Musical-instrument video game controllers are nothing new. Guitar Hero and Rock Band gave us plastic guitars and drums, Taiko no Tatsujin brought the taiko drum into the living room, and DJ Hero handed aspiring club DJs a turntable.
Those are relatively easy to controller-fy: strum, hit, spin, or press. A wind instrument is different because playing one usually begins with, well, wind. HORI gets around that little complication with the Electric Ocarina of Time by asking you not to blow into it at all.
Designed for the sound-recognition feature in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2, the electronic toy lets you interact with Hyrule through music. Play the correct melody, and the console recognizes the sound and triggers the corresponding in-game action.
This also explains HORI’s seemingly contradictory disclaimer that the Electric Ocarina of Time “is not a game controller.” It does not connect to the console or send button inputs like a conventional controller. Instead, it produces sounds that the game listens for. Technically, the software is responding to the music, not the hardware. Clever.
It is not a genuine ocarina, either. Rather than blowing into the mouthpiece, you press a button there while touching the finger buttons to produce notes. Free Play Mode lets you perform notes and melodies yourself, while Auto-Play Mode plays 12 familiar in-game songs with the press of a button. Nobody needs to know which mode summoned Epona.
A volume dial allows you to control how much of Hyrule the rest of the household hears. There is also a headphone jack for private practice or connection to an external speaker, plus a dedicated stand for displaying it when Link is off duty.
The HORI Electric Ocarina of Time costs US$49.99 and is expected to be released on November 5, 2026. It requires three AA batteries and a screwdriver, neither of which is included. The product is currently unavailable to order—it is expected to be available starting November 05, 2026—so prospective Heroes of Time will have to check back later—and perhaps begin memorizing those songs in the meantime.
Images: HORI [JP].
