The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (released in November 1998) was a revolutionary game to the series. It sold in high numbers and became the first game ever to receive a perfect score from Japan’s biggest gaming magazine network Famitsu. Now here we are verging on 12 years later and sitting at our fingertips is the very first exclusive remake of the series. It is true that Ocarina of Time has seen somewhat of a reboot before when a Master Quest edition of the game was released alongside the Gamecube port of the Nintendo 64 original. However this is the first game that they have gone back too and bumped up the graphics and released it as a new title.
OoT 3D was released in June last year (2011) and up until the beginning of this year has sold a whopping 2.5 million units worldwide, making it the third best selling Nintendo 3DS title so far. But let’s not get boggled down and dwell on sales figures, let’s instead take a look at this creation. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series or Ocarina of Time, the game is an Action-Adventure puzzle solving RPG which is heavily focused around a nameable male character (officially named Link). Throughout Ocarina of Time you are on a quest to try and save the kingdom of Hyrule by crawling through dungeons a plenty in the aid of the Royal Family and most importantly Princess Zelda. Throughout this hack and slash adventure you gain many tools to help you along the way, and one of the primary ones is an Ocarina. OoT is friendly for all ages (subject to the age certificate of where you reside) and good for both amateur and hardcore gamers alike. But what does the Remake bring to the adventure?
First of all this game came with an optional Special Pre-Order Edition that added no bonuses to the game itself. By this I mean it came with a couple of aesthetic extras which include a double sided poster, a special edition box (including the original box as well) and a playable replica Ocarina of Time (in selective areas). I can divulge that both the original game and Master Quest version are included, however you must beat the game once in normal mode to obtain this little gem. On top of that the game throws out an all new boss gauntlet mode separate to the game which updates as you play through it. This mode gives you an item and some life and you continue fighting bosses until you have defeated them all with no chance of popping to the local potion shop. Hardcore gamers eat your heart out. Further still the game comes in a fully 3D rendered mode (obviously) which adds depth to the immersion factor of the game, with a new touch up on all graphics making it cleaner smoother and a touch more realistic. Another extra feature is that all first person tools (Hookshot, Bow, Slingshot etc.) are optionally controlled by the 3Ds’ Gyroscope feature allowing the player to move the console as if they are actually aiming these things.
Now that you have heard all the good stuff about the game it’s opinion time. As this is a remake, I will judge the game on how I feel it has done as such and if it was a worthwhile venture. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t let down by elements of the remake. I do feel as if giving the graphics a “touch up” (a good one mind you) was a bit hasty. Being one of the biggest games of the series, I feel like it should have been reinvented rather than touched up. Keeping the same maps and locations but recreating it from scratch, however this is completely understandable that they didn’t do this. It was originally meant to be released in time to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series so time constraints applied. Another point that was a bit of a bummer was that because of being in the UK our special edition versions of the game did not include the replica Ocarina. All that aside the game itself delivered beautifully. They made use of the console it was brought out on, the game stayed true to its original while adding to the adventure even more so with the amazing boss gauntlet mode which let me take a new challenge in an environment I’m more than familiar with. What is even better is the next generation of gamers managed to see first hand one of the best games of the series without having to go through backhands to get an old console or even an emulator. If you like the original I would recommend this heavily. If you are new to this game series and you like games like Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls or even Fable – you should love it. Go out and get lost in the adventure!