Is the New Ocarina of Time ‘Remake’ a Link to Nintendo’s Past?

There’s something specifically shiny about Link’s renewed adventure on Nintendo Switch 2, and we have a theory…

The raucous cheers after Nintendo’s most recent Direct that directly highlighted a forthcoming The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time re-something were likely HUGE. It definitely piqued our interest, and while there’s plenty of talk that this might be something akin to the relatively popular PC remake in Unreal Engine of the classic game, we’re kind of suspecting something a bit more left-field.

Something like a shiny new demake, of sorts -- see for yourself below...

Our reasoning behind this lies specifically in the actual teaser and its art, which is wholly reminiscent of the same art-style of the more recent The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, or the earlier Link's Awakening. The potential is there, but what sort of ‘demake’ could we find ourselves in, in an OoT setting if were trying to not be as 'cute' as the two mentioned above? The answer is clearly in the other best Zelda game before either BotW or TotK, which is a little SNES ditty known as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

So why, oh-why have we landed on this being the option?

Well, we can both blame and herald the mod and ROM communities for this, though “blame” might be a strong word. Still, let’s break down why this fits, how we see it working and just why it should have you even more excited for Nintendo going back down the nostalgia route, without it feeling like a cheap cash-grab during a suspected in-house lull.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake (2026)

Genre: Action-RPG

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: 2026

Classification: PG

Author: Stephen Farrelly

Date: June 17, 2026

Phendrana Drifts

Remakes and remasters are a dime-a-dozen, but Nintendo’s track record in this space is actually pretty good. There are, of course, games that were just full-on remasters with shinier visuals such as Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, to stick with a few Link jaunts, but we’ve seen the likes of Metroid Prime Remastered which brought us an entirely new way to play thanks to modern controls as well as huge tweaks to frame-rate and overall visuals. Or, if we want to go a bit further back, we got the unheralded OoT 3D remake, which shrunk the game to the Nintendo 3DS and gave us a fresh and exciting (at the time) way to experience Hyrule, with a baked-in option to turn the 3D off, if you’re one of ‘those’ types.

"BotW and TotK are all actually more than shiny remakes with both Hyrule-based adventures featuring the Nintendo companion app “Zelda Notes”..."

Even more recently, the Nintendo Switch 2 versions of BotW and TotK are all actually more than shiny remakes with both Hyrule-based adventures featuring the Nintendo companion app “Zelda Notes”, opening up the experience ten-fold for completionists. June’s Star Fox (Lylat Wars), also a full remaster-remake combo, is looking to establish itself as both a ‘new’ game as well as an introduction to the titular character and his universe for potential future new endeavours. There are plenty of other examples we could drop but the point is Nintendo isn’t afraid to make old new again, and we see that taking place with this re-do and kind of hope our ambitious conjecture is correct.

But if we’re looking to A Link to the Past as the key North Star, how would it be made? And what could possibly make it different given the impact of the OG OoT being the first 3D entry for the series? Wouldn’t that just be a detriment?

Dungeons of Madness

If you’re unaware of ROM “randomisers”, they are tinkered with code for classic games -- like OoT -- where items, enemies and even locations are ‘randomised’ to make each new run something fresh and new. It’s an opt-in mode in most available titles but in this one in particular, it makes discovery in Nintendo’s meticulously-crafted world all the more exciting, especially given we’ve all likely played the base game and its few iterations to now, to death.

Been there, done that, y’know?!

"Maybe, just maybe, a rethink of the map design and myriad locations now burnt into so many memories, with a fresh-look approach..."

Now, we’re not suggesting Ninty goes procedural on this, but taking into account the freshness of the randomised option for the emulated version of the game means maybe, just maybe, a rethink of the map design and myriad locations now burnt into so many memories, with a fresh-look approach, might not be such a bad idea. I wouldn’t mind dungeon relocations, or a flip in the order in which you approach things. Nor would we be shy of some of the ‘time-placement’ elements being even more fleshed than before, just so that Young Link has more to do to help his older self. It would be entirely win-win.

But the query remains, would we go top-down or is this more of a hybrid, isometric setup?

Retro Future

The latter is what we genuinely think this is going to be, and going back to the Echoes of Wisdom visual shout in our opening salvo, that’s where we see this landing. We might even see some carryover gameplay systems from that given how puzzle-heavy it is, and how puzzle-heavy OoT was. It would also just make a lot of sense, retro and indie titles honouring the styles that came before are Hansel-Hot right now and Nintendo, we think, is on top of this given its penchant to help facilitate those games coming to the eShop in advance of the other two major platforms.

"Still, we could entirely be wrong on all fronts and this is just a shiny re-make of the OG source code..."

Additionally, taking on board the creativity of the mod, ROM, and emu community there’s no reason some sort of ‘RPG Maker-lite’ creation tool couldn’t be added to the game. We’re stretching the ‘wants’ pretty hard right now, but when we look at Super Mario Maker and its success and Nintendo’s penchant for community engagement and its own internal need to grow its online self, that also *kind of* makes a bit of sense. And again, this would be in light of the ROM community having taken lead.

Still, we could entirely be wrong on all fronts and this is just a shiny re-make of the OG source code on a new system with renewed control options and a couple bells and whistles. After all, people (us included) still hope to one day see that more detailed version of Zelda as was demonstrated at Nintendo Space World 2000 (we were there!) all those years ago.

Breath of the Tear is a Ways Off

In equal measure to the above, we’re likely some way off from the next open-world Zelda jaunt, though we’re not losing hope that BotW and TotK are two parts of a three-part trilogy, all set in the same kingdom with the same rules -- something that hasn’t happened in a Zelda ‘series’ before. And as we lead into the voiced-protagonist movie we’re all very, very worried (and in equal part pumped) for, Nintendo’s need to keep Zelda front of mind for the average punter is important, which could also play into this being just a straight-up remaster for new audiences.

"Everyone else is terrified of a GTA VI takeover at the end of the year; it might just be that the other “highest rated game of all time”, renewed, steps up to make a challenge..."

But, as we’ve highlighted throughout, it’s not out of Nintendo’s purview to iterate on the old in fresh, new ways, and what better statement could it make than an older-school-styled presentation of a 3D classic utilising Switch 2 elements while cheekily taking from the mod and ROM communities it so often butts heads with… we mean, it would be both low and high-key awesome.

We’ll know more soon given the game has been branded with “2026” as its window for release, and in a world where everyone else is terrified of a GTA VI takeover at the end of the year, it might just be that other “highest rated game of all time”, renewed, that steps up to make a challenge -- we just hope it’s appropriately refreshed and renewed.

About the author

Written By Stephen Farrelly

Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms (particularly street and tattoo culture), and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial and Media Pty Ltd, this site's owner and publisher. When not dispensing words, he's also dispensing boutique beers as a taproom fixture at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville, NSW...

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Is the New Ocarina of Time ‘Remake’ a Link to Nintendo’s Past?