Nintendo is bringing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time back for Nintendo Switch 2, with a remake planned for 2026 and tied to the series’ 40th anniversary. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is listed as starring as Link in the untitled movie scheduled for May 7, 2027, but the new game announcement is the immediate draw for fans watching what Nintendo does next with one of its most influential titles.
The timing matters because Ocarina of Time is not just any retro favorite. Released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, it pushed Zelda from a 2D, top-down view into full 3D environments and introduced systems that became standard for action-adventure games, including target-lock combat and context-sensitive buttons. Nintendo has kept returning to the game over the years, with a GameCube re-release in 2003 and a Nintendo 3DS version in 2011 that added stereoscopic 3D effects and quality-of-life improvements.
What is different this time is the scale of the visual reset. Nintendo says the remake will completely overhaul the look of the original N64 game and depart sharply from the visual style of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, yet little of the remake has actually been shown so far. That leaves the announcement heavier on promise than proof, especially for a game whose legacy rests as much on how it plays as on how it looks.
Even so, Nintendo has history here. The company has given The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess HD or DX visual updates, and it turned Link’s Awakening into a bold new Switch reimagining in 2019. Earlier this year, Nintendo and Lego also released a 1,003-piece buildable version of Ocarina of Time’s final battle, complete with a giant Ganondorf and minifigure versions of Link and Zelda, a reminder that the game still carries unusual commercial weight decades after its debut.
For now, the key question is not whether Nintendo can sell an Ocarina of Time remake. It can. The question is whether the Switch 2 version will stay close to the original’s landmark design or go further and change how the game is played, not just how it looks. Nintendo has set the date, but it has not yet shown the game’s hand.
