Ocarina of Time’s Perfect 99 Metacritic Score Challenged Ahead of Switch 2 Remake

Priya Anand17/08/20265 min read

For nearly three decades, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has sat alone atop Metacritic’s all-time rankings with an untouchable 99 score. A new investigation from research-focused YouTube channel Did You Know Gaming argues that number is simply wrong, and the claim has now been corroborated by multiple outlets just as Nintendo prepares to relaunch the 1998 classic on Switch 2.

Since its original launch on the Nintendo 64 back in 1998, the game claimed the top spot on review aggregators like Metacritic, where it boasts a virtually mythical score of 99 out of 100. That figure has since become shorthand for the game’s status as gaming’s most decorated release, cited everywhere from retrospectives to Guinness World Records entries.

Did You Know Gaming Says the Math Doesn’t Add Up

According to reporting from CBR, the channel’s video argues that the “reviews that got included and excluded” in Ocarina of Time’s Metascore “were effectively cherry-picked.” The video points to specific examples of the discrepancy in how old print reviews were folded into the aggregate.

Two of the clearest cases involve outlets whose scores never made it into the calculation at all. The video points out that both the scores of Game Informer and Nintendo Power’s reviews, which gave the game a 98 and 95 respectively, were inexplicably left out of Metacritic’s ranking. On the flip side, one review appears to have been rounded up rather than recorded accurately: Metacritic did include the review of GamePro, but listed it at a perfect 100 score, even though GamePro’s actual review score was a 98.

Part of the confusion traces back to timing. Since Ocarina of Time launched in 1998 and Metacritic didn’t open its doors until 2001, the aggregator retroactively pulled reviews from vintage gaming magazines, resulting in a score calculated from a sample of only 22 reviews, far fewer than the 70-plus scores that typically make up a modern AAA release’s Metascore. TheGamer, which also reviewed the video, reported that by Did You Know Gaming’s own recalculation using Metacritic’s own regulations, Ocarina of Time’s score should actually be a 98 after being rounded up from 97.6.

A Guinness World Record Now Under Question

The stakes extend beyond bragging rights on a leaderboard. Ocarina of Time holds a Guinness World Record for its 99 Metacritic score, so lowering it even one point immediately nullifies that honor. Guinness’ own record listing confirms the basis for that recognition, noting that released for the N64 in 1998, the action-adventure Ocarina of Time is the only video game to achieve a score of 99 on Metacritic.

Did You Know Gaming has been careful to frame the findings as a data problem rather than an attack on the game itself. Multiple outlets covering the story, including Dualshockers, note the channel made clear this wasn’t done out of malice, describing the root cause as a matter of flawed archival data collection rather than any agenda against the title.

The Timing Lines Up With a Switch 2 Remake

The score controversy has surfaced just as Nintendo turns Ocarina of Time back into a flagship release. At a Nintendo Direct in June, Video Games Chronicle reported that Nintendo said in its announcement, “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: The Nintendo 64 classic returns for a new generation in 2026, reborn exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.” Nintendo’s own listing for the game confirms a 2026 release window on the new console.

Coverage from the same Direct noted the timing is no accident. GoNintendo and other outlets have pointed out that The Legend of Zelda franchise is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, making the remake the centrepiece of Nintendo’s celebrations alongside a live-action Zelda film. Details on the remake itself remain scarce; VGC reported that no further details were shared beyond the brief teaser and a single promotional image.

Ocarina of Time’s Long Life Across Nintendo Hardware

Whatever its exact Metascore, the game’s staying power on Nintendo hardware is not in dispute. Game Informer’s own history of the title recounts how Nintendo offered reservation customers GameCube discs bundling Ocarina of Time with the Japan-only Master Quest mode ahead of Wind Waker’s release, and later packaged it into The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition alongside the original Legend of Zelda, Zelda II, Majora’s Mask and a Wind Waker demo. The game later resurfaced on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles, and is currently available for Switch and Switch 2 as part of the Nintendo Online subscription service.

Its most substantial makeover before the upcoming Switch 2 remake came via the 3DS. As GameLuster’s rundown of the franchise’s history notes, Nintendo revisited it with a GameCube re-release in 2003 and the Nintendo 3DS remake in 2011, the latter of which rebuilt the game with updated visuals and the Master Quest difficulty mode. For Kiwi and Australian players who picked up a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, the N64 original has also been playable locally since the tier’s global rollout in October 2021, meaning multiple generations of the region’s Zelda fans have had a legal way to revisit Hyrule without digging out an old cartridge.

Whether Metacritic ever amends the listing remains to be seen, and the site has not issued a public response to the video’s claims as of this writing. But with a ground-up remake now looming later this year, the debate over whether a 27-year-old score still holds up is likely to follow Ocarina of Time right into its next chapter.