No matter how much I wish it were the case, I’ll never know what it was like to have seen Jaws in the summer of 1975. Yet, I still get the joy of watching the film that changed blockbuster cinema forever 50 years later, whether that be on towering IMAX screens or wonderfully restored 4K blu-rays. The experience of being there when a film, game, or piece of music entered our culture and witnessing its impact firsthand can never be replicated, but through preservation, remasters, and remakes, new audiences get to uncover these treasures for themselves.
This is the case with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. My recent playtime with a demo of the Switch 2 remake felt like digital archaeology; the unearthing of a cultural artefact that informed so much of what came after it, while remaining a gleaming treasure in its own right. A link between one era of video games and another. A sacred text. At least, that’s how it felt to me. You see, I’ve never played the original.
Well, that’s a tiny bit of a lie — I did briefly mess around in the opening hour or so of the 3DS port around a decade ago. I know, I should be subject to whatever form of medieval torture you deem appropriate. But the truth is, it’s one that simply passed me by, despite having played several Zeldas since — Tears of the Kingdom is a masterwork of open-world design in my eyes, even if Wind Waker still sits closest to my heart. I never owned a Nintendo 64, and likely got distracted by whatever was happening in my mid-20s, which made me put down Ocarina’s portable version. But now, finally, I’m ready to right my wrongs, and after playing two hours of the remake, I couldn’t be more excited to do so.
During my time with the 2026 version of Link’s most defining adventure, I got to play through Kokiri Forest, wander around Castle Town, and complete the Forest Temple. Even from this small sample size, I could see flashes of some of my favourite games within it, and the inspirational sparks it must have fired off into other game developers' minds in 1998. But most importantly, I had a ridiculously fun time with it. From just that short session, I can safely assure you that, if you’re like me and have also somehow let this piece of history slip through your fingers, there’s plenty here for newcomers to enjoy. When it launches in November, there will be little excuse to leave it unplayed.
“Anyone who makes 3D games who says they’ve not borrowed something from Mario or Zelda is lying — from the games on Nintendo 64, not necessarily the ones from today,” said Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser to the New York Times. It’s a point that’s hard to argue with, and one I wouldn’t dare contest — I think one of the minds behind GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 probably knows more about game design than I.
Nintendo having created something of a lending library for game design is something I could see most clearly in the Forest Temple. I enjoyed unpicking each of its knotted series of corridors and unpacking its hidden secrets, all wrapped in a spooky mansion setting. Every room is a puzzle, whether in the more traditional sense of moving heavy stone cubes around to unblock routes or navigating combat challenges that put your tool belt to the test.
Battles are never overly challenging but wonderfully engaging, with looming sword-and-shield-wielding skeletons reacting to your actions as you, in turn, have to counter theirs with a well-timed dodge or stun. When striking them down, you can see the basic structure that would go on to influence Batman Arkham’s brawls — one of the defining melee combat systems — in the way that fights carry the rhythm of enemies reading your movements and you, in turn, having to react with the correct rock-paper-scissors response.
Outside of scraps, the structure of the whole temple can’t help but conjure memories of Dark Souls' intertwining, shortcut-unlocking approach to level design. Every route loops back to its central chamber, in which four coloured flames need to be lit in order for the path to the boss to reveal itself. The construction of this area is masterfully done, clearly indicating what you have to achieve without ever holding your hand too much. That freedom of thought has always been prevalent in Zelda, all the way up to how Tears of the Kingdom brings out your most experimental thoughts with its building systems.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-hands-on-preview
