Ocarina of Time

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Ocarina of Time is a very important game, not only to the Zelda franchise but also to gaming in general.  It was one of the first big 3D action/exploration/adventure games and it helped define the genres.  It's also obviously what all the later 3D Zelda games were based on.

First I should say that I loved this game as a kid.  I've beaten it many times and for years I would consider it a 10/10 game.  I still think it's a 10/10 game for the time when it came out.  It will always have a special place in my heart and my gaming nostalgia.

With that said, it honestly hasn't aged well.  I went back and played hours of it and found a lot of frustration.  The controls, camera, and some of the 3D spacial thinking are just old.  And I was even playing the remastered HD version on 3DS where they fixed a lot of things.  So, while this game is important and I still love it when looking at it via nostalgia I just don't want to play it again right now.  Maybe some day but not at the moment.

I actually kind of equate Ocarina of Time to Final Fantasy VII.  Both were amazing games when they released.  Both helped define genres.  Both are amazing when viewed with nostalgia.  Neither one has aged all that well.

It's surprising to me that 2D games seem to age better.  A Link to the Past was still amazing and that game came out almost 25 years ago.

I'm going to hop over to Majora's Mask next and see what I think.  Maybe it will be better since it breaks from the traditional Zelda storytelling with it's non-linearity.  But, it is built on the exact same engine as this game so I expect to find many of the same frustrations as well.

Even though it didn't hold up as well as I expected I still find it easy to slot into my current Zelda rankings.  I can't possibly diminish what the game was at the time and how much it matters to the series and gaming in general.

Here's what my rankings are looking like:
  1.  A Link to the Past (1991) 
  2.  Ocarina of Time (1998)
  3.  The Legend of Zelda (1987)
  4.  Link's Awakening (1993)
  5.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988)

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