The development of Majora’s Mask was a mess. Nintendo knew they wanted to build upon all the work they did on Ocarina of Time, but the main people involved had different ideas. Shigeru Miyamoto originally planned for a 64DD expansion that reworked the dungeons. Eiji Aonuma protested this, as he thought his original dungeon designs were great, so he was given an impossible task: create a new Zelda game in one year, while Miyamoto worked on his idea separately (which, due to the failure of the 64DD, ended up instead getting released as a bonus disc on GameCube).

The development was brutal, and parts of that even make it into the game, with its dark and depressing narrative. Because of the rushed development, it seems that ideas were thrown into the game without being vetted. Really, Majora’s Mask should have been a disaster, yet something magical happened instead: all of these rushed ideas gelled together into something special. It’s still deeply flawed in some ways, but the uniqueness of it shines through all of that.

While Ocarina of Time was a game that involved time travel, Majora’s Mask is a game about time. Link gets mugged by a skull kid wearing a mysterious mask, and ends up in the twisted land of Termina. Here, the moon is on course to crash into Clock Town in only three days. A lot of the core elements are built around the three day cycle, with things being reset at the end of the three days as you travel back in time to the start of the first day.

This system allows for the characters to have a schedule. They’ll move around, and some side quests require talking to specific people at the right time. This makes the world feel much more alive, and the re-use of many character models from Ocarina of Time doesn’t feel like an issue as the characters now have personalities. To help keep track of this, you have a notebook which details important encounters.

There are some frustrating elements to the system, though. Sometimes it can feel like you’ve wasted a lot of time by trying to complete a portion of the game where you don’t have access to everything you need, or you started the quest too late, as you then have to reset your progress in the quest when you travel back in time – consumables also vanish, so you have to waste a bit of time collecting some arrows and bombs each time. Rupees aren’t an issue, as you can store them in a bank (as your balance is written on your bank card, the bank remembers your amount), but losing other consumables doesn’t seem to add anything to the game. That said, it’s really only arrows that matter.

Overall, though, I think the time mechanics of the game work wonderfully, and the flaws are an acceptable cost for the way it makes the world feel alive, and the unique way the game makes you think at handling tasks. I do think it leads to people looking up guides more, as there’s less room for figuring it out yourself when you have to worry about a time limit, particularly in dungeons.

Majora’s Mask only has four main dungeons, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s another thing that contributes to what makes Majora’s Mask unique. These four dungeons do feel much bigger and more difficult than the ones in Ocarina of Time, and have some vast open segments, such as the second dungeon having a large central room. They feel like complex machines rather than a series of rooms, and a few side quests also involve the dungeons.

Once you’ve completed the dungeon, the overworld area around the dungeon also changes – it does what people were expecting Zora’s Domain to do in Ocarina of Time. The area changes and there’s a lot more dialogue, some minigames, and additional quests. Because of the time reset mechanic, you’ll have to defeat the boss again to make the changes happen again, but you can skip right to the boss when you enter a dungeon after you’ve defeated the boss once. So much of the game is now in the overworld, which feels so much more like a living world.

One large part of the game is masks, the key ones being the three main transformation masks. These allow Link to be a Deku Scrub, Goron, and Zora, each with their own movement mechanics and abilities. They’re all an absolute joy to use, with the Deku’s spin providing great movements, especially when hopping, the Goron’s roll being difficult but satisfying to roll, and the Zora’s swimming abilities making underwater sections an absolute joy – the swimming is so much fun, that the area you get it is a large ocean because they know people will just swim around for a while.

The only slight annoyance is that these take up one of your three item slots, and there are far more items overall in Majora’s Mask. The version I’m playing adds the transformation masks to the D-pad (along with the Ocarina of Time), which is a simple but effective solution that would even be useful on an N64 controller.

But there are also a ton of additional masks to unlock during the game, some are required, but a lot are optional. They’re very mixed in terms of what they offer. You have functional ones like the blast mask, which is a respawning bomb strapped to your face (and handily causes no damage if you have your shield up), and the bunny hood that makes Link run faster. Some are glorified keys, opening up doors and paths. A few can be used for a heart piece, and one in particular makes a single part of a side-quest easier, but you can’t get it without completing the side-quest first.

That said, while some have little use, the journey of getting the masks is rewarding in itself, so it’s more of a unique extra reward rather than directly giving you a heart piece or rupees. You can also find new dialogue from each mask by talking to NPCs, so it’s all rather cosy.

Majora’s Mask is a special game. It has some very interesting mechanics that, while flawed, provide an extremely unique and unforgettable experience. With a longer development cycle, I think some of this would have ended up being watered down, and the game would lose some of what makes it so great.

Fave

In the face of all that, looks aren’t important – but Majora’s Mask happens to be just about the best-looking game on the N64, too. There are more of the prequel’s beautiful rolling fields, ice mountains and glistening stretches of water, but this time the Expansion Pak multiplies the amount that you can see, so Majora’s Mask is teeming with boss-sized dragons, groups of sword-wielding lizards, and flocks of 30-or-so skittering bats. And, once again, the Zelda engine shows off its remarkable ability to bathe scenery in the changing light of night and day, with ruddy clouds in the evening sky over Zora Cape’s golden ocean, and a bluey-white glow on the ice floes of Goron Plains as night begins to fall. Stunning stuff.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #49. Review Score: 96%

Remake or remaster?

An official remaster would be amazing. Majora’s Mask 3D looks amazing, but messes up the movement of multiple transformations as well as a host of other unwelcome changes, and the graphics don’t always match the tone. Spruce up the original with some better textures, add camera control, use the d-pad for masks and perhaps add in a few extras (like more mask-related dialogue), but don’t mess with the core stuff. The two fan-made ports are brilliant.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no way to buy a new copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.

Re-releases

2009: Wii Virtual Console

2015: Majora’s Mask 3d (Virtual Console)

2016: Wii U Virtual Console

2022: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)