Zelda Google Easter Egg Sends Search Back to 1998 Ahead of the Nov. 5 Ocarina of Time Remake

A new Zelda Google Easter egg is live, and it turns the world’s biggest search engine into a time machine. With Nintendo’s remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time arriving on Switch 2 this Thursday, November 5, Google is celebrating by restoring the look of search as it was in 1998, the year the original game debuted on the Nintendo 64.

How to trigger the Zelda Google Easter egg

Getting it to work is simple. Search for “Zelda,” “Ocarina of Time,” or even “tloz,” and a glowing Master Sword hovers in the bottom-right corner of the results page. Click it and Link lets out a “Hya!”, according to Polygon. IGN describes the sword being shoved into its pedestal as the screen warps, as if pulling you back through time. Polygon adds that the Triforce briefly takes over most of the screen before the page transforms. Clicking the sword again returns you to the modern version of Google.

What 1998 Google looks like

The throwback page uses the old Google logo, complete with its exclamation mark, and lists results as plain blue text links. Kotaku notes there are no AI summaries, shopping links or ads. IGN points out that the retro page even includes the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, which sends you straight to a result.

It is a polished gag, and it fits a long tradition. Polygon notes that Google has paid tribute to games before, including an interactive Super Mario question-mark block in 2015, a nod to Wordle in 2022, a playable Breakout, and a Pokédex mini-game in which players search for and catch the 151 original Pokémon. That last one is still active.

A nostalgic joke with a pointed subtext

Two of the outlets could not resist reading the Zelda Google Easter egg as a comment on where search has gone. Polygon’s Patricia Hernandez called it a “depressing reminder” of how much the product has changed, citing AI answers that she says often fail to link their sources. Kotaku’s Ash Parrish went further, describing the 1998 page as a reminder of a time when finding things on the web was easier and less cluttered.

Kotaku also tied the timing to Google’s finances. It reported that Google lost $475 billion in market value last week, its worst day on the stock market ever, with analysts pointing to missed ad revenue targets. According to that report, the company’s own AI search product was eating into that ad revenue. That is Kotaku’s account of the situation, and the outlet joked that Google should keep the Easter egg up a little longer. The sources do not say whether the company has any plans to do so.

The remake it celebrates

The remake is a Switch 2 exclusive. IGN reports that Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma recently said some younger members of the development team had never played the original, and that he considered this beneficial for the remake. Kotaku, meanwhile, reports that the developers experimented with extra fast-travel points before dropping them.

For now, the Zelda Google Easter egg is a free, harmless way to feel 1998 again before the game arrives. Whether you read it as a loving tribute or a quiet jab at modern search, it takes about two seconds to try.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.