Nintendo has announced a remake of Nintendo 64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, but fans are uncertain about whether the developer can really make the original game any better.
Ocarina of Time is still famous among fans despite it being more than two decades old. Many fans have requested Nintendo to make a modern remake of the game over the years, with Nintendo finally announcing in 2026 that a remake is under development and is planned to be released in the same calendar year. This has started a discussion among fans about what they want Nintendo to keep similar to the original and what needs to be changed in order to make the Ocarina of Time remake an even better experience.
Here’s our advice about how Nintendo should go about the Ocarina of Time remake to ensure that it meets expectations and becomes a hit.
Why remaking Ocarina of Time is such a difficult task
Many fans feel that The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time is one of the best video games ever made, which makes recreating it a challenging task. Nintendo’s announcement of a remake being in the works has been met with generally positive feedback, but it still remains a tough job for the developer to meet fans’ expectations.
Nintendo needs to be careful to remake this classic experience without completely reinventing it and turning it into something else entirely. The fear of that happening is why some fans have been skeptical of the game’s redevelopment, even as others clamored for it.
Several things make Ocarina of Time memorable for its fans, including the game’s time-traveling story, its memorable dungeons, an evocative soundtrack, and the unique puzzles players must solve as they progress through the game. If Nintendo completely changes some or all these things, the remake would lose the essence of Ocarina of Time.
This doesn’t mean that Ocarina of Time hasn’t aged and wouldn’t benefit from being modernized. There are parts of the game that would surely merit revisiting. But there is a fine line between modernizing and wholesale changing.
Some elements, such as the game’s combat, absolutely a modern overhaul. Link had very limited moves available to him, and combat was much simpler than what players typically expect in modern games.
A modern combat system might include exacting parry and stagger mechanics, as well as other action-game staples that simply weren’t yet established when Ocarina of Time was released in 1998. Even so, Nintendo should refine the game’s combat in the remake without deviating overly much from the established formula of the best Zelda games.
Visual changes are also an expectation among fans, as graphical upgrades nearly always play a large role in any modern remake. At minimum, the Ocarina of Time remake should seem a tight fit visually with other Switch 2 releases if it wants to aspire to being considered better than the original title.
Simply increasing visual fidelity won’t be enough here. If fans want that, they can already play the 3DS version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which featured a mild graphical upgrade while otherwise maintaining the same game fans knew and loved.
Another major candidate for change may be the in-game world map and its varied locations. Hyrule Field, Castle Town, the Haunted Wasteland, and other locations can be dramatically expanded while keeping their original aesthetic and made denser by adding more NPCs, side quests, and other elements. This can effectively expand the game without changing its DNA.
We would advise Nintendo to focus on modernizing the game while not changing its very foundation. A good example may be Oblivion Remastered, which remade Bethesda’s popular title but kept the original’s essence and core gameplay intact. If Nintendo can do this, there is a good chance that Ocarina of Time fans will flock to the game, and its remake can become an even better success than that first 1998 release.
