If I were reviewing Ocarina of Time in 1998, I'd give it a solid 4-5 stars. As my first-ever playthrough in 2019, I'd give it 2-3 stars.

First off, the positives:

• Really, really good music
• Great gameplay mechanics & graphics for its time. Additionally, the remaster for the 3DS version is actually quite nice.
• The Shieka Stone hint-provider is a great touch, although it's never available at the times when you really need it

And the negatives:

• A handful of the puzzles are stupidly obtuse; in part because some mechanics are never actually presented to the player. Don't know that you can light torches by shooting arrows through flames? Good luck finishing the Water Temple. You didn't think to bomb that one little nondescript mound of dirt when you've never bombed another mound of dirt anywhere in the game? Good luck beating the Shadow Temple (and double-good-luck if you never realized that you can go back to being Child Link by going to the Temple of Time).
• The toughest enemy in the entire game is the game's control scheme. You can know exactly what you need to do to fight a boss, but the targeting system constantly targets the wrong thing, or has you accidentally turning your back to the boss.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (1998-2011) (Played on New 3DS)

3+ years ago I set out on a mission to play/replay every mainline Zelda game in order. I made it through 4. Life happens, time marches on, and things get left and forgotten in the past. Universities are graduated, jobs are acquired, and Tears of the Kingdoms' release. But after a year that has thoroughly robbed my love for games (my fault for deciding to become a part of making them) I said NO MORE! I picked up the cartridge that called to me in my childhood GameStop 15 years ago and subsequently blew my 11 year old mind, tried not to think about how long ago that was despite embarking on a game specifically about the passage of time and longing for youth- and LOCKED. IN.

Okay long sappy preamble over this is the first time I've beaten Ocarina SINCE I was 11 and I hate to be obvious here but man oh man what an unbelievably fantastic game. I was afraid it wouldn't hold up to my memories (or to a post-BotW brain) but it CERTAINLY did. I think it's easy to take for granted how many fundamental parts of this game just didn't exist before Ocarina because of how prevalent they still are today 30 years on. You can see the basic fundamental language of 3D adventure games forming. The choice to be cinematic with camera movement just for the sake of it (vs contextualizing it with Lakitu in Mario 64) plays so well. Of COURSE there are some things that falter a little under the scope of time (like how Hyrule Field is big but also pretty empty, or how walking forward to auto-jump cliffs doesn't really feel so treacherous in hindsight). But on the whole I'm kind of shocked at how many times I still just found myself saying "Ugh what a good game" out loud to no one. The spirit temple is the one I remembered the least about which is crazy because it's SO smart front to back. The music of it all. The Sheik of it all. I actually don't remember as a kid clocking the Zelda/Link relationship to be as engaging as I found it this time around but I was really endeared by it. Ugh what a good game.

AND LET'S TALK ABOUT THE 3DS FOR A SEC. I refuse to call the stereoscopic 3D a gimmick. In the 15 years this console has been out I have never once booted it up without ogling the activity log title screen preview with the 3D on. It was mind blowing then and it's mind blowing now. Now take that and apply it to an entire world. It's such a gorgeous amount of depth, and it's very careful with not overdoing the pop-OUT effect, making much more dramatic use of the depth in such a spectacular way. I was frequently toggling the slider just to re-appreciate how much it was adding to the experience. The difference between now and back then is I have a New 3DS which makes the experience MUCH more comfortable and consistent.

No one needed anyone else on the internet to wax poetic about Ocarina of Time but maybe we're all waxing poetic for a reason. Needless to say this was most definitely what the doctor ordered. Video games rule and the people who love them will never ever stop making them regardless of how hard any/every cartoon corporate villain might try. Ugh what a good game.

Anyways now I go play Majora's Mask which I DISTINCTLY remember not enjoying at 15 even after I waited 4 long long years for the 3DS remake to come out (an amount of time which I remember feeling like infinity back then and is now almost the same length of time since I played the last game in this marathon which I don't even remember passing it happened so fast. Yikes!)

I've been trying to complete this game for 20 years. Finally made it.
The 3DS version is great. Graphics is nice, and they added hints. I don't know how someone was able to finish the game without hints. I barely finished it with them. Didn't use any guides, though. Except my childhood memory of how to get the Sun Song. The 3D in the game is mostly annoying, so I had to turn it off. Other than that, the game looks much, much better than the original, and I played the original in 2021 on the original N64, not on the emulator.
Also, remember, the original game didn't have a second stick, neither the 3DS version, even if you play on New 3DS. So expect some awkward camera moments here and there. But in general, it's no that bad.
Bosses are super easy, compared to todays standards. They're usually very slow, don't change tactics, and telegraph a lot. The only problem you may have is not understanding how much HP they have left or when they're invincible and when not (looking at you, Bongo Bongo).
Reimagining of Link is absolutely fantastic. The way they turned a 16bit pixel snot from Link to the Past into that twohander wielding badass - WOW!
Some other less that obvious moments: to get your first shield, you need to simply cut grass. That's it, there's no quest to get a shield, you just need to get the money. And this is also the last time you'll need money in this game. Everything else is basically free. Even extra life is just playing a song in front of a stone, and catching a fairy. Getting your horse, Epona, was also super annoying. But in the end I managed it. Although it turns out you don't actually need it to get to the Gerudo Valley. So it's just a bonus. And maybe a means to get that two handed sword. But that's it. Oh, yeah, hints. How was I supposed to guess that there are fake walls in the game, if that's the first time I encounter them?! The same goes for Shadow Temple, where you have to blow the garbage on the floor, although other garbage does nothing.
Final boss fight reminded me of Dark Souls, where you have to stick your head in the bosses groin, and try and cut its tail. Yeah, maybe not the best boss. Also, why is Zelda sending Link back in time? He didn't travel forward in time, he was asleep! The grown-up Link is the real link, hello!

Having said all that - still a fantastic game. Don't regret a moment of it. Okay, maybe getting Epona. And Bongo Bongo. And some other moments. But still.

It had been years since I played any video game for more than an hour or two. I was posted up north for school, and feeling stir crazy. My wife (girlfriend at the time) thought I needed something to help my mind relax at the end of the day, so she got me a New Nintendo 3DS, and this was one of the first games I picked up and really got back into, sparking a return of one of my oldest hobbies.

My personal appreciation for this title aside, I consider this a "perfect" remake. It preserves the core of the legendary 1998 classic while updating it's graphics, adding some helpful features and other changes to make it a bit more approachable.

The game itself holds up extremely well for being now almost 22 years old. Though the world feels a little small and a bit empty, it still feels large enough for an adventure, and the music, characters and story all haven't aged a bit - nostalgia aside, this is an objectively excellent experience.

Yes, some of the dungeons can be annoying, and it can be hard to know where to go or what to do next at times, but I find these glitches to be minor compared to the overall quality to be found in this 3DS cartridge.

The only other issue with this game is that it is on the 3DS - the 3D effect is really cool and well done, and the 2nd screen is helpful, but I find the console itself to be a bit uncomfortable for long play periods and the low resolution/poor quality screen to be a detriment.

I am really, really hoping for a Switch port of this particular version of OoT - 1080p up-scaling on a big screen please?

Although I've played games for most of my life, starting in the 90's, I've had very little experience with Zelda. At random points I tried to dip in, and they just never grabbed me. I pushed myself through Windwaker HD and thought it was fine. I attempted this game years ago and bounced off of it about halfway through. I tried Breath of the Wild and bounced off of it after about 10 hours. The series just hasn't clicked for me.

A few months ago, I decided I would start from the beginning and work way up through the series. I wanted to see if seeing the evolution of the series would give me a different perspective. To my surprise, I loved the first Zelda! Zelda II is another story, but that appears to be a series outlier. A Link to the Past, loved! Switch remake of Link's Awakening, loved! I was excited to revisit Ocarina to see if my experience would be different this time. Sadly, it was not.

I can certainly appreciate the significance of what this game did at the time it came out. I can definitely see if you played it at the time, that the nostalgia would make this an enjoyable play in 2024. For me, this is not a fun game. It feels tedious. The world is empty. The story is very simple. No real character development. Mechanics are fine, but they're not really fun to interact with. Toggling all the different Items is a pain and breaks the flow of the game. Most things in this game felt like a chore to me. I wanted to finish it, because I fully intend to keep playing through the Zelda games, but it just feels odd to not enjoy this beloved game. It's definitely one that I wish I played back in the day on 64. My actual enjoyment of the game is at about 2 stars, but because I can recognize it's significance and that it is a groundbreaking game, rating it that low doesn't feel right. It doesn't quite hold up today, imo, unless you've got nostalgia for it. Hopefully Majora's Mask fares better for me. :)

Zelda Fan: I think the key under the platform in the Water Temple is unfair.

Miyamoto: Hold my beer.

Beating Ocarina of Time (OOT) was a profound moment for me. I fondly reminisced over the perfectly tuned fantasy adventure forever changed in how I engaged with video games as art. Furthermore, this masterpiece irrevocably changed the industry. The plot wasn't good (a by-the-books Hero's Journey), but the atmosphere, world building and level design were masterful. OOT 3D was a faithful remaster of an all time classic. It added quality of life changes, such as being able to set boots to item slot and giving an additional binding for an item. The updated models looked great. My only issues were with the low-res textures, the sanitation of the bottom of the Well and the obnoxious cinematic when you first raise the water in the water temple to show you where a key is hidden. The later was a sidestep and not a fix to the issue. In the Bottom of the Well they removed all gore. In the original, there were flayed corpses, pools of blood and the Dead Hand was coated in the blood of a previous victim. As a kid this was terrifying and I was so scared that I had to watch my friend beat it for me. It was satisfying to return to the Well as an adult and conquer my fear. I realize that OOT was pitched as a kids game and that's why they sanitized the art. Honestly though, it added nuance and told a dark tale liking the Sheikah to Hyrule's Gestapo. This goes over the head of a kid, my own included at the time. When I beat the Master Quest, I felt like the Allied Powers after World War 1...

I was shocked to find out Miyamoto was credited as the designer for the Master Quest. It honestly felt like something a Fan made with no experience in game design. They misconstrued unfairness for challenge. Difficulty is a challenging balancing act that can easily topple over and become an immensely unpleasant experience. For example, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were not designed to be difficult yet the game garnered a reputation of being hard. Dark Souls 2 was made with limited supervision from Miyazaki and the devs seemed to fixate on difficulty over an immersive experience. It was misguided, flawed and unfair but still managed to be a fun action game.

While Master Quest was pitched as a challenging "redesign," it felt unfair and ruined a masterful game in it's incompetence. I expected the Master Quest to feel clunky since the levels were carefully designed and tuned to guide the players down a set path. The rooms were designed for a specific solution and puzzle in mind. I had hoped it would be a cheap imitation of the first time I played OOT, giving a fresh and fun new experience with an added benefit of more challenge. I was wrong. I was so wrong.

For challenge to feel satisfying to conquer it needs to feel fair. I would define 'fair' as communicating rules and clues clearly and adhering to them. While you can add more rules or mechanics as the game progresses, you need to communicate these clearly otherwise a puzzle will feel obtuse and/or unfair. Master Quest seemed more focused on breaking the rules and telling you to "Go Fuck Yourself" whenever you tried to play the game with the old rules.

It's easiest to articulate my perspective by listing the specific puzzles and why I felt they were either unfair or poor decisions. I will start with recurring puzzles, but then break down specific dungeon puzzles.

1. Switches hidden under large blocks you need to push and then stand on. This is more stupid than unfair. It broke immersion for me since it makes no sense why a heavy block literally on top of a pressure plate doesn't activate it.
2. Chests were hidden under blocks. Again it doesn't make sense.
3. Adding monsters and enemy types to locations that don't make sense. For example, Gohma's brood appear in locations outside of the Deku Tree. The lizards in Dodongo cavern appear in tons of other locations where they didn't appear in the original OOT. It breaks immersion. The base game created variety and immersion with enemy types since thought clearly went into what kind of monsters would inhabit certain locations. In addition, Master Quest had a large combat focus. While OOT has an important and influential control and combat schema it's honestly not that good. Play Devil May Cry or Viewtiful Joe if you want responsive and satisfying combat. What made OOT great was the overall adventure, not combat specifically. I felt annoyed and not challenged by the plethora of added encounters.
4. An odd fixation with the Song of Time blocks. These were never clever or satisfying puzzles. You just play the song and that's it...it's fixation makes the first three Dungeons obnoxious because their locations force you to return to all three if you want to collect all Gold Skultulas (you need to ocarina of time and song of time before you can move these blocks...). There was some forced backtracking in the original game but it was light. It's prominent in the Master Quest. This is bloat, not challenge. This goes further with plenty of out of reach gold Skultulas that you need the boomerang to collect... again not challenge just bloat.
5. You never know when a room is optional until you clear it... The worst offender of this was in the Spirit Temple which I will cover below.
6. The redesign has plenty of wasted space, indicating the devs didn't know how to redesign certain areas or elements of a puzzle so they would either lazily block it off or spawn a chest that gives you rupees... Talk about a "fuck you" with how utterly useless rupees are in the game.
7. Most Zelda Lullabies will only spawn a blue Rupee. Why not just remove these from the game? Probably because that would have taken more resources than they were willing to invest to just cover the symbol on the floor...

While there were plenty of annoying moments in the first four dungeons, it was still reasonably inoffensive and I was fine with pushing forward. When I started my new file, I noticed I had stopped the Master Quest back in 2011 at the Fire Temple. I soon was rudely reminded why...

Temple specific criticisms:

Jabu Jabu's Belly:

Most switches were replaced with disembodied cow heads lining up the cell walls of the whale. In addition, there was a full cow in stomach acid that apparently had gills since it was mooing and quite alive. This was weird and immersion breaking. Most puzzles revolved around shooting these cow heads. Nothing challenging about it. What I will say is the rule of shooting cows in the face was established in the first room since you need to shoot two in order to progress. So not offensive nor challenging. It's decent design though a perplexing decision. They also side-stepped the escort component of the dungeon entirely. You do very with Ruto which is disappointing considering that her inclusion added an interesting and unique twist to the dungeon.

Fire Temple:

1. You are forced to hook shot to METAL torches in order to progress. The way this is implemented is clunky and immersion breaking. I think the puzzle would be fair if you had to hook shot to a wood covered torch. You never had to hook shot to torches in the original game and I honestly don't know if you were able to. If you know the answer please share in the comments!
2. You need to use a charged sword swing on the edge of a platform to hit a crystal switch behind a locked door. What makes this obtuse and frustrating is that a bomb explosion won't activate it... I timed chucking a bomb and it wouldn't work which makes no sense. I would have been fine with it if the explosion worked... There's another locked door you need to open in the same way, but the crystal switch is hidden from sight...
3. There is a gap you cannot cross unless you play the Song of Time to spawn a block. What makes this unfair is that you aren't given any clue you need to do this besides navi floating green around an area... In the original game there was always a song of time block you could see to indicate you need to play the song. This cheap tactic is repeated multiple times across the game.. I eventually started defaulting to playing the song of time when I had no idea what to do. Not challenging just obtuse.
4. The worst offender was going into a miniboss room to fight a dancer. I got nothing for my trouble and when I exited the room I was trapped by a fire wall... The switch to escape was on the other side and there was no object for me to use my hook shot on... I had to save my game and reset just to escape...This likely is the event that caused me to quit the Master Quest back in 2011. I decided to push forward since I was more than halfway done and didn't feel like starting over in the base game. That was a mistake... Only woe awaited me from here.

Frozen Cavern:

Not much to say here other than they made it laughably easier than the base game... so much for a challenge.

Water Temple:

You need to re-enter the tower after it is flooded to progress. In the base game I believe it was IMPOSSIBLE to open a door while underwater. If you could, you never were meant to... making this both obtuse and unfair. O and for salt in the wound it involved making Song of Time blocks spawn again because that's so fun and challenging...

Bottom of the Well:

1. Optional rooms filled with combat encounters with no reward... You can either clear this fast or waste a ton of time by opening the wrong door.
2. All small keys are not in chests making finding them a royal pain in the ass. At least by having them in chests you can use the compass to find them... One is hidden under a pile of dirt...so you just have to run around like a lunatic blowing everything up. Not clever nor challenging.
3. You need to activate a crystal switch that is impossible (or near impossible) to see. Starting in the Water Temple, you need to start smacking and blasting every wall relief and object like you are playing Dark Souls to find hidden crystal switches...

Shadow Temple:

One of the least offensive end game dungeons. It has many of the same issues listed above with an addition of tons of backtracking which makes progression both clunky and tedious. The original Shadow Temple was streamlined.

Spirit Temple:

1. You need to activate a switch as an adult and return as a kid to get a small key...not clever and ends up wasting about 5-7 mins.
2. There's a decent unique puzzle that ends up being ruined with a massive slap in the face at the end... There's a room with two rolling boulders and a Club Moblin. It's a royal pain to maneuver and I ended up getting smacked back by the Moblin a frustrating amount of times... I did like the puzzle in the room, though it did require some guess work which wasn't great. The Fuck You and smack in the face is the next room is filled to the brim with Skultulas that will slap you around like a pinball. The reward for all this oppression is a chest with a rupee in it... cool... a completely optional room.

Ganon's Tower: At this point I was fuming. Most rooms were inoffensive. Though the sun room had a cheap trick with a sun you need to hit with the mirror shield hidden behind the door. Impossible (or next to impossible) to see... The bigger offender was the Shadow Barrier. You need to collect silver rupees while maneuvering across invisible and narrow platforms. In addition you need to kill enemies. It's precise and if you tumble off you need to start all over... I had to reset this room a ton of times. It's possible to run out of resources while doing this room which would result in you having to leave Ganon's tower and returning...

TL;DR: Don't waste your time. This game is rubbish. Just play OOT base game. It's masterfully designed and a ton of fun to play.

Ok, first of all, the upgraded graphics and 3D are just beautiful, and they really make replaying this game a fresh, exciting experience. The small upgrades were very helpful as well, like being able to equip boots instead of changing them in gear, and having extra equip slots. This really is the definitive way to play Ocarina of Time. I feel no need to play the N64 version anymore.

Now, to review Ocarina of Time itself. I am not one of those people that thinks it's the greatest game of all time, nor even the greatest Zelda game. It's not even in my top 5 Zelda games, to be honest (blasphemous, I know). Don't get me wrong, it's an absolutely top notch game, and most of the game is the most fun I've ever had and probably will ever have playing a video game. But there are just a few things about it that knock it down ever so slightly.

1. Freaking Jabu Jabu's Belly. Everything about this dungeon sucks. Getting there sucks (move faster, King Zora). The constant electrocution sucks. Princess Rita SUCKS. That Big Octo sucks. It's just one of my least favourite dungeons in Zelda.

2. Getting so many freaking rupees everywhere, and having almost nothing good to buy. I mean, the blue potion comes in handy when you're fighting Ganon. And you need a bunch of rupees to play all the mini games and get a bunch of pieces of heart. But there's not that much that's useful to buy. All the items are found plentifully in grass, bottles, and leftover from enemies.

3. Getting so many Bombchus, and having nothing useful to do with them. Seriously, there's only one time in the entire Zelda franchise that I think I've ever used a bombchu, and that's to beat a mandatory puzzle in Ocarina of Time. It's a cool toy, but it's just not used anywhere. Regular bombs will do the trick in almost every situation. Lost opportunity, in my opinion.

4. Every freaking time you think you found a cool secret, and it's just 3 Deku Shrubs trying to sell you crap you never use. Finally cross the lava pit in the Goron Village? Not even cool! Ugh.

5. Some of the repetitive and uninspired puzzles in the dungeons. Don't get me wrong, most of the dungeons in Ocarina of Time are the best ever made. And the new graphics just make them even better. But really? Sometimes you get into a room, there's a barred door, and all you have to do is step onto a switch that's directly in your path. That's not a puzzle, that's a nuisance. And how many times do you have to play Zelda's Lullaby on a Triforce? That is not a difficult puzzle to figure out.

6. And then, sometimes you have puzzles that just give you no clues or context whatsoever! When Navi turns green and you have to figure out which random song will make something cool appear? Definitely easier once you get the hang of it, but infuriating at first.

7. Crossing Hyrule Field. Especially as a kid. There's just nothing there.

8. Navi

9. I still have no idea what the scarecrows do. I think I'll finally look it up, now that I've beaten the game three times.

Ok, I think that's all my complaints. They don't take away from the greatness of the game as a whole, but they do justify the game not being one of the greatest Zeldas, at least for me. Ocarina does so much right. Most of the dungeons are so good and memorable. Kakariko Village is a joy to discover. The music is delightful. The final boss battle is actually really difficult. And--this is a small thing, but an awesome thing--I love the names of the bosses. It's not just Volvagia... it's Subterranean Lava Dragon Volvagia. It's not just Bongo Bongo... it's Phantom Shado Beast Bongo Bongo. And then.... Ganon. Just Ganon. Oh man, I love it so much.

Overall, incredible, beautiful, epic game. Just not the best in the series--a series that contains half of my top ten favourite games of all time (with Ocarina of Time being #11).

What's kind of hilarious to me is that while the N64 was the first console I ever played, it belonged to my childhood friend and he was apparently not interested in classic Nintendo staples ala the likes of Zelda or Mario. Thus, my earliest console gaming memories are of NFL Blitz, WCW vs NWO and Goldeneye. Which, to be fair, are also very fun games.

Anyway, I finally got around to playing Ocarina with the 3DS remake. I'm gonna go ahead and be THAT GUY and say that this is not my favorite Zelda game. Coming from a place completely removed from nostalgia and playing Ocarina of Time for the first time in 2013, I can honestly say that both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess have more sophisticated art styles, less frustrating gameplay and more memorable dungeons. I know that it was hugely influential and basically rewrote the format for the series, making it possible for later entries to build upon the foundation created here. I would say that from this point, nearly every 3D Zelda improves the formula for the better. So many things in this game are incredibly vague with nonsensical solutions, so much so that they had to put in a feature that tells you exactly how to do almost every task in the game. Not exactly intuitive design. Anyway, still a classic with undeniable influence and some incredibly memorable moments.