Report / Published 2026-10-31

Nintendo's Ocarina of Time trailer lists eight changes for the Switch 2 remake

A new video ahead of the 5 November launch shows dashing, jumping, gyro aiming, reworked visuals, voiced cutscenes, microphone songs, Threads of Time and the Hall of Fallen Foes.

A long stone hall at night with a row of tall pointed arches at the far end, pale blue and warm amber light glowing through them, orange brick walls and a shadowed tiled floor.
Conceptual editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Nintendo released a trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 that walks through eight changes, three days before the 5 November launch.
  • The eight are dashing, jumping, gyro aiming, reimagined visuals, fully voiced cutscenes, songs played through the console microphone, Threads of Time and a hall of defeated monsters.
  • Nintendo Life calls the trailer a recap of features Nintendo has already shown, while Nintendo Everything describes it as covering everything that is new for the remake.

Eight items, three days before launch

Nintendo released a new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 that runs through eight changes to the remake, according to Nintendo Life, which counted them. The outlet says the video highlights "just some of the ways" Link's quest has been remade for a whole new era, and that the game returns next week. Nintendo Everything dates that return at 5 November 2026 and says the trailer arrived ahead of the launch.

The two outlets frame the video differently. Nintendo Everything says it goes over everything that is new for the remake, while Nintendo Life says it is nothing we have not already seen and warns readers who have avoided coverage that the trailer will spoil the game. That gap matters for anyone deciding whether to watch: this is a summary of features Nintendo has already shown rather than a first reveal, and both outlets say as much in different words.

Three changes to how Link moves

Three of the eight items change movement. Dashing and jumping appear in both lists, and gyro aiming is the third: motion control for aiming, which Nintendo Life treats as an item in its own right rather than as a settings option. Nintendo Everything describes all three as new features and extras built for this version, and says each one is shown in the video rather than merely mentioned.

Jumping drew the second largest share in a Nintendo Life poll that asked readers what they were most excited about. With 24 votes cast, jumping took 17 percent and gyro aiming took 4 percent, while reimagined visuals led on 50 percent. A poll of two dozen readers is not a survey of the audience, but it does show which item the site's own commenters picked out, and the comments underneath suggest the movement changes are the ones readers want to see in motion.

The visuals and the voices

The trailer also shows reimagined visuals, which both outlets list, and Nintendo Everything describes the package as overhauled visuals with full symphonic orchestral music. Nintendo Life's own preview of the game calls it breathtaking in detail and names one familiar irritation, which is the closest either outlet comes to a reservation about how the remake runs. The trailer itself does not address performance, resolution or frame rate.

Voice work is the other change of that kind. Both outlets list fully voiced cutscenes, and Nintendo Everything adds that the dialogue is expanded. That item drew the most argument under Nintendo Life's article, where readers questioned the English performances, with one describing them as sounding closer to a children's cartoon than to the tone the original carried. Neither outlet reports how much dialogue is new.

Singing into the console

The microphone item is the one that depends on the hardware. Nintendo Everything quotes Nintendo's description: a player can hum a melody Link has learned, or play one on an actual instrument, and the Switch 2 microphone will hear the song and make Link's ocarina respond. The outlet presents it as bringing some of the ocarina's magic into the real world, which is Nintendo's framing rather than the outlet's.

It is also the hardest item to judge from a trailer. A video can show the prompt and the response, but not how reliably the microphone picks out a hummed tune in a room with a television, a conversation or a fan running in it. Neither outlet reports testing the feature, and Nintendo's wording, as quoted, describes what it does rather than how well it does it. Nothing in either report says whether the microphone is required or optional.

Threads of Time and the hall of statues

Two of the eight are places or systems rather than controls. The Threads of Time appears in both lists with no explanation beyond its name, and neither outlet describes what it changes. The eighth item is a hall of statues, and here the two outlets disagree about what it is called: Nintendo Life lists The Hall of Fallen Foes, while Nintendo Everything calls it the Hall of Fallen Heroes in its list and in its quotation from Nintendo.

Nintendo Everything's description is the more detailed of the two. It says the hall is a place where statues of defeated monsters reside, and that players can go there to learn about them or to fight them again in a rematch battle. That makes it a record of what a player has beaten as well as an optional challenge, and it is the only one of the eight that adds a location. The name discrepancy is unresolved in both reports.

What the trailer leaves out

The trailer is not a full account of the release. Nintendo Everything notes that the game supports Zelda Notes, a service inside the Nintendo Switch App, and that two new Ocarina of Time amiibo figures launch in 2027 and unlock special in-game masks, while existing Zelda amiibo give rewards when tapped. Nintendo Life lists the game at $69.99 or £58.99 for the 5 November release.

For readers weighing the remake against the rest of Nintendo's autumn, the comparisons are close at hand. Modern Warfare 4's Switch 2 version shows what a third-party shooter costs in frame rate and install size, the cancelled Kirby Air Riders Halloween event shows how quickly a live event can be pulled, and the Mario Kart World datamine shows how much of an unreleased game can surface before Nintendo says anything. Ocarina of Time's eight items, by contrast, are all announced, dated and shown.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Video: Nintendo Highlights Eight New Things In Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (Switch 2)
  2. Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo Switch 2 remake "What's New" trailer
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