The recent remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Switch 2 preserves the original game's beloved elements, but it unfortunately adopts one of the most criticized features from Breath of the Wild: a horizontal item menu.
While the remake aims to modernize without overhauling the core experience, it introduces a persistent inventory management issue. Dungeons in Ocarina of Time historically required players to frequently swap between various items and tools, a process often hampered by limited controller buttons. The original game necessitated navigating menus to reassign shortcuts, which could be a point of frustration. The Switch 2 remake attempts to alleviate this by mapping key items like the ocarina and masks to the D-pad, but the remaining items still compete for a single button.
To manage this, the game presents a pop-up menu, a solution similar to what was introduced in Breath of the Wild to handle its extensive arsenal of breakable weapons. This menu, however, displays items in a single, scrollable horizontal line. In Breath of the Wild and its successor Tears of the Kingdom, this led to cumbersome scrolling through numerous weapons or crafting materials. Even The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, developed by a different studio, featured a similar horizontal menu for its 127 summonable echoes, which was widely criticized for its inefficiency.
The Ocarina of Time remake applies this same horizontal menu for its quick item selection. This means players might have to scroll past multiple empty bottles and other unused items to reach the specific tool needed during critical moments. This approach is arguably less efficient than the original game's three-button system, even with the D-pad shortcuts. The author notes that in previous titles, players often found it quicker to simply open the full pause menu and equip items manually.
This choice is seen as a significant blemish on an otherwise faithful remake. The article argues that Nintendo should consider more user-friendly solutions, such as the radial menu utilized in Twilight Princess, which allowed for faster navigation of all available items. The concern is that this horizontal menu design will persist in future Zelda titles, potentially making games like a hypothetical Majora's Mask remake even more frustrating to play.