The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Hits Switch 2 on November 5, and You Can Hum the Songs

The highest-rated game on Metacritic is getting rebuilt from the textures up, and Nintendo finally put a date on it. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time arrives on Switch 2 on November 5, worldwide, as a Switch 2 exclusive. Today's Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct brought the cinematic trailer you see above plus roughly 15 minutes of gameplay, which is a lot more than the teaser we got back in June.

I've played this game more times than I'd admit to a doctor, and the detail I keep thinking about from today is the microphone. You can hum a song into the Switch 2 and Link's ocarina plays it back. A 28-year-old game found a new party trick.

What Nintendo rebuilt

Nintendo's own description says the visuals were "completely overhauled down to the textures of each material," and the footage backs that up. Kakariko Village, Hyrule Castle Town, and the Water Temple all show up looking like places instead of collections of flat polygons, and towns now keep the day and night cycle running rather than freezing the clock the moment you walk in. The score is a full symphonic orchestra. Load times are faster. Cutscenes get full voice acting and more dialogue than the original. Game Informer reports that excludes Link, who stays quiet. Some traditions survive a remake.

Link can jump now

This is the change that will mess with your muscle memory. The original auto-jumped when you ran off a ledge. Here, jumping is a button press, closer to Breath of the Wild, so you can walk right off an edge if you aren't paying attention. Holding the roll button now turns into a sprint, which kills the old roll-spam way of crossing Hyrule Field (I'll miss it, a little). You get full camera control on the right stick, gyro aiming, and a quicker way to swap items. Nintendo Wire also noted the slow-motion hit effect from the N64 game is gone, so sword fights feel snappier.

There's also a new progress tracker called Threads of Time, a tapestry that fills in as you hit story milestones and shows your current objective. If you've ever put Ocarina down for a month and forgotten which temple you were supposed to be in, this is for you. Walking into a shop no longer triggers a load, though the bigger transitions, like entering the Deku Tree or stepping onto Hyrule Field, reportedly stay as they were. I'm fine with that; the pause before Hyrule Field opens up is half the memory.

The gameplay showing covered Kakariko, Hyrule Field, Castle Town, and yes, the Water Temple, along with Saria, Mido, both versions of Link, young Zelda, Ganondorf, Sheik, and the Great Fairies. Nintendo did not say whether the Water Temple's iron-boots shuffle got any relief. I'd like to know that before November.

The ocarina part

The microphone feature works with melodies Link has learned, so you hum and the game recognizes the tune. It also listens for real instruments, which is why Nintendo is selling a playable ocarina and HORI is making an electric one that both work with the game's voice recognition. Zelda Notes, the companion feature in the Switch app, supports the remake too, and Young Link and Young Zelda amiibo arrive in 2027 and unlock masks. We've got separate posts on the ocarinas and the amiibo, so I'll leave those there.

What Nintendo still hasn't said

Price, for one. The press release skipped it. Nintendo's Australian store briefly listed the digital version at AU$94.95 before the Direct, which Nintendo Life spotted and which outlets have translated to about $59.99 in the US. That's a reasonable guess, and it's still a guess until the US store lists it.

The developer, for another. Nintendo hasn't named a studio. Grezzo built the 2011 3DS version alongside Nintendo, and the rumor mill has a few candidates for this one, but nothing has been confirmed and I wouldn't bet on any of them yet.

One thing that is confirmed: the first print run of the physical version ships with textured foil cover art, while supplies last. If you care about the box, preorder early.

So who is this for? If you've never played Ocarina of Time, you're the target. Nintendo is handing you the 1998 game with a jump button, a camera that behaves, and a quest log, and that removes most of the reasons a newcomer bounces off it. If you have played it, probably several times, you already know whether you're buying this. I do, and I'll be there on November 5.