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Let me preface this review by stating that I don't care much for Nintendo, the N64 or the meagre library of games available for that system. When Zelda first arrived, the first thing I had to do was find where I had stored my N64. It had been so long since I had used it that a spider had taken up residence in the cartridge slot.

After dusting it off, hooking it up and turning it on, I was rewarded by one of the greatest games I've ever played through. Zelda goes straight into the list of top all time games ever made, along with Civilization, Daytona USA, Tetris and a few select others.

Supposedly, this is a role-playing game, although you won't find the letters RPG anywhere on the Zelda box or instructions and this game has more in common with Super Mario 64 than it does with Fallout, Diablo or Ultima.

You play as Link, a young boy from the land of Hyrule who has been raised among a forest people known as the Kokiri. An evil man named Ganondorf is threatening the peace and stability of the world and Link must embark on an epic quest to recover several magic artifacts to foil Ganondorf's plans.

The game is divided into two stages: Link as a child and then Link as an adult. Actions you take as a child will carry over into the second stage of the game and have repercussions. Certain abilities like crawling through small spaces can only be performed when Link is young and small and other actions can only be taken once Link has become larger and stronger.

The game progresses as Link finds more of the magic artifacts he needs and the manner in which he obtains each object is complex and varies quite a bit. Link must talk to various non-player characters to find information about the whereabouts of the objects. He also must acquire various tools, skills and weapons to aid his search and the acquisition of each of these things involves its own subquest. Once you have all you need to make the final push towards getting an artifact, the temple that contains it must be entered and navigated. These temples seem more like dungeons and are filled with nasty creatures and challenging puzzles that can only be beaten in specific ways.

Zelda heading toward Death Mountain.

Fighting a huge Boss character.

A good example can be found in the Forest Temple: An icon hangs on a wall in a room. You must strike the icon in order to proceed to the next room, but the icon is covered in ice. In the center of the room is a stone pillar with a lit torch on top of it. This stone pillar is being circled by six other fast moving stone pillars. To get through this puzzle, you have to jump onto one of the moving pillars and fire an arrow through the lit torch on the central pillar and into the frozen icon hanging on the wall in oredr to melt it. Figuring out that this is what is required of you is no easy task, let alone getting your timing and aim right to execute the solution.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time is full of similarly well-crafted puzzles, each of them unique and some of them quite baffling. You may find yourself scratching your head and walking away from your TV for a few hours as you ponder the latest development.

The graphics are very good but aren't flashy like some PC game graphics. They don't draw attention to themselves, but instead quietly serve as a foundation to move the story along. The music plays a similar background role here, although some of the tunes are quite nice while others have that cloying Disney-esque saccharine sweet quality to them that'll have anyone over the age of eighteen turning the volume down.

As good as Zelda is, it's a typical Nintendo style of game with cutesy characters and platform game type problems to solve. If you don't own an N64, you've probably decided that you don't care for these types of games and so there's no reason for you to try this thing out. However, if you do own an N64, you have to play this. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the best game Nintendo has ever made.

Over the past two decades, Nintendo's dominance of the video game industry has slipped as Sony has taken a leadership position among home console makers and the home PC has gained importance as a viable gaming platform. One thing that hasn't changed over time is Nintendo's ability to make some truly outstanding games.

Company:
Nintendo
www.nintendo.com

Category:
action-RPG/Adventure

NOTES:

Interest: 95%
Control : 95%
Graphics: 90%
Sound : 90%
Originality : 94%

TOTAL : 95%

Requirements:

Nintendo 64

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