A stellar refinement of one of video gaming's highest pinnacles
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, is truly a special game. It is one of those rare treats in an artistic medium for which the universal praise and superlatives are entirely true no matter what angle you look at it from. Very few would argue against Ocarina of Time's greatness, or its lasting impact on the industry as a whole, and the fact remains that even after all these years since its release, it still reigns supreme as the world record holder for highest rated game in history. To attempt to remake such a classic masterpiece is a very daunting task indeed, but developer Grezzo, under Nintendo's watchful eye, did just that. The question is, is the remake worthy of the original's name? In short, yes, yes it is. This, to me, is the shining example of what remakes should be, but allow me to go into greater detail to explain why I think this.
Full Disclosure: The Legend of Zelda series is my favorite...
Perfection Refined
In the field of motion pictures, a generally accepted norm for "greatest film ever made" seems to be Orson Welles' classic
"Citizen Kane." Because games are a relatively young medium compared to cinema, it was only until about 14 years ago that
a contender for "greatest game ever made" stepped forth. To this day, many consider it to be the birthing place of 3D conventions
that are still used quite frequently. That game is "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time", and on the 25'th anniversary of the
Zelda franchise, Nintendo has given it a facelift on it's newest handheld, the 3DS. Diehard fans of the original (raises hand)
and newcomers alike are about to astounded by the results.
For the virgins in the audience, "Ocarina of Time" follows Link, a young boy who lives in the Kokiri Forest, a place where children frolic about with fairy companions. But a peaceful game this is not, for the patriarch of the forest, The Great Deku Tree, summons the boy...
Feels like going back in time
I have played the original and every iteration after. This version is truely unique. It's not the stunning remastered graphics, because on the gamecube they changed textures and that did little to change much. It's not the easier to manage control scheme, because the game has spaned 3 consoles before this with 2 control schemes (c-stick ocarina was NOT fun). It's the feeling of the game that's really new. I've played before, hundreds of times, and this is game feels like the first.
You can tell that those who worked on this have played as much as any other player who's had it since the beginning. From the big changes (like switching from a boomerang puzzle to a bomb puzzle in the Gohma larva room), to the ever so slight (like moving the grated north wall of the first basement room over 1 foot, so you can't collect the skulltula token while jump slashing off the edge and thus have to regular jump)(or like how all the logs on the top floor are all the same length instead of...
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