After the announcement of the Ocarina of Time remake for this year, I felt like I needed to refresh my memories of the original game. Well, it's not like I have forgotten everything, because I have played the N64 original so many times over the years that most of it is ingrained into my brain. But it has been over nine years since I had last played the game and some details got blurry...
The best example are probably the Gold Skulltulas. There was a time where I could have listed you all 100 of them of the top of my head. And while I still was able to do this for the most part, I was confused about what Skulltulas on the overworld only appear for young Link and for adult Link. If that's not a dire reason to replay the game immediately, then I don't know...
Last time I played the game on the Wii U. It was during the 30th Anniversary, where I had made it my goal to play through absolutely all Zelda games on the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, before Breath of the Wild came out. Unsurprisingly, my experience with the game on the Nintendo Switch (2) has been very similar, where a lot of my sentiments from the time still stand. And Nintendo has done some improvements to Nintendo 64 service since its lackluster launch back in 2021, so that it's not any worse than the Wii U version used to be.
Overall, the Nintendo 3DS remake is still the preferred way to play the game (next to the unofficial Ship of Harkanian PC port of the Nintendo 64 version), but for this blog I like to go with Nintendo's latest offerings to see what they can do for you. (That and playing on my Switch 2 is simply the most convenient for me right now.)
In late 2024, I even got the Nintendo 64 controller for the Nintendo Switch, but I probably should have saved that money, because the classic Nintendo 64 analogue stick is absolutely awful. Not sure how we ever managed to play games with that thing... Nintendo really should have modernized this into something that looks mostly like the N64 stick, but feels better.
Well, the main reason to buy the N64 controller was the default button mapping for the normal controllers, which wasn't exactly ideal either. You had to hold down ZR to turn the four face buttons into the C-buttons and it was utterly confusing. So, at the time it seemed like going with the dedicated Nintendo 64 controller was the best option, despite its stick. But shortly after I bought the peripheral, Nintendo introduced per-game button mapping for the service, which eliminates most problems.
It should have been like this from the beginning. And now it looks like Nintendo was making it shitty on purpose, just so that people would buy the additional hardware. It certainly had worked in my case...
Anyway, I went with a Pro Controller in the end and my button mapping for Ocarina of Time looks like the following:
- A: C down
- B: A
- X: C left
- Y: B
- R: C right
- ZR: R
- ZL: Z
- D-pad: C-buttons
This felt like the most natural with how the buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller were arranged and how they are displayed on the HUD. The only problem was that I'm using the B-button to confirm things inside the game, while it's still the A-button within the menus, which kept confusing me. But this is a general problem, which you also have when coming from a PlayStation or Xbox controller back to Nintendo.
But before you set up your controls, you should pick the right version to play. I simply went with the PAL/European version at first, because that's the one I grew up with, but after Dodongo's Cavern I realized that I probably should have went with the NTSC/North American version instead, which is based on 60Hz instead of just 50. As a result, the PAL version doesn't actually run at 20FPS, but 16.66FPS, making it even more sluggish.
And the difference is quite noticeable. The North American version runs more smoothly and also slightly faster. In the early game you have to run around a lot, back and forth from Hyrule Castle Town to other places, and here the slight increase in speed made things already less dull. I also noticed the difference when killing Gold Skulltulas with the Fairy Slingshot. In the PAL version, I often miss the second shot, because the spider is still in its hurt animation from the first shot. In the NTSC version on the other hand, I can just fire at the spider twice in a row without missing.
The Shooting Gallery mini-game becomes even harder, though, especially since you still have the problem of the all-or-nothing stick sensitivity with these emulated versions. But luckily, there is now the rewind, so you can just quickly undo any mistake. It makes most mini-games easier, where it also helped with the fishing. I got a 20-pounder on my "first try", because I could just rewind whenever it broke from the line. I say "most" mini-games, however, because the Bombchu Bowling Alley is still a pain, even with rewind.
Whenever I replay Ocarina of Time, I try to mix up the dungeon order a bit and this run was no different. Though, for a moment I thought about just doing the vanilla order, but with the remake in mind it's interesting to think about how it could allow for a little more freedom, so I was testing my limits.
As adult Link I first tried to achieve as much as possible without going into the Forest Temple as I could. Free Epona, grab the Hookshot, clear the Ice Cavern, become a member of the Gerudo, and complete the Biggoron's Sword trading sequence, all without going into any of the temples.
Then I proceeded with the Water Temple to secure the Longshot and finished the Fire Temple, before finally doing the Forest Temple. The Fairy Bow is quite the gatekeeper in the game's second half: it unlocks two target shooting mini-games and the whole Big Poe hunt, while it's also required to finish the Water Temple. None of the other temple items in the game give you as much to do.
And of course, beating the Forest Temple is required to get Sheik out of the way, so I could proceed with the Bottom of the Well, the Spirit Temple, and the Gerudo Training Ground. And only then I went back to the Water Temple to clear it, which finally lets you learn the Nocturne of Shadow for the Shadow Temple.
It's a shame that Nintendo has never added the Master Quest version to their online service, because I'd like to give those goofy dungeons another run as well. But with the upcoming remake this will probably not happen anytime soon... Maybe I will also go and play the Nintendo 3DS remake one more time in the next months, but I didn't like how they mirrored everything for the Master Quest mode.
And for now I have achieved my goal of refreshing my memories, so I'm ready for the remake and prepared to talk more about Ocarina of Time in the upcoming weeks and months. It will be exciting to see how the game has evolved once more, and I do have collected a number of ideas for how to improve it. More on that later...
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