Zelda

A few weeks ago, I searched the house up and down finally found our Nintendo 64. I looked everywhere for it and didn’t want to give up until I found it. Why? For one reason, and one reason only: Zelda. Well, I guess there were two reasons: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. A few times every year, I go to YouTube and listen to the various soundtracks in Ocarina of Time (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3). These are the original soundtracks, taken from the actual data in the game. The nostalgia that comes from listening to these is intense. This time around, I came upon two tracks which did me in: a vocalized Temple of Time track & an Ocarina of Time rap. Once I found the console with all the games, I sifted through the cartridges and pulled out the two Zelda titles. I blew into the Ocarina of Time cartridge for good luck and jammed it in to the console. Success!

Ocarina of Time is a wonderful game with beautiful music and a great story. I love it to bits - all 64 of them. From finding a sword and shield to exploring the depths of the forest and caverns to getting a horse to growing up and realizing more power with every medallion and item to facing the big boss and everything in between, it’s all brilliant.

Majora’s Mask, I find, is underrated. The first time around, I didn’t enjoy it too, too much. It was good, but I longed to go back to Ocarina of Time. This time, however, I realized that this game is magnificent - and it should be. Nintendo took the success of Ocarina of Time, and added to it. They reused every character from the OoT and gave them all new roles. Why? So they could focus their energy on a new world and gameplay, that latter of which is vastly superior to OoT. Epona’s faster, the Bunny Hood is a Godsend, the Fairy Sword is insane, and the abilities of the various masks are sometimes greater than the weapons themselves. The best example of this is the Fierce Deity mask. Oh. My. Wow. This mask makes Link even nuttier than Adult Link in OoT. This is where the greatest fault of MM lies. The big boss is way too easy. The first time around, I struggled because I didn’t collect all the masks and took on Majora’s Mask/Incarnation/Wrath as Link. This time around, I did the entire Bomber’s Notebook and got every mask and did the last battle with the Fierce Deity mask. I guess the reward is a Link who is capable of insane things like shooting magic with every swing of the sword, but it also meant that the last battle was over in a few minutes. Ah well.

Anyway, I resisted completely geeking out in this post. If you’re still reading and a lot of that went over your head, trust me when I say that it could have been much geekier. I apologize to true fans for not totally opening up the can :).

Let’s hear some stories. Is there anything from your childhood that makes you giddy when you revisit it?