Ocarina of Time remake review scores: critics give the Switch 2 Zelda a 96

Critics give the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time an average of 96 out of 100 across 86 published reviews, counted at 8 p.m. ET on November 4, 2026, the night before launch. None of those reviews is mixed or negative, and at least 10 critics gave it a perfect score.

A second tally of 44 reviews puts the average among top critics at 95, and every critic in it recommends the game. Its lowest score is an 8 out of 10. One critic skipped a score entirely, writing that the game has aged well but no longer feels like a masterpiece to them. In Japan, a four-critic panel gave it 37 out of 40, with three 9s and a 10.

The remake also outscores the 3DS version, which sits at 94 from 85 reviews, and the 2003 GameCube re-release, which holds a 91. Here's what critics liked and disliked, what changed, when it unlocks, what it costs and whether it's worth your money.

What critics praise

Presentation comes first in nearly every review. Several critics call it the best-looking game on Switch 2, and one goes further, ranking it as the most impressive-looking game Nintendo has ever made.

Sound and storytelling get the same care. The familiar themes return as orchestral arrangements, voice actors now perform the key cutscenes, and expanded scenes, such as Link drawing the Master Sword, give the big moments more weight. Navi speaks too, and she interrupts far less often.

Critics also praise how the new controls make the original feel like a current Zelda game. One review describes the result as two eras of the series woven together, pairing the world and dungeons of the classics with the movement and presentation of the recent entries.

Small conveniences add up. The Ocarina, masks and Iron Boots sit on the D-pad, ZL opens a menu of the songs you've learned, a new Echo Gem reveals hidden Gold Skulltulas, and the game tracks Heart Pieces and Skulltulas region by region. For one perfect-score review, the package sets a new standard for remakes. Another credits Nintendo's judgment about what to tweak and what to leave alone.

What critics criticize

The most common complaint is that the remake plays it safe. Under the new coat of paint, it's essentially the same game, and one critic wrote that the playthrough rarely surprised them. Another, who still scored it 90 out of 100, wondered whether the remake needed to exist at all, and a third says it smooths over some of the original's rough edges while leaving others in place.

It's also easy. Several bosses lost some of their bite: Big Octo's arena no longer has spinning spikes, and the Phantom Ganon and Twinrova fights are softer than before. One critic died a single time in the entire adventure. There's no Hero Mode or any other hard mode, and the only setting that resembles a difficulty option simply hides the on-screen interface.

The biggest omission is Master Quest, the remixed dungeon set that the 3DS release included with a mirrored world and enemies that dealt double damage. Critics also flag a single manual save slot per user profile, backed by five autosaves, and an item setup with a single active slot, where every bottle takes up its own space. The Hall of Fallen Foes, a gallery of statues where you can replay the bosses, earns a shrug, too: it offers no leaderboards or modifiers.

The smaller gripes: Z-targeting still misbehaves at times, weapons clip through walls, one critic finds the new quest log basic, and Hyrule Field remains a big, empty stretch between destinations. The art direction divides critics as well. Most rave about it, but some find the new character designs off-putting, and others say the look takes a while to get used to. Producer Eiji Aonuma has said the style is meant to stir nostalgia.

What changed from the N64 original and the 3DS version

Nintendo rebuilt Ocarina of Time from scratch for Switch 2 instead of porting either earlier version, with Aonuma and fellow producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi overseeing the project and HokWai Ng directing. In Nintendo's own developer interview, the producers tie the project to the series' 40th anniversary and describe it partly as a way for today's team to learn from the original. The story, dungeons and map stay as they were. The way you move through them is new.

Jump attacks come in two styles, the two-step version from Breath of the Wild or a one-press shortcut. Time now passes everywhere, inside towns and buildings included, and a free camera with navigation aids replaces the original's automatic one. Nintendo also tuned the Water Temple's difficulty and turned some of its walls into lattices, so you can see into neighboring rooms. A few puzzles were redesigned, among them the one guarding the Kokiri Sword and the sneak into Hyrule Castle.

New and expanded dialog adds Goron gossip and fairy lore. The Threads of Time log tracks your progress as an illustrated tapestry and points you to your next objective, so it's harder to get lost after a long break.

The team even built warp points, then cut them. Aonuma said "they just weren't working for me in the end," because he wanted to keep the moments of discovery that come from crossing Hyrule the long way.

Release date and unlock time

Ocarina of Time launches Thursday, November 5, 2026, as a Switch 2 exclusive, so it won't run on the original Switch. Digital copies unlock at midnight ET, which is 9 p.m. PT on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, the standard launch time for new games on Nintendo's US eShop. That's 10 p.m. MT and 11 p.m. CT on Wednesday night. There's no early access, and physical copies go on sale at stores on launch day.

Nintendo revealed the remake during its June 9, 2026, Nintendo Direct and set the date at the Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct on September 8, 2026, so the wait from reveal to release came in under five months.

Price, editions and the Electric Ocarina of Time

The digital edition costs $59.99 and the physical edition costs $69.99, and Nintendo's own store still lists the physical copy in stock. Digital copies support lending within a Nintendo Account family group.

No console bundle includes the game. The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition Switch 2 came out October 29, 2026, priced at $519.99, without the game. That console pairs green-and-gold Joy-Con 2 controllers with a black-and-gold dock marked with the Triforce, and Nintendo's store lists it as sold out.

The Electric Ocarina of Time costs $49.99 and launches alongside the game, but Nintendo's US store already lists it as out of stock and points shoppers to other retailers.

It's an electronic toy rather than a real ocarina, and it isn't a game controller either. You press a button on the mouthpiece instead of blowing, touch the finger buttons to play notes, and the Switch 2 recognizes each song by its sound and triggers it in the game. Free Play Mode lets you play anything you like, while Auto-Play Mode performs 12 songs from the game on its own. A volume dial and a headphone jack, for headphones or an external speaker, round it out. It needs three AA batteries and a screwdriver, and neither comes in the box.

You can skip it and still play every song. The game accepts them on the buttons, hummed, or played on a real instrument into the Switch 2 microphone, and one critic got it to recognize a guitar.

File size, length and performance

The game needs 24.9 GB of storage. One critic's full playthrough ran past 20 hours. It's single-player only, works in TV, tabletop and handheld modes, and supports 16 languages, including American English, Canadian French and Latin American Spanish.

It targets 60 fps docked and handheld and holds that frame rate consistently, triple the N64 original's 20 fps and double the 3DS version's 30. It isn't native 4K: docked, the resolution scales between 1080p and 1440p. In handheld mode it moves between 720p and 1080p, with harsher cuts to distant detail and textures, so Link looks a little fuzzy on the go.

The game upscales its image with AMD's FSR rather than Nvidia's DLSS, and some shimmer shows on distant mountains and trees. A few loading screens remain, along with brief loading hitches. HDR and VRR work on compatible TVs, and the game outputs surround sound as linear PCM.

Who should buy it and who can skip it

Buy it if you've never finished Ocarina of Time, and especially if your first Zelda was Breath of the Wild. One of Nintendo's stated goals was to give that generation the original's tightly paced, dungeon-by-dungeon story, and critics call the remake an easy recommendation for newcomers.

Buy it if you love the original and want it with modern controls, sound and visuals. Going by the reviews, this is now the version to play. If you finished the 3DS version, the case is weaker, since you'd be paying mostly for a makeover rather than a new adventure.

Skip it, or wait for a price cut, if you know every dungeon by heart and want a fresh challenge. The gaps critics list above will hit you hardest.

The cheapest way in is the N64 original on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, at $49.99 a year for one account or $79.99 a year for a family membership of up to eight accounts. Its N64 library plays on both Switch 2 and the original Switch and includes Majora's Mask as well. The basic Nintendo Switch Online plan, at $19.99 a year, leaves out N64 games, though any membership backs up your remake saves through Save Data Cloud. The 3DS version is off the table for new digital buyers, since Nintendo ended 3DS eShop purchases in March 2023.