I don't need the Switch 2's Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake — I already made my own

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favorite game of all time.

I have fond memories of getting into Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES just weeks before Christmas in 1998, but not because I actually thought I'd receive Ocarina of Time as a gift, and I was preparing for Link's first 3D outing. Given how difficult the Nintendo 64 title was to hunt down at the time, I didn't think my parents would even attempt to get their hands on it, and I figured that A Link to the Past was the closest I'd get.

Then, to my surprise, one of the last family gifts that Christmas was the N64 classic.

I spent hours watching my older brothers play the game that day, and managed to squeeze some time to play it myself, too. At the time, I couldn't wrap my ten-year-old brain around Ocarina of Time. Somehow, it managed to match the unfathomable hype I built up in my head after seeing its trailer ahead of A Bug's Life in theaters. I'll never forget the first time I looked out at Hyrule Field's vast rolling hills.

With rumors circulating that Nintendo is working on an Ocarina of Time remake or remaster for the Switch 2, my interest in the classic N64 classic has been reignited. Then I remembered that Ship of Harkinian exists and that a few years ago, I spent hours playing my own homemade remaster of Ocarina of Time.

Ship of Harkinian is a native PC port of Ocarina of Time

Build your own remaster

Rather than traditional emulation, Ship of Harkinian extracts assets, including textures, audio, character models, and other data from a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ROM to create native Windows, macOS, and Linux ports of the game. Building Ocarina of Time's engine required a massive decompilation effort of the game's source code by the project's community ahead of Ship of Harkinian's release in 2022. Think of Ship of Harkinian as the recipe for Ocarina of Time's native port, but you still need to provide the key ingredients — in this case, the game's ROM.

The fact that Ship of Harkinian is a native port means it supports a wide variety of features the official Nintendo Online Switch version of the N64 classic can't even dream of offering, including widescreen, HD/4K textures, 60fps and above, mappable controls, camera tweaks, and countless quality-of-life improvements. This also means that it feels identical to the original N64 release and avoids some of the issues traditional emulation often encounters, like weird graphical problems, odd button-press delay, and other glitches. It's truly wild how much you can change about Ocarina of Time with Ship of Harkinian.

It's also worth noting that Ship of Harkinian doesn't violate any copyright laws since it doesn't actually include Ocarina of Time. You need to hunt down the ROM required for the game to run, whether that means dumping your own Ocarina of Time cartridge or acquiring it elsewhere. Once you've done that, the installation is plug-and-play, and you'll be attacking Cuccos all over again in a matter of minutes.

There's a growing number of N64 decompilation projects out there, including the cleverly named 2Ship2Harkinian for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Star Fox PC port called Starship. There are also recompilation projects like Banjo: Recompiled, a native port of Banjo-Kazooie.

Make the experience your own

I landed on a version of Ocarina of Time that feels authentic, but still modern

You can go overboard with Ship of Harkinian mods very quickly. There are just so many out there, with the majority being hosted on GameBanana, a massive game modding community that's been around since 2001. For example, you can make every NPC in the game feature Twilight Princess character models. Maybe you'd prefer to change up the boss and mini-boss fights? Perhaps you'd prefer the entire experience to be Halloween themed? Things can get wild pretty fast.

In my case, I'm looking to create an experience that still feels like the N64 classic I remember so fondly, but with a modern coat of paint. For some, the best option is probably Djipi's well-regarded 3DS Experience full-overhaul mod, which replaces the majority of the game's textures and character models to match Nintendo's 2011 Ocarina of Time remaster for the 3DS. While this mod is stellar, and I have fond memories of playing and reviewing the 3DS remake, it doesn't land the same way for me nostalgia-wise.

This is where OoT Reloaded comes in (I downloaded the HD/4K files directly from Evil Games). The overhaul pack features the combined efforts of several modders, resulting in visuals that are so impressive it's hard to believe this isn't an official remaster created by Nintendo. The best way to describe OoT Reloaded is that it's the perfect embodiment of how you remember Ocarina of Time looking on the original N64 when you were a kid. The same visual style is there; it's just higher-resolution, more detailed, and doesn't feature the "vaseline filter" the N64 is known for, offering that nostalgic hit, while staying true to the game's original aesthetic direction.

Since my original Ship of Harkinian save file was deleted due to a OneDrive syncing issue, I decided to set up the game on my ROG Xbox Ally X this time and make a few changes to my setup. Alongside OoT Reloaded, I added NPC and enemy models from Djipi's 3DS Experience, and an Updated 3DS version of Link. While these models might not be true to the N64 classic, they don't stray that far from it, and look right at home with OoT Reloaded. Lastly, I also added an Xbox controller skin layout, so the in-game buttons more closely match the Xbox Ally X's layout.

The best part of installing mods is how simple the process is when they're .otr (Open Ocarina Resource) files. You drag and drop them into Ship of Harkinian's root folder. If you're installing a massive mod like Djipi's 3DS Experience but only want to use a few features, transfer only the files you need. It's important to note that when you're enabling the mods in Ship of Harkinian's menu, make sure to move them in order of priority to prevent features from getting overwritten. For example, I have OoT Reloaded at the bottom of my list and the character models towards the top.

Ship of Harkinian features a variety of quality-of-life improvements

You could spend hours adjusting Ocarina of Time's settings

The number of settings you can change in Ship of Harkinian is daunting. In my experience, though, there are only a few that really matter once you've installed the mods you want. I lock the frame rate at 60fps because anything above that feels like watching a TV show or movie with motion smoothing on (60fps is already a massive leap above the original's 20fps). Next, I switch to Full-screen Mode, turn up anti-aliasing a few notches, and flip on Right Stick Aiming. Lastly, I enable Free Look to give me full control over the game's camera with the right joystick (you'll need to map the C-buttons to the d-pad).

After that, everything else is just a bonus. There are countless quality-of-life fixes, like turning up text speed, faster climbing, skipping the annoying save confirmation, and even improving the game's draw distance. Reddit user KingdaToro put together a comprehensive post covering all the key settings you'll want to change to create the ultimate Ocarina of Time Remaster. The process is a bit finicky and involves playing around with dozens of settings, so if that's not something you're into, you can just keep the default options and still get a solid experience out of Ship of Harkinian.

It's not an official Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake, but it might be better

At this point, it's still unclear whether what we're getting is an Ocarina of Time remake with new features and visuals, similar to Capcom's recent Resident Evil remakes, or more of a traditional remaster, like what you can create on your own with Ship of Harkinian.

It's even possible that an Ocarina of Time remake isn't coming at all, and that this is just a rumor intentionally planted by Nintendo. Either way, if you're looking to experience the N64 classic with a modern sheen right now, it doesn't get better than Ship of Harkinian — I've had an absolute blast revisiting the game on my ROG Xbox Ally X.

Now, excuse me while I get stuck in Dodongo's Cavern again for the fifth time in my life.