Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Supports Real Ocarinas, Humming, and a Revamped Nintendo Switch App

Nintendo's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is coming to Switch 2 with two major additions that live entirely outside the game itself — a physical ocarina peripheral and an expanded Zelda Notes section in the Nintendo Switch app. Series producer Eiji Aonuma demonstrated both features, showing off Epona's Song played live on the instrument.

The physical ocarina connects directly to the game: whatever notes you play on the real instrument, Link mirrors in-game. Players who don't own the peripheral still have options — standard controller button inputs work as before, and the Switch 2 controllers' built-in microphone lets you hum notes directly into the game for the same effect. On the app side, Zelda Notes for Ocarina of Time launches with 11 trackable options, though Nintendo only detailed a portion of them. Today's Record logs your session in chronological order with screenshots, tracking stats like playtime, enemies killed, deaths, hearts lost, rupees earned, distance traveled, items used, time spent in specific areas, and even how much grass you cut. A second feature called Gossip Quests presents in-game location photographs that players must find — matching the spot earns points redeemable for ocarina scores to play in-game. Some locations are obvious landmarks; others are deliberately obscure, like specific rock formations.

Ocarina of Time originally launched on Nintendo 64 in 1998 and is widely regarded as one of the most influential games ever made. Nintendo has revisited it before — most notably with the 3DS remake in 2011 — but this Switch 2 version appears to be the most ambitious reimagining yet, with a dramatically updated visual style and these new interactive layers built around the game's central musical mechanic. Zelda Notes itself debuted alongside Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in 2025, so the infrastructure already exists; Nintendo is simply expanding it significantly for this release.

Nintendo didn't scroll to the bottom of the Today's Record list during the reveal, suggesting there are more tracked stats than what was shown. The full scope of the 11 Zelda Notes features also remains partially undisclosed, so more details are likely coming before the game's release.