Zelda 35th anniversary: Why Ocarina of Time is still my favorite

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Zelda 35th anniversary: Why Ocarina of Time is still my favorite

(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the all-time games I've never finished. My tenuous alibi is that I used to go stuck a lot, and information technology takes a while to figure out the dungeons. As a child brought up in the internet-less wilds of rural West Wales, with sports and school taking upwards my time, my progress through Ocarina of Time was glacial.

Every bit I made my fashion through this N64 game in a piecemeal mode, PC and original Xbox gaming arrived to court my attention. Then I moved out of my childhood abode, leaving my N64 behind, with Link waiting to take on the dominate at the Spirit Temple. I was so most the end, and yet so far. Until the relative liberty of university life, I'd ever played games in fits and spurts. Yet despite my bizarre approach to it, Ocarina of Time is seared into my memory.

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And rightly so. At the time, Ocarina was a staggering game. Even today, it still offers an experience that feels different than so many mod games that have taken inspiration from it.

I remember, likely with a heady dose of nostalgia, getting out of the Kokiri Wood and into Hyrule Field. That greenish space with pure bluish skies and multiple routes to explore seemed vast to my young heed — a heed untouched by the open worlds of The Witcher iii and Skyrim.

The sheer volume of things to gawk at, explore, slice, and snag with the hookshot felt incredible at the time. And arguably, they nonetheless feel incredible.

I retrieve zipping onto the roofs of the houses Kakariko Village, more than than a decade before blinking onto Dunwall townhouse roofs in Dishonored.

Ocarina of Time is stuffed to the Zora gills with memorable moments. From getting your equus caballus, Epona, to the zombie horror that Hyrule Castle Town becomes later on y'all draw the Master Sword from the Temple of Time, to the impossibly catchy theme tune of Gerudo Valley.

But more than that, Ocarina of Time felt like a properly advanced game. Not merely did you have to use a whole load of items to solve dungeon puzzles, but you could also use various tools, or even songs tapped out on the titular Ocarina of Time, to dispatch enemies. A shot from the hookshot could stun a especially mobile enemy, letting you slice it upward.

(Epitome credit: Nintendo)

The tone of Ocarina of Time was likewise fantastically varied, but in a manner that made sense rather than feeling disjointed. The refreshing effulgence of Hyrule Field in daytime tuned into a menacing expanse at night, with skeletal enemies rising out of the ground at every turn.

Hyrule Castle Town is a cluster of cheer and color as immature Link. Merely for adult Link, information technology's a ghost boondocks filled with ReDead zombies that nonetheless requite this 34-year-former author the shivers. (And I've just remembered the Wallmaster. That's even scarier.)

A bevy of heady and smart boss battles, likewise as a suite of challenges, such every bit the one to become Biggoron'southward Sword, sprinkle yet more than magic on Ocarina of Time.

While the Legend of Zelda games take a rich history and heritage for newer titles to draw upon — looking at you Breath of the Wild 2 — I'd argue that Ocarina of Time is one of the about influential Zelda games. There's a clear throughline from Ocarina to Breath of the Wild, which is some other like shooting fish in a barrel contender for the best game of all time.

Thanks to Eon Gaming's Super 64 unit, I'k at present able to run my N64 on my 4K TV. And equally we're now celebrating 35 years of Zelda, I think it'southward about time I had another stab at Ocarina of Time. Now, I may finally finish information technology.

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Roland Moore-Colyer is U.Chiliad. Editor at Tom'south Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes most gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk-bound Roland can be institute wandering around London, oftentimes with a look of curiosity on his confront.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/zelda-35th-anniversary-why-ocarina-of-time-is-still-my-favorite

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