Zelda: Ocarina of Time was an unstable 20fps on N64, but the remake is

Reviews for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake are here, and its Metacritic score suggests that it's the best game of 2026. Fans will likely spend years picking apart their feelings on the remake's art style and gameplay changes – hi, it's me, I'm fans – but if there's one objective, unassailable improvement in the Switch 2 game over the N64 original, it's the frame rate.

Despite it being lauded as the best N64 game ever made and one of the greatest games of all time, it's fair to say that Ocarina of Time does not meet modern standards for performance. Nintendo capped the original game at just 20fps, and as Digital Foundry demonstrates in a video breaking down the remake's technical evolution, it can dip into the 16fps range in larger environments.

"Most other N64 games ran far less consistently," Digital Foundry argues, and I've spent enough time playing N64 games with frame rates dipping into single-digit numbers in recent months (hello, Star Wars Episode 1 Racer) to know that's true. But from a modern perspective it's tough to get over the idea that we ever settled for frame rates this bad, especially when a handful of other N64 classics, like Super Mario 64, were running at a much more playable 30fps.

The 3DS remaster of Ocarina of Time would bring the frame rate to 30fps, but the Switch 2 version achieves the dream: 60fps. It's a consistent 60fps, too, as Digital Foundry's analysis says it's "very stable" outside of "very tiny loading hiccups." The game supports variable refresh rate displays, but that's "mostly useless" when performance sticks to the target frame rate so well.

The remake's success isn't just about the frame rate, either. In our full Ocarina of Time remake review, Anna says it's "pure magic" and succeeds at "blending the charm and whimsy of the original with more digestible gameplay and stunning visuals." The fact that it does so at 60fps is really just a bonus.

There's still time to get your Ocarina of Time remake pre-orders in, if you're so inclined.