I was bored and this is a long post: beware.

I remember playing Ocarina of Time when it was released nearly six years ago. I've just recently started to play it again on my Gamecube (the promo disc with the original NES Zeldas and the N64 ones).

With the upcoming Zelda game for the Cube and Nintendo's standing point on more of an 'adult' themed game - opposite of Wind Waker - it got me thinking about Ocarina.

Perhaps it was just the way the N64 rendered textures (blurry and dark), but Ocarina seemed to have more of a 'dark' undertone than its predecessors.

When I started Ocarina again, it felt almost creepy to be playing it again, faintly remembering what I have to do to finish the game.

Here are some examples:

*Walking into the graveyard and it being silent, with just the little boy hopping around.

*The skull kid in Kakariko at night.

*The well in Kakariko - it led you into a sewer-type area. Trying to avoid the undead on your way to the lens of truth.

*Heading into 'future' Hyrule and stepping out of the Temple of Time - you see what looks like a post-apocalyptic environment, complete with undead filling the town and red fire circling Death Mountain.

*The Shadow Temple - filled with undead, and now after watching LotR - I keep thinking "drums...drums in the deep"...

*The bastard Water Temple and its boss - the very weird water creature that defies gravity with its ooze to seek you out.

*Many places in the game there is no music, only silence. Ocarina made you feel more alone, always searching for something since help was few and far between - unlike a Link to the Past, for instance.

*Most of all, the end fight with Ganon.
He's always been depicted as a hog/boar type creature. Now he is a man, until you lay waste to him in his castle and run. Then he reveals his true form: was it just me or did he truly look like a demon from hell? Add the bleak environment and fire around you, it truly felt like you were in hell.

Am I looking to deeply into just a game? Probably. But it's a good game like this that makes you think and thusly enjoy it even more.

End communication.

I know I am the only person on earth who found OoT boring. I thought the atmosphere/graphics/sound/control are all excellent.... But I just found the gameplay boring. I quit after about 10 hours into it.

Still, it is a very well-made game. I respect OoT, I just don't enjoy it.

It's one of my all-time favorite games. I always found it odd that while the N64 was considered a mild failure with mostly crappy games, it had more perfect or nearly-so games than any other system at the time. Mario 64, Golden Eye, Perfect Dark (its last hurrah), and Ocarina of Time, just to name a few.

Ocarina of Time is one of the best games I've ever played. I enjoyed every minute of playing it and like Mario 64 never stopped until I had found every secret. (that is very rare for me to do)

Definitely a game that will stand the test of time as one of the greatest ever.

It's pace is too slow for me. I only start playing it if I know I can commit several days to playing through the entire game. Unlike the other Zelda games there is much more dialog and decent character development. Otherwise I just play LTTP or Link's Awakening on GBA.

I agree 100%, well 99.9%. I never got my last piece of heart from catching the 20lb fish. I tried for days. That was the only thing I didn't get.

i love oot, i can't get into majora's mask though. i don't know why.

OoT is my favorite game of all time, from the graphics of the day, to the exploration/adventure, to the action/fighting it doesn't get any better for me. I agree it did have some dark moments, offset by the usual Nintendo happy moments as well. I probably still have not gotten every secret in the game, but certainly most of them. I spent probably a couple hours just trying to catch the big fish (and I caught it).

I also couldn't get into Majoras Mask, I think its the time limit thing.

OoT amazed me like no other game before it. I was constantly blown away as I entered each new area. I remember emerging for the woods for the first time out onto the Hyrule plains and thinking, "this game is incredible." One of the greatest games ever made.

The N64 has aged gracefully, and it had a lot of solid games.

Absolutely one of the best games of all time.

It's the best game in the history of video games . So much to do, great style, edge, execution, music, gameplay, and the most killer final boss battle of all time.

(until the new Zelda comes out? we'll see...)

You aren't the only one. I thought it looked terrible, and just dragged on in many spots. I did end up finishing it, though. I never could play through the first couple hours of Majora's Mask, though. Same goes for Wind Waker. I got about halfway through, and just stopped playing. I miss 2D Nintendo games .

I loved OOT , one of the few games I enjoyed from start to finish. On the other hand I couldn't stand Majora's Mask, the time limit just killed it for me.

I agree with this as well. I couldn't wait for this game to come out and sat down playing it the first day I got it. After beating the first dungeon I realized that the Groundhogs Day concept was not going to work for me and I never touched the game again.

Oddly enough I was not that excited about Wind Waker the first 5 or 6 hours in, but by the time I finished the game it was my favorite GameCube game ever.

Some games surprise you in good and bad ways.

no love for Majora's Mask from me either. Played a few hours and couldn't get into it.

I love Ocarina of Time dearly, it was voted best game of all time if i recall.

EGM voted Super Metroid a couple years ago. I agree with them.

RE: EGM, while Super Metroid was a great game and I love it, I would have to put OOT over it. Only because SM was such an easy game to get through. Only took a few weeks time. Anyway, it wasn't challenging enough to get greatest game ever in my book.

Why does everyone complain about the time limit in Majora's Mask? You guys really don't like a challenge. I think that was the driving force behind the game was the drama that unfolded as the time ticked by, getting closer and closer to the end of the world. The last few minutes and the way that the towns people react are just incredible. If you guys didn't get into it then it is your loss. Plus rolling around as a Goron is an incredible experience.

I didn't enjoy the time limits in Majora's Mask, because I think puzzle games such as Zelda should give you as many tries as you need and if you need a time limit, should make it really short and easily repeatable.

Even though there was a time limit in Majora's Mask, you were always able to reset the time back to day one, which ment you did have as many tries to complete any objective. Also once you learned the Ocarina tunes to slow time and to warp around the world, the time limit was no longer an issue.

Majora's Mask is the only game that used "time limit gameplay" to perfection. The time limit was perfectly intigrated into both the storyline and gameplay.

Also MM features one of the most amazingly surreal scenes I have ever played through in all my years of gaming. Here is a screenshot of said scene I found on the web...



Beautiful gaming from Nintendo!

No offense intended, but did you play Majora's Mask for more than few minutes?

I also have to interject that while Ocarina of Time was an excellent game, I have to say that it was a personally a little disappointing to me because it basically felt like a rehash or Link to the Past; my all time favorite Zelda game (and first or second favorite game overall). I felt that I was playing the same game only in 3d. MM I really enjoyed because it was a truly innovative game. The way that the "gimmick" was woven into the story line really made it that much more engaging. If you tried it long ago and couldn't get into it I urge you to try it again. It is definately worth the effort. Besides the puzzles aren't that challenging. Are they?

Yes I did play it, and I guess my post is a little vague but I didn't mean to say that MM didn't have unlimited tries or whatnot, it just felt that (much like the water temple in OOT) there was too much to keep track of outside your immediate puzzling. Not that it's bad or anything. But I just didn't enjoy it.

I absolutely loved OoT. One of my favorite games ever. The final boss match with Ganon was unbelievable. I loved climbing up that tall staircase with the organ playing in the background. I haven't played Majora's Mask yet....I do have it on my GC collector's disc..though. I read about the time limit stuff and that kind of turned me off. Right now I am playing through Windwaker---which is fantastic by the way--so after I finish with it I think I will give MM a try.

wlj