Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” full-blown remake arrives tomorrow and with it comes sky high expectations.
The 1998 original is considered one of the greatest games ever made and arguably the ‘Zelda’ franchise at its peak with a near perfect 99/100 score on Metacritic. Could the remake come close to recapturing that magic?
It has. With 80 reviews in, the title sits at a 96/100 on Metacritic. That puts it in equal third place in the ‘Zelda’ franchise behind only the original ‘Ocarina’ and ‘Breath of the Wild’ at 97/100, and on par with ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ and the original ‘Wind Waker’.
In terms of gaming in 2026, it’s the top rated game of this year, coming in ahead of the remaster of “The Witcher 3” (92), “Big Walk” (91), “Forza Horizon 6” (90), “Resident Evil Requiem” (89), “Pokemon Pokopia” (89), “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave” (89), “Well Dweller” (89), “Phantom Blade Zero” (88), “Star Wars: Galactic Racer” (88), “Mewgenics” (88), 007: First Light” (87), “Saros” (87) and “Gears of War: E-Day” (87).
It’s also the highest rated Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive to date and many calling it the best looking Nintendo game to date. The few reviews not giving it full marks seem to be more about them being let down that the remake ‘plays it safe’ as it were.
“The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” comes to the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5th.
