South Korea rated The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2 on July 24. That’s the whole story, and it’s more than fans have gotten in months.
Ratings boards don’t hand out approvals for fun. They show up when a publisher is about to start talking, which means Nintendo is close to saying something real about a game it has barely acknowledged exists.
Decades of waiting, and one sleeping kid
Zelda fans have technically been waiting months on this remake, ever since the leak and then the official confirmation. Functionally they’ve been waiting since 1998, when the game landed on the Nintendo 64.
Yes, there was a 3DS version. But that one played it straight, a faithful touch-up rather than a rethink. This remake looks like it’s rebuilding the thing from the ground up.
And what has Nintendo actually shown? A short intro scene of Young Link asleep. That’s it. No Hyrule, no Adult Link, none of the stuff people want to see.
Why 12+ is the interesting part
Here’s the detail worth chewing on. South Korea rated this one “12+” instead of “all ages,” which is what the 3DS edition of Ocarina of Time carried.
Some of that is just how ratings have drifted over the years. But it could also mean the remake has more frightening imagery thanks to the newer visual style, which would shift the tone of the whole thing.
Ask anyone who played the Nintendo 64 original about the Shadow Temple. They’ll tell you. If those sights are even nastier in HD, a bump up the rating scale makes sense.
September is the date to circle
The remake is coming later this year, which means Nintendo has to put concrete information in front of people at some point to lock in pre-orders. A Nintendo Direct built entirely around Ocarina of Time makes too much sense, and rumors point to a September stream.
If that lands, everything else follows.
The leaked Pro Controller and Nintendo Switch 2 hardware could get their announcement in the same breath. And if pre-orders go live alongside it, expect them gone in minutes.
The game is easy, the hardware isn’t
Securing an online pre-order has only gotten harder lately, and Zelda is one of the most popular Nintendo franchises of all time. Collectors and enthusiasts will both be swinging at the same window.
The remake itself won’t be a problem, at least digitally. Nobody’s fighting over a download.
The hardware is the part that’ll hurt. Keep those potential pre-orders in mind heading into a busy holiday season, because that Pro Controller isn’t waiting for you to think it over.
