It has been less than a week since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake launched on Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo has already managed to accomplish something I wasn’t necessarily expecting, even as someone who has considered the original one of my favorite games since 1998. After earning a 96 Metascore and becoming the highest-rated game of 2026 so far, the Ocarina of Time remake has now overtaken Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on Metacritic’s all-time user-score rankings as well. Considering how much acclaim Sandfall Interactive’s RPG received after its April 2025 launch—I even gave it a 10/10 in my review—that’s a pretty remarkable accomplishment, especially when Ocarina of Time has only been out for a few days.
According to Metacritic’s recent user-score rankings, Ocarina of Time currently leads with a 9.6 out of 10, surpassing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s 9.4. And while I’m certainly happy to see it receiving so much praise, especially after some of the criticism surrounding its new art style and relatively faithful approach to the original, there’s an important detail about those scores that I don’t think should be overlooked. Ocarina of Time has accumulated considerably fewer user ratings than Expedition 33, which means its position at the top isn’t necessarily as secure as it might initially appear.
Ocarina of Time’s User Score Is Impressive, But Expedition 33 Has a Major Advantage
For a little context, a November 8 comparison of the two games found that Ocarina of Time had accumulated 7,796 user ratings, compared to 27,653 for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The remake’s total has continued climbing since then, with another report from November 9 recording 9,534 ratings, but that’s still a far smaller sample than Sandfall’s RPG has accumulated over the past year and a half. In other words, Nintendo has managed to take the lead remarkably quickly, although it still has quite a way to go before its user score has been tested by a comparable number of people.
Guess the games from the emojis.
And considering how recently Ocarina of Time launched, I don’t think there’s anything particularly surprising about that difference. Expedition 33 has been available since April 24, 2025, giving players more than 18 months to finish the game, form their opinions, and submit ratings, whereas the Ocarina of Time remake only just launched on November 5. Some of the people rating the remake are undoubtedly longtime fans who already know the original adventure remarkably well, but there are also players experiencing it for the first time, and I imagine those opinions will continue developing as more people finish the game. The fact that its user score is already this high is impressive enough, although I’d be interested to see where it stands after another few months.
Of course, it’s also worth mentioning that Metacritic’s user scores shouldn’t be confused with the Metascores assigned through professional reviews, especially since both games have received similarly impressive critical acclaim. Ocarina of Time currently holds a 96 Metascore, compared to Expedition 33‘s 92, meaning Nintendo’s remake has actually managed to outperform Sandfall’s RPG in both categories, at least according to the scores currently displayed. However, professional critic reviews and user ratings are calculated separately, and anyone with a Metacritic account can submit a user rating without necessarily having purchased or completed the game. I don’t think that invalidates what Nintendo has accomplished, but it does mean those user scores should be treated as an indication of how participating players feel rather than some definitive measure of which game is better.
A November 8 comparison of the two games found that Ocarina of Time had accumulated 7,796 user ratings, compared to 27,653 for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
What’s particularly interesting to me, though, is just how positively players have responded to a remake that deliberately avoids changing too much about the original experience. I’ve already written about how some of Ocarina of Time‘s more familiar mechanics have survived the transition to Switch 2, along with the strange experience of instinctively searching for secrets I remember from playing the N64 game nearly three decades ago. And while I certainly understand why some players would have preferred Nintendo to take more liberties with the original, I also think the remake’s reception proves just how well much of its design has held up. Even with complaints about the lack of substantial new content and the absence of Master Quest, the overwhelmingly positive response suggests Nintendo made the right decision for what appears to be the majority of players.
Zelda’s Biggest Challenge Is Keeping That User Score Over Time
I also find this comparison particularly interesting because I was fortunate enough to review Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 before its release, and I gave it a 10/10 because I genuinely believed Sandfall had accomplished something extraordinary. I still stand by that score, and I wouldn’t want anyone to interpret Ocarina of Time overtaking it on Metacritic as evidence that Expedition 33 somehow deserves less recognition than it received. These are two very different games, with one introducing an entirely new RPG unlike anything before it and the other remaking a beloved N64 classic that helped establish many of the conventions modern games still follow. Both deserve the praise they’ve received, although I have to admit that seeing a remake of a game from 1998 competing so closely with one of the most acclaimed RPGs of the past several years is pretty incredible.
And as much as I’d love to see Ocarina of Time maintain its position at the top of Metacritic’s user rankings, I think the next several months will be considerably more revealing than its first few days have been. Expedition 33 has maintained an exceptional average after receiving tens of thousands of ratings, whereas Nintendo’s remake is still in the process of building that audience, and even a relatively small change in its average could eventually affect its ranking. Still, I don’t think the difference in sample sizes should diminish what Ocarina of Time has accomplished so far, especially when its original N64 release remains Metacritic’s highest-rated game among critics with a 99. Almost 28 years later, Nintendo has managed to release another version of the same game that’s being received almost as enthusiastically, and I find that a pretty convincing reminder of just how special Ocarina of Time continues to be.
- Released
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November 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
