriors win four championships and the Valkyries to win at least once. In fact, that last one happens five days before this comes out.” And then 9 year old me will be like “wait, who the f*ck are the Valkyries?”

And there’s other improvements great and small. The notorious water temple is much more streamlined thanks to a very smooth interface with the iron boots. They’re mapped to the D-pad now so you can just click them on and off, easy peasy. This is a temple that took me days to beat as a child that I finished in about an hour this time around. It can’t ALL be experience, right?

If you want to use motion controls for aiming, that’s an option and it’s winning universal acclaim on my Facebook feed. My jiffy-pop hands wouldn’t cooperate for the slingshot or bow & arrow challenges, but I used them for the horseback range in the desert and thought they worked intuitively enough.

Now, in fairness, they might have taken the update too far for hardcore veterans of Ocarina of Time, as many aspects of the game sure do seem significantly easier than I remember them being. Maybe. This is where it’s kind of hard to tell what’s on the remake design itself and what’s on me just knowing what to do since I already played the game once. I’ll just list off the things that I personally thought were much easier than I expected.

As a child, it took me so very, very many attempts to win Bombchu Bowling that I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it. In 2026, I played it once and won the piece of heart with plenty of bombs left. Also nerfed is the Big Poe hunt. The Big Poes are much more generous in how spectacularly you can screw up. My aim was so piss poor that I got made fun of on Facebook for it, but the clip still ends with me scoring the kill anyway. You can f*ck up badly and still easily clear this side quest, and if that’s somehow still not nerfed enough for you, in 2026 you only need to collect five Big Poes to nab the big reward (a jar) instead of a complete set of all ten.

Finally, I thought most of the bosses were a lot easier. BUT, this one I really can’t say if the bosses have been universally nerfed in the remake or if it’s just experience talking. The fights aren’t necessarily one-to-one copies with graphical upgrades. For example, the Dark Link fight feels more elegant and life-like in the remake. I don’t know how to say it except to say that it almost feels like Dark Link is being controlled by another player. He behaves and attacks more like a human controlled Link would, which makes the experience more immersive and real, in my opinion. He also opens himself up for attack more, so the fight might actually be easier. Maybe. Again, it’s hard to tell but I remember thinking this wasn’t the most fun fight. Now it’s one of the highlights of a game that’s a parade of highlights.

I seriously doubt anything I can say would change anyone’s mind about a purchase of Ocarina of Time: 2026. You were likely either in the moment the trailer dropped or you were rolling your eyes. For me, I was so excited, in a way that 2026’s Star Fox 64 remake didn’t do for me at all. Now I loved Star Fox 64 as a kid, but it wasn’t a major milestone in my life like Ocarina of Time was and it wasn’t on my radar for a remake at all. I think I could probably review Star Fox 64 without worrying about my personal nostalgia for the game getting in the way. But there’s a reason why I hadn’t touched Ocarina of Time until now. I didn’t think the game could possibly live up to my memories of it.

With a remake like this, I don’t have to worry about nostalgia. Ocarina of Time 2026 was everything I hoped for. The quality of life fixes were mostly welcome. The cutscenes were a little long in the tooth and the voice acting was inconsistent, but the graphics knocked my socks off and the soundtrack was breathtaking. Some aspects of the game that befuddled me at first I learned to live with. It’s a remake, so the layouts of dungeons might come across as overly simple, especially early in the game. This was a first-of-its-kind game, and twenty eight years later, the Great Deku Tree or Dodongo Caverns dungeons do feel a little primitive compared to the dungeons that follow them.

But, those could also very well be the first ever dungeons played by a new generation of Zelda players. With that in mind, I have to remember that this remake is a treat for me, but it’s really aimed at young people who wouldn’t play the Nintendo 64 if you paid them. I’m so excited that kids of 2026 can experience Ocarina of Time in a similar way to myself 1998: on their terms, by the standards of the technology of their era. Because Ocarina of Time really is a generational masterpiece. If anyone wants to know why Nintendo is in the position they’re in, it’s because WAS the first of its kind game. They could have applied the brakes and played it safe, but instead, they turned in a very ambitious game, just like they did with Mario 64. Except, if you remade Mario 64 like Ocarina, keeping nearly the exact same layouts and goals, I really think it would come across as antiquated. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Ocarina of Time is STILL every bit as ambitious in 2026 as it was in 1998. Wow!

I found myself ditching the horse and walking across Hyrule so that I would have plenty of time to enjoy the attention to detail in the world they created for fans like me. Well, that and also so that I could face a maximum number of enemies and enjoy the improved combat. The swordplay now feels so violent and cathartic that I dare say it might be my favorite combat in gaming history. It’s so satisfying and the bosses so enjoyable to battle that, when I was supposed to be grabbing the gold spiders and heart pieces I missed, instead I was rematching bosses in a new feature: the Hall of Fallen Foes.

So, for what it’s worth, I think Ocarina of Time 2026 is a good investment in your entertainment dollars, regardless of your history with the game. If you were a holdout who couldn’t stand the Nintendo 64 graphics or thought the original OOT interface was too janky, the game is now drop-dead gorgeous and plays like a dream. I didn’t mind only equipping one weapon at a time because of how refined the overall interface is. Even something as simply as putting masks on or entering a tune in the Ocarina feels better now than ever before. More importantly, the game feels real in a way that I never imagined possible. I don’t know how else to say it except Ocarina of Time 2026 now actually does look as good and plays as good as it seemed back in 1998, at least to a wide-eyed 9 year old playing her very first action-adventure game.
Verdict: YES!

Indie Gamer Chick’s Zelda Reviews
Legend of Zelda (NES) Zelda II: Adventure of Link (NES)
Wind Waker (GameCube) The Minish Cap (GBA)
Game & Watch (Handheld) Link’s Awakening Remake (Switch)