Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake Out Now on Switch 2: 96 on Metacritic, the Highest-Rated Game of 2026

Zelda Ocarina of Time remake: Nintendo's Switch 2 remake of the classic 1998 adventure is out today, November 5, 2026, and it arrives with a 96 on Metacritic, making it the highest-rated game of 2026 so far. The remake is exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2, and the reviews, which landed on November 4, are almost uniformly glowing, with critics calling it a remake for the ages and a reminder of why the original is so often called the greatest game of all time.

The numbers are striking. Metacritic lists the remake at 96 from more than 80 critic reviews, every one of them positive, and OpenCritic has it at 95, with 100 percent of critics recommending it. The Guardian gave it five stars, Eurogamer gave it five stars, and Japan's Famitsu scored it 37 out of 40. That puts the remake three points behind the Nintendo 64 original's record-setting 99 on Metacritic, but two points ahead of Ocarina of Time 3D, the 2011 re-release, which scored 94.

Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake: Review Scores at a Glance

• Metacritic: 96, from 80-plus critic reviews, all positive, the highest-rated game of 2026 so far.
• OpenCritic: 95, with 100 percent of critics recommending the game.
• The Guardian: five stars, calling it a remake that turns one of the best games of the 1990s into one of the best games of the 2020s.
• Eurogamer: five stars, praising gameplay tweaks it calls quietly transformative.
• Famitsu: 37 out of 40, from four reviewers scoring 9, 9, 9 and 10.
• IGN: 90, in a roundup of scores that also includes 100s from Daily Star, CGMagazine, Saudi Gamer and ElDesmarque.

What exactly has Nintendo changed? The remake rebuilds the 1998 game with a new visual style that reviewers describe as hyperreal rather than realistic, alongside new cutscenes that bring out the epic drama of a story that was previously told sparsely. The Guardian's Keza MacDonald wrote that the new cutscenes brought out the latent epic drama in a previously sparse tale, and that despite all the new sheen, the game retains its understated melancholy.

The gameplay has been reworked too. Eurogamer's Christian Donlan found that quietly transformative tweaks mean the game now races along at an astonishing clip, with dungeons that feel complex and playful at once. Digital Foundry judged the remake to be of incredible quality, and the technical leap is dramatic: while the Nintendo 64 original ran at 20 frames per second, the Switch 2 remake targets and holds a fluid 60 frames per second in both docked and handheld modes, with frame delivery that stays exceptionally consistent.

How the Remake Compares With the 1998 Original

The original Ocarina of Time still holds a Metacritic score of 99, the highest of any game on the site, from just 22 reviews. The remake's 96 comes from a much larger pool of more than 80 critics, and outlets have noted that the remake is now ranked among the best-reviewed games of all time. Some reviewers had quibbles, noting inconsistencies in the art style or updates they liked less, and Eurogamer's Donlan admitted the game can occasionally look like any other modern third-person adventure. But the consensus is that the remake makes the ageing masterpiece much easier to enjoy while keeping its themes of change and the passage of time intact.

That theme lands differently now. The game is itself about a boy hero whose childhood is stolen, and about time passing, and several critics noted that playing a remake of a game about the passage of time, nearly three decades after the original, only increased its power. Polygon's Giovanni Colantonio wrote that not a moment of the game feels wasted, with every side-quest, minigame and hidden grotto feeling bespoke, in sharp contrast to modern adventure games that fill their worlds with copied content.

Price, Editions and Where to Play

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2, and it does not run on the original Switch. In the United States it is priced at $59.99 digitally and $69.99 for the physical edition. The game is part of the 40th anniversary celebrations for the Zelda series, and it launches just two weeks before Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives on November 19, which makes this a remarkable fortnight for players.

Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake: Frequently Asked Questions

For a game first released in 1998, Ocarina of Time has now topped the review charts in three different decades: as the original, as the 3DS remake, and now as the Switch 2 remake. Whether it stays the highest-rated game of 2026 when Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives in two weeks is another question, but for today, Link's return is the biggest story in gaming.