Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake arrives on Switch 2: what changes from the 1998 classic
The Ocarina of Time remake launches on November 5, 2026, only on Switch 2. A rebuilt Hyrule, a free camera, full voice acting and the first review scores.
The essentials: Nintendo releases its remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Thursday, November 5, 2026, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2. The 1998 Nintendo 64 game has been rebuilt from scratch for the series’ 40th anniversary, with new visuals, a free camera and fully voiced cutscenes. Japanese magazine Famitsu gave it 37 out of 40.
When does it come out, and on what?
The release date was revealed in September, during a Nintendo Direct dedicated to Zelda, Game Informer reports. The game runs only on Switch 2, not on the original Switch. It lands two weeks before Grand Theft Auto VI, due on November 19.
In Nintendo’s “Ask the Developer” interview series, producer Eiji Aonuma explains that the project marks 40 years since the first The Legend of Zelda. Fellow producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi notes that Ocarina of Time came out on the Nintendo 64 in 1998. It was later re-released on the Nintendo 3DS.
What is different from the original?
The team rebuilt the game rather than porting it, director HokWai Ng says, under one rule: “the visuals may change, but the experience does not”. Game Informer describes the new art style as “stylized realism”, far from the angular polygons of the N64 version.
| Area | 1998 original | 2026 remake |
|---|---|---|
| World | Separate areas | Still separate areas, now far more detailed |
| Camera | Fixed at certain points | Freely rotatable |
| Jumping | Automatic at ledges | Link can jump anywhere with one button |
| Cutscenes | Text dialogue | Fully voiced |
| Music | N64 sound chip | More than 150 tracks, some with a live orchestra |
| Ocarina | Played with buttons | Can also be hummed into the console’s microphone |
Sources: Nintendo, “Ask the Developer” Vol. 24, chapters 2 to 4.
The dungeons keep their original mechanisms, with some changes to layouts and object placement. In the Water Temple, changing items is now much easier, and some walls have become lattices so players can see the rooms behind them. A new feature, “Threads of Time”, unlocks illustrations and text as the story moves forward, in a picture-book style. Hints are also easier to find than on the N64, when players “often relied on strategy guides”, the developers say.
Some ideas were dropped. Aonuma had the team add warp points, then remove them: “they just weren’t working for me in the end, so I got the team to take them all back out again.”
What do the first reviews say?
Famitsu’s four reviewers scored the game 9, 9, 9 and 10, GoNintendo reports. They praised the camera control, the improved button layout and the graphics. They marked it down slightly for being simpler than modern games, and for moments when players may not know where to go next.
Aonuma says he does not see the remake as a replacement for the original: “It isn’t a question of whether the original or this game is better,” he says in the final chapter of the interview.
