Marvel Cosmic Invasion was a bit of a dream game for me; I loved the X-Men arcade game in the ’90s, so when Tribute Games released the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge in 2022, I immediately hoped they’d revitalize other licensed brawler franchises released by Konami in the late ’80s and early ’90s. While we still haven’t heard any word of a new brawler starring The Simpsons, Tribute did follow up its Turtle triumph with Marvel Cosmic Invasion, another throwback side-scrolling beat ’em up, this time starring Marvel’s mightiest.
I played through Marvel Cosmic Invasion multiple times and had a blast, but I moved on quickly, as I didn’t feel the need to collect different palette-swaps of the many heroes on offer. Even after Cyclops and The Thing joined the roster as DLC in May, I still saw Cosmic Invasion as a game in the rearview. That changes this week, as The Siege of Castle Doom not only adds two additional playable characters (Invisible Woman and Doctor Doom), but also a mode that has the potential to bring me back for more runs for the foreseeable future.
Seeing that Annihilus is threatening the universe, Doom decides to take matters into his own hands. Unfortunately, much in the way that it seems that he may try to fix the multiversal incursions in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, Victor Von Doom’s solution in Marvel Cosmic Invasion – the Cosmic Inductor – would lead to untold death and destruction. In The Siege of Castle Doom, you select your team and fight your way through various floors of the stronghold belonging to the man who is perhaps Marvel’s greatest villain. Your goal is to fight through the winding, randomized hallways of Castle Doomstadt, charging Reed Richards’ Stabilizer and tactically bolstering your team along the way, before Doctor Doom can enact his plan.
As for the new playable characters, Doctor Doom is less agile, but his attacks pack a whallop, while Invisible Woman’s force fields and speed make her the more versatile pick. I don’t know that I see either of them replacing my mains from the base game, but I had fun experimenting with them throughout this mode. Regardless of which character you choose from the expanding roster, you still must traverse Castle Doomstadt before Doom achieves his objective.
Fighting through waves of enemies across differently themed and booby-trapped rooms, you encounter all manner of foes from the base game, as well as new minion types from Doom. When you defeat enemies, they drop batteries that charge your Stabilizer, letting you even the odds and stop Doom. Conversely, each time an enemy hits your character, it charges Doom’s Cosmic Inductor, inching him closer to victory and making his minions faster and stronger in the process. As you might expect, the rooms get harder the deeper you go, and while each player starts with two characters to swap between, if a character completely depletes their health, they’re gone for good, making it even tougher. As such, you need to keep your eyes on each character’s health and swap them out when it makes sense.
As you complete each room, you can choose which path to take to augment your characters with new special abilities. True to the roguelite structure, as you complete rooms, you can also buff your characters’ stats within the run. Certain rooms offer extra batteries to help your Stabilizer charge, while others offer new and upgraded equipment. There’s also one that promises random events that can easily alter the trajectory of your run for better or worse. Though I often enjoyed boosting attack stats to make enemies less like damage sponges, I had to balance that against buffing their health to keep them alive and charging the Stabilizer to have a fighting chance.
Beyond the in-run upgrades and modifiers, you can also amp up the action run-over-run through upgrades in Reed’s Lab, which add to the pool of modifiers you can select from at the start of each run. The expansion also adds new palettes for existing heroes, plus new music by composer Tee Lopes. While I’ve only done a few runs of The Siege of Castle Doom (each taking between 45 and 90 minutes, depending on how successful you are), I feel a revitalized sense of excitement for Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Tribute claims completionists can spend upwards of 15 hours in this new mode, which has me champing at the bit to dive back into what will likely be my primary way of interacting with Marvel Cosmic Invasion going forward.
Pikmin 4 was released for the original Switch in 2023, and it ranks among my favorite games on the platform; I happily award it the honor of being the best Pikmin game. It looks and plays great, and Oatchi the dog makes the sometimes annoying process of managing a collection of little plant creatures willing to do your bidding much smoother.
The over-titled Pikmin 4 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Dandori Academy releases November 12, and much like other comparable Nintendo games that have been ported and improved for Switch 2 (like Kirby and Mario Party), the base game is as good as it was initially and looks even better. If you skipped Pikmin 4 on Switch for whatever reason (probably because it was day one of the Barbenheimer epidemic), I encourage you to play it now. You have about a week to beat it before… something else comes out. Who’s to say.
The “big” addition here for the Switch 2 version of the game, alongside improved performance and visuals and the ability to give Oatchi verbal commands, is Dandori Academy. The Academy is an expanded time trial mode that awards medals for practicing specific levels, which you can then play and upload your high scores on specific days. For example, I can play the Advanced B level, Rockaway Cellars, as much as I want, but it only really counts if I play it on November 12. And you only get one try (though you can unlock retry tickets).
In theory, I like the unique approach to high-score battling, and the limited timeframe adds fun intensity, but this isn’t what I am looking for from Pikmin. I recognize and acknowledge the design decision to place timers on your interactions in Pikmin, but it’s never been my favorite part. I like building my adorable little army and exploring, discovering, and retrieving as many unexpected items as possible. But I mostly get annoyed at the ticking clock, especially when I am watching my crew meander toward my spaceship holding a Game Boy Advance SP (or whatever they manage to find on the never-acknowledged, but potentially post-apocalyptic Earth you are exploring).
I also like having a list of missions to complete, and in Dandori Academy, there isn’t much acknowledgment of your success in practice. You can earn a platinum medal while practicing Rockaway Cellar, but it’s mainly to let you know that this is what you could earn when you play on the right day.
The main takeaway is that Pikmin 4 is still excellent, and I was grateful to transfer my save file from the Switch version (and I was tempted to start a new game + save), but Dandori Academy is not a strong incentive to return if you already played the game. It is a nice bonus and an interesting concept that reimagines the familiar time trial mode featured in plenty of video games, but the original campaign is still the main attraction.
Big Walk developer House House has found itself at the center of a controversy over the upcoming Independent Games Festival on March 3, 2027, after a group of its jurors said they would not vote for any game that has used generative AI in any capacity. The jurors’ statement does not name House House or Big Walk, but the studio eventually updated its FAQ to explain how it used generative AI for coding after IGF discussions. After vaguely posting on social media, those associated with IGF made clear that a sticking point in the voting process was Big Walk.
Former games journalist and game developer Austin Walker posted the IGF jurors’ statement on Bluesky, explaining that voting has been difficult this year due to the “significant increase in the number of submitted games developed with generative AI tools.”
“This has set off some fairly intense discussion and disagreement across the judge and jury pools, and at this point there is no universal consensus on what (if anything) is to be done,” the statement reads. “The IGF has affirmed that we may cast our votes according to our own tastes and values. But we, as a contingent of IGF jurors, feel that this trend and the games embracing it deserve stronger pushback than a vote in silence.”
The statement continues, explaining that not all jurors are on board with the blanket statement, citing reasons including “their ability to safely sign without professional blowback.” It continues, “Above all: Our goal is to state solidarity with those who despair over the future of their art, their craft, and their industry – including those who have experimented with these tools, but who now believe they are not in our best interest.”
The statement continues with the jurors’ beliefs regarding gen-AI, including its negative effects, that any gen-AI used in any process of game development is not okay, noting specifically that “AI-generated code is not an exception to these harms,” and more.
“For those reasons, this year we are declining to vote for any game that uses generative AI in any capacity,” the statement says. “We urge the IGF to adopt a strong anti-AI policy for future years that disallows games containing any AI-generated work.” The statement then includes the names of the IGF jurors who signed it.
Big Walk isn’t specifically mentioned within that statement. However, Kyle LeClair, a four-time IGF judge and a juror for the upcoming IGF, tells Aftermath that “it got to the point where the most-discussed game this year almost entirely involved its AI usage, overshadowing pretty much everything else.” LeClair says it felt like a boiling point, adding, “Anyhow, strong props to the jurors for taking this stance and putting out this letter as well, even if some people believe that using AI for coding purposes is a more gray area, we’re at a point where the amount of AI slop clogging up the indie game scene means having to take hard stances such as this in order to discourage such an amount of recklessness.”
Again, no mention of Big Walk. However, game developer Bruno Diaz took to BlueSky to confirm the speculation: that most-discussed game was Big Walk. “Okay, because the cat is out of the f—ing bag, I might as well combat misinformation a bit: 1. The reason IGF judges are aware of the LLM use in the development of Big Walk is through a disclosure shared by House House. 2. This disclosure was required by IGF rules. 3. While some have characterized the LLM usage as just fixing one individual blocking bug, this is a bit inaccurate; the description given by House House mentioned there being several instances, though they did also say it was mostly ‘consultative’ use and not code gen or agents.”
Diaz notes that they believe that distinction is without a difference, adding that “to my knowledge, it is not the case that Big Walk is non-compliant with the former [Steam’s AI disclosure requirements].”
“Yes, there was a large discussion about this in internal IGF forums,” Diaz said. “Yes, a lot of people said things that I personally think were disingenuous, extremely disappointing, or just (frankly) dumb. No, I have no intention of talking about it in further detail or exposing anyone. […] Ultimately, it is extremely difficult for a group of over 100 people to keep a secret so I expected this to come out eventually. Shrug emoji. If you think something is reputationally damaging, consider not doing it.”
With discussion surrounding Big Walk happening during the IGF discussions, House House updated its FAQ to address, “Was AI used to make Big Walk?” Here’s what the FAQ reads, in full:
“In the final stretch of Big Walk’s development, LLMs were used sparingly by House House to help work through difficult technical challenges and bugs. In some cases, snippets from LLM responses were copied as a starting point to be modified into game code—we’d estimate that well under 0.1% of Big Walk’s code had anything to do with this usage, and generative AI was not used in any other context when making the game.
The primary use case for House House’s use of LLMs was to research, via chatbots, issues we encountered with third-party code. If you’re technically-minded, and curious, here’s an example. We needed to cull shadow casters by distance from the camera, but Unity URP only allows culling shadow casters by distance in camera forwards, so shadow casters behind the player were being rendered at an infinite distance. This made our game run 50% slower for around 20 seconds at sunrise and sunset. We researched the problem extensively, and we looked at the URP code ourselves, but we couldn’t find a way. Then, we were able to speak directly to an engineer at Unity, who asked around and ultimately concluded that what we wanted wasn’t possible. Finally, we posed the question to an LLM chatbot. After a few dead ends, it suggested a possible fix, and while we had to modify the suggestion extensively, it worked. This fix represented about 10 lines of code inside URP.
We originally wrote a version of the above disclosure as it was a suggested part of our IGF submission. We have not made any disclosure on Steam as the platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot usage. We are posting this disclosure as it has become a matter of public interest.
This is not an endorsement of, or argument for, the use of AI tools, however minimal. We have some concern that voluntary disclosures like this might contribute to the normalisation of this technology, or its treatment as “inevitable”. We support the work of those who are trying to limit the harm generative AI is doing to videogames and our world, and apologise that Big Walk’s LLM usage may not meet their standards.
Big Walk was developed without an internal AI usage policy in place, and we consider that lack of policy a failure. We will work to have a more comprehensive policy going forwards.”
As you can see, House House did not disclose its use of AI-generated code because “Steam as a platform does not request disclosure of code or chatbot usage.” It says it is posting the disclosure now as “it has become a matter of public interest.”
Petit Planet marks Hoyoverse’s maiden voyage into the life sim genre popularized by games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and, most recently, Pokémon Pokopia. The creators of Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero have crafted well-received, lucrative free-to-play gacha games across several disparate genres; Petit Planet, fittingly, sees it try to attract yet another world of players. It’s been a year since I first played Petit Planet’s initial alpha test, and I spent a couple of more hours exploring its cozy cosmos at the Hoyoverse Media Tour in Seoul, South Korea. Although what I played has not dramatically changed my opinion of the game – it remains a delightful, if familiar, good time – speaking to its lead designer who goes by the single name Murphy and lead artist Yunli Huang helped shed light on how Petit Planet will differentiate itself from contemporaries and its approach to multiplayer, storytelling, and monetization.
The game’s premise centers on a customizable protagonist who sets out to populate their own personal planet (which is about the size of King Kai’s world from Dragon Ball Z). Although you are ostensibly human, everyone else is a talking animal. Your mentor of sorts is a chillax sheepdog named Mobai, who enjoys wearing straw hats and dropping his catchphrase/life mantra “Mo worries” and “Mo Rush.” The business-minded Glenn the Squirrel is a shopkeeper and seems like a cuter, less aggressive Tom Nook. Yunghou is a shy fox who enjoys farming and has the slightest hint of a southern accent. These critters and many more inhabit your planet, which you’ll grow from an empty (but vibrant) rock into a bustling village filled with homes, businesses, crops, decor, and, of course, neighbors.
Story is rarely a hook for a genre that largely promotes creating your own fun through the emergent moments with your neighbors and friends in multiplayer. Still, after Pokémon Pokopia presented an unexpectedly wild and fascinating tale, I ask if players should bother getting invested in a grander narrative à la Genshin Impact. The short answer seems to be “not so much.”
“Unlike other Hoyoverse games, there is no such main plot,” Murphy explains in my group interview. “There will be a main story at the beginning, but the main purpose is just to guide the players, get more familiar with the setting and the world. But the whole narrative of this game will be more fragmented. For example, if you look at those descriptions of those items, there will be a lot of content and narrative behind it. If you look at the description of creatures, many of them are real creatures in real world, and you get to learn more knowledge of this creature by reading those descriptions. And also, we’ve developed a very comprehensive narrative for each of our neighbors, so that is also part of our, called like, main plot, main narrative, because we want to make this world more like more lively and a more livable world. So that is how we treat narrative in this game.”
While players who enjoy a substantial story to propel them through a game may be disappointed, those looking to unwind with a laid-back experience should be pleased. Hoyoverse is designing Petit Planet to be a no-pressure experience to enjoy at your leisure, hence why it emphasizes it as a life sim more than a management sim. There are no complicated stats to manage; simple inputs make it easy to pick up and play; imperfection is encouraged, with Hoyoverse comparing the experience to doodling as a child: your creation may not be perfect, but you had fun bringing your imagination to life.
I spent the first hour of my roughly two-and-a-half-hour session starting from scratch to see if any notable changes were made to this introductory portion in the last year. If there are any differences, they’re imperceptible because I wen went through the same onboarding of learning how to catch bugs and fish, building your first home, inviting your first neighbor, and farming crops, all while growing a magical sapling that, after performing enough tasks, blooms into a full tree that brings new life and mechanics to your world as it grows. Performing special tasks for residents, from completing requests to simply interacting with them, grows their bond, which, when high enough, will entice them to move in. For veteran genre fans, it’s a familiar song and dance. What I did notice this time around is how refreshingly quick the onboarding is. You have all of these foundational mechanics within the first 45 to 50 minutes, which is a nice pace. It was a good refresher for some foundational mechanics I’d forgotten since I last played, but it created an appetite to dive deeper.
Thankfully, Hoyoverse provided a second build set many hours into the game to give an idea of how planets can evolve. This build was set during winter, one of Petit Planet’s revolving seasons that alter the environment and introduce themed cosmetics and decor for players and residents. Sporting winter gear, I ran around the snow-covered planet, which was densely populated with shops, homes, and neighbors. I was initially greeted by unfamiliar faces named Trixie and Kookoo, who provided weather forecasts and news reports reminiscent of Isabelle from Animal Crossing and Callie and Marie from Splatoon. My sparse quest log was tricky to tackle since they revolved around mechanics I had no context for, such as setting up Vignettes. These are essentially templates for unique scenes filled out by dropping the correct furniture pieces in their layout; in this case, I had to set up an outdoor movie on the beach.
I only spent roughly an hour with this late build, and my biggest takeaway was simply how dense and lovely the village looked. A lot of work went into crafting this build, which boasted a farm filled with different crops (with unlockable recipes to create dishes from them), crafting tables to build furniture from collectible blueprints, and several shops, including Glenn’s to purchase a revolving selection of decor items. None of what I saw surprised me, however. Petit Planet so far checks many of the boxes you’d expect and want from a life sim. My cursory tour of a later-game planet did little to reveal any big new ideas, but what I did experience seemed perfectly cromulent.
My biggest question regards multiplayer. As much as I enjoy Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Pokémon Pokopia as solo experiences, playing with friends feels like a mean joke because of the tedious number of hoops to jump through just to invite other players into your world. And even once your buddy arrives, interactions are disappointingly limited. When I ask if Petit Planet offers a comparatively frictionless multiplayer experience, Murphy vaguely assures smoother sailing. “The multiplayer experience is a very important part of our game because, just as the interaction with NPCs, the interaction with other players is also a form of building up emotional connection to this game, and we want to provide that kind of experience to our players.” More specifically, Murphy cites features such as dynamic server load adjustments based on player counts and the option to allow or ban visiting players from taking resources from your planet to prevent griefing.
As a free-to-play Hoyoverse game, monetization is a major talking point. In Petit Planet’s case, the team agrees that rolling for neighbors gacha-style would be strange and defeats the spirit of the genre. Instead, all monetization will revolve around cosmetics; players can unlock new furniture and themed decor sets, outfits, and other cosmetic accessories for their character. Unlocking a full themed set of decor earns currency points, and there are myriad reward meters to fill for performing mundane tasks like greeting residents or catching bugs. It remains to be seen if and how Petit Planet’s progression begins nudging players into opening their wallets, but Hoyoverse promises it will be an experience that deemphasizes grinding.
I also briefly checked out the recently announced Switch 2 version of Petit Planet. My impressions after about 15 minutes of playtime: it’s fine. It sometimes ran noticeably hitchier than the PC version I spent most of my time with, but it seems perfectly adequate so far and, hopefully, will be a smooth experience when it launches sometime next year.
Since life sims require more than a couple of hours to fully reveal their quality, it was tough to get a read on Petit Planet even with this new showing. The game looks beautiful thanks to Hoyoverse’s signature sharp and colorful visual style. It has a relaxing vibe, and feels mechanically decent for the most part. In short, it seems broadly fine and like a respectable take on the genre. I suspect its biggest appeal will be that it will receive what Animal Crossing: New Horizons lacked: years of constant, substantial support.
Hoyoverse is very good about keeping fans of its games well fed with regular updates for years on end, and I don’t expect it to stop now. The idea of a seemingly well-made spin on Animal Crossing that’s free to download and, unless it completely bombs, will almost certainly receive years of new content is enticing on paper. I imagine this is the reason Petit Planet is coming to Switch 2 next year, where it can lure in Animal Crossing and Pokopia players before other consoles. PC and mobile players, meanwhile, must only wait until December 4 when Petit Planet fully launches to see if it has the chops to stand alongside the coziest giants of the genre.
This week on The Game Informer Show, we’ve got a new magazine cover to discuss! Alex and Marcus hop on to chat about their trip to see Tomb Raider: The Legacy of Atlantis, and discuss our retrospective on Lara Croft’s legacy in games.
Before that, though, Kyle and Eric join to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s new Switch 2 remake, and after the Tomb Raider section, Eric takes us on a tour of Queen’s Domain and Alex shares his early thoughts on World of Warcraft: Forever. Grab a snack and settle in for a new episode of The Game Informer Show.
The Game Informer Show is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday for chats about video game reviews, news, and exclusive reveals alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry. Support the show by subscribing to our physical video game magazine!
This week and weekend is all about the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the few games I feel deserves the title of masterpiece. And the remake is really well done! I got every heart piece, every Gold Skulltala, the Goron Sword, and the biggest pouch for every one of my items over the course of the review… but I am contemplating jumping right back in for another go.
But it wasn’t all just Zelda and Tomb Raider this week. Below you will find a list of weekend play recommendations, but before that… some of our biggest stories of the week.
We have been writing a lot about The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake this week because it is one of 2026’s most exciting games, and it’s real good. The remake is not particularly surprising. It mostly sticks to the trajectory of the original game, but there is a reason it is considered one of the best games of all time. It also looks and plays amazing.
World of Warcraft: Forever is out now and it’s a great time to jump into the revamped and expanded version of a project that changed online games forever back in 2004. A thousand new quests, multiple new zones, countless revamps, and an impressively stunning visual overhaul make it the perfect time to jump in for anyone who’s ever been curious to explore Azeroth.
Escape Academy 2: Back To School
Kyle Hilliard
2022’s Escape Academy was a sneaky little puzzle game that surprised me and its sequel released this week. Taking place in a school obsessed with puzzles, you play as a student who must make their way through a series of escape rooms. The puzzles are clever, and the setting is charming, but the secret weapon is the local, split-screen co-op. Solving puzzles together is fun especially when one player needs to look at one section of a room to help dictate a solution on the other side of the room. My wife and I both love video games, but rarely play co-op games together just because of our disparate, individual tastes. But Escape Room is one we enjoyed together and we’re so far enjoying the sequel. My only complaint so far is… I wish it ran a little better.
Moadra
Matt Miller
While we collectively use the term here for the sake of familiarity, I’m always a bit hesitant in my own mind to label a game under the wide banner of “Metroidvania.” In part, that’s because I think the two referenced games (Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) are actually more different than they might appear at first glance. Gloomsoft’s recent release, Moadra, recognizes that distinction, crafting a game that draws heavy inspiration from the specific tradition of Super Metroid, even while presenting an intriguing and atmospheric fiction that is great fun to discover. In movement, actions, and exploration, Moadra feels remarkably similar to the best of the 2D Metroid games. A scanning tool also leans into the Metroid inspirations, revealing details about the weird alien world you’re navigating. If you’ve been hungry for a game that scratches that particular itch of sci-fi gear/ability-gated exploration, I think you’ll find a lot to love in this game.
Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy: Encore Edition On Switch 2
Kyle Hilliard
I get the Marvel fatigue we’ve all been experiencing. There are a lot of games and a lot of movies and a lot of TV shows and many are good, but lately most feel like homework. For those reasons, you’d be forgiven for dismissing the 2021 Guardians of the Galaxy game, but I promise you it is good. For one, it is standalone. It does not directly tie to any specific Marvel media. No homework necessary. And for two, it’s just a really good game with an affecting story and a unique take on the characters that most of us met for the first time in the movies. And, for the BioWare fans out there mourning the loss of Mass Effect, this game has some Mass Effect energy. It’s available on Switch 2 this week and I happily recommend it, especially if you missed it five years ago.
Tabletop Pick – Lairs
Matt Miller
This exclusively two-player board game features a fun mix of activities. You act as both a dungeon architect, and an adventurer delving into said dungeons. Each player creates their own version of a challenging dungeon filled with traps, monsters, and treasures.
But you’re also forced to take on the dangers of your opponent’s crafted dungeon, to see who manages to come out on top. If you have fond memories of the hidden-info nature of old games like Battleship, but you want some greater strategic depth and fantasy flavor thrown in, this one is a great pick.
Jon Batiste has collaborated with the likes of Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, and many more. He performed the national anthem at Super Bowl LIX. He’s headed up the musical efforts of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He’s taken home more awards than we can realistically list in this article (including eight Grammys, as well as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe). But as I sit down with Batiste for a brief conversation about video game music, his energy transcends the Zoom call.
Before I can even ask a question, Batiste begins singing to greet me, then nerds out about my NBA Jam and Street Fighter II cabinets. He begins humming the menu music from NBA Jam and reminiscing about all the quarters he pumped into his local Street Fighter cabinet. The Louisiana native and Juilliard School alum has been an ardent gaming enthusiast for nearly three decades, with compositions from games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy VII inspiring his earliest musical endeavors. Spend enough time watching video game music performances on social media, and you’ll likely soon find videos of Batiste sitting with famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, or of Batiste performing gaming music.
With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time delivering some of the most iconic music of all time (and Batiste famously loving the music), it makes sense that Nintendo would bring him out to New York to serve as a special guest at the launch event for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2. I sat down with Batiste for a few minutes to chat about his love of video game music, his history with Nintendo, and why “Guile’s Theme” from Street Fighter II just goes so well with everything.
Ocarina of Time is easily one of the most important video games ever made, and one of the things that makes it so special is the music. What about Ocarina of Time sticks out to you sonically? First off, if you want to get super inside baseball, technical music nerdery, which I love to do, in the compositions, there’s a way that major chords and minor chords in… no sevenths, just root, third, fifth. They alternate, and it creates this magic that is, like, it’s wistful, and it’s simple. It feels ancient, and it feels like it’s the music that is going on in your mind as you’re generating thoughts and your imagination is churning. And the major chords are happening just after the minors in this contrary motion that’s happening, so it feels like the music is going like this: It’s going up – major, minor – like [sings the main Legend of Zelda theme song].
So, it’s expanding and contracting, which is a musical allegory for the expansion and the openness of the world that Link is in. It’s like [Koji Kondo] figured out how to capture the essence of the gameplay, but also the essence of magic and simplicity, which I think is really what makes… that’s the music’s power! So, you could listen to the music in the game, and you could also listen to it apart from the game and experience that magic.
Are there any tracks in Ocarina of Time that stand out to you as the most musically sophisticated or compositionally impressive? Oh man. Well, I think of it as a suite, so that’s what makes it actually… there’s nothing that’s more or less complex, but the thought to figure out how to make all of the themes be interrelated yet singular. “Song of Storms” is, like, for me, that’s a personal favorite. That’s why I like to play it. I like to play a lot of the themes. That’s how I grew up! I would play the game, and then, I would go to an instrument. Once we played for hours on Nintendo, we’d go and play Nintendo on piano! It was like a trade-off there, you know? I’ve been doing this since I was about 11 years old.
Taking it back to that 11-year-old Jon, talk to me a little bit about your history in general. Okay, so my history with Nintendo goes back to the NES. Christmas morning. Duck Hunt. You remember that? Maybe the first game I ever played. No, the first game I ever played was Donkey Kong, and then Duck Hunt, and then Super Mario Bros. Staples! We’re talking about the early ’90s. We had a room where I would go – it was my domain – and we had this blue shag carpet, and I would sit back there, and I would basically disappear into the carpet playing Nintendo for hours and hours.
And my mind is kind of… my mind can become a spiral; it can become a tornado. And I realized even then that going into this world of the game, even if I didn’t win – it’s not about winning or losing – it helps to organize the spiral of my mind and give me ideas and inspiration. So then, I started to get into Street Fighter II when I started to play more communally with my sister and my cousins. Yoko Shimomura, who I also had the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with, she composed incredible themes for each character, and that’s when I really started to get a true love for fighting games.
And then, we would play so many of the Street Fighter franchise. We would play a lot of Final Fight. There were so many things… there was Double Dragon, then we got Mega Man… all these different series. Mega Man X is [an] all-time favorite. And then, here comes The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and that sort of expands the canon while also blending all of the elements: score, combat, the sort of linear quality of, like, a Donkey Kong or Super Mario World, and expanding the world in that way, expanding the canon in that way. Mind-blowing! So, that sort of solidified my palate in terms of my favorite type of game.
You mentioned Street Fighter II. There’s a meme about “Guile’s Theme” and how it goes with everything. What about that composition makes it so it has the ability to enhance whatever video you pair it with? Wow! So, it has momentum in a way that is extremely [sings the melody of “Guile’s Theme”] … It draws you in, which is what you want [with] anything that you’re starting when you’re commencing a journey or watching something. You want it to draw you in, and that kind of pulls you in as that call and response. But it’s an immediate announcement with the brass, and then the bass call and response. So, it’s automatically giving you this feeling that something’s happening, and I’ve got to pay attention to it! So that’s the first step right there. And the tempo is really… it’s a great tempo! It almost has the feeling of the great themes from, like, an ’80s protagonist that’s in a fighting movie. I think that was kind of the archetype. Yoko was probably drawing from that archetype, right? The action-hero archetype.
A documentary is on the way, titled Massive Effect: The BioWare Story, will track the studio from its creation to its last two years. According to IGN, the documentary is produced by Shane Fennessey and Adam Scorgie and is being made for Canada‘s Super Channel and will release some time next year. BioWare was based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Geoff Keighley shared a few additional details about the upcoming documentary and confirmed his involvement as an interviewee.
Next year, the story of BioWare will be told in MASSIVE EFFECT: THE BIOWARE STORY, a new documentary that chronicles the history of the company and its sad closure by Electronic Arts. I was honored to be interviewed for it earlier this year. https://t.co/928LPZWK7H
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time hit Switch 2 today, and, as Kyle Hilliard pointed out in our review, it is pretty excellent. Along with its remarkable visual upgrade, the new Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time adds quality-of-life improvements and modernizes the control scheme. As part of that, Nintendo has added the ability to jump and sprint. While that works well to make the game feel new, I quickly realized it sometimes clashes with another new improvement: a free camera controlled by the right stick. Holding down the sprint button to get through areas as fast as possible can make it tricky to keep the camera where you want it, but thankfully, if you have the Switch 2 Pro Controller, there’s an easy fix.
After hours of running around, I was awestruck by the level of detail and updates, but I found myself constantly fighting with the camera, or at the very least, needing to take a strange claw-style grip to be able to direct the camera with the right stick, while holding down the A button to sprint. If you’re a casual Switch 2 player, you might not have even noticed the back buttons on the Pro Controller, or you just have no idea what they do. Those buttons can be remapped on a per-game basis and it’s a simple process. Everyone has their own preferences, but, for example, for high-mobility shooters, I like remapping one of those to reload and one to jump. I’ve never felt the need to remap in a Zelda game, but after feeling the need to do so with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2, I might do so going forward.
The default in-game controls for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2
Remapping Your Switch 2 Pro Controller For Ocarina of Time
If you, like me, struggle to comfortably steer the new free camera while running through hallways, towns, dungeons, and, yes, Hyrule Field, you might want to consider remapping your controller. As you can see in the above image, the placement of Jump and Dash on the face buttons can make it difficult to simultaneously control the camera and sprint. This isn’t typically a problem in most modern games, as clicking the right stick is often a toggle to sprint, but in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2, you need to hold the button.
If you have the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, copying one button’s functionality to the buttons on the back of the controller is simple. All you need to do is hold the Home button on the Switch 2 Pro Controller for a moment until the Switch 2 system menu appears on the right side. Along with Power Options and any Bluetooth audio devices you have available, there is also the option to map GL and GR, the controller’s back buttons on the left and right, respectively.
Navigate down the menu to the GL and GR, then select which one you’d like to map. It will ask you which button you want to assign to the one you selected. Everyone can choose whatever makes sense in their own head, but mapping A (Roll and Dash) to GL and X (Jump) to GR made the most sense to me. Now, while I’m using the Switch 2 Pro Controller, I can use my middle finger to hold the GL button to Dash around without removing my thumb from the camera-controlling right stick.
And the best part is that, since you’re not removing the functionality of the A or X buttons, you can still use them when it makes sense. For example, A also controls actions like opening up a treasure chest or door, and in my head, that feels like a face-button action, whereas rolling and dashing feel right mapped to the back buttons. The only downside is that, since this functionality is new for Switch 2 Pro Controllers, it isn’t available if you’re using the Joy-Cons or a Switch 1 Pro Controller. Also, it can make switching over to handheld mode challenging, as you don’t have access to the back buttons in that play style.
Even if you don’t have the ability to take advantage of this tip, either because you don’t own a Switch 2 Pro Controller or because you prefer playing in handheld mode, you should still absolutely play the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. To learn more about the experience and why it’s a must-play, head to our review.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 is a game full of Easter Eggs, secrets, and hidden mechanics (did you know if a butterfly lands on your Deku Stick, it summons a fairy?). Now in its second remake, not every secret has made its way forward through the previous iterations, but many have. Below you will learn about a few of the secrets that made the cut, and others that didn’t.
No More Nintendo Character Portraits Near Zelda
In the courtyard where Link first meets Zelda, there is arguably the most fourth-wall-breaking Easter Egg in the whole game. If you don’t rush to Zelda and instead pause and enter first-person to look around, you will see portraits of other Nintendo characters through the windows, like Mario and Yoshi. In the 3DS remake, the portraits are replaced by an image of a Mario stage.
For the 2026 remake, there are no references to other Nintendo characters. Instead, the tapestry you build over the course of the game is on display. Removing the reference to Nintendo characters outside of the Zelda universe is understandable, but it is a little odd that art representing the full adventure of the game – an adventure that has not yet concluded – is on the wall.
There Is Still A Guard You Can Annoy
As stated above, the Nintendo character portraits are gone, but there is still a guard you can annoy. If you fire a Deku Seed into the left window, a guard will pop out, yell at you, and then throw a bomb at you. You can’t pick up the bomb. In fact, at this point in the game, you haven’t even seen a bomb.
Malon And Talon Still Sport Bowser Clasps
The Hyrule Castle portrait references to Yoshi and Mario are gone (though Mario and Luigi are still kind of in the game in a way), but Bowser gets a pass for some reason. Both Malon and her dad, Talon, are still wearing Bowser pins on their clothes. And unlike the N64 game where the detail was a little vague, there is no mistaking it here.
The Gossip Stones Are Still Weird
Gossip Stones are all over Ocarina of Time and it takes a while to understand what they do. If you hit them with a sword, they tell you the time, and if you play Zelda’s Lullaby near them, they refill your magic. If you do the Happy Mask Salesman’s side quest, interacting with them while wearing the Mask of Truth offers little hints and details about the world. But then there are interactions that are just odd for no reason. Blowing up a bomb near a Gossip Stone still makes it take off like a rocket ship, and using the Megaton Hammer still flattens them for a moment like a Looney Tunes.
Zelda’s Lullaby Still Fixes Signs
And speaking of playing Zelda’s Lullaby for inanimate objects, if you slash a sign to pieces with your sword and regret your words and deeds, you can play the iconic tune to make the signs reform and become readable again.
No More Skyward Sword Art
This detail was exclusive to the 3DS remake of Ocarina of Time, and surprising no one, it has been removed. Ocarina of Time launched in June 2011 and Nintendo released Skyward Sword about five months later in November. For… marketing purposes, I guess, Skyward Sword art could be found in Lonlon Ranch, the Bombchu Shop in Hyrule Castle Town, and the Gerudo Fortress. It was a fun Easter Egg to discover back in 2011, especially since Skyward Sword was still months away, but these days it’s a bit of an odd inclusion.
The “Mario And Luigi” Ghosts Are Unchanged
Though never explicit, the composer ghosts guarding the Sun’s Song (and Link’s first ReDead encounter) have always been assumed to be inspired by Mario and Luigi. They are brothers; Flat is short, squat, and red; Sharp is lanky and green. They still appear in Ocarina of Time this way, which isn’t surprising, since they are important characters you must meet to get a very useful song. Fans have also speculated that Talon and Ingo are Mario and Luigi-inspired for similar reasons, but it’s worth noting that they are not brothers.
No More Inappropriate Hookshotting
In the Spirit Temple there is a large statue of a woman and for reasons that have never been explained, Link could attach his hookshot to her breasts. It served no purpose. It didn’t help solve a puzzle. If anything, it was confusing. But we all tried it and there is no shame in admitting it! That was removed for the 3DS remake, and it remains removed in 2026.
Koroks In The Lost Woods (Kind Of)
This is a very subtle reference to Wind Waker/Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom and is potentially the only addition to the remake that looks toward the future of the Zelda franchise. Obviously, plenty of characters in Ocarina later appear in Majora’s Mask (another remake of that is hopefully being considered), but it would be inaccurate to call those intentional Easter Eggs.
However, in Kokiri Forest and in the neighboring Lost Woods, the magical debris floating in the air often resembles a Korok as it would later appear in the series. It makes sense, too, because the Koroks are meant to be what the Kokiri transformed into following The Great Flood.
