A classic, carefully repainted
Read the Ocarina of Time remake review scores and the picture is close to unanimous: OpenCritic shows a Top Critic Average of 95 and 100% of critics recommending it, across 45 critic reviews as of Thursday 5 November 2026, the day the game launches on Nintendo Switch 2. The critics are saying plenty.
Nintendo’s store page pitches a classic tale “built from the ground up” for Switch 2, with “completely overhauled visuals, orchestral music, voice acting, and expanded cutscenes,” plus jumping, dashing and modern camera movements. A note on the numbers: the 95 is OpenCritic’s Top Critic Average, while the 45 is the total count of critic reviews, and those are two different things.
What the critics scored it
Scored reviews sampled from OpenCritic’s reviews, plus Game Informer‘s 9.25. Polygon’s review is listed as unscored, and several outlets carry no score, so this is a sample rather than all 45. All were dated 4 November 2026.
| Outlet | Score | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| IGN | 9/10 | Nintendo “skillfully melds” classic Zelda design with the movement and presentation of recent games. |
| Eurogamer | 5/5 | “Astonishing remake” with “great judgement and clever tweaks.” |
| GameSpot | 9/10 | Smooths over some rough edges, leaves others intact. |
| Forbes | 9/10 | A “visual tour-de-force,” but the character designs are “off-putting.” |
| Tom’s Guide | 4.5/5 | “May not be a brand-new adventure,” but the definitive remake. |
| Nintendo Life | 9/10 | “A very safe remake” with no Master Quest or hard mode. |
| Shacknews | 10/10 | Sets “a new standard for what remakes can be.” |
| TheSixthAxis | 9/10 | Balances the original feel with modern graphics, controls and design. |
| Game Informer | 9.25 | “It all looks new, but doesn’t feel particularly new.” |
| Wccftech | 9.5/10 | “The new high-water mark for video game remakes.” |
| COGconnected | 90/100 | Not sure the remake “needs to exist,” but “a pretty excellent game.” |
| RPG Site | 8/10 | One of the best-looking games on the Switch 2. |
The lowest numeric score in the OpenCritic sample is RPG Site’s 8/10, which still calls the game “one of the best-looking games on the Switch 2.” That is how tight the spread is.
Camera, jumping and the look
The praise clusters around how it plays and looks. Game Informer’s Kyle Hilliard calls the new full camera control and active jumping “the biggest, most impactful changes,” and says swinging the camera around the upgraded environments is “genuinely stirring.” IGN’s Logan Plant describes a remake that melds “the world and dungeon design of classic Zeldas with the movement and presentation of its more recent games.”
Tom’s Guide’s Anthony Spadafora calls out “gorgeous 4K visuals, full orchestral score, and slick modern controls,” and Nintendo Life’s Oliver Reynolds goes further, calling it “comfortably the most visually stunning work Nintendo has ever put out.” Wccftech’s Nathan Birch calls it “gorgeous, technically impeccable, thoughtfully updated.”
Where the doubts sit
The complaints are small and they repeat. The biggest is familiarity. Hilliard’s closest thing to a problem is that “it all looks new, but doesn’t feel particularly new,” because the changes are “ultimately small” and don’t “cast Ocarina in a new light.” Nintendo Life agrees it is “a very safe remake,” adding that the lack of Master Quest, “or really any kind of hard mode,” is “particularly glaring” if you already know the N64 original or 3DS version.
The second is the look of the people. Forbes’s Ollie Barder writes that “the character designs are off-putting” yet says he may finally include it in his top five Zelda games. Hilliard “never quite came around to the odd looks of child Link or Zelda,” though he rates every other character, enemy and boss highly. TheSixthAxis’s Stefan L is more relaxed: it “might take a little while to get used to the new look.”
The third is voice acting. Hilliard writes that “Nintendo continues to fumble voice acting with stiff performances,” but adds that “the vast majority of dialogue” is not spoken. It is the one complaint in what we read that is about the new material rather than the old.
Our take
We think the consensus is right, and the doubts are narrower than they sound. Nobody in these reviews calls the remake bad; the complaint is that it is a faithful recreation rather than a reinvention. That is a feature if you want the original preserved and a gap if you wanted to be surprised. Shacknews puts it as changes that “improve and capitalize on what’s on offer, rather than disrupting what made the original so revered and revolutionary.” Our earlier piece on the remake’s ocarina humming feature covered one of the extras on top of that foundation, and the store page confirms you can play the ocarina with buttons, by humming or with your own instruments into the Switch 2 microphone.
It sits at the opposite end from restorations that keep every rough edge, such as The Wolf Among Us Remastered, where the jank survived. Here the critics say the rough edges were sanded, not erased: GameSpot says the remake “smooths over some rough edges, leaves others intact.”
Our angle: the best way to play a classic, as long as you want the classic. Check the Nintendo eShop for the price before you buy.
- Buy if you want the definitive way to play Ocarina of Time, with a modern camera, jumping and a full orchestral score (Tom’s Guide, Game Informer).
- Buy if you never played it: Nintendo itself calls this a great entry point into the series.
- Skip, or wait, if you know the N64 original or the 3DS version by heart and want a new challenge: Nintendo Life says you “might find it offers little challenge” and misses a hard mode.
- Skip if the redesigned child Link and Zelda put you off, as they did for Game Informer and Forbes.
