The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Ocarina of Time, the first Zelda game for the Nintendo 64, was undoubtedly one of the most widely anticipated games of its age. Released on the 1st November 1998, it was the first of the Legend of Zelda series to be in 3D (previous Zelda games had utilised a front or top-down view). It is generally considered to be a classic, most famously scoring a perfect 40/40 in Famitsu Magzine - a feat which only five games have ever achieved.

You play as Link, a boy of approximately 10 years of age, who lives in forest village called Kokiri Forest, watched over by a guardian tree, the Great Deku Tree. Link is the only child in Kokiri Forest who does not have his own guardian fairy, a fact exploited by Mido, the self-appointed "leader" of the Kokiri, to bully Link. One day, the Great Deku Tree sends a guardian fairy called Navi to Link, instructing her to bring him to the Deku Tree's meadow...

In most timelines, Ocarina of Time is considered to take place chronologically first out of all the Legend of Zelda games. However, disputes arise as to the precise nature of the timeline established at the end of the game. Whether that involves a new timeline created in which Ganondorf will not exist in Hyrule or whether Link was merely sent back to the child timeline he was in whenever he placed the Master Sword back in the pedestal is not at all clear from the ending sequence, and is an issue of contention among Zelda players.

There are three different versions of game cartriges, 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. The differences are minor, but include colour (1.1 and 1.2 are grey, 1.0 cartriges can be gold or grey) and a minor sword glitch in 1.0 that was fixed in 1.1.

It was also later rereleased for GameCube, and was included on the bonus disk that came with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in Europe and in the U.S. by getting a new GameCube bundled with the disk or by a one year supscription to Nintedo Power. The disk also included MM, LoZ, AoL, a TWW Demo and a Retrospective of the Zelda series. It was also included on the bonus disk that came with TWW, along with a remixed OoT Master Quest, which flaunted brand new dungeon puzzles.

The official site for the Legend of Zelda is http://www.zelda.com/universe/game/ocarinatime/.