The Nintendo Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched to glowing reviews this week. The game got dumped and run on a PC emulator within hours. Many visual glitches showed up, so users should stick with the console version for a better gaming experience.
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Looking ahead: Despite Nintendo's aggressive efforts, PC users have often been able to play games released for the original Switch through emulation just days after launch. Generative AI coding could help recreate a similar situation with Switch 2 games, although things are still in an early, experimental stage. The latest target is a The Legend of Zelda remake that launched to glowing reviews this week.
The Nintendo Switch 2 remake of arguably the greatest Nintendo 64 game has been dumped and run on a PC emulator within hours of launch. However, users should probably stick with the console version for now.
A recent video from Unreal Gaming PC shows Nintendo's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time running on the recently launched Lichii emulator. Centro Leaks also shared screenshots of a character model and other assets extracted from a dumped copy of the game, while X user NotRexed claims to have started preliminary work on a PC recompilation.
However, since the emulator is barely a week old, the game is far from playable. The video demonstration is plagued by visual glitches, and the framerate frequently drops into the 20s on a system equipped with an RTX 4080 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D. For comparison, the Switch 2 version maintains 60fps at dynamic 1440p when docked and dynamic 1080p in handheld mode, with AMD FSR 1 enabled.
Still, the achievement offers another glimpse of the breakneck pace of Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 hacking over the past month. A free, fan-made PC port of the 2019 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening entered public beta in October. Later that month, the first proof of concept for jailbreaking the Switch 2 emerged, and hackers began running Switch games natively on Apple Silicon devices.
Enthusiasm for Ocarina of Time is expected to be one of the main drivers of continued development on Lichii and other Switch 2 exploits. The original 1998 release remains Metacritic's highest-rated game of all time, with a 99 Metascore, while the remake debuted with a 96.
The Switch 2 remake earned perfect scores from The Guardian, Eurogamer, GamesRadar, Destructoid, and several other outlets, while IGN, GameSpot, and Forbes awarded it 9/10. Critics say the seminal classic, which helped popularize several conventions of modern 3D gaming, still holds up 28 years later. They also praise its new quality-of-life improvements, with multiple outlets recommending the remake to longtime fans and newcomers alike.