The Nintendo Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time introduces a microphone feature allowing players to hum tunes or play instruments instead of pressing buttons.
The digital version of Ocarina of Time costs $59.99 and the physical edition is priced at $69.99, while the Switch 2 console starts at $499.99, according to PCWorld.
The ocarina serves as a key item in the game, requiring players to play it in order to unlock new locations, call on characters for quest advice, and change the day and night cycle. When utilizing the console’s microphone feature, players can either hum the tune on the screen or play an instrument rather than tapping buttons on the controller.
Testing the new feature yielded mixed results when the console was docked. Players frequently had to hum loudly or move closer to the console to have their sound recognized, detracting from the fun element.
In docked mode, the console also struggled to differentiate between songs that share the same notes played in different orders, such as Zelda’s Lullaby and Epona’s Song, mistakenly recognizing the former as the latter even when played or hummed loudly. Handheld mode provided much more success with humming, though a guitar placed a step away was still deemed too quiet. There are twelve songs Link can play on the ocarina.
Coinciding with the game’s release, Nintendo created two playable ocarinas as collector items. The manual version costs $34.99 and includes a songbook with notes, while the electric version costs $49.99 and features two playing modes designed for use with the Switch 2 sound recognition feature, along with a free-play mode and an auto mode.
According to Nintendo of Europe SE, content is sold and payable with Nintendo eShop credit registered on the Nintendo account used to complete the purchase. Once payment is made, content is downloaded to the console linked to the Nintendo account. The console must be updated and connected to the Internet with the automatic download option enabled, and must have sufficient storage space for the complete download to take place.
