Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 Reviews: Critics Love It, Veterans Lose Master Quest

Every version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been pitched at a slightly different player. The GameCube release handed veterans Master Quest, a tougher second run for people who had already beaten the game. The handheld remake that followed kept it as an unlockable. Nintendo‘s new remake, out today, is the first to leave it behind, and the reviews make it plain who that choice serves.

Critics have embraced it almost without exception. The praise goes to what Nintendo rebuilt: the art, the orchestral score, the voice acting, a Link who finally jumps when you ask him to. The complaints, scattered through otherwise glowing verdicts, keep landing on the same reader, the one who has played it before. No Master Quest, no hard mode, a single manual save, more generous clues. A newcomer will not miss any of it. A returning fan will.

A near-perfect score for a faithful restoration

When Nintendo Life rounded up the reviews on the eve of launch, the remake sat at 96 on Metacritic across 81 critics, which The Shortcut notes makes it the most acclaimed game on Nintendo Switch 2. GamesRadar+, VGC and Eurogamer gave it full marks, as did Destructoid and Shacknews, and The Guardian’s Keza MacDonald called it “a dream come true.” GameSpot and IGN settled on 9/10, Game Informer on 9.25, and RPG Site’s 8/10 was the low end of the spread.

The language is the language of restoration. VGC praised “how little has been lost in translation”; Eurogamer wrote that the game has a clarity “that makes it feel like it was just created last Wednesday.” MacDonald, per Creative Bloq’s summary, likens the new Hyrule to detailed theatre scenery and Link to a handmade doll. Game Informer’s Kyle Hilliard called it “a straightforward recreation. But an admittedly very good one,” and admitted its final hour made him cry.

Where the caveats land

Nintendo Life’s Ollie Reynolds, who calls the remake “comfortably the most visually stunning work Nintendo has ever put out,” says he died once in the entire game, caught off guard by an Iron Knuckle in the Spirit Temple. The only way to make it harder is to strip the interface back. Master Quest, offered on a special GameCube disc and as an unlockable in the 3DS remake, was how veterans tested themselves after the credits; its absence, he writes, is “a glaring omission” in “a very safe remake.” Destructoid finds the game a little too easy in places, and TechRadar suggests some of the original’s difficulty was lost along the way.

Saving is the other snag. The remake allows one manual save plus several autosaves, Nintendo Life reports, so starting a fresh run without touching your main file means creating another user profile on the console. GamesRadar+ flagged the same restriction.

RPG Site, the least enthusiastic of the major outlets, puts the design brief in one line: the remake “feels designed for new players first and foremost.” That fits the case VGC made in its launch-day feature, which describes a Beatles Effect: younger players can look at the original and wonder what the fuss was about, because so much of what it invented, from Z-targeting’s enemy lock-on to a single context-sensitive action button, became standard furniture in the games that followed. Seen that way, the remake is Nintendo handing the canon to people who never met it, and accepting that the people who did will notice what got trimmed.

What you get, and what it costs

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is out now on Nintendo Switch 2 only, priced at $59.99 digital and $69.99 for the physical edition, which carries a textured foil cover while supplies last, according to Nintendo Everything. Physical copies may be harder to find: Nintendo has acknowledged it misjudged pre-order demand, and Bill van Zyll, its vice president and general manager for Latin America, confirmed the shortage spans several continents, Notebookcheck reports. Some Walmart buyers were told to expect delivery after launch day. The eShop download is unaffected.

Among the smaller changes, Nintendo Life lists a reload that now drops you exactly where you saved, an Echo Gem that replaces the Stone of Agony in the hunt for Gold Skulltulas, and bonus arrows, hearts and bombs for tapping a Zelda amiibo. Ocarina songs can be hummed into the console’s microphone instead of entered on buttons, VGC notes. In handheld mode the game holds 60fps, though Nintendo Life reports a notable drop in resolution and some shimmer on distant scenery. Reynolds hopes Master Quest arrives in an update. For now it isn’t there.

The fan who first heard Navi on a Nintendo 64 gets the most beautiful Hyrule yet, and one save slot to keep it in.

Tags: nintendo, Nintendo Switch 2, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metacritic, video game remakes