Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake adds boss rematches with built-in speedrun tracking, and it all reminds me of one of my favorite Wind Waker quests
You better believe I'm showing King Dodongo what for
By all appearances, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 seems to be a one-to-one remake of the original N64 classic, faithful down to the details of every dungeon puzzle. But there are at least a few all-new features in here beyond the quality of life tweaks, including a special hall where you can marvel at defeated enemies and battle bosses all over again.
"Somewhere in this world lies the Hall of Fallen Foes," the game's new overview trailer explains. "Statues of defeated monsters reside here. You can learn about them or engage in rematches with powerful foes."
You can walk up to statues and hit a button to take a close-up look, with a bit of flavor text describing the monster and a list of main locations where it appears. With bosses, you can hit a "rematch" button to take on the creature again. A timer will tick up during the battle, and your time will be recorded when you complete the rematch, so you'll have a convenient way to track speedruns against individual bosses.
The hall itself seems to take inspiration from the Nintendo Gallery that appeared in The Wind Waker, where you could take photos of characters and enemies from throughout the game and have them turned into a series of collectable figurines. As a Zelda lore-obsessed 13-year-old at the time of Wind Waker's original release, I loved the opportunity to catalog the game's inhabitants, and I'm glad the Ocarina of Time remake will offer something similar.
After two hours of hands-on time with the Ocarina of Time remake, Andy says it feels like a homecoming and a true Zelda celebration. Personally, I remain a bit skeptical that a straight remake can live up to the stature of what the original game meant back in 1998, but I'll happily accept a few surprises to make this familiar journey a little fresher in 2026.
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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.
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