Thursday, August 18, 2005

Top Ten - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

Ocarina of Time is 7 years old this year and in all that time has only been challenged once for the title of 'Greatest Game Of All Time'. On release it extracted perfect scores from even the tightest reviewers and since then those perfects remain undiluted. As true now as they ever were. Following it was never going to be easy or even possible but with the latest attempt Twilight Princess delayed for a long time here's some of the best, worst and most memorable Ocarina of Time stuff that you can try while waiting as purely by reading this for this long I know that you own one of the 325,000 gold cartriges of the N64 version and have finished the game 20+ times (or is that just me?)

10 - Hey! Listen!
SHUT UP!! Many a time I have been watching someone play and they have yelled this as Link's fairy 'friend' Navi doles out advice. Some can be ignored, some (like enemy info) is useful but some forced advice is just annoying when playing through for even the 2nd time.

9 - Left-C, Top-C, Right-C, Left-C, Top-C, Right-C
The immortal Zelda's Lullaby. The ocarina whether in Fairy or Time flavours is the focal point of the game and if song names like the Minuet of Forest or Prelude of Light don't send shivers up your spine then you haven't played the game enough.

8 - £20 For The Works
So, the great fairies in A Link To The Past were gentle, typical fairies. So it must be here you think as you enter a Great Fairy's Fountain for the first time. AARRGGHH MY EYES!! Scantily clad, giggling manically and quite scary really. Enough to scar a young boy for life. As it did. To me.

7 - The House That Satan Built
Oh yes. Many a man has been broken and many a controller set to fly by the bastion of evil that is the Water Temple. A 3D maze that was anything but clear as water made even more annoying by the fact that its treasure (the Longshot) was an upgrade to an item you already had (the Hookshot) so you could see the way forward but not reach it. And what was the solution to this fiendish test of your intelligence? FIRE DAMMIT!! The key to the Water Temple was the opposite element! Who the hell would work that out? Even having done it as many times as I have it still causes me trouble.

6 - The Wager
Racing for Epona the horse was and still is one of the greatest mini-games in any game ever. 10 rupees to ride, another 50 to race meant that you had 3 attempts before heading off to refill your wallet. And when you won? Well you got the horse! You also got locked in. Resulting in a heroic leap over the fence which looked and felt good.

That's it for now, I'll be back with the last 5 later.

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