Ocarina of Time Remake’s Next Reveal Has One Impossible Job

I’m as excited as anyone about the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on the Nintendo Switch 2, but I’m also just as confused. It’s not exactly confusing that Nintendo would choose to remake Ocarina of Time—it’s widely considered the best Legend of Zelda game ever, after all. Rather, it’s unclear just how ambitious Nintendo plans to be when revisiting Ocarina of Time on its latest device.

There are compelling arguments in favor of both sides. That is, there are good reasons to hope Nintendo is remaking Ocarina of Time from the ground up a la Final Fantasy 7 Remake, as well as good reasons to hope it’s just a superficial upgrade to the original. What’s more interesting, in my opinion, is to speculate about what’s most likely, as well as what either course of action will mean for Nintendo moving forward. Ocarina of Time is something of a sacred text in gaming culture, and a lot of gamers regard it as essentially flawless. As such, the upcoming Ocarina of Time will be under a lot of scrutiny regardless of what approach Nintendo takes, and this scrutiny is going to start picking up steam fairly soon.

Ocarina of Time Remake’s Next Reveal Has a Delicate Balance to Strike

The Pros of Nintendo Giving an Up Close and Personal Look at the New Ocarina of Time

From a purely practical standpoint, Nintendo might benefit from an in-depth reveal of the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. What I mean by this is, instead of merely showing a cinematic trailer, perhaps with some interjections of curated gameplay clips, Nintendo may want to offer a more detailed analysis and presentation of its greatest selling points. Most importantly, this would finally help audiences determine whether this project is a mere facelift or something more transformative.

This route would also be a nice change of pace after the vague and nondescript Ocarina of Time remake announcement, which essentially only confirmed the game’s existence after a long period of rumors and speculation. There are exceptions, but it’s often not a great sign when you can’t tell whether a game is a remake or not when it’s first revealed. It doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence to see that this upcoming Ocarina of Time release doesn’t have a firm public identity yet, especially since it’s supposedly releasing within the next four months or so.

A gameplay and features deep-dive would alleviate such concerns. If this is an Ocarina of Time remake in the vein of 2019’s Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake, then delving into exactly how it’s different, why certain changes were made, and what the intended vision is (e.g. a recreation of the original’s tone versus a new experience adapted from the original), could assuage fears and build hype at once. If the project is more conservative in scope, then this deep dive could serve two important purposes: it would set reasonable expectations while introducing new players to what Ocarina of Time is all about. It is an almost 30-year-old game, after all.

The Case for Nintendo to Play Things Closer to the Chest with the Ocarina of Time Remake

Alternatively, you could argue that less is more in a case like the Ocarina of Time remake/reboot. Zelda is one of the most recognizable gaming IP of all time, and has been for several decades, so a new entry is always going to have eyes on it. It’s not as though Nintendo exactly needs to drum up excitement with a flashy or informative new gameplay overview: this is Ocarina of Time we’re talking about here.

For better or worse, a re-release of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will probably sell well no matter what Nintendo does to market it; if the company shadow-dropped a no-frills port of the original Nintendo 64 version on the Switch, letting players actually buy it instead of emulate it via a subscription service, it would probably still sell well. At a certain point, maybe flinging back the curtain on this new Ocarina of Time will only open Nintendo up to further scrutiny, forcing the company to wrestle for a good position in the always unpredictable public sphere. In other words, the people who are going to buy the new Ocarina of Time are going to buy it no matter what, and a fence-sitter might be more swayed by day-one hype than a gameplay overview that’s been picked apart by countless YouTubers, Redditors, and so on.

Games like Oblivion Remastered and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black prove that audiences can be moved to purchase a shadow-dropped remake or remaster, and Zelda is considerably more popular than those two IP. So, whether 2026’s Ocarina of Time is an expansive remake or by-the-numbers visual overhaul, the element of surprise and word-of-mouth could be leveraged in its favor.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time Could Be Just the Beginning

It will be interesting to see how Nintendo handles this upcoming Ocarina of Time project for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that this is somewhat uncharted territory for the company. Sure, Nintendo has been remastering and remaking its games for quite some time now, but with the rise of ambitious remakes like Dead Space and Silent Hill 2—releases that feel more like brand-new games than remakes—audience expectations and standards have changed.

As someone pushing 30, I think Ocarina of Time‘s gameplay holds up, but there’s no telling whether younger players will feel the same way. Whenever Nintendo shows more of this new Ocarina of Time, it will need to keep this demographic in mind. If it’s a superficial revamp, then a more extensive, detailed look could drive these players away while attracting others; conversely, a more “vibes-based” trailer could pique the interest of those less familiar with the original. In whatever case, the broader audience reaction to the content and context of the Switch 2’s Ocarina of Time will likely inform how Nintendo handles its remakes moving forward.

Systems

Released

2026

Developer(s)

Nintendo

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Number of Players

Single-player