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On November 9, 2026, Bandai Namco Studios disclosed that it provided development support on the Nintendo Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Its contribution was contract work on part of the game’s visual assets and artwork, covering characters, terrain, animation, cutscenes, UI and more.
And there’s another number here you can’t skip past. This Switch 2 version of Ocarina of Time has posted a 9.6 user score on Metacritic across 7,584 ratings, making it the highest-rated game of all time by users. That tops Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at 9.4 and the PS2 version of SILENT HILL 2 at 9.3. Its Metascore sits at 96.
A development-support disclosure and an all-time user score record, landing on the same title. That’s what makes this interesting. From the outside this looks like a Nintendo game, so the question is how far inside it other companies actually got — and the official disclosure lets us read some of that.
This article lays out what Bandai Namco Studios handled, its track record on past contract work, and where Ocarina of Time’s review scores stand.
What did Bandai Namco Studios actually work on in Ocarina of Time?
It handled contract work on part of the visual assets and artwork — characters, terrain, animation, cutscenes, UI and more.
Look at how wide that scope is. This isn’t “just the characters” or “just the cutscenes”; it runs from terrain all the way to UI. That’s the nature of remake work: fully rebuilding the 1998 NINTENDO 64 original means redoing characters, terrain and animation from scratch. An outside studio was carrying part of that “everything.”
| Item | Details (as of November 9, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Disclosure date | November 9, 2026 |
| Title | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo Switch 2) |
| Scope of work | Part of the visual assets / artwork, including characters, terrain, animation, cutscenes and UI |
| Release date | November 5, 2026 |
| Original | Full remake of the 1998 NINTENDO 64 release |
The contract scope is explicitly “part” of the work, and which characters, which pieces of them, and how much of the terrain fall under it has not been disclosed.
What’s the track record on past Nintendo titles?
The Nintendo titles Bandai Namco Studios lists among its credits include Splatoon Raiders, Mario Kart World and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
The depth of involvement differs in each case. On Splatoon Raiders it was part of the cutscenes and graphic design; on Mario Kart World it was part of the visual assets for courses, characters and vehicles. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, meanwhile, was full development.
| Title | Involvement |
|---|---|
| Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | Full development |
| Mario Kart World | Part of the visual assets for courses, characters and vehicles |
| Splatoon Raiders | Part of the cutscenes and graphic design |
| The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2) | Part of the visual assets / artwork |
Lined up like that, you can see the studio dialing its involvement up and down project by project, from full development to single-asset contract work. It can staff an entire game the way it did with Smash Ultimate, and it can also take on asset-level jobs. The credit list is a direct snapshot of its range as a developer.
Just how impressive is Ocarina of Time’s 9.6 user score?
It’s the highest user score of all time on Metacritic. The Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time posted a 9.6 across 7,584 ratings, beating Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at 9.4 and the PS2 version of SILENT HILL 2 at 9.3.
What gives the number weight is the sample size: 7,584 ratings. Extreme scores come easy when hardly anyone has voted, but holding a 9.6 across more than 7,500 ratings is a different proposition entirely. The Metascore is 96, so critics are right there with them. Both sides of the aisle in the top tier — there’s almost nothing left to argue about.
And this is where the development-support story ties in. A full remake of the 1998 NINTENDO 64 game produced the highest user score in Metacritic history, and part of its visual assets came from Bandai Namco Studios. There’s no way to measure from the outside how much an uncredited contribution moved that result, but as far as the prestige of a contract job goes, this one is about as high as it gets. …For someone who insists her faves can stay 2D, getting a reaction out of a behind-the-scenes credit like this is probably an occupational hazard.
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Summary: part of the visual assets, and an all-time-best 9.6 user score
Here are the key points again. On November 9, 2026, Bandai Namco Studios disclosed its development support on the Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Its scope was part of the visual assets and artwork, including characters, terrain, animation, cutscenes and UI. Its past Nintendo credits include Splatoon Raiders, Mario Kart World and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (full development).
And the game itself now holds the all-time top Metacritic user score at 9.6 across 7,584 ratings, with a Metascore of 96. It launched November 5, 2026, as a full remake of the 1998 NINTENDO 64 release.
Disclose the development support only after the all-time user score record is in. As sequencing goes, that’s clean. The scope runs from characters to terrain to UI, which mirrors exactly how much raw labor a remake takes. What that credit list — full development on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at one end, asset-level contract work at the other — really shows is a studio built to flex its involvement per project. Learning which company sits behind the credits makes the same game look a little different.
A 9.6 user score held across 7,584 ratings. Nobody’s beating that number for a while.
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