I spent weeks of graduate school curled up in front of my TV playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on my N64. I remember the epic journey with fuzzy nostalgia that, when I load up the game on the Switch’s N64 app, doesn’t entirely pay dividends. It looks uglier now than it does in my head. As Bill Pullman said in Lost Highway, “I like to remember things my own way…how I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.”
Nintendo’s $60 Ocarina of Time remake for the Switch 2 filled me with uncanniness when I saw the first trailers. It was lush, almost weirdly rich with detail. Hyrule Castle Town almost looked like a theme park. Everyone’s faces seemed so…shiny.
But after an hour of playing the remake in an early preview session, I came away from it in a happy haze. If someone had never played Ocarina of Time before, this would feel like a whole new game. And if you have…this might end up being your new memory of it.
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A beautiful rebuild
It’s a freaky thing, the idea of game remakes. It’s the same way I feel about movies being updated or remade. I like to preserve the original artifact. Nintendo has been on a roll lately, working to reboot its classic catalog into fully new versions, starting with StarFox earlier this year and now continuing with Ocarina of Time. Both were Nintendo 64 games, and both, I think, feel so new in their remade versions that they almost feel original.
And yet Ocarina is a beat-for-beat return to the original, as far as I can tell. With a few new bits, and possibly other mysteries lurking, too.
I played a bit of the beginning, where Link starts off in his Kakariko forest village. Link can jump now and also swim in the water (I dove for some rupees). I didn’t mind the new voice acting, and the character animations won me over. It almost felt like a more immersive version of the art style in Link’s Awakening or Echoes of Wisdom, blended with Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom.
The Great Deku Tree, with its dripping root mouth, now seems more sinister or overwhelming. Every part of the game’s visuals actually feels more ramped up than even Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but on a smaller scale. Less overwhelming vistas, more gorgeously detailed foliage and buildings.
Running across Hyrule Field and exploring Hyrule Castle Town, talking to villagers and exploring shops, I wondered if this many characters were here before. Was it this bustling?
I played as Adult Link, too, exploring the Forest Temple and making my way through almost all its puzzles again. I played this temple long ago (and again on the Nintendo 3DS remaster), but everything is so graphically overhauled this time that some environments just feel totally new. The stained glass windows, the cathedral-like interiors…was I here before?
You can also play the Ocarina’s spell songs by actually singing them over the Switch 2’s microphone (or by tapping buttons the old school way). I tried and felt ridiculous, but it worked. Gimmicky, but fun.
Nintendo’s whole holiday lineup of Switch 2 game releases is throwbacks: Switch Sports Resort, then Ocarina of Time. I’d love some original games too, but those look like they’re on deck for 2027 (Metroid Ravenous, and the new Kirby and the World Beyond). In the meantime, is Nintendo testing the Switch 2’s graphics chops with remakes while it works out new games for the future…or biding time until more Switch owners hop aboard Switch 2? I like what I’ve tried so far, but will it make me want to play all of Ocarina all over again? We’ll find out soon.