Ninety-six. That is the number the Ocarina of Time remake carries into launch day, and it is doing a lot of work. The remake of Nintendo’s 1998 classic — out today, November 5, 2026, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2 — sits at 96 on Metacritic across 80+ critic reviews, with not a single mixed or negative review among them. OpenCritic has it at 95, with essentially every critic recommending it. By Polygon’s reckoning, it is the best-reviewed game of 2026 by far.
There is a catch, and it is a good one: the game it is chasing is itself. The 1998 original holds a 99 on Metacritic, the highest score the aggregator has ever given a game. The remake is superb, by every account — and still three points short of the game it is remaking. That tension, between a near-perfect remake and an untouchable original, is the story of this launch.
The scores, in one place
The review embargo lifted on November 4, a day before release, and the scores landed almost in unison. VGC gave it 5 out of 5. So did TheGamer and Eurogamer. Destructoid scored it 10 out of 10. The Guardian awarded five stars. IGN and GameSpot both went 9 out of 10, as did Nintendo Life. Game Informer scored it 9.25. Famitsu, the Japanese magazine whose four reviewers score out of 10 each, gave it 37 out of 40 — 9, 9, 9, 10.
The lowest major score anyone found was RPG Site’s 80 out of 100. That is the floor. There is no dissenting review of any consequence, just a band of scores from very good to perfect. For comparison, the 2011 3DS remake, Ocarina of Time 3D, holds a 94 on Metacritic — so this version is, on the critics’ numbers, the best-reviewed version of the game since the original.
A word of caution on the numbers themselves: review counts were still climbing through November 4 — 70, then 80, then 82 on Metacritic at different points in the day — so treat the 96 as a snapshot rather than a final grade. Scores can still move as more reviews arrive. But with 80+ reviews in and none of them mixed, the shape of the verdict is settled.
What Nintendo actually rebuilt
This is not a remaster with a fresh coat of paint. Nintendo rebuilt the game from the ground up, and the changes start with the most basic thing: speed. The original ran at 20 frames per second. The remake runs at 60, in both docked and handheld play, according to Digital Foundry’s early analysis. The visuals are entirely new, the locations are bigger and fuller, and the symphonic orchestral score runs to more than 150 pieces of background music.
The cutscenes are now fully voiced — Zelda, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, and Ganondorf all speak. Link, in the series’ long tradition, remains silent. Nintendo has not announced the voice cast. Dialogue is expanded throughout, there are new minigames, and one small quality-of-life change that veterans will notice immediately: time of day no longer stops while you are inside a town.
Controls have been reworked for a modern controller. There is a manual jump button, replacing the original’s automatic jump. You dash by holding the roll attack. There is free camera control and an item wheel. And there is a feature that could only exist on the Switch 2: the mic ocarina. Hum or sing a learned ocarina melody into the Switch 2’s built-in microphone and Link plays it in-game. The same feature will respond to the playable ocarinas Nintendo is releasing later in 2026.
There is also new content. The Hall of Fallen Foes is a museum-style room filled with statues of enemies you have defeated, with boss rematches — revealed in an overview trailer on October 14. And the Water Temple, the dungeon that has tormented players since 1998, has been reworked and adjusted. Nintendo’s Ask the Developer interviews confirm the team looked hard at the parts of the original that have aged worst and rebuilt them rather than preserving them out of reverence.
The game was first announced in a Nintendo Direct in June 2026 with no gameplay shown, then shown properly at the Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct on September 8, where series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed the release date. It was developed in-house by Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 3 and directed by HokWai Ng, in his first directing role since Tears of the Kingdom. The series itself turned 40 on February 21, 2026, and this remake is the centrepiece of the anniversary — a concert tour follows in 2027, and the live-action Zelda film opens April 30, 2027.
The $580 catch nobody mentions in the headline
Here is the part the review scores don’t tell you. The game costs $59.99 digital or $69.99 physical — first-print physical copies come with textured foil cover art while supplies last — and it is a Switch 2 exclusive. There is no Switch 1 version. If you don’t already own a Switch 2, the real price of playing today is the console plus the game.
Nintendo released a Switch 2 Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition console on October 29, a week before the game, for $519.99 — $20 more than the standard $499.99 Switch 2. It comes with Zelda-inspired patterns on the back of the console, green-and-gold Joy-Con 2 controllers, and a black-and-gold dock with a golden Triforce. What it does not come with is the game. Buy the console and the digital game together and the day-one cost is $579.98.
Matching accessories launched the same day as the console: a Zelda Pro Controller for $99.99 — $109.99 with a display stand, exclusive to Nintendo’s store — and a carrying case with a screen protector for $39.99. The console sold out at Nintendo’s US store on launch morning, Walmart cancelled some pre-orders after overselling, and third-party listings are running around $700. Target is reported to have an in-store restock today, November 5, and an online restock tomorrow, November 6, and Nintendo says more inventory is coming, including a midnight restock of anniversary merchandise today. If you want the Zelda Edition specifically, patience and a fast trigger finger are both required.
The download is 24.5 GB, so if you are buying digital, clear the space now.
What the reviews dinged
For all the praise, the reviews are not unanimous about everything, and the criticisms are worth hearing before you buy. The most common one is that the remake is very safe. There is no Master Quest, no hard mode, nothing for veterans who have played the original a dozen times and want a new challenge. If you know Hyrule by heart, the game will not surprise you the way a new Zelda would.
The art style draws mixed reactions. Eurogamer praised the game while noting a “hyperreal” look that sometimes “doesn’t look specifically like Zelda anymore.” The Guardian’s reviewer was won over; others were less so. In handheld mode, Nintendo Life noted a resolution drop with some shimmering on distant assets. Famitsu’s reviewers called it relatively simple compared to many modern titles and said it is occasionally unclear where to go next. And there is one manual save slot alongside the autosaves, which several critics flagged as a needless limitation.
None of this stopped anyone from recommending the game. But it does draw the line between two kinds of buyers: people who want to play Ocarina of Time as it deserves to be played in 2026 will love it, and people who wanted Nintendo to reinvent it will be waiting for the next original Zelda.
Should you buy it today?
If you own a Switch 2, yes — and the reviews make that an easy call. A 96 on Metacritic with no dissent, a full rebuild at 60fps, a reworked Water Temple, and a mic ocarina gimmick that is genuinely charming add up to the best version of one of the best games ever made. The $59.99 digital price is the one to buy; the $69.99 physical edition is for collectors who want the foil cover.
If you don’t own a Switch 2, the question is different, because the honest price is $579.98 with the game — or $499.99 plus $59.99 for the standard console — and the Zelda Edition is sold out at retail right now. The game will still be a 96 in a month. The console will still be $499.99. Unless the Zelda Edition is the thing you want, there is no reason to pay a scalper’s $700 today.
What to watch next: whether the 96 holds as the review count climbs, what the user scores look like once players get their hands on it, and whether Nintendo’s promised restocks actually materialise this week. For now, the original’s 99 is safe. But 96 is close enough that the debate about which version is better is going to run for years.
Also today on corei10.com: Motorola announced the Signature 27 at $1,599 — the brightest phone screen ever, at an iPhone Pro Max price. For more on what to play this month, see our PlayStation Plus November 2026 games list and our Fortnite Treasure Hunters guide.
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