Pros: Superior music, great graphics, and incredible gameplay!
Cons: Takes a little bit of time to figure out
The bottom line: If you haven't already played Zelda....go buy it today!
One of the most hyped Nintendo 64 games of all time is/was Zelda Ocarina of Time. Personally, I didn’t care too much for all of the hype. I thought that Zelda had the potential to be a great game, but I would never know for sure until I played the game. Anyway, I guess all of this hype was for good reason, Zelda claimed to have the newest, most innovative graphics, the best story, and easiest controls. After beating the entire game, I would have to agree with all of that, but now I am getting ahead of myself. So anyway, I ended up buying the game at a great price (at the time) for $40. I was so excited that I got such a great deal on Zelda that I went directly back to my house and popped it into my Nintendo 64, and sat back and got ready for the ride of my life.

Graphics-9

Before Playstation 2 there was a time, when the graphics of the Nintendo 64 ruled the world. Since Zelda did come out way before the Playstation 2 system did, I think that it is only fair to compare the graphics of Zelda to the graphics that were around at its time of first existence. The graphics are incredible. Link, which is the character you control throughout the game, has multiple colorful suits, which are enhanced impeccably with the graphics. His different outfits throughout the game consist of crisp, clear blues, greens, and reds. The surroundings of the different cities have great detail, as do the various other characters that you meet during your quest to save princess Zelda. In fact the graphics are so good in this game that even with the Playstation 2 out, and X-box, and GameCube on the way, I think that Zelda can still hold its own with its bright superfluous graphics. If it is graphics you are looking for, you will definitely not be disappointed with them in Zelda Ocarina of Time.

Sound-8

To back up its illustrious graphics, Zelda comes through with incredible sound/music. The sound is very detailed. Everything is captured in this game, from birds chirping, to crowds of people shouting, to the end boss launching arrows at you. There may not be much voice acting, but you will get the occasional “grunt” or “groan” from your character, when you do certain things, so I guess you could call that voice acting, but when you do hear sounds from your character it sounds like it should. What I mean is this: you travel into the future a little bit at one point in the game, and your sounds from this character sound a little more grown up, then the previous. (Obviously because this character is older then the other one) but it is little things like that, that catches your attention and makes an overall great game. Besides the defiant, crystal clear sounds that you hear throughout the game, you will also get a taste of superior background music. Each world that you visit throughout your quest has a different theme to it. Making it easy to recognize where you have been, and where you haven’t. In the main field where you do most of your walking (or riding a horse if you have one) the background music is incredible. It never gets boring, and you will never be reaching for that mute button on your remote. Seriously, you have to hear it to believe it.

Gameplay-10

Perhaps the best gameplay of any Nintendo 64 game that I have played to date. The story starts off with you, Link, waking up in your little tree house in the middle of the forest. You receive many instructions on what the buttons do, and where to go in the first 10 minutes of the game. Which makes everything very hard to remember, but once you get going and “fiddle” around with the buttons, you really should figure out everything on your own anyway. The underlining idea to the plot of the story is, to find princess Zelda, and bring her safely back home. Though you know you must go through almost endless battles you decide you will take on this tremendous task alone, with only a little “tinkerbell” fairy as your companion.

So you start of your quest to save the princess, but in order to do this you must collect stones, and beat various temples. You must also use your head a little bit in Zelda. Most times you will know exactly where to go, and other times you will need to pay attention and figure things out on your own. The story might seem somewhat complicated at times, but it does all come together in the end. Zelda has a very good story, which involves time travel, big monsters, a little bit of thinking, and a whole lot of fighting. All of the ingredients that a great adventure game needs. As I said before Zelda has proven to me, to be one of the best, most innovative games to date.

Controls-9

The controls may take a little while to learn, but once you learn what all of the buttons do, they will come natural to you. They will only take maybe 15 minutes to learn, and once you know them then you are set for the whole game. You do get slingshots, and arrows, and boomerangs and a lot of other different items, but you can only have 3 of them equipped at any given time. So what you must do is go to the menu screen and enable the items that you are going to want to use, then using the left, right, and down “C” buttons you will be able to use those items that you equipped.

When you are controlling your character the control stick (on the N 64 controller) moves easily and the character does exactly what you tell him to do. The buttons never lag, and everything runs very smoothly. Overall I was very impressed with how well the controls in Zelda worked.

Presentation-10

The main menu screen in Zelda is a work of art. It is possibly the easiest, most organized menu screen that I have ever worked with. Once again, it may take you a little bit of time to get used to, but once you know how to navigate through it, you will once again be set for the rest of the game. The best advice that I can give you is to try and learn all of the controls, and experiment a lot with the menu screen in the beginning of the game. Just like any other game, you’ll want to know how the menu screens work and what all of the buttons do, this way if you learn everything in the beginning of the game you will have an overall better gaming experience, and you have a lot better chance of beating the game. If you haven’t played Zelda Ocarina of Time, then you have really missed out on a great game, but don’t worry because since Zelda is now a fairly old game I am sure you can find it hanging on the discount rack for a very low price. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming!