1. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask

We made it! It ends with my holy triforce of gaming, my biggest love, Zelda. Zelda was the game that cemented my love for gaming when I was a wee lad and then as I was a teen it was Resident Evil and MGS that made realize this medium is going to grow with me. While those games showed the potential of story, when Ocarina of Time hit I saw the potential of the gameplay. Sure there were already some complex 3D games, it's not about how deep gameplay systems go, it's how many interesting ideas and situations can you get through compelling gameplay. Ocarina of Time checkmarked every box that I care about when playing a video game. I want to feel like I can get lost in a world, not just a big empty world but one where I know I will find something fun or unique on my own. The thrill of falling into a hole and wondering what secret will I find. Seeing that heart piece in a tree and not exactly knowing how to get there. Talking to a colorful cast of NPCs that don't do the usual fetch quest but act as a sort of puzzle on their own, naturally leading to side quests and the like. For it's time Hyrule field felt like a monster sized playground, it was 3D gaming coming to its own and saying I can make a big world to explore and make it feel lived in, like it was all carefully crafted and for OoT it was.


I did not get to play Ocarina at launch, as you know, it was about 3 years later than I finally gifted an old used N64 and got to play OoT. On paper it sounded like my dream game and when I finally got to sit and lose myself in Hyrule a found it it was my dream game. Action, puzzles, exploration, my three pillars of gameplay. Those three elements are my favorites. Usually games focus overwhelming on one or two of those, but Zelda manages to hit all three. Sure the action is normally no where close to a pure action game but Zelda combat is never a pain in the ass and rarely feels like its pointless busy work. New enemies adorn every new area. New items open up new strategies to battling them. Many times they are used in ways that are more puzzle like. Boss battles are some of the best in the medium with massive screen filling epic battles that make use of new items and strategies making them an absolute joy. OoT was filled with incredible bosses, mini bosses, enemies and the z targetting at the time was revolutionary.  I get what I need out of my Zelda combat mainly because it works in tandem with the other aspects.


Puzzles are the my favorite aspect of these games in general, in OoT Nintendo was basically flexing its muscle in the 3D space. It opened up such a massive world of potential simply with the ability to go into first person and look up! Or look around you. How do I get this to that? A game that engages the mind keeps me fully engaged. The dungeons are the perfect encapsulation of everything I want in a game in a perfect hour long segment. You have the action with enemies in every room. Puzzles to solve all over, many times with brand new gameplay mechanics that keeps the variety up. And exploring a maze like area always making you think of where to go. Some are more linear than others, but the really devilish ones like the water temple are the ones that stick out to me. The ones where you can manipulate an entire level just to solve puzzles and proceed. There is no better design to me than the 3D Zelda dungeon, and OoT set the standard for those dungeons going forward.


Then there are all the other aspects that help fill out the massive treasure trove of mechanics and situations that make up these games. Loads of mini games with great upgrades to win, I love me some mini games. Side quests with quirky characters that help bring the world to life like the story of a horse farm in Lon Lon Ranch. A glorious 40 hour adventure with little to no downtime, a game that keeps pushing forward with a totally new dungeon, new gameplay mechanics every few hours. A game you can lose yourself in and just relax listening to the iconic music, or just wandering around the mememorable locations. OoT stays with you in ways most games never do, it captures the essence of the grand adventure better than any game.

All three of these games I love for the reasons I explained above. OoT was the first and I feel is the most solid overall but doesnt exactly excel in each area. Twilight Princess is probably my most hyped game ever, in 2004 E3 I was one of those practically crying at the screen when they revealed adult looking link in this incredible massive hyrule. It was delayed for the launch of the wii and I was obssessed with every aspect of that game. Somehow TP didn't disappoint. In terms of main quest Twilight Princess is easily the best and most involved, incorporating what would normally be side quests and mini games into the main story. I go 100% in Zelda games so while yes exploration took a hit because all these events happen when the game wants it to happen rather than when you find it on your own, I still got to enjoy all the variety I love in Zelda games. Twilight Princess does so much! From being able to turn into a wolf, MM style and enter a different dimension, ALTTP style. Getting into joust battles on a massive bridge. Going river rafting down some rapids. Escorting a horse and carriage from a goblin attack across hyrule field. Flying a dragon over a river. Getting into an old west shoot out in an abandoned town overrun by cats. TP is massive in all the right ways, it kept me in awe from location to location, always something fun and interesting to do as you reach the next dungeon... the best dungeons in the series.


Twilight Princess took the dungeon formula to a whole new level by creating bold new locations and ideas to create the best collection of dungeons the series has ever seen. It starts off great with the monkey filled dungeon and awesome gale boomerang. Yes a lot of these dungeons got a bit more linear but it came with a better focus on making each room a unique challenge. The third dungeon, the water dungeon allowed you to rotate a massive staircase that redirected water, an homage to the Water Temple and giving the player one of those manipulate a central component dungeon that I love so much. Arbiter's Ground blew my mind away and it was in the middle of that dungeon that I realized I was playing a 10/10 masterpiece. When I got that spinner and now you are riding along rails, dodging enemies by flipping from one rail to another, I could not belive the variety, so cool! It culminates with a mindblowing boss against a gigantic dragon skeleton as you ride down an endless shaft, moments like that fill this game. Then you reach snowpeak and enter a house? The house is the dungeon, once again playing with the perception of what a dungeon could be in one of the most memorable levels I have ever played. The temple of time was a genius design level where you climb up get a new skill and use that statue moving skill to solve puzzles all the way back down, excellent design. The city in the sky gave you one of the coolest items in Zelda history with the dual clawshots making Link feel like a second rate spiderman. I also found the final areas to be extremely exciting and the multi tiered Ganon fight to be one of the best in the series.

Twilight Princess gets some hate from some but I will forever defend it. Yes it was traditional Zelda to a fault but the most interesting and most fleshed out that formula ever got to be.

And finally, we make it to my all time favorite game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.  I never owned it on the N64. I was gifted OoT with the N64 and I fell in love with it, my favorite game ever. It was only about a few months later in the summer of I think 2001 or 2002 where I had this blockbuster game pass that basically let me rent as many games as I wanted all summer long. I used this to play some N64 games I missed out on like Perfect Dark. In the middle of that summer I found Majora's Mask for rent, and so I rented it and for the next two weeks my life was in Termina. Summer time so I didnt have classes, I spent way too many hours playing this incredible game. It hit me in ways few games ever did, that complete encompassing feeling where all you want to do is be in that world and explore every inch. I felt at peace, a level of joy would wash over me, I feel like this game was my zen.

So why did it work it's magic on me, for one the way the game world is presented in such a way that you the player can control not just time but how all these NPC inhabitants can succed or fail in life, it was mindblowing. Majora's Mask has the best NPCs ever put in a game, no they aren't particularly deep or interesting, its how the side quests are all designed around the lives of these people. MM is groundhog day the game, you relive the same three days over and over and so do these NPCs, so you learn each of their stories during these three days and a large selection of them have quests designed around them. The bombers notebook is a thing of genius, an excellent log that breaks down the schedule of every NPC quest line to make sure you are aren't just randomly trying shit, it focuses the player perfectly to play with time and how you can change their actions to lead them to benefit their life.

That is the beautify of Majora's Mask, its a Zelda game that takes place in a dark twisted world that is about to end and all these people have regrets, or have dreams that have yet to be fullfilled before the end and you help them achieve that. Link is not just saving the world but bringing peace and happiness to the citizens of Termina. This is not a game where you find a random NPC, click a few lines of dialogue, get a waypoint and do a quest that gets checked off. Instead you learn about the lives of these people, you have to literally stalk them, learn when they are out and about, watch their life unfold and figure out the key moments that can change their life. This ranges from quests as complex as rescuing a man who has been cursed the night before his secret wedding to elope with the love of his life to something as simple as a disembodied hand that desperately needs toilet paper. Some are funny, some are heart breaking, I have never felt a connection to a world and it's people like Majora's Mask.

The crazy thing is all of that is mostly optional! There is still the same amazing Zelda adventure that took everything OoT did and add new gameplay elements with the masks. There are three masks that turn Link into new forms which give him all new powers and abilities, this adds so much variety to the gameplay. Each dungeon is themed around these new forms and skills, it does suck there were only four of them but they are all of extremely high quality, not the linear style dungeons found in TP but the more complex you are in control of a central mechanism dungeon that I feel are the best. The way the game is structured is that you go to one of the four corners of the world, find a new location with a new species or race of people that have a major calamity befalling the kingdom and you have to solve that problem and defeat the dungeon in three days. Now some complain that this game is on a time limit, and its stressful. No, you have control over that time, you can slow it down enough so that the three days are basically three hours worth of time. Each area has a ton of checkpoints that basically save your progress so that if you do reset the time you can pick up from that point meaning you have plenty of time to reach those checkpoints. No dungeon takes even close to three hours, you do not run out of time. The brilliance comes in being able to use that time in the puzzle solving with the side quests. It gives a level of world control that is far greater than the simple traveling to adult link of OoT.

As I played I was beyond enthralled with all of it. I wanted to help every NPC, wanted every heart piece, wanted to find every mask. I loved that there were like 30 collectible masks each with a special power that came into play in solving the quest lines of the NPCs, it was like putting together a massive jigsaw puzzle. I would split my time between sie questing and doing the main quest. I loved exploring the four different parts of the world, each one more intersting than the last. But the moment I knew this would be my favorite game was when I reached Termina Bay, something about the idilic beach front that was tainted that connected to me. When I cured the area of the curse and it became a beautiful colorful beach and ocean to explore, it was everything a game world should be. Turning into a Zora and diving into the waters, just pure gaming joy and freedom, it's perfect Zelda.

That's this game, it is almost everything I could ever want in one game. It has extremly varied gameplay, fun combat that makes use of many skills and a great mix of enemies, subbosses and major bosses. Exploration of the highest order that is not just random walking across a huge map but a dense world where every NPC matters, every crevase a secret. A game with fantastic puzzles, fun mini games, memorable music (only 3D Zelda with the main theme in the overworld!), it is unforgettable. When I play a video game that wants to throw into a world and capture my imagination I hold them all up to this game. Zelda games have been better in individual aspects but no game puts them all together quite like this one, Majora's Mask is for now the closest to my dream game.

I was just thinking about Majora today and how it's definitely the best story out of all the Zeldas.  I love that game so much. It came at a time when I really needed it.  I was a second year teacher stuck in this awful town. I drove home every weekend, getting away as soon as possible.  Majora lifted my spirits in a major way, even as dark and moody as it is. I loved watching the townsfolk during the title screen because I felt a connection to them as well.

Finished! And only one and a half years later.

It's a perfect excuse to try out your new 3DS.

travo said:

It's a perfect excuse to try out your new 3DS.

Well. Kind of hard to argue with that logic.

If I had to pick out my favorite Zelda dungeons, it would be tough to find better than Arbiter's Grounds, Snowpeak Ruins, the Temple of Time and City in the Sky. Those four are each a masterpiece and to have them all in one game is pretty great.

robio said:

If I had to pick out my favorite Zelda dungeons, it would be tough to find better than Arbiter's Grounds, Snowpeak Ruins, the Temple of Time and City in the Sky. Those four are each a masterpiece and to have them all in one game is pretty great.

I have very few recollections of Twilight Princess.  After Wind Waker, The more realistic visual style just bored the hell out of me and failed to leave much of an impression.  I remember parts of it, but nothing really stood out.  Ganon had a very cool design, the sky people were crazy and I really disliked the portions where you had to find the pearls or tears as wolf link to restore the world to its former glory.

Proper 100 is boring! 165 is where its at. lol

travo said:

I'm curious.  Would The Last of Us 2 make it into the top 100?

I added it to the master list, right below TLOU.