The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Template:Infobox CVG

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 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. 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.

Versions

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. The color of Ganon's blood was also changed from red to green, and the background music in the Fire Temple was changed to edit out the choir as Nintendo felt it resembled a holy Muslim chant, and didn't want to offend anybody.

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.

Links and Reviews

Ocarina of Time page on ZU: Includes maps, strategies, game info and more.

Master Quest entry on the ZU Wiki

Ocarina of Time review on VGRC: 9.75 out of 10