I’m Using Ocarina of Time to Lose Weight

The short version

• Playing the remake is the incentive for a personal weight goal—not the weight-loss method.
• I was skeptical of another familiar adventure. A week of watching Nintendo’s footage changed that.
• Nintendo confirms expanded dialogue. How much more there is to discover remains my biggest question.

The deal is simple

I’m using Ocarina of Time to lose weight. Not by exercising while I play it. By making myself wait to play it.

I’ve been trying to get into a diet plan for about six months. Here is my new incentive: I don’t get to play Ocarina of Time until I have lost a set amount of weight. That’s it. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy. Just a goal and my wife helping me stay accountable.

When the game is a few days away, she’ll be there to take away my Switch until I’ve accomplished that goal. If I’m not there when it releases, the game waits. This is a personal incentive, not a diet plan or a claim that it will work for anyone else.

I wasn’t even sold on this remake

The funny part is that I wasn’t especially excited about the remake at first. It looked beautiful, but it also looked too close to a one-to-one remake of a game I already know. That wasn’t what I wanted.

Then I kept watching the videos. I compared the graphics, looked through the backgrounds, and spent the last week paying attention to what Nintendo actually showed. Somewhere in there, being skeptical turned into wanting to go back to Hyrule as soon as possible.

I still have the same questions. I want more than familiar rooms with better graphics. I want reasons to explore, conversations worth stopping for, and something I haven’t already done dozens of times. But having those questions hasn’t stopped me from getting excited.

Now I want to talk to everyone in Hyrule

To me, this is some of the most incredible-looking Zelda footage we have ever had. The music sounds crisp and new. Every swing of Link’s sword looks like it carries real power. I want to walk through those places again and see how everything fits together.

Nintendo confirms expanded dialogue, updated controls, and a symphonic orchestral soundtrack. That gives me something concrete to look forward to beyond the graphics. It doesn’t confirm a huge new adventure, and I’m not going to pretend it does.

But I want to talk to every character. I want to read the new dialogue and find any added detail that expands the story we already know so well. Even if the additions turn out to be fairly small, I want to find them myself.

Even my phone is reminding me

I even had AI find high-resolution Nintendo images and crop them into backgrounds for my iPhone. Now my phone can give me a constant reminder of what I’m working toward. Apparently watching the trailers wasn’t enough. I needed Hyrule on my lock screen too.

This might not turn out to be the perfect remake. I might still finish it wishing Nintendo had added more. But right now, I can’t wait to play it, and I’m going to try to put that excitement to some use.

I don’t like jumping on hype trains, but if it helps me drop some weight, then all aboard.

If this works, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be my next game goal, followed by Metroid Ravenous. Subscribe to NaizerBeam on YouTube to find out how this actually works out. I’ll let you know whether using a game as motivation was a good idea—or whether my wife is still holding my Switch.

Have you ever used a game as motivation to stick to a personal goal? Tell me in the comments on the video.

Sources and transparency

• Nintendo · confirmed Ocarina of Time remake features
• Nintendo · official game screenshots
• Nintendo Japan · official artwork and game information