The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

About
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 24th 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.

Story
You play as Link, a young boy who lives in a 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. After the the Deku tree summons the young boy he asks Link to break the curse that the man of the desert cast on him. Link courageously excepts the Deku Trees plee. After Link lifts the curse the Deku Tree tells Link that he was doomed before link had tried. With the Deku Trees last breath he relates what Link must do in order to restore peace to hyrule. What follows is a time-traveling good time that won over the hearts of gamers worldwide in a classic battle of good vs evil.

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.

Gameplay
The gameplay of Ocarina of Time was revolutionary. All of the previous Zelda games, though they had the same core of exploring dungeons and using items, had nowhere near the same effect. The three-dimensional environment, the enhanced sound and the greater graphical capacity allowed Nintendo to create a truly realistic environment beyond that which had been done before, allowing for cheerful environments like Hyrule Castle Town and Kokiri Forest, and separating them completely from dark areas like Ganon's Tower and the Shadow Temple. The unique style of gameplay was later recycled for other Zelda games, which never reached the same level of originality that Ocarina of Time did.

Versions
There are three different versions of game cartriges, 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. The differences are minor, but include cartridge colour -- 1.1 and 1.2 are grey, 1.0 can be gold or grey -- and a minor sword glitch in 1.0 that was fixed in 1.1. The color of Ganon's blood was changed from red to green, and also changed were minor glitches in the Twinrova fight scene. The background music in the Fire Temple was changed to edit out a choir that Nintendo felt resembled a holy Muslim chant, to avoid offending Muslims.

It was later rereleased for GameCube on the bonus disk that came with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! in Europe and was available in the U.S. by getting a new GameCube bundled with the disk or with 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 released as a bonus disk with TWW, including with a remixed OoT Master Quest, which presented brand new dungeon puzzles.

In 2006, it was announced that the original N64 version would be availble for download on the Wii's Virtual Console in the future.

Related Articles

 * The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest

Links and Reviews

 * Ocarina of Time page on ZU: Includes maps, strategies, game info and more.
 * Ocarina of Time review on VGRC.net: 9.75 out of 10