The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake appears to largely be faithful to the design of the original, but Nintendo has introduced a couple of core gameplay tweaks that some players have been waiting decades for. There’s now a dedicated jump button, and you no longer have to spam the roll button to move faster.
In the original Ocarina of Time on N64, you’d automatically jump by running towards a ledge, but there was no way to jump whenever you wanted to. While the game was certainly designed around this limitation, it seemed weird even at the time, especially given the prominence of the jump-driven Super Mario 64 on the same platform.
Players have complained about Ocarina of Time’s lack of jump button since the game launched 28 years ago, but now you can simply tap a button to hop. Plus, you can swing the camera around with the right stick, something else that wasn’t possible on N64. Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma admits in today’s gameplay demonstration that both these features “might seem obvious for those of you who have played recent games in the series,” but they do both mark major changes for the 28-year-old original.
Another key change: in the original game, repeatedly rolling forward is slightly faster than running. To this day, even speedrunners make use of that rolling technique to get around faster. But in the remake, you can hold down the roll button to have Link burst into a speedy sprint. There doesn’t appear to be any stamina meter holding you back from dashing forever, so it looks like there’s a new fastest way to get around.
I’ve played through Ocarina of Time more times than I can count, but I’m not fully convinced by the remake. Hyrule appears to be largely unchanged from how it debuted in 1998 aside from the new visuals, and I’m not sure I love that new graphical treatment. So I’m not convinced this remake is a meaningful upgrade over the original. But I’m glad to see Nintendo’s at least willing to make a few core gameplay tweaks to get this remake feeling a little fresher.