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Zelda 64 Review High Points Low Points Review Obviously, At first glance, the "ohh's" and "ahh's" abound when the first visuals surface after the power button is turned on. But start the game up and you'll notice the best looking visuals in any video game....EVER. Trees look lavish and the grass is....err, green. Every little nook and cranny is packed with mucho detail, giving this game such a realistic visual setting. The sun sets, giving the sky a beautiful tint of redish-orange and then night falls, making things harder to see. Nothing had ever came close to the amount of detail before this game, and I have a feeling it will be like that for a long time to come. The sky is blue with little puffs of white clouds all around. The towns are highly detailed right down to the last inch. Not only that, but the animation throughout does not EVER hit a snag or slowdown. To put it simply, its the best looking and moving game EVER (I'll be saying things like this for the rest of the review). The audio compartment ain't no slouch either. If you have surround sound in your home, hook the game up and put it on. Its like being in a woodland when walking through one. You hear owls, grass crunching, birds singing....EVERYTHING you would normally see in a woodland area without the poison ivy! Walk into a town and you hear the rustle and bustle of a busy town, going about their business. The voices are not that bad either, but again, the male character has the infamous "kicked in the crotch" disorder, making him sound high pitched all the time (even the older Link to a point, but does have a hint of "maturaty" in the voice). The music is some of the most richest pieces ever composed on CD or Cartridge! A lot are recycled Link to the Past tunes but with a slightly better overall polish-off. The music in the intro after you put the game on is stunning to say the least. Its surprising to hear that kind of music replicated on a cartridge. In every situation, it seems suitable. Even the ocarina tunes sound spended! If you know how to properly manipulate the Ocarina, you could play tunes from other games, or even your favorite television show! No matter how minuscule the character, each one has this....glow. It makes them seem that they are real. Even the lowly old man has this....charm that makes me feel as if they are truly alive and living a vibrant life. The look in Link's eyes, for example, when he shows different emotions makes me feel as if he is a real person and those are his real feelings. Never since Suikoden have I actually felt that each character was a real living, breathing person. Its hard to really get you, the gamer to understand this, but if you really are a gamer who follows the story and the characters, you will know the realism that I am talking about. The inventory system is a very user friendly set up. Just select what you want to use and you could have up to three sub weapons accessible at anytime. You could put C-Left as your Longshot, C-Down as your Lens of Truth and C-Right as your Ocarina. Did you notice the number of buttons you can now use? Couple this C-Buttons with B for your sword, A as your action button, Z as your target button and R as your shield raising button you have a whole load of buttons to memorize, but it proves very effective in battle. Speaking of realism, some of the things that you have to go though involve you using innovative, yet in a situation like it, real methods of going about the problem. One prime example is in the Deku Tree. You will come to a room that has one torch lit. You must take your stick that you find and light the stick on fire with the lit flame and scurry on over to the unlit torch and light it. Doesn't sound real? Well, its more realistic than blowing a candle and having a huge fireball spew out and engulf the unlit torch to shed light apron your journey. There is another case where you have to literally sneak by guards to get to Princess Zelda. You have to wait until their backs are turned or are walking another direction and scurry on over before he hears or sees you. If you get caught you get thrown out of the castle and you have yo try it all over again. While outdoors and not in a town, if you wander around for too long, the daytime becomes nighttime, changing the scenery, pace and overall mood of things. When the moon is out, certain places are inaccessible, yet there are only some places that allow entrance after dark. Not only that, but at night, the evil within Hyrule and other locations come alive to torment Link. Once the dun comes up, the monsters scurry away and places that are not accessible at night (castles, towns due to the fact that the draw bridge is up to prevent monsters from wandering in) are open for business. Even the dogs are out in the towns when the sun is down. The Legend of Zelda: tOoT is filled woth mini quests and other little treats to partake in. One of my particular favorites is fishing. I've never gone fishing and I never will, but as simplistic as it seems, the fishing in this game is fun and addicting, without hours or being seasick and the semll of the ocean! Get an 18lbs. lunker and you get a Gold Scale, enabling you to dive farther without having to get air. If you get the biggest lunker, you are rewarded with a piece of a heart. Expect to kiss your social life good-bye for a loooooong time because The Orcarina of Time has such a rich story, coupled with the fact that half the game, you play as the young Link and the lesser half playing as the older Link, switching back and forth between time periods because there are some points where a younger, smaller Link needs to come into play. Oh sure, you will get to points where you use 4-letter words, normally banned from television, but in due time, you will get by it and find greater things. HA! There are but three things that plauge tOoT from being flawless (which I really thought at one point it was). The first and biggest complaint is the 3D camera use. While it is very responsive throughout, then you need to make a quick turn in 180 degrees, you can't. Either you face the direction you want to turn to and wait for the camera to pan in back of you, which takes a second or two, which could mean life or death, or turn to the direction you want to turn to and press the Z button, which is good, Ill give it that, but there are certain points where I have to turn then to a lunging strike at my foe all at the same time. Its something to get used to, but then again, there really has not been a 3D camera system that has worked flawlessly (Gex: EtG and Mega Man Legends were the closest). Take a lot of time to practice everything. There is a pretty large learning curve with this game. Don't expect like previous Zelda games to pick the controller up and play. You need to practice your moves, get used to the somewhat wacky camera and so on. This does ad depth in terms if the number of different moves Link could do. Remember, when Link is older, he'll have newer moves as well, adding more headaches and whatnot. But I was fortunate enough to get the hang of most things, excluding the camera in less than a half hour. But if you are a totally new person, getting into video games fir the first time, then good luck my friend because your gonna have a hard as hell time. Finally, the third and more minor of the three since its forgivable are the long times traveling from point A to point B. I enjoy the massive sized plains and dungeons, but my God these places are simply large! The bad thing is getting from Link's home to Hyrule Castle takes a while and if you don't walk fast enough, night time will fall and you will have to wait for sunrise for the draw bridge to drop. Luckily, when Link is an adult, you could summon a horse that you met in Lon Lon's Ranch (depending on if you did somethings in the past and you steal the horse later in the game). A Tyrannical Finish.... OVERALL SCORE © Game Domain 1999 |
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