I feel bad for not liking Ocarina of Time.

[Fritz the Cat]

Hell, I still have an SNES and a Genesis/Sega CD.

[Devyn]

most old games were much better than games that have come out in the past 5 years. the super nintendo was a golden age, and thats not nostalgia talking.

I agree with you. A lot of NES, SNES, and Genesis games are still way more fun than today's games. Sonic The Hedgehog on Genesis? They still can't find a better formula for Sonic. The old Mario games are fun regardless of nostalgia - Yet it can't be (fairly) compared to games like Mario 64 and Galaxy can because they are vastly different games. A Link To The Past is still a blast to play, but it's entirely different than Twilight Princess or Ocarina. It should be compared to games like Minish Cap, which play similarly.

I'm an old school gamer, and most of the new games I choose to play are shaped by the games I liked back then. Those old games are still good, but nostalgia is such worthless bias when a superior version of a game is released.

[Flare4War]

I agree, doesn't really make sense to compare them. Either you enjoy them or you don't.

Comparing the Nes versions of Ninja Gaiden to the newer one and Ninja Gaiden: Black just doesn't make any sense.

[Bummer]

After I gave it back to my little bros. I enjoyed heckling them by not letting them use the guide for the water temple and making them fight Evil Link using the Master Sword. (it's too easy with the Big Goron Sword) Since it was my console etc. I had the power to impose my belligerent demands on them.

You are a good brother. Fighting Dark Link with Master Sword is the only honorable way to go about it.

oh, and you're supposed to use the hammer, even though Biggoron Sword makes the whole process much easier as well.

[Effef]

I think one of the things that made OoT for me was the soundtrack. The forest Temple had so much ambiance it was almost overpowering.

[Jaybell]

For the record, I don't hate Ocarina of Time. I just couldn't really get into it. I can see why everyone loves it so much (it successfully brought a 2D franchise into 3D, the music is bitchin', the world was huge, and the graphics were good lookin' for the time.) But that's just it. A truly great game should be able to stand the test of time, it shouldn't need to have "well it was awesome for the time" as an excuse.

Part of what turns me off from the N64 zeldas are the controls. They just don't feel natural. Compared to Super Mario 64 (which I spent a good portion of my childhood playing, so there may or may not be the nostalgia factor in there), in which Mario controls smoothly and fluidly, controlling Link felt very forced and awkward. And I know Zelda isn't Mario, but I ended up liking Wind Waker a lot better than the 64 zeldas, partially because Link controlled much smoother. After playing WW, I went back and gave Ocarina another shot, as I do every couple of months or so and it felt very stiff. (Of course, I haven't played Ocarina in a while, so my memories of it aren't the best, but I do not remember liking Link's control.)

And I know Mario 64 hasn't aged too well. Everything is one solid color. The characters and enemies are very polygon-y. The trees are always facing the camera. The levels are small compared to later N64 games. But I can still play it and have a great time doing so, partly because of nostalgia, but mostly because it's FUN. Another point is the oft mentioned Mega Man II. I didn't play a lot of NES games until I started emulating them three or four years ago, and Mega Man II was definitely great. Someone raised on PS3 and 360 should be able to play these games and still have a great time playing them.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I don't understand how I can be nostalgic if I go back to play these games on a regular basis.

My favorite Final Fantasy? FFIV, and I still play it often. Great story and ATB is fun. Favorite Mario? Toss up between SMW2, SMB3, and Mario 64. I could go on, but you get my point by now.

These games are fun to me if just for the atmosphere of the game itself. Nostalgia isn't a factor.

[Flare4War]

I don't understand how I can be nostalgic if I go back to play these games on a regular basis.

My favorite Final Fantasy? FFIV, and I still play it often. Great story and ATB is fun. Favorite Mario? Toss up between SMW2, SMB3, and Mario 64. I could go on, but you get my point by now.

These games are fun to me if just for the atmosphere of the game itself. Nostalgia isn't a factor.

But for thousands and millions it is a factor.

Feelings of nostalgia are one of the fundamental reasons this website has been so successful. It's real, and there's nothing wrong with that.

There's nothing wrong with you not getting all teary eyed and nostalgic over a video game either. You say you love the game for the game its self no matter how primitive, and that's fine. No one disagrees.

[The Author]

^ While I admit the graphics have aged poorly, I still enjoy the game. I think a remake of Ocarina would be cool (yes, as much as I hate Ocarina fanboys, I am one).

Also, here's a question: At the beginning of Wind Waker, the story says that the hero never came after the Hero Of Time, and the world was then covered in water.

Now, Twilight Princess happens 100 or something years after Ocarina - If that hero never came, then who is the hero in Twilight Princess? Seriously, I wish Nintendo would have kept the story consistent, like they did with Metroid.

And what about Zelda 1 and 2? Is that like super-ancient Hyrule?

Rest assured, the people at Nintendo have a document relating the timeline...

Not that we will see it ever...

Anyway, the way I understand it, and this is my vision of the timeline, it goes:

OoT/MM

Then the story splits into alternate timelines:

WW/PH if TP never happened and TP leading to another storyline (I think they removed WW because it messed everything up, however WW could remove Oracles out of the main timeline).

Afterwards it was Oracles, then LttP/Link's Awakening, and finally LoZ followed by Link's adventure.

I have not played 4 swords and Minish cap, but I have heard they may predate even OoT.

[Arek the Absolute]

I actually liked Majora's Mask better than OoT.

Take that as you will.

hi 5 brother hi 5

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

From the way I've been seeing from many sites, the general timeline is the following:

Ocarina of Time(with the 7 year later future becoming an alternate universe)

Majora's Mask(what with Link slowing down time in Termina's dimension and going back to the beginning of the 3 days thousands of times... time line-wise anyway, Hyrule has gone through several centuries and the flood occurred)

Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass are next followed by LtTP, which is actually a cleverly made sequel to OoT.

I believe the Oracle games come next followed by Link's Awakening, which is then followed by Zelda 1 then II.

I have no idea where the Minish Cap fits.

Anyway, yeah, nostalgia and such...

[DarkeSword]

Trying to figure out the Zelda timeline has always seemed like a waste of time to me. All I know is that Ocarina of Time is the first one. After that, whatever, it's just the same legend told over and over again, but differently each time.

As far as Majora's Mask goes, from a game design standpoint, it's a brilliant piece of work and very fun. My only problem with the game was that I felt "punished" for doing complete saves, and I hated having to go back and redo things just because I restarted the three-day cycle. That's pretty much the reason I never finished the game; my own fault, really.

I think that out of all the Zelda games, it's the handheld ones that have always held a special place in my (piece of) heart; my first Zelda game was Link's Awakening, and the Oracle games, Minish Cap, and the recent Phantom Hourglass have all been incredible experiences. Four Swords Adventures for Gamecube was also a sorely underrated game; the single-player experience and its emphasis on formations is incredibly fun.

[Atomicfog]

Trying to figure out the Zelda timeline has always seemed like a waste of time to me.

I agree. I would only care about Zelda's timeline if there was an actual storyline that went with it. Playing Zelda for the story is like playing Mario for the story, which is like playing Pong for the story.

[Dhsu]

Believe it or not, but Mario64 and Zelda64's graphics still hold up for me. Every time I go back to those games I'm actually MORE impressed by how good they looked for their time. The fact that they couldn't (or at least didn't) use fancy textures (going back to my "pure" comment) means they had to actually put effort into making amazing *models*, and it totally works. All too often I would see PSX games that would use textures as a crutch, as a replacement for detail instead of a complement, and N64 games were a refreshing change of aesthetics.

[Atomicfog]

Believe it or not, but Mario64 and Zelda64's graphics still hold up for me. Every time I go back to those games I'm actually MORE impressed by how good they looked for their time. The fact that they couldn't (or at least didn't) use fancy textures (going back to my "pure" comment) means they had to actually put effort into making amazing *models*, and it totally works. All too often I would see PSX games that would use textures as a crutch, as a replacement for detail instead of a complement, and N64 games were a refreshing change of aesthetics.

I agree that many PSX games did use textures as a crutch, but the ones that didn't blow their N64 counterparts away in terms of graphics that hold up.

I think OoT may still hold up for me because of the models, but I only played the very beginning recently.

[Antipode]

I think one of the things that made OoT for me was the soundtrack. The forest Temple had so much ambiance it was almost overpowering.

Heartily agreed. In fact, come to think of it, the forest temple theme may have been one of the songs most responsible for getting me interested in video game music to begin with. In fact, it also helped make that temple my favorite of all from any zelda game (though it was already great to begin with).

It's moments like that temple that really made OoT my favorite game. It had so much ambience, so much atmosphere EVERYWHERE saturating it that TP just feels "empty" by comparison, no matter how much larger the world is. Ocarina of Time felt positively massive compared to TP.

[Sil]

Ocarina of Time was the game that made me realize I could no longer play games and thus decided to focus my energy on composing, practicing, programming, and school. I only played it for 5 minutes and could tell it was a great game, but I decided to just watch my younger brother play it instead (it was one of the first games he bought, so it was like the torch was passed.) Since then the last "new" game I played all the way through was FF9, only playing it through once, and it took forever because I had this nagging feeling I was wasting my time. After that I called it quits and stopped buying games, but my brothers didn't so it's not like I've gone cold turkey.

It's weird that I can listen to classical music while browsing the internet for hours at a time, but I can't just sit down and play. It's merely psychological.

[Genesis Blue]

I think it's just a great game that has completely stood the test of time; it's not really nostalgia for me because I only played it for the first time around two and a half years ago, and I'd agree that it is one of the best games of all time. The graphics are very solid much easier to go back to than say, FF7. The soundtrack is just magical; music often really makes the game for me (of course that's why we're all here isn't it?)

Although as someone who played OoT and TP in around the same time frame, I think it probably is nostalgia making so many people say that OoT feels more massive than TP. I mean seriously, TP is just epic and the soundtrack is pretty great too.

[Flare4War]

I think it's just a great game that has completely stood the test of time; it's not really nostalgia for me because I only played it for the first time around two and a half years ago, and I'd agree that it is one of the best games of all time. The graphics are very solid much easier to go back to than say, FF7. The soundtrack is just magical; music often really makes the game for me (of course that's why we're all here isn't it?)

Although as someone who played OoT and TP in around the same time frame, I think it probably is nostalgia making so many people say that OoT feels more massive than TP. I mean seriously, TP is just epic and the soundtrack is pretty great too.

In Twilight Princess, the segments where you had to play as the wolf detracted from the gaming experience for me. I'd have rathered there just be more game play as Link.

Still a great game though.

[AmirCicak]

With the recent "dethroning" of OOT by Galaxy as the highest rated game ever, my friends were all whining about how awesome Ocarina of Time was and how Galaxy, while apparently awesome, is nowhere near the level of OOT. I shamefully confessed that I could never get into Ocarina of Time, and everyone stared daggers at me.

Am I such a terrible human being for not really caring for this game?

YES! lol

[Bummer]

I would probably be able to play OoT all through again.

YES! lol

dear lord

[Pyrion]

No.

I didn't like OoT either, but that was mainly due to the lousy framerate which gave me a headache.

[Effef]

No.

I didn't like OoT either, but that was mainly due to the lousy framerate which gave me a headache.

i remember it being really crappy in kokiri forest for some reason

[Broken]

I actually liked Majora's Mask better than OoT.

Take that as you will.

So, I'm not the only one......

I mean, HAIL OOT! IT IS THE BEST GAME EVAR!

[BlueMage]

Compared to Super Mario 64 (which I spent a good portion of my childhood playing

You have no idea how old that statement makes me feel.