A full remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been on the wishlist of many fans for years, and now, after a recent leak seemed to confirm one, we might finally be getting one. If the leak is true, there are numerous reasons why Nintendo has waited so long to remake one of the most praiseworthy games of all time, from the lack of hardware powerful enough to justify the project to how easy it would be to disappoint longtime fans. However, with the Switch 2, the timing feels perfect for an Ocarina of Time remake, and it may not get any better than this for quite some time.
There are two big reasons why now is as good a time as ever for an Ocarina of Time remake, and ultimately what makes its pairing with the Switch 2 a match made in heaven. Firstly, Ocarina of Time‘s celebrated legacy makes it the perfect cross-generational anchor for the Switch 2—an opportunity to capitalize on the nostalgia of longtime fans and bring newcomers to a game that, to them, may not be worth playing in its current state. Secondly, the Switch 2 gives Ocarina of Time the power it could always have benefited from, with a chance to fully realize Hyrule as a seamless space, rebuild dungeons with modern lighting and physics, and reimagine some of the game’s most memorable moments with current-gen visuals, animation, and atmosphere.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Port Brings It to an Unexpected Console
Nearly 30 years after Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s release on Nintendo 64, a port of the game is now available on a surprising platform.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Is the Perfect Generational Bridge
At the moment, the Nintendo Switch 2 lacks a generational bridge that would give those who haven’t purchased one yet even more reason to do so. Sure, celebrated games like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have received Switch 2 upgrades that, to some, make the console worth getting. However, a Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time would allow Nintendo to reach back even further in time and potentially persuade those who have waited for a Zelda experience like the one they had nearly three decades ago to bite the bullet and invest in the console.
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But the best video game remakes aren’t those that only appeal to the nostalgia of veterans and instead bridge the gap between past and present in such a way that effectively pulls in newcomers as well. In its current state, Ocarina of Time is a very hard sell for those who didn’t grow up with it, regardless of their age today.
I recently convinced a good friend of mine to play Ocarina of Time via emulator, and while he said he enjoyed it, he clearly wasn’t blown away like those of us who played it in 1998. The dated graphics probably had something to do with that, but I’d have to say the restrictive camera movement, clunky controls, and outdated UI and inventory management didn’t help either. A proper remake could and arguably should change all of that, as he even said it would be hard for him to play it again if the rumored remake ended up being little more than a visual overhaul.
Take The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, for instance, which was a massive success for Bethesda but failed to retain its players long enough for the majority of them to even see the game through to its conclusion. This is because, despite possessing a few quality-of-life improvements, it was still bound by many of the more restrictive design philosophies of the original game, hence the “remastered” label rather than “remake.”
The best video game remakes aren’t those that only appeal to the nostalgia of veterans and instead bridge the gap between past and present in such a way that effectively pulls in newcomers as well.
There’s not any public evidence that points to why so many players never finished Oblivion Remastered, but I’m willing to bet it’s because, while it looked amazing on the surface, it still felt antiquated on a deeper level. Thus, new players who were looking for a temporary placeholder until The Elder Scrolls 6 arrived likely became disappointed and left the game without looking back.
In light of that, should the rumored Ocarina of Time remake end up being the original game completely rebuilt for modern audiences, it would prove to be an effective generational bridge, not just between consoles, but between demographics as well. Right now, the Switch 2 has a few generational bridges between consoles—like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and other Switch games that received Switch 2 upgrades—but still nothing that bridges age gaps quite as far as an Ocarina of Time remake would.
The original Ocarina of Time is still widely recognized as one of the best games ever made, so a mere remaster would probably be enough to temporarily pull in new players. But if Nintendo wanted to keep those players around, a complete remake of the game, to the point that it felt like the same game if it were made today, would be the kind of generational bridge the Switch 2 needs.
The Switch 2 Gives Ocarina of Time the Power It Always Deserved
The other reason the rumored Ocarina of Time remake and the Switch 2 are a match made in heaven is perhaps the more obvious one: the game would potentially look and run excellently on the console, and it would finally get the power it deserved when it was released almost 30 years ago. Better visuals are expected, of course, but how the game’s design and mechanics could transform by taking full advantage of Switch 2 hardware is something else entirely.
Ocarina of Time isn’t technically an open-world game, but it does have early open-world elements that a proper Switch 2 upgrade would potentially allow it to function as something more seamless. In the original game, almost every unique area in the game is separated by brief fade-to-black transitions—like when Link walks through a door, enters a town, or enters a dungeon.
These aren’t necessarily all that bothersome, but a Switch 2 remake of the game could still remove them if it wanted to. Ocarina of Time‘s exploration was already impressive for its time because it had nearly zero traditional loading screens, but if it adopted a seamless open world on the Switch 2, the immersion that would supply would make it even more impressive and more appealing to modern audiences.
Ocarina of Time isn’t technically an open-world game, but it does have early open-world elements that a proper Switch 2 upgrade would potentially allow it to function as something more seamless.
A remake could take that even further by reimagining the game’s visuals and atmosphere in ways that simply weren’t possible before. Imagine Hyrule Field not as a wide open, rather sparse hub, but as a living landscape with dense foliage, dynamic weather, and a day-night cycle that affects how areas feel and function.
Locations like the Lost Woods could lean harder into their unsettling, almost dreamlike tone, while places like Kakariko Village and Castle Town could feel more lived-in, with detailed NPC behaviors and environmental storytelling layered into every corner. Dungeons, in particular, stand to gain the most, as modern lighting, sound design, and physics could transform them from clever puzzles into fully realized spaces that prioritize tension and atmosphere even more than the original game did.
Ultimately, that is what makes the pairing of a Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake and the Nintendo Switch 2 feel so perfect. One is a game that laid the foundation for 3D adventure design but has long shown the limits of the hardware it was built on, while the other is a console designed to push Nintendo’s worlds further than ever before. Bringing the two together would give Ocarina of Time the chance to finally feel the way players have always remembered it, while giving the Switch 2 a defining experience that immediately proves why it exists.
- Released
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November 21, 1998
- ESRB
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E10+ for Everyone 10+: Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Engine
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Zelda 64 Engine
