It's easy to see why so many people are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2, a game with a Metascore of 99 and therefore widely regarded as one of the best ever made.

Ocarina of Time's fame is the kind that transcends generations; the fame of the series certainly helps, but there's also the fact that this isn't the first time Nintendo has returned to the game – we've already had a 3DS update, after all – and this will have introduced Link's first 3D adventure to millions of new players who weren't alive when the 1998 original launched. History is set to repeat itself with the Switch 2 remake.

For those of us old enough to have been alive when the game debuted on the N64 (I turned 47 this week, so I'm unfortunately in that bracket), memories of its glittering launch will no doubt come with a healthy bout of heady nostalgia. Ocarina of Time was one of the most hyped games of its generation, and media coverage bordered on the obsessive; it adorned magazine covers all over the world, and when reviews finally broke, 10/10 scores were commonplace.

As I noted when I covered Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge in our Game Changer series, I haven't always joined key franchises at the very beginning, and Zelda is no exception. A Link to the Past introduced me to the series, and Link's Awakening on the Game Boy followed – I didn't play the original Legend of Zelda until much later. As I'd seen in Super Mario 64, the transition from 2D to 3D could be mind-blowing, and since LttP was (and still is) one of my favourite games of all time, I was unreasonably excited for the first Zelda to enter the three-dimensional realm.

It's easy to forget now how late this particular Zelda came in the 32-bit/64-bit generation; by 1998, the PlayStation and Saturn had already been available for four years and had given us some of the finest video games of the '90s. 1998 was also the year Sega launched the Dreamcast, and I was personally very invested in that system and would eventually pick up a Japanese console through my local importers months before it was officially released in the UK. Ocarina of Time arrived amid what felt like a period of intense change in the industry, but that didn't lessen its impact.

My dad owned a chain of video rental stores which also sold video games, and I worked there every weekend. Given the remit of the shop, I was permitted to play games during my shift (it helped sell them, you see), and I can recall working my way through Ocarina of Time when it launched. At one point, an interested kid watching me play asked if it was any good, and I still vividly remember my exact reply: It's the best game I've ever played.

Looking back, I'm willing to admit that was probably hyperbole; while I know Ocarina of Time holds a unique place in the hearts of many people, it's not even my favourite Zelda; LttP trumps it, and I'd probably place Breath of the Wild above it, too. While my opinion of the game has perhaps diminished since 1998, I held it in very high regard during my initial playthrough, and I still consider it one of the most significant games of the past few decades.

Like so many N64 titles, Ocarina of Time has moments of genius, but the host platform and the fact that Nintendo (and the entire industry, to be fair) was still finding its way in the world of 3D at the time often hold it back – just as seminal titles like Mario 64, Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid all feel like blueprints for later, more accomplished entries in their respective franchises. Some aspects of Ocarina of Time feel crude by modern standards, though I'm sure the upcoming remake will smooth out many of those rough edges.

Despite this, I still see it as a pivotal moment in my gaming education; it took one of my favourite franchises and literally gave it another dimension, and while many N64 games appear primitive today, there remains something truly magical about this outing – something timeless that I fear might be missing from the more polished, HD graphics seen in the Switch 2 edition.

So, while Ocarina of Time isn't necessarily a game I'd take to a desert island, it holds some very special memories, and I'm sure that's the case for millions of other people around the world, for a wide range of reasons.