Written by Ross Richards

Blimey, I cannot believe that it has been ten years since Ocarina of Time arrived on these shores after so many uncounted months of anticipation and hype. It came with a fanfare of trumpets, squeals of delight from Zelda fans, and a funny, yet sexist ad that caused quite a stir.

After the success of the previous Nintendo-made Zelda games, (Don't say you haven't heard of Link's Awakening, A Link To The Past and of course The Legend of Zelda, the first one.) hardcore Ninty fans were eagerly awaiting Link's first outing on the Nintendo 64. They drooled their saliva over the pages of pictures that the magazines had printed in the build-up to release day, and all excitement reached boiling point when oh so many of the magazines gave it amazingly high scores of 97%, 98%, 5/5, 10/10 and 40/40. (Did Famitsu give it a perfect score? If Nintendogs did, then surely OoT must have done too.)

The only Zelda game I had played before then was Link's Awakening. A nice little game that I, again, didn't bother playing that much. Being a little 'un my developing brain only really fancied playing the easier games like, erm, Tetris and Sonic.

I was nine-years old when it appeared in my brother's stocking on Christmas Day 1998 (I got International Superstar Soccer '98, in case you're wondering). Despite my household being one of those football-loving, weird households, OoT was the main attraction of Xmas Day and not the also-great-today ISS '98. We looked on in awe as we met The Great Deku Tree for that very first time (Not being too sad at his passing because we hardly knew him, meh). The background music of Kokiri Forest playing in the background as we had our Christmas dinner and all that traditional Christmas jazz. That music still, and always will, remind me of good ol' Yuletide and eating loads and just giving each other presents. No religion included. By that, I mean forget about celebrating the birth of Christ in this household of mine. It's all about celebrating finally being able to play a game that has been hidden in the house for about a month because you wanted it for Xmas. (It's still the case to this day. I cannae wait for the 25th December to arrive because I really, REALLY, want to play Rock Band 2.)

But I digress.
Unfortunately, not a lot can be said about OoT at this time in my case, as the little scrote that I was back then didn't really enjoy it. I found trekking through the enormous and marvellous Hyrule Field mundane and tedious. I was properly ignorant of the amazing and awe-inspiring dungeons, scenery and cutscenes that OoT had to offer. The annoying, high-pitched voice wielding little git that I was just never really understood OoT for what it was, and condemning it to being "Not my cup of tea." Besides, I was actually quite busy at the time. Yep, I was leading England to a virtual World Cup victory with a player titled "R.Rchrds" as the captain of a side that contained "Decham", "Gascone" and "Kowen".

That's not to say I didn't play the game. I got up to the Dodongo's Cavern before I gave it up. I can't really remember what happened next, as it appears that I have put a mental block on most of 1999...give me a sec...ah...

.

..Well, because of my football "commitments", I merely watched as my brother played out those magical moments that everyone of us can list out, such as:
Obtaining the Ocarina of Time.
Learning the Song of Time.
Playing the Song of Time on the Ocarina of Time to open the Door of Time.
Walking through the Door of Time.
Seeing the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time.
Taking the Master Sword out of the Pedestal of Time.
Going forward seven years...in Time.
Seeing Adult Link and meeting Sheik...for the first Time.

Timeless.

However, when I had gotten older, wiser and hairier, I decided to give it another bash. I can't remember when it was when I gave it a second chance, but I know that an incentive for playing it was when Computer & Video Games magazine voted it the No1 game of all time in their 20th Anniversary issue. (I believe that that was in 2001) I was rather surprised that it was being hyped up even three years after it had come out.

So I gave it another go. Well, it was better late than never to shower it with love and affection as I experienced those magical moments that I had listed above for myself, and they were magical, EVEN THOUGH I knew what was going to happen. I knew what I had to do in some parts because I had watched my brother do it. But the Water Temple was still a bitch to do. But seeing all those moments and playing them out for myself was so much better than watching my brother do it all back when I was still in Primary School and unable to write English properly. (Nobody could. If you know where your old schoolbooks are from Primary, flick through them and see how bad your English/Portuguese/Dutch/insert language here was back then).

Well, what else do you want me to say? I loved playing that game. Right from being woken up by Navi, all the way to smacking Ganondorf in the face with the legendary Master Sword. It was a fantastic and marvellous game that each and every one of us has experienced and enjoyed so very much. We all enjoyed it, did we not? I know I did.

But if you are one of those people who have never played Ocarina of Time, then allow me to say "What the f*** have you been doing these last ten years?". But if your excuse is "being an annoying PlayStation fanboy" then you're excused. Fanboyism is an unavoidable plague that deserves a pardon if you're man/woman enough to admit that you were once one of them.

But I digress. Anybody who has yet to experience OoT need look no further than on the Virtual Console, as I believe it is on there, is it not? I'm alright when it comes to me ever wanting to play OoT again. Not only do I still have the decade-old N64 cartridge, but I also got it with Wind Waker, plus the Master Quest edition that I have yet to even have a bash at because I could never be bothered. :-/

Oh, and the Collector's Edition Gamecube game that's got all the classic Zelda titles and extra stuff and that.

But if it comes down to me wanting the proper nostalgic feel of playing OoT again like it was the first time. I would only need to dust off my old N64, blow the dust from out of the cartridge socket and stick in the OoT cartridge and away I go. Complete with that spinning Nintendo 64 cube logo that first came on the screen, and was removed from the later versions for the most obvious reason.

Ten years, eh? Wow. :-D