Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

N64

Nintendo - 1998

Now everyone loves Zelda games, they have to. It's one of the ten commandments. The one after, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's ass..." You know the one. The main question is which is the best Zelda game? Well, having beat Ocarina of Time again, I'd have to say... Link to the Past. But Ocarina gets runner up, and only by a smidge. Remember though, this is written in early March of 2003, so I can't add Wind Waker to the list. Yet.

Oh yeah, I should actually review the game. Well for starters this game actually has quite a plot. Most of which I forgot it had, but now that I've played it again I remember. Like for example: "Zelda gets kidnapped by Ganon and you have to save her." Wait, isn't that all the Zelda games? No actually, Zelda 2 and the Game Boy Zeldas do not follow that plot. (Nor do the CGI Zeldas, but that's a different story.) But I digress. This game also has lots of innovative features, like targeting and the infamous Navi. It also adds bunches of new items for Link to use, as one fo the coolest parts of the Zelda games are the items that Link finds. With Bombchus (roaming bombs), Magic spells, magic arrows, a hookshot, a giant hammer, eye of truth, slingshot, and stuff like that. All of the items work perfectly in 3-D. Link moves great and controls perfectly.

But that's not what you want to know. The major selling points of Zelda games are dungeons and their puzzles, and the fun-factor. Well I've never known Miyamoto to let us down before, so that's enough to say it's great. The dungeons rock and the game keeps you always playing. Isn't that all you need to know?

Sure in 2003 the graphics don't look that pretty, all fuzzy and flat, but the gameplay couldn't be better, except in some rare cases when you have targeted an enemy and then move and the wall blocks part of your view. But that is easily fixed. The other complaint is that I want to jump on cue, but of course then it would be a Mario game and not a Zelda game. So I shouldn't complain.

One last thing I need to mention. For preorders of Zelda: Wind Waker, Nintendo gave out a remade version of Ocarina of Time, and one with harder dungeons, aka Master's Quest. Since they were free no one will probably sell them, so if you didn't hop on that bandwagon, good luck finding one. But it does allow you to play the same game again with new stuff, and is on GameCube for all you who sold/lack an N64 (even though N64s sell for 30 big ones at GameStop.) So I'd recommend getting your paws on that if you can.

What liked: (Almost) perfectly flawless gameplay, a plot, even if a simple one, and fun items (toys) to play with. Zelda games always allow for fun customizing of how to kill enemies.

What disliked: Besides the camera messing up sometimes, nothing.

What to expect: Any Zelda game (except the CGI ones). Fun puzzle-solving dungeons and great enemies and boss fights.

What not to expect: Level gaining or a crazy Final Fantasy Plot. This isn't an rpg, no matter how badly you want it to be.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It puts the "FUN" back in N64.

Ratings on:

Control: 9 - I actually like holding the N64 controller with this game.

Graphics: 9 - Ok I rated graphics as it would be an actually N64 game. By GC standards it is probably a 3.

Sound: 8 - Still beautiful sound. Can't argue there.

Style: 10 - Zelda has always oozed with style. Everything Miyamoto makes has style out the wazoo.

1st hour: 9 - WooHoo! Zelda!

5th hour: 7 - I want to be big.

1st week: 8 - Yay! I'm big. But now I have to be small to solve puzzles and stuffs. Boo.

5th week: 8 - This game distracts me from Dark Cloud 2, Breath of Fire V and Dot.Hack. What more can you ask for?

#1 reason why I hate this game: Navi. I turned the sound off right away.

by Hawke