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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake can be played with an actual ocarina [Video]

Casey Baseel Sep 9, 2026
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Nintendo shows off its Switch 2 remake of the 1998 classic and plays songs three different ways.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series, but for the biggest part of the celebration the company is actually looking back to 28 years ago. That’s when the franchise made the jump to 3-D polygonal graphics for the first time with 1998’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is getting a remake for the Switch 2.

Nintendo teased the project with a single preview still back in June, but released further details late Tuesday night Japan-time as part of a Zelda Nintendo Direct. The video presentation included Eiji Aonuma, producer for the Ocarina of Time, playing through a portion of the game while providing commentary and highlighting what parts of the original it carries over and what additions players can look forward to.

The remake updates the controls and camera to fit with more modern preferences. Protagonist Link can now jump wherever and whenever he wants to with the push of a button, and the original game’s fixed camera angles have been replaced with the ability to freely position the virtual lens using the right analog stick. In terms of art design, Ocarina of Time looks to be following a similar course to Nintendo’s Switch 2 remake of Starfox 64 which came out earlier this year, aiming for a much more photorealistic look to its environments, and far more detail and less abstraction in its character designs, especially when compared to the cel-shaded style of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the two most recent mainline Zelda games.

It’s probably going to be a divisive aesthetic choice, quite possibly the most so since 2002’s The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. However, Aonuma also showed off something that’s likely to put a smile on any and all Zelda fans.

It’s not really a spoiler that Ocarina of Time features a magical ocarina that Link can play to activate certain powers. Within the original version of the game, you play different songs by hitting different buttons, and that holds true for the remake too.

But after playing a song the conventional way, Aonuma revealed that, since the Switch 2 controller has a built-in microphone, you can skip the button presses and instead hum the song you want to play, and Link will “hear” you and copy the notes on his in-game instrument.

▼ Note the “inputting audio” message.

Or, if you want to get really immersive, you can whip out an actual ocarina of your own and play that!

Assuming that the controller’s mic can pick up the sound of wind instruments as effectively as it can human humming, it would seem that, theoretically, you could play any ocarina. However, the one that Aonuma is seen using in the video is an official Ocarina of Time ocarina from video game peripheral maker Hori that’ll be going on sale through the Nintendo Store online shop.

▼ Aonuma demonstrating the three ways to play the Ocarina of Time in Ocaring of Time

No release date has been mentioned for the ocarina, but the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake comes out November 5.

Source, images: YouTube/Nintendo of America
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