Ocarina of Time is my favourite game of all time. I have played through the original almost every year since it came out, so saying I was excited about this remake would be underselling it. My expectations were ridiculous. I already thought this game was perfect and have spent most of my life coming back to it, so improving on that was going to take some doing.
Apparently the answer involves a jump button, absolutely stellar voice acting and combat that feels exactly how my childhood brain insists it always felt. I hoped this remake would give me another reason to play through my favourite game. I was slightly less prepared for how much it would make me feel like the kid who first fell in love with it.
Before starting, I tried my hardest to forget everything I knew. I wanted to get lost again, stand somewhere wondering where I was supposed to go and have that lovely moment where something finally clicks. Unfortunately, nearly three decades of regular playthroughs had other ideas. You cannot spend that long repeatedly saving Hyrule and then expect your brain to politely put all that information away because you fancy being surprised.
I still knew how to quickly get the Lens of Truth. I knew what I needed to do to get Epona. Getting through Gerudo Fortress was apparently another service my brain was perfectly happy to provide without being asked. There are things I went into the kitchen for this morning that I will never remember, but navigating a fortress in a Zelda game? Absolutely no fucking problem.
That could have taken something away from the experience, especially when I had gone in wanting to rediscover everything. Instead, I found myself enjoying how much was still there in my head. I knew where I needed to go and what was waiting for me, but I was excited to get there anyway. Having the answers never stopped me enjoying the adventure.
Even knowing this game as well as I do, I felt like a child again. That sense of excitement followed me through the whole thing, including places I have visited more times than I could reasonably count. I was sitting there with this massive attachment to everything happening on screen, enjoying myself with the sort of uncomplicated enthusiasm that gets harder to find as you get older. For a while, playing Zelda was enough.
The combat helps enormously because it feels like I remember it feeling as a kid. Childhood memories are cheating bastards when it comes to games. They quietly smooth things over until the version in your head has benefited from decades of improvements nobody actually made. This remake somehow meets that expectation. Fighting feels comfortable and satisfying, and I settled into it so easily that I stopped thinking about the differences and just enjoyed myself.
Having a jump button sounds like such a small thing to get excited about, but I absolutely loved it. Being able to jump when I wanted felt immediately natural and quickly became something I used without thinking. It gives you that extra bit of control while moving around, and it fits into the experience so comfortably that going back without it is going to feel strange.
The voice acting was another addition that could easily have been difficult for me to get used to. These characters have lived in my head for most of my life, and I have brought my own idea of how they sound to all those playthroughs. The performances are absolutely stellar though. I accepted them far more readily than I expected and loved hearing these familiar characters given that extra life.
The Great Fairies charging money now can get in the bin, however. Of all the things to surprise me during this playthrough, I was not expecting a bloody bill. I have spent years knowing what I am doing in this game and suddenly someone has introduced fairy expenses. It annoyed me, and if I could change one thing back, that would be it.
Am I dropping a point over that? Absolutely not. I can think something is a masterpiece and still resent a fairy helping herself to my wallet. Everything else gave me exactly what I wanted, and the additions made a game I already considered perfect even more enjoyable. That is an absurd thing to pull off for someone who comes back almost every year.
I could not forget the routes, puzzles or shortcuts, but I still got that childlike excitement I had hoped for. I loved playing through it again and found myself smiling constantly. Ocarina of Time remains my favourite game of all time, and this remake has given me every reason to keep that annual tradition going. Now I can jump while I do it.
10/10