Genre:
Developer: EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
# of Players: 1 Player
Memory: 15 blocks
ERSB: Everyone
Released On: February 16th, 2003
Also On: Nintendo 64
Features: Progressive Scan

Introduction:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, like many other games in the franchise, is considered to be one of the greatest, if not greatest, games of all time. When it was released on the Nintendo 64, everyone thought the console had lost all its steam, but Ocarina of Time was its saving grace. No one knew it then (I sure didn’t), but Ocarina of Time would deliver a videogame experience that only few can, and which Nintendo almost always does.

The Legend of Zelda’s first “original” GameCube appearance is on the horizon, and in anticipation of Link’s Cel Shaded adventure Nintendo has launched a promotion, that upon pre-order of the GameCube’s Wind Waker, you will receive a free GameCube enhanced version of the Nintendo 64’s Ocarina of Time, and the previously never before released N64 DD game, Master Quest (a.k.a Ura Zelda).

Is Ocarina of Time timeless? Only those who dare wield the Master Sword can find out.

Presentation:

Those whom have played Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64 shouldn’t be expecting anything new with this GameCube port of the game. It’s the same game we played to death a couple of years ago, and in a way that’s not exactly a good thing. Many of us know Ocarina of Time better than the people that live in our own household (Hell, I still remember where each one of the 100 Gold Skulltula are in the game!) and for gamers like myself playing it again on the GameCube isn’t too great of an experience…This is most likely due the game’s outdated presentation. The visuals, by today’s standards, are nothing to be proud about, and back on the Nintendo 64 they weren’t too spectacular either. At least for the GameCube release a few things have been enhanced, making this GameCube version easier to bare than its Nintendo 64 ancestor, but there’s one area where Ocarina of Time for the GameCube fails…Saving. On the Nintendo 64 saving wasn’t even an issue, but on the GameCube, due to the switch of software mediums from Cartridge to Optical Discs, saving takes about 5 seconds. That doesn’t sound too bad does it? Well, I don’t care…Nintendo has doomed themselves by ditching the cartridge format! DOOMED!

Gameplay:

The greatest of games should be able to withstand the test of time, and now it’s time for Nintendo to prove that Ocarina of Time didn’t win that 1998 Game of the Year award just because of franchise loyalty. Well, they don’t have to prove anything to me…

Like Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time was the Legend of Zelda’s drastic move from 2D to 3D, and just like Super Mario 64, OoT shocked gamers across the globe. You were still Link, except this time you would be traveling across the world of Hyrule in 3D, on foot or even on your trusty steed Epona. As Link, you traveled into the Forest, into a Mountain of molten rock and flame, through the blinding desert, or even to the home of the dead, but most importantly you traveled across time itself.

Traveling through time isn’t stressed upon as much as, let’s say, Majora’s Mask, another Zelda game, but enough for it to have a huge impact on how the game plays and even its story. In OoT you play as Child Link and Adult Link... As a child Link must travel throughout Hyrule and gather the three Spiritual Stones, to open the Door of Time, and save Hyrule and the Sacred Realm from the evil King of the Gerudos, Ganondorf. After going to the Temple of Time, and pulling out the Master Sword from its pedestal, Link is frozen in time for seven years, awakening in his Adult form, to his own shock and disbelief. As an adult Link must awaken the Six Sages, most of which, whom are people that he’s encountered throughout the first part of the game, as a child.

As an adult, Link loses all the items that he wielded as a child, such as the Boomerang and Slingshot, but now he has the ability to acquire cooler items such as the Hookshot, and Bow and Arrow. The Hookshot is one of the more interesting items in the game, when using it the game goes into first person perspective, and you can only use it on certain surfaces. What it does is pull Link from one area to another, like a grappling hook. Of course, it can also be used as a weapon, to kill or even stun your enemies; it can become very useful when Link is short on, or out of, arrows.

Like I said above, when equipping the Hookshot, or any other projectile weapon such as the Bow and Arrow, or Slingshot, you move into the first person perspective, but with the game’s transition from the Nintendo 64 to GameCube, aiming does not work as smoothly as it once did. Obviously, this is due to the reason that Ocarina of Time was designed around the Nintendo 64 pad. Unfortunately, aiming isn’t the only thing hindered… playing Link’s Ocarina has become more difficult since the GameCube lacks the C Button layout of the Nintendo 64, and the C-Stick seems to out of the way, causing songs played with both the A and C Buttons to sound out of rhythm, and perfectionists like myself always want to play the Ocarina songs perfectly. Veteran Ocarina of Time players, who were so talented using the Ocarina, that they actually learned how to play some of their favorite songs (for example: I learned how to play KISS’s War Machine) on their Ocarina will also have more difficulty manipulating the tones of the Ocarina with the GameCube pad. Of course, in time you will become adjusted to the controller change, it’s just that the game played better on the N64’s pad.

Now, let’s actually get talking about the gameplay itself…

Ocarina of Time, just like all Zelda games before it, features its fare share of dungeon crawling, puzzle solving, and side quests. In actuality, it basically follows the same formula found in all of its predecessors. Is that a bad thing? Well, it depends on how you look at it. At one point I thought that the series lacked originality, but we all say and think stupid things sometimes, and when it came down to the bottom line, I realized that there’s really only one goal that Ocarina of Time tries to achieve… And that is being a fun and enjoyable gaming experience, something which it accomplishes flawlessly. There are just so many things to do in the game, aside from the main quest of saving the world… You can go fishing, sell masks, race on you horse, go ghost hunting, and even collect bugs. There’s just so many cool little extras that this game features, that listing them would make this review go on even longer, and I honestly don’t want to bore you since it would be easier just for you to find out on your own.

Some fool also classified the Legend of Zelda franchise to be part of the RPG genre, it shares some similarities to the other games of the genre but not too many. But one of the few things Ocarina of Time features that is similar to an RPG such as, for instance, Skies of Arcadia, is interaction with your world and the people living in it. Though OoT does not feature too many NPCs roaming Hyrule, there’s just enough to keep things interesting. Most of the characters you meet, are for the most part comical, such as Talon and Ingo, who both strike a resemblance to Nintendo’s own Super Mario and Luigi characters, with Talon being the fat, lazy, and more famous of the two while Ingo Is the tall and skinny, hardworking fellow who always gets ridiculed by the masses. All n’ all, there’s never a dull moment in Hyrule.

I have one question about the game that has never been answered, and that is… What the hell is with the cows!? I walk up Death Mountain Trail, and what do I hear? Moooooo! There’s a freaking cow stuck in some hole, and on top of that they want me to milk them! Jeez…

Visuals:

In 1998 Ocarina of Time wasn’t the best looking Nintendo 64 title, but it was one of the more polished ones. It featured large environments for you to explore, and it used particle effects like no other before it. Back then, I never thought anything of the game’s visuals, nothing good about them or even anything bad, but now, in day where visuals is stressed upon more than ever, I cannot help but cringe. For the most part, the GameCube version of Ocarina of Time is identical to its Nintendo 64 twin, but some things that I personally had a problem with, after going back to the Nintendo 64 version after a few years, has been dealt with to a certain extent. This problem was the framerate issue, once again I reiterate that in 1998 I had thought nothing of the framerate issue in Ocarina of Time, but when the next wave of consoles came to be (Dreamcast, GameCube, etc…) I realized that the Nintendo 64 version of Ocarina of Time had some serious framerate issues. This port of the game almost solves the problem. Now the game is easier upon the eyes of a modern gamer, but I’ve still witnessed a few instances where the game seems to stutter.