The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review by Tyson
Overall
Buy
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time is one of those games that proves that the Nintendo 64 can produce epic length games just as well as the PlayStation and the Saturn.
Gameplay
Ocarina of Time has a story that many Zelda fans will be familiar with but also has a pretty unique twist. Gannon has taken over the Hyrule kingdom and it’s up to Link to stop him. What I really enjoyed about the story was how it used various time traveling aspects where you need to jump between a child and adult version of Link.
Anyone who has played a Zelda game before is going to be very familiar with the gameplay concepts here. You control Link who must explore the land, collect items, and enter various dungeons to defeat the evil inside of them. While this explanation may not make the game sound awesome but trust me it is.
The world of Hyrule is pretty huge and experiencing it in 3D is pretty awesome. I loved how amazed I was as soon as I stepped into Hyrule Field and got to see the scope of everything. While the land is huge you do get some neat ways of moving around. Part way through the game you get a horse that you can call on to move around the land faster but you can also use your ocarina to warp to certain sections of the environment.
The combat and dungeon design in this game are top notch. You get your standard sword and shield to attack with but then many of the items you collect can be used as weapons as well. I also enjoyed how many of the items you collect can be used as puzzle solving devices as well. Say you need to light an unlit brazier. You can use your Deku Stick as a make shift torch to bring fire from another lit brazier to the unlit one. Dungeons are also excellently designed as well. They each have their own theme and have their own item that you can collect in them. I liked how the dungeon items are used to battle the dungeon bosses as well.
Another great aspect of Ocarina of Time is that the game has a huge supply of side quests or mini games to play. You will constantly find some new mini game to play to get a much needed item upgrade or heart piece. This is a game where you can spend a lot of time doing side quests along with the main story
Control
I found the control to be well designed. You use the analog stick to move link while the A and B buttons perform certain actions. You can also use the C buttons to quickly switch between some items. I liked how the Z trigger also will lock onto an object or enemy but also center the camera around it.
Graphics
Ocarina of Time is one of those games that showcases that Nintendo really knows how to use the Nintendo 64 hardware. The world is huge, colorful, and detailed. Every area of the game also seems to have its own unique look to it as well. I liked the games day and night graphic effect as well.
While there are some blurry textures and some frame rate issues here and here it doesn’t take away from how good the game looks. This game is a definite step up from games like Super Mario 64.
Sound
I found the audio in this game to be fantastic. The background music is really nice and there are tons of different sounds effects for your items and weapons. The only downside to the audio is that you don’t have full length voices like you do in PlaySation or Saturn games. Most you will get is some kind of yell or other like noise that pops up from characters here and there.