Nintendo is hosting a UK midnight launch for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time at Argos Tottenham Court Road in London on Wednesday evening, November 4, ahead of the Switch 2 remake’s November 5 release. Players who buy the game at the event can receive a free replica of its original UK N64 box.
For anyone who remembers the 1998 PAL packaging, the appeal is pretty direct: pick up a modern remake, then give it some familiar shelf space. Nintendo’s giveaway uses that original UK box design rather than artwork from another region.
N64 packaging built around a Switch 2 copy
The replica is more than a decorative outer box. Its construction accommodates the new physical release, giving collectors a way to package their Switch 2 copy in the style of the N64 original. It includes:
- An inner tray inside the replica box.
- A slipcase designed to fit the Switch 2 game.
Purchasers will also receive an Ocarina key ring. Both bonuses are tied to buying the game in-store at the midnight event, so an online preorder does not qualify for the giveaway.
Tottenham Court Road gets the launch-night gathering
The event takes place inside the Nintendo Experience Zone at Argos Tottenham Court Road. The retail space has been operating since earlier this year, stocking consoles, games, and merchandise featuring Nintendo series including Zelda, Mario, and Animal Crossing. For this launch, that existing shop becomes the London meeting point for players collecting the remake at midnight.
The Argos location was originally announced as a temporary pop-up. It follows a separate Nintendo London pop-up at Westfield Shopping Centre, which ran for around a month in October 2025. That earlier shop sold merchandise previously available only at Nintendo’s permanent stores in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, San Francisco, and New York, giving London shoppers access to goods normally associated with those destinations.
A remake with a role inside Nintendo
The old packaging is the event’s collector hook, but the Switch 2 release makes changes to the game inside it. Quality-of-life improvements, reworked visuals, new music arrangements, and some new content are among the differences between the remake and the original.
Development is being handled directly by Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development, the division behind Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. That puts the remake within Nintendo’s own Zelda development team, with series producer Eiji Aonuma describing a specific reason for returning to it.
Aonuma wanted younger Nintendo EPD developers, who were not involved in making the N64 original, to have the chance to work on Ocarina of Time. Recreating it was intended to spark insights they could carry into future Zelda projects. The remake therefore has a role beyond revisiting a familiar adventure: it gives another generation of developers hands-on experience with its design.
Nintendo has also released a limited-edition Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 console and Pro Controller ahead of the game, putting the London event alongside a wider anniversary hardware release.
Players planning their launch-night pickup can find more release planning details in the Ocarina of Time remake release date and start times guide.
