Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Impossible matchups No. 22 Super Mario Bros. 3 vs. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time They came out almost nine years apart on two different Nintendo consoles, and both still get called the greatest game ever made. Which one was the better game?

Battle of the N64 Titans Super Mario 64 vs. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Super Mario 64 launched with the Nintendo 64 in North America, with Ocarina of Time coming two years later. Both still get named as the best game on the system. Which one was the better N64 game?

Impossible matchups No. 9 GoldenEye 007 vs. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Both came out on the Nintendo 64 about a year apart, and both get named as the best game on the system. I rented Ocarina from Blockbuster when it came out and kept it a full week before we had to return it. The game was good but running across Hyrule Field got tiresome after a while. We owned GoldenEye and this game turned into a Saturday tradition. My neighborhood friends would come over and we'd play the 4 player multiplayer for hours. Which one was the better Nintendo 64 game?

5. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) I rented this from Blockbuster right after it came out and kept it the whole week, and seeing Link running around a 3D world was unlike anything else on the system at the time. Then it got boring. It was fun in 1998, and it has not aged well at all.

1. Ocarina of Time The highest reviewed video game in history at a 99, and the default number one pick on more lists than anything else ever released. It was fun in 1998 and it has not aged well at all. Majora's Mask is the better game on the same engine, darker and more interesting from start to finish.

Impossible matchups No. 1 Metal Gear Solid vs. Zelda Ocarina of Time Both came out in 1998. Both get called the greatest game ever made. I found Metal Gear Solid on the shelf at Fry's Electronics, bought it because it looked interesting, and it turned into one of the best games I've ever played. Ocarina was fun in 1998 but I don't think it's aged all that well. Which one was the better 1998 game?

Final Fantasy VII or Zelda Ocarina of Time? I rented Ocarina of Time from Blockbuster when it came out and kept it the whole week. Link running around a 3D open world was really something else. Fun in 1998 but hasn't aged well at all. Final Fantasy VII I didn't play until years later when I finally had a PlayStation. Everybody told me it was the best game ever made. I couldn't get into it. Which one was the better game?

Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask? I remember playing Ocarina of Time after it got released in 1998. We rented it from Blockbuster and ended up holding onto it for a full week. This game was nothing short of impressive. Link running around in a 3D open world was incredible, but eventually it got boring. A couple of years later Majora's Mask came out and I found it to be way more entertaining. Same engine, but a much darker game. The moon in this game was straight up nightmare fuel. Which Zelda game on the Nintendo 64 did you like more?

Honest and Unpopular Reviews No. 11 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) I'm just going to say it: This is the most overrated game ever made. It's a good game. I replayed it recently, start to finish, as an adult. That's where this review is coming from, because I don't think most of the people calling it the greatest game ever made have played it since they were kids. Go back to it now and the first thing that hits you is how much of this game is spent running across nothing. Hyrule Field is a big empty rectangle with a few Peahats and some holes in it, and you cross it constantly. And before you ever get out there you're stuck doing errands in Kokiri Forest with Navi talking the whole time, because you can't even get into the Deku Tree until you've got the sword and the shield. Forest Temple is great. Fire Temple is hallways. Then there's the Water Temple. It isn't hard. The puzzles are fine. The problem is the iron boots, which you need to sink and walk underwater, are an equipment item buried in a pause menu, so the dungeon becomes pause, equip boots, walk, pause, unequip boots, swim, over and over for an hour. Even Nintendo admits this one. Eiji Aonuma, who directed the dungeon and went on to run the entire Zelda series, publicly apologized for it years later, and the 3DS remake moved the boots to a touch screen button so you'd never have to open the menu. When the guy who built it says sorry, it's not just me being contrarian. The story is thinner than people remember too. Ganondorf gets everything he wants the second you pull the Master Sword, and then he basically disappears for the entire adult half of the game while you work down a checklist of five sages, one per dungeon, until the game decides you're allowed to fight him. There's no real second act. What people are actually remembering is the music, and to be fair, the music deserves it. Gerudo Valley, Song of Storms, the Lost Woods. Koji Kondo put one of the best soundtracks ever made on that cartridge and I won't argue with anyone about that. But a great soundtrack wrapped around a thin story is still a thin story. What Ocarina actually earned is Z-targeting. Before this game, nobody had really figured out how to fight in 3D. Ocarina solved it by letting you lock onto an enemy so the camera holds on them while you circle, strafe, and block. That system is basically in every 3D action game since. That's the real legacy, and it's a bigger one than the story or the world ever was. Majora's Mask is the better game and it isn't perfect either. Ocarina sits at number one because it got there first, and a perfect score from 1998 has been handed down ever since without anyone stopping to ask if it still holds up. I rate this one a 4 out of 5.