Let me be clear about what kind of year this has been. 2026 has thrown almost nonstop bangers at us since roughly February, and now September and October are stacked so tight I've started triaging my backlog like a hospital during flu season, and then there's GTA VI sitting in November like a meteor on a collision course with everyone's free time. I have a spreadsheet to track all the game releases this year from indie to AAA. The spreadsheet is not helping.
There were several dates I was tracking closely for the remainder of the year but there is a new date on the calendar that stands alone. November 5th. That's the date.
The Ocarina of Time remake footage from the Direct did something I wasn't prepared for. Yes, my expectations were lofty but honestly, I really wasn’t expecting to be blown away to be honest. So watching it rebuilt, properly rebuilt rather than upscaled and shipped, hit differently than I expected. It's the same Hyrule. It just finally looks the way it looked in my head in 1998, which is a trick nobody's managed before. To me, it looks like the perfect mix of both old and new, absolutely nailing and even exceeding what I could ever hope for.
The details Nintendo confirmed are what push it over the edge. Voiced cutscenes and expanded dialogue. A full symphonic orchestral score, which for a soundtrack this embedded in people's memory is an understatement. Reworked camera and controls, so you're not fighting a 1998 lock-on system while trying to feel something. It looks just perfect and I felt like a kid on Christmas morning every moment that passed.
So back to the remainder of 2026 and yes, GTA VI is going to eat the culture whole a few weeks later. Rockstar will get the headlines, the sales records, the spotlight for a whole. Fine. I'll get there. But on November 5th I'm going to be sitting in Kokiri Forest listening to that music properly performed for the first time, and I suspect I won't be in any hurry to leave.
Give it to me now!
