Zelda: Ocarina of Time Unfortunately Borrows Breath of the Wild’s Worst Feature

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake maintains the classic game's integrity, preserving its special elements without modernizing it unnecessarily. Nintendo didn't introduce any new features that deviate from the original's timeless experience. Unfortunately, one of Breath of the Wild's worst features infiltrated the remake: the horizontal item menu.

This menu, which has plagued Zelda games, has returned in Ocarina of Time's remake. The menu became particularly problematic when Nintendo incorporated building mechanics like fusing and Ultrahand, requiring players to scroll through numerous resources and Zonai parts. The menu's layout was further exacerbated by the addition of 127 echoes in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, forcing players to navigate an unwieldy "quick" menu.

While the remake addressed the original's menu issues by mapping key items to the D-pad, the rest of the items still compete for a limited button spot, necessitating a pop-up menu for easy swapping. Sadly, the menu remains as unorganized as ever, with items, magic spells, and bottles taking up space in the menu. While the D-pad alleviates some of the pain, a radial menu would have been a more elegant solution.

The author pleads with Nintendo to reconsider the use of the horizontal line, hoping for a better approach in future Zelda titles.