After Rockstar’s GTA 6, it’s easy to peg The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake as the most hyped video game slated to launch this year. For one thing, it’s the modern remake of the best-reviewed game of all time, and it lands right in time for the series’ 40th anniversary.

We’re only a few hours away from the Zelda Direct that will reveal it all, but in the meantime, the Australian Nintendo Store has already been updated with pricing information that is a major hint at just how extensive the remake might be. As reported by Vooks, the game’s digital version is listed at $94.95 Australian dollars, which should be around $59.95 in US dollars.

It may be the first time in video game history that fans are actually disappointed with a price because they wished it were higher. Why? Well, the reason is straightforward: fans are dreading the possibility of a 1:1 remake and instead hoped for a major overhaul of the game’s outdated systems. It came out in 1998, after all, and the widespread opinion is that it simply cannot stand the test of time as is.

The reasoning is thus that, if it were a major remake, Nintendo would undoubtedly price The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake higher. For the record, if the conversion stands, this would be about the same price as Yoshi and The Mysterious Book, but less than Donkey Kong Bananza.

And that hope isn’t just about wanting more content for the money, it’s about what Ocarina of Time actually was in 1998. This is the game that solved 3D combat with Z-targeting, a system so fundamental that it’s still the default in action games nearly three decades later. It’s the game that made a horse feel like a genuine traversal solution rather than a gimmick, that built a day-night cycle players had to plan around, and that used a time-travel structure to make its overworld tell a story about consequence. Besides, Hyrule Field was one of the first virtual spaces that made the act of crossing it feel meaningful, and you can draw a straight line from it through Shadow of the Colossus, Skyrim, and eventually The Witcher 3.

That’s what makes the prospect of a faithful, one-to-one “remaster plus” feel like such a waste. Ocarina of Time didn’t earn its reputation by merely being polished; it deserved it by taking risks nobody had taken before and by solving problems the industry hadn’t even yet worked out how to articulate.

A remake that only updates the visual side would honor the wrong thing entirely. Still, maybe everyone is freaking out for no reason, and Nintendo has just decided to price the game fairly low for once. Here’s hoping, anyway.

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.

In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.

Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.

His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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