OCARINA OF TIME REMAKE LETS FANS HUM LINKIN PARK

Ocarina of Time remake players on Switch 2 are humming, singing and playing instruments into the console's microphone to make Link perform songs, and fans have started using it to cover Linkin Park, Macarena and a Zelda rickroll. The microphone feature shipped with the game on Nov 5, 2026, so every cover so far is less than a week old.

NME rounded up the first wave: an ocarina version of Linkin Park's "In the End," a take on Los Del Rio's "Macarena" that fans call the "Macarena of Time," and a rickroll. GameSpot found more, including a cover of "Concerning Hobbits" from The Fellowship of the Ring and a Reddit clip of Link as a child playing the intro to "In the End." None of this was a glitch or an exploit. Nintendo built the input on purpose and showed it off two months before launch.

Aonuma Hummed Zelda's Lullaby on Stage

At the Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct on Sept 8, 2026, series producer Eiji Aonuma hummed Zelda's Lullaby into a Switch 2 and the game registered the tune. He then played Epona's Song on a physical ocarina, and that registered too. SoraNews24 identified the instrument as an official Ocarina of Time ocarina made by the peripheral maker Hori.

Two instruments exist for players who want one. Nintendo has announced a playable ocarina, and Hori is making an electronic version. Neither is required. The microphone on the console is enough, and Nintendo's playable ocarina has already turned up in Nintendo stores in Japan, according to GoNintendo.

Two Menu Settings Decide What the Mic Hears

Nintendo's support page says to set Ocarina Mic Input to either Instruments or Humming, then press the Left Button, or left on the +Control Pad, to bring out the ocarina.

The same page recommends the microphone built into the console itself. Headsets and controllers with their own microphones can stop the input from working unless you change the input microphone in the settings. Players who dock the Switch 2 and sit far from the TV may also find the game cannot hear them. Button controls keep working beside the microphone, and the audio screen has practice and reset options when recognition misfires.

Humming does not skip the learning. Link still has to learn a melody before the microphone can call it up, so the feature changes how a song is played and leaves the order of unlocks alone.

Sources Disagree on How Wide the Net Is

Kotaku reports that the game recognizes a hum or a sung line if it resembles the melody of one of the pieces Link can perform, and that it can also catch songs yelled into the microphone, played on an instrument or played from another screen. Other outlets describe a narrower system that matches only songs the player has learned.

The ocarina in the game has twelve songs, and Nintendo has published sheet music for all of them. The fan covers are clips of players getting a familiar pop or rock melody to come out of Link's instrument, and the clips show the performance more clearly than the coverage explains how the game parsed it. A separate tool, Zelda Notes in the Nintendo Switch app, adds a virtual ocarina, sheet music to earn and a way to write your own pieces, but it is a different feature from the microphone inside the game.

1998 Gave Players a Controller and Five Notes

The Nintendo 64 original played the ocarina entirely through controller buttons. The remake keeps that route and adds the microphone as a second one, which is the clearest case where Nintendo gave players something the 1998 game could not. The remake is exclusive to Switch 2 and was built for the system, with overhauled visuals, orchestral music and voiced cutscenes. Nintendo first confirmed it in a June 2026 Direct and saved the Nov 5 date for the end of the Zelda anniversary showcase.

Fans have been building Zelda objects too: Nickbuildstuff and P.POW Creative made a five foot Game Boy Color for Zelda, a different kind of hands on Nintendo project.

Critics have been kind to the remake overall, and some reviewers call it a safe one. It holds a 96 on Metacritic, the highest score of any 2026 release so far.