Some games are good, some games are bad, some are magnificent, and some are just so bad you want to get your hammer out, smash it up, put it in the blender, add it to some dynamite, bury it six feet under and blow it up. I am here to look at The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A game that is said to be so great *someone holding a Nintendo 64 and the Ocarina of Time walks past* it is probably said to be the greatest game ever created. I have thought, “yeah, I heard a game can be good, but it can’t be that good, can it?” *the same guy thrusts a N64 controller in my hands* I don’t think a game can be that good. *someone Switches on the N64* How can a game make you feel so full of joy? I just don’t think it’s possible that such a game could ever....*looks at the title screen for Ocarina of time, and a Narrator over voice while my face is frozen* The music was soothing, relaxing even. The clouds and stars in the background looked as real as they did in real life. The animation and sound of the horse looked and sounded spectacular. It was love at first sight. It was then I knew this game would be legendary. And I was never happier that I was wrong about a game. *over voice ends*

....Exist.....*snaps out of frozen trans* You know what, take everything I said in the first paragraph, take out a hammer and smash it up, put it in the blender, add it to some dynamite, bury it six feet under and blow it up. I judged a Jekyll by its Hyde. I have a good feeling I’m going to love this game. So I’ll just make a save file......ah, I need a name. I’ll think of something different other than “Link”.....*after a short moment* accurately, I’ll go with “Link”.

So the story starts out as a guardian of the forest, the Great Deku Tree, saying that he protects the Kokiri’s, and each of Kokirian has a guardian fairy, except for one boy. This is you. We go to the Great Deku Tree who calls Navi, a fairy, and talks to him that the rise of evil is coming, and Navi must go to the boy without a fairy. Now, this is pretty rare in terms of a plot. It’s not in-your-face, it’s subtle, like your being
told the story by someone. No back story of someone else, no evil villain plotting out loud, just a short story to start off with, and gets you in the game quickly. Then later you’ll be reviled more history of Hyrule and what’s going on later. Now Navi’s flying to Links house. This is one of my favourite scenes in the history of cut-scenes. When you watch this, you will smile. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. It’s one of the rare flying scenes that can simulate the feeling of flight. There is one more scene like this, on top of Death Mountian.

So Navi wakes Link up and they must go to the Great Deku Tree. This is when you start playing. You can explore the Kokiri Village. You can learn things here that’ll help you in game. The currency of the game is Ruppes, which are gems. They range from green (1) to “huge” (200), but those are rare and right now, you can only hold 99 ruppes. So when you’re done exploring, you can go to the Great Deku Tree. But wait, someone is blocking your path. I hate this guy. And this guy hates me. He won’t let you through unless you have been summoned by the Great Deku Tree. Well you have, but he still won’t let you through. You need a sword and shield as well. So you have to look for a sword and shield. After that, he is stunned in amazement that you have a sword and shield. He lets you through, but after saying “a wimp is still a wimp”. Why do you have to be like that?

Well, no time to worry about that, you got to go to the Great Deku Tree. He talks to you saying that a great evil is a foot, and laid a curse on him. So you must go inside him and get rid of the curse in him. This is your first “dungeon” where you must fight, explore and solve puzzles. It’s all very fun, and a nice and easy way to start off this dungeon stuff. The controls are great, locking on makes fighting a dream, the
different types of attacks adds a little tactics to your fighting, and you don’t slip or slide, which is a great thing. I’m not saying much in this dungeon, but it’s easier to play and understand it than explaining it myself. Also, when you lock onto an enemy, Navi can tell you what it’s called and what it’s weak point is, that’s helpful, but can cost you a hit when trying to press the button to listen to her.

The bosses in each dungeon are creative and fun to fight. Each with their own weakness. A personal favourite of mine is Ganonndorf at the end. What makes it so great? You’ll have to play and find out =D  The puzzles in dungeons are fun as well. Not taxing, but you have to do a bit of exploring to do them. Some are clever, like the one in the water tower. So after you get rid of the curse, you must get the three spiritual stones to open the Door to Time. Someone give you an ocarina. So that’s what an ocarina looks like. You can play the ocarina to activate magic such as turn day to night, make a storm appear, and even warps you to other areas once you know their song. There’s something satisfying about taking out an ocarina and singing a song to solve problems. Ok, it won’t work in real life, trying to prove you’re of royalty by playing “Zeldas Lullaby”, to get into the houses of Parliament, but it just seems better than whipping out a wand or chanting words to get magical effects. You make your way to Zelda for history and plot.

So yeah, keeping this brief, after you have all three spiritual stones, you head back to Zelda, only to find that something is wrong. Zelda is riding away while Gannondorf is chasing her. Zelda throws something in the moat and you get knocked down by Gannondorf. You get the item in the moat to find that it’s *gasp!* The Ocarina of Time! It possesses magical powers….what makes it different from the first ocarina? I could do the same things with that ocarina as I could with this new one. I suppose it’s the only one that can use the Song of Time to the best advantage. So you grab the master sword and……more plot and a shocking twist in game play. You have aged seven years!

Now the true adventure starts, as you must get the six medallions from the six stages, break into Gannondorfs castle, and bring peace to Hyrule. Now the story is amazing. It’s not only a game, but a well told story. The ending is very touching. Some of the music in game is magnificent. My favourite being the ones you play on the ocarina. You can play the song the warps you to other places, and you could wait to listen to the whole song. Might be short, but some are powerful. At first, what my main concern of this game is “what if I don’t know where to go? I’ll be running around for hours with no progress” Trust me when I say this. That will rarely happen. I was surprised to find that it was easy to get from one spot to the next, and this game will get you wanting to explore the whole of Hyrule.

There are also some side-quests you can take part in, such as the “Happy Mask quest” where you have to find masks for people to make them happier. There are also games you can play for items or heart piece containers. Some are easy, others are hard. At some stage, you’ll get these magic beans that’ll take you to places, you just have to wait for them to grow. There are also these Golden Skulltulas that have cursed a very rich family, the more you kill, the more rewards you get from the family.  Stuff like this and other little secrets make for a good play value. There is so much exploring to do in this game. It’s a joy. The game offers a nice challenge, some of the bosses are harder to defeat that others, and you
might die once or twice, but with the help of a fairy, those bosses are no match for you.

The graphics in this game are incredible. The transition from day to night is just stunning. It almost looks like a real sunset. I once took some time to admire the art of this game by Death Mountain, it is that good. The insides of Lord Juba-Jubas belly brings the sense almost
like you’re inside the beast itself. I’m not sure what more I can say on the game. So all I can say is this. Play five-ten minutes of it. It’s all you need. After that, you’ll love the game so much you’ll want to continue playing it. But that was me. Overall, I love this game 9.8/10. To me, this game is like what Shakespeare is to literacy, what the Matrix is to films, what the Mona Lisa is to art. To me, this is not only a game, it is part of the gaming soul, and is a must play to any gamer out there, especially Zelda fans. The perfect game cannot exist, it just can’t happen. But if it did, it’ll look quiet a lot like this game.