The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time I didn't play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when it was first released in the late 1990s because I was too busy on my SEGA playing Sonic. However, I do remember that I always used to think the name Zelda referred to the main character. It wasn't until I watched The Legend of Neil that I realised the hero's name was Link …
I would argue that unless you have an N64 USB adaptor it's tricky to enjoy Ocarina of Time with an emulator. The N64 had six face buttons on its controller, while most joypads only have four. This means the C-buttons cannot easily be mapped to the face of a controller.
On the Wii Virtual Console version, Nintendo have mapped the C-buttons to the analogue stick, which I found to be usable but not ideal. Often I would try to select one item and accidentally nudge the stick too far along another axis and end up using something else entirely. It's also pretty fiddly when you want to rapidly fire arrows or the slingshot.
Also, I find most emulators can't use the rumble on modern joypads which means the Stone of Agony doesn't work either.
I think the best options are to get an N64 pad and USB adapter for the emulator or play it on the original hardware or get the 3DS version.
Got a warm fuzzy feeling just from the screenshots there. I spent far too much of my time playing this over and over when it came out. The world it created was huge, vivid and dying to be explored - a trait shared by all the best games in this genre IMHO). The amazing (at the time) graphics and the puzzles which, as the author states, were never too hard, but were always fun didn't hurt.
Happy times.
@A/C 07:39 The author did say the game was *debatably* the best, but I happen to agree with her. Link to the past certainly laid the groundwork and is a great game, but it didn't have anywhere near the atmosphere of Ocarina of Time.
Oh, I loved Wind Waker --- I used to spend hours sailing around that huge open ocean, exploring the little islands and strange things that popped up in the open sea. The way it seamlessly managed to merge all the islands into one huge zone was great.
Twilight Princess, by comparison, felt tiny and claustrophobic: the world was chopped up into discrete zones, all quite small, and too many of them involved running around in what amounted to tunnels. And of Skyward Sword, the less said the better --- this is less Zelda and more Banjo & Kazooie. Which was a shame, as the Wii hardware can do so much better. Go play Xenoblade Chronicles if you want to see how to handle wipe-open outdoor areas *properly*...
"I spent far too much of my time playing this over and over when it came out."
I still dig it out and play it now. I must have completed it about 10 times by now, and it was only on the last time (about a year ago) that I actually discovered the elusive 'deep lure' - I always thought it was a myth!
It was also the game that my wife would happily watch me play as it was like a movie. She was always amazed at how I could immediately work out a puzzle as soon as I walked into a room, not knowing it's all part of the 'Zelda' way :)
It's a decent game (though I prefer Majora's Mask of the N64 ones myself - Yeah I know, what a deviant etc etc)
If you want to play them today, your best bet IMO is to buy a copy of the Zelda retrospective disc for the Gamecube and play it on a Wii with a gamecube controller. I've read suggestions that the Virtual Console version also works with Gamecube controllers but as I've not tested that I'm wary of saying it'll definitely work - certainly the VC download is easier and probably cheaper than the retrospective disc, so if you've got a GC controller it's probably the way to go.
I have to say, though - if you've never played it before it'll look like ass (much like Super Mario 64 does by contemporary standards if you don't have any recollection of it from back in the day) so you're probably better off with Wind Waker, Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword.
I've got that disk and a Wii and a Gamcube controller which aint been used for over a year, maybe I should go have a play later - then again I still aint finished Windwaker or Twilight princess - lol and you'd think from my user name I'd be more into it! hahaha
Heh, playing through Majora's Mask on the Wii was what got me to go and revisit Wind Waker :) As I discovered from trying to jump back into my WW save game, I'd somehow made a complete pigs ear of the normal progression through the game so was easier to just start over. A lot of fun once it gets going :)
Haven't gotten stuck into TP yet, but that's because I've not had the spare time to get into a longish game over the last couple of months...
Ah, Goldeneye. I bought an N64 second hand a few years back for that and Wipeout64, but it turns out that nostalgia's a bitch and Goldeneye single player has not aged well. And in the absence of easily-available folk with whom to engage in multiplayer, it quickly ended up relegated to the charity shop heap...
Yes, I emulated it on a UltraHLE variation, but with a neat plugin and a... joystick. A full-blown PC designed flight joystick.
Explanation: The targeting system for the bow sucked, even in the original N64 original analog thumb-stick. Cue the life-size analog-stick 1024 bit-position full-hand-grip of a decent flight stick and finally I nailed *something* on the horseback archery. The flight-stick POV worked great as a C-button, and finally I could remap the Z-button to some more sensible place, like... the base of the joystick, to be used on the left hand. And walking on those narrow ledges on Mario finally became, pun intended, child's play.
Worked without a hitch, sans rumble pad, sadly.
PS, I may be wrong about the 1024 bit position, but it was definitely better than the N64 hands down. Well, Thrustmaster knows the answer to that.
You are aware the game was re-released for the 3DS, right? No need to get an antique console for it.
I think it's a mistake to characterise Zelda titles as either 'roleplaying' or 'adventure'. They're basically puzzle-solving games. At every point, you have to identify the right tool (eight times out of ten, the newest toy you've acquired) and work out how to apply it - and then you can't really go wrong. The big selling point is that the puzzles are tied together with a strong central storyline.
My personal favourite was 'Twilight Princess' (stronger story than most), but I know I'm in a minority on that. 'Ocarina' was also a fine game.
And what I like most of all is the voice acting. It's amazing how much meaning you can convey with no distinguishable words. I just wish more modern games (Bethesda, I'm looking at you) would try it.
My goodness, from the way the comments seem to go on any other game articles I thought I as the only one. Dare we go the whole hog and share friend codes? There's no icon for a nintendo fanboi, so I'll get my coat.
FWIW I too preferred Wind Waker, the freedom to sail wherever you wanted never tired for me, also I loved the grayed-out hyrule. I did however play WW before OOT, both on the cube, so maybe that has something to do with it.
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