Ocarina of Time
:// INTRO
I never had a Nintendo 64. Well, correction, I never had a Nintendo 64 when everyone else had one. Basically everyone I knew had one. I was living in Mexico at the time, hell, they even had what could be best described as “Nintendo bars” where you could go play Nintendo 64 for about 10 pesos an hour. They even offered chips and soda (for sale of course).
One of the games that any Nintendo fan worth his weight would recommend is The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. This game used to scare me. It used to scare the shit out of me. This thing was perfect in every way.
The game play. The story. The graphics.
Then I replayed it with my family,
22 years later.
And it sucked.
:// NINTENDON’T DO CDs
Well not actually. The game is still great in many aspects and deservedly so should be on any top gaming list.
But damn has it not aged well.
I don’t mind the low poly graphics. Hell, I have an eerie (probably sexual) fascination for low poly graphics. But this game would have been greatly helped on a CD. Those Hyrule Field textures would look nice. It is actually surprising the big N managed to fit this game on a cart. You can tell today with a trained eye (which will cost you around $100k for that Bachelor of Arts) how they cut corners to make everything “look nice”.
:// 199X
1998.
Damn, the Bulls were winning championships. USA crashed and burned out of the World Cup (which would eventually lead to the creation of the Dos a Cero ^_^). Doom was released, 5 years before that?
The worst thing about playing Ocarina of Time today is the damn controls.
Let’s be honest. The camera sucks. My guys in Japan should have played something, anything on PC. Especially a First Person Shooter.
As Ocarina of Time features a first person mode. Dude! Up is up and down is down. Not up is down and down is up.
OK, I get that this was way early in the 3D days. Hell, this might be one of the golden years of 3D gaming. But dude, they should have added an option to toggle either set up. It’s called user experience son. Just cause something might be OK for someone, doesn’t mean it won’t suck for someone else.
Options….
That d-pad baby. I know back then Nintendo had a fixation on their 3D stick and Z-targeting. But that big ass d-pad on the left could have been used to toggle between armor, swords and shields. I’ll let the C buttons slide. I don’t mind setting any item to those buttons.
That shit is cool.
That final boss battle
:// THAT GAMING LEGACY
As (probably mildly) flawed as the game is. This is a title that needs to be experienced by everyone.
There have been many, many iconic moments in the Zelda series. The damn thing is even responsible for some of the best fan sites on the net.
Yes my children, many moons ago fans would actually build brick and mortar sites. Breaking out that HTML on custom URLs.
I’m a man that is all about the spaces. Those environments. Fuck, The Forest Temple.
That place is just amazing. It’s up there with the final lab in the classic Resident Evil 1 and 2.
I ain’t playing that 3DS remake though. That thing is gonna sit on my shelf until the day I expire.