Metacritic hints Ocarina of Time remake reviews land midweek before launch
Past first-party Zelda reviews went live a day early, which points to November 4. The remake is chasing an N64 original that still holds a 99 on Metacritic.
Reviews for Nintendo's Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2 should go live in the middle of next week, just ahead of its November 5, 2026 release. Metacritic told followers on X to watch for scores midweek, without naming an exact day or time, Notebookcheck reported on October 30.
Reading the tea leaves
Nintendo's recent Zelda launches give a strong hint. Reviews for Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom all published the day before each game came out. If the remake follows the pattern, critics' verdicts arrive on Wednesday, November 4, leaving undecided buyers about a day to weigh them. Nintendo has not confirmed the embargo, so treat that date as an educated guess until reviews start appearing.
The 99 problem
The bar is unusually high. The Nintendo 64 original sits at 99 on Metacritic, the top score on the site, and replies under the aggregator's post largely expected the remake to land below it. History backs that up. Nintendo's remakes and remasters tend to score under the games they rebuild: the 2011 3DS version of Ocarina scored 94, Link's Awakening on Switch dropped from the Game Boy original's 90 to 87, and Skyward Sword HD fell from 93 to 81.
Hands-on previews so far have not flagged any major problems. Testers have praised the sharper detail and lighting across Hyrule and the reworked controls, including a new manual jump. Expect technical breakdowns from outlets like Digital Foundry once the embargo lifts; trailers have run at native 1080p and 60fps, with no sign yet of DLSS upscaling.
What it means for SEA players
The remake is a Switch 2 exclusive. Nintendo has not published an embargo time, so there is no MYT or ICT conversion to give yet. Pre-order demand has been heavy, so a softer score is unlikely to dent launch sales much. For anyone still on the fence, the reviews will matter most on the question previews cannot answer: whether the remake holds up across a full playthrough, not just an opening hour.
Nintendo's last first-party Zelda release, Echoes of Wisdom, followed exactly this schedule, so expect the first wave of scores roughly 24 hours before the game unlocks.
Source: Notebookcheck; Metacritic on X.
