What what what?! Majora's Mask is one of the greatest Zelda's ever made!

Nintendo could have easily just rehashed OoT like other big sequels just rehase their first games (Vice City, Halo 2, etc.). Instead Nintendo implimented the unique 3-day time travel system into the gameplay, storyline and save system. This gave MM an extremely fresh and unique gameplay element that still manages to live up to mighty OoT.

I also liked the mask system and being able to change into a Goron, Zora, and Deku characters was cool as well (racing through Terminia as Goron!). The dungeons/temples and bosses were amazing as well (Snowhead Temple!).

My favorite part of MM is the extremely dark storyline. The 3-day gameplay system gives the game an extreme sense of dread. I love the way the characters become more scared/depressed as the third day looms closer. I also dig the subtle way the music changes from happy to dramatic as the third day gets closer. Plus that scary moon getting closer and closer!

I could go on and on of the greatness of MM. But I'll just say that I consider Majora's Mask one of the greatest gaming sequels ever made!

Here is how I rank the Zelda 3d adventures:

Ocarina of Time - 10
Majora's Mask - 9.9
Twilight Princess - 9.5
Wind Waker - 9

Here is a cool fan made video I found on youtube that showcases the brilliance that is Majora's Mask!

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I'd rank the 3D Zelda's:

Ocarina of Time- 10
Twilight Princess-10
Windwaker- 9
Majora's Mask- 8

I appreciate that they did something different with MM, I just didn't dig it. Losing money and non essential items when you warp back to day 1 was annoying as hell. And there were only what--4 dungeons? Given dungeons are the reason I play Zelda that was kick in the nuts. Especially with them replaced with a lot of races, fetch quests etc.

I'm not sure how anyone could consider Hyrule Castle brilliant, since it was just 1) Get trapped in an area 2) Kill all the enemies 3) Proceed to the next area. Rinse and repeat a dozen times, and that is all that Hyrule Castle was.

I thought the Palace of Twilight was pretty weak too. It was very straightfoward, with no real puzzles to figure out, and it was really short.

The other dungeons were good, but those two were bad.

Everything outside of the dungeons was just tedious and not very fun.

You don't lose money. Just give your money to the bank.

Those two were a bit weak, but the other 7 were great so I can't complain to much. And at least the bosses of those last two were awesome.

As above I disagree about the between dungeon stuff. It was largely fun and fetch quest free for a 3D Zelda IMO.


If you got to the bank in time, IIRC (been years since I played it and I'll never revisit it). Pain in the but either way.

I was at a graduation party yesterday drinking and playing horeshoes and I kept thinking that horseshoes would be a good Wii game or mini game.

Yeah having only four main dungeon areas is the only knock against MM. But those four dungeons were amazing. No doubt Nintendo rushed development because they needed MM to ship against the PS2 launch. I do remember those "Majora's Mask outsells PS2" articles back in Nov. 2000.

But I do have to disagree with you about the losing money and non-essential items when going back to day one, as being annoying. There was a banker person in Clock Town where you could save your money. Also there was plenty of grass around Terminia where you could easily fill up on money and non-essential items quickly. Just like in every Zelda game!

There might have only been four dungeons, but there were a number of almost mini-dungeons: Deku Palace, Swamp Spider House, Ocean Spider House, Ikana Castle, Pirate Fortress, Bottom of the Well, and to a lesser extent, the thief hideout. Heck, the pirate fortress was longer than either Hyrule Castle or Palace of Twilight in Twilight Princess.

What killed MM for me were the time limits, and how some things reset after the time was up - what I love about Zelda had always been taking my time to explore and do what I wanted to do when I wanted, taking however long I wanted, and MM just shit all over that.

Exactly. It just changed the series too much for it's own good.

I'm all for innovation, but with series I like, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Bring in stuff to keep it fresh without doing to much to the core gameplay/feel of the game. Keep radical new ideas for new franchises (something Nintendo is sorely in need of).

The other thing that killed it was it came out a year after the Dreamcast, and blurry as N64 games were rough to play from that point forward for me. Not a graphics whore by any means, but N64 and PS1 3D games just don't hold up well at all IMO.

Once you learn the song to slow time, which you learn toward the beginning of the game, you could pretty much take as much time to do anything you wanted.

MM gets flack for being too different from OoT. Twilight Princess gets flack for being too similar to OoT. Nintendo can never win with some...

Can't please everyone all the time.

They can keep remaking OoT with new dungeons and bosses and I'll buy it indefinitely.

Hell, I've bought and loved all 6 Metroidvania games thus far and honestly none of them have really innovated or improved on SoTN.

I've never played any of the Metroidvanias... is Simon a chick in those too?

Seriously though, which 6 make up this list? I'm curious about maybe picking some of them up.

No. They're just lovingly referred to as Metroidvainia's as the games shamelessly rip off the Metroid/Super Metroid formula of having a big open map with areas closed off until you get powers/items needed to get past something. So lots of exploration and back tracking.

The game subtitles are in order of release:

Symphony of the Night (PS1 and on XBLA now)
Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Portrait of Ruin (DS)

I'd rank them (using abbreviations as I'm lazy):

SotN
HoD
PoR
DoS
AoS
CotM

I thought you didn't like Portrait as much as Dawn? Or does it just depend on what day it is?

What he said.

I never even finished it...just out of sheer aggrevation.

I'd certainly rank them differently as I like the handheld ones more than SotN and I liked both Sorrows better than PoR.

Still, I heartily recommend all of them. The (at the time) $20 double pack of HoD and AoS might have been dollar for dollar the most enjoyment I ever got out of a game.

And speaking of Metroid...this just reminded me that Super Metroid hasn't been ported to DS yet...or VC for that matter...and it's criminal.

Yeah, they're all great, so it's hard to rank them.

SotN is probably first for me partly due to nostalgia, and partly due to having the best character and graphics. PoR I rank higher just because it mixed things up a bit with the diverse locales in the paints and the two character system. A much needed breath of fresh air into a series that was getting very stale IMO.

To get back on topic....

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/categ...1+20016484&c=1

Circuit City is currently giving $20 off the purchase of any two Wii games.

Not bad deal. Would like to pick up Super Paper Mario but having trouble finding a second game I'm willing to pay $40 for (since all the decent games are still $50).

Since I plan on getting MP8 this week, I might just grab another title for $30.

MP8?

If you need another Wiimote, Wii Play is well worth the $10...or in this case, I guess the game would be free. I played the heck out of pool and tanks.

If not, the only other game that leaps to mind is Excite Truck, which breathed a breath of fresh air in the stale racing genre and is absurdly underrated.

At any rate, thanks for the heads up.

Don't get me wrong, SotN is a brilliant game. I think I just like the handheld ones more because they are handheld. These games are perfectly suited for playing in spurts when you are on the road...as it were.

Any word on what today's VC games are... or if there are any VC games today?

I have just spent a lot of time replaying many of these. I prefer the metroidvania types, but will admit Rondo of Blood is better than any of the GBA/DS titles. I would put Symphony and Rondo as my 1 and 2 and Dawn of Sorrow, Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance as my 3,4 and 5.

As far as Majora's Mask the brilliance of that game is the reason I hated it. I don't like the time travel game mechanic. I have heard people talk about why the light and dark world is also a brilliant game mechanic and I hate it every time Nintendo uses a variation of it.

According to this site today's games are:

Actraiser (SNES)
J.J. & Jeff (TurboGrafx)
Kid Chameleon (Sega)

But who knows...