THE CRUNCH
Nintendo's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has arrived on Switch 2, and early reviews suggest the publisher has pulled off something rare: rebuilding a 1998 classic without losing what made it great. The Guardian calls it "a dream come true", an ambitious remake rather than a light-touch remaster, while Eurogamer reports that the game is "still worth telling people about" nearly thirty years on.
The adventure's structure is untouched. Link still travels between different eras of Hyrule to defeat Ganon, the dungeon puzzles keep their original solutions, and veterans will find old N64 guides still work. Both reviews agree on this: the beats, the places and the order you visit them are all as they were in 1998.
What has changed is the presentation. The game has modern graphics, a free camera on one thumbstick replacing the original's fixed viewpoints, and expanded, spruced-up dialogue. The Guardian highlights fully voiced cutscenes for pivotal story moments, recalling Tears of the Kingdom, which it expects to be divisive but found genuinely moving. Link himself, as the review reassures readers, remains silent.
There are quality-of-life tweaks too: Link can now jump anywhere at the press of a button rather than only over predetermined gaps. Not everything lands. Eurogamer notes a trade-off in the new camera system, where the game's spaces feel less like the clever mechanical contraptions of early 3D, and The Guardian was disappointed that the warrior Sheik has lost much of his androgyny. Both critics were won over regardless.