Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS

Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the Nintendo 3DS handheld in June 2011, with the North American launch on 19 June. Japan and Europe received it a few days earlier. It was a remake of Ocarina of Time, first released in 1998 on the Nintendo 64 and widely ranked among the greatest video games ever made.

The remake was developed by the Japanese studio Grezzo, with Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma, long-time head of the Zelda series, overseeing the project. It rebuilt the game with sharper character models and textures, and used the 3DS's glasses-free stereoscopic 3D display to add depth to its dungeons and fields. Other changes included touch-screen menus for items and motion-based aiming for ranged weapons.

The release mattered because the 3DS, launched in March 2011, had struggled early on with weak sales and a thin software lineup. A high-profile Zelda title gave the console a major draw and showed Nintendo's readiness to bring its classic games back to new hardware. It also set a precedent for later Zelda remakes, which is why its sales are still used as a benchmark today.