It's good, but it's not quite the knockout that people had anticipated. Zelda, on the other hand, not only meets every expectation you had of it, but actually exceeds them. When it comes to what people will now demand of a top videogame, Nintendo has moved the goalposts off the pitch, into a lorry, down the road, into the airport, onto a plane and halfway round the world to a different continent entirely.
There isn't a single square inch of the vast game world that hasn't been subjected to intense scrutiny by Nintendo's designers, programmers and testers, and then polished to a finish so glossy it makes Dulux jealous. Zelda has the perfect learning curve, which makes what is actually quite a complex control system as second-nature as breathing by the time players leave the safety of the forest where they start and head into the wide world beyond.
Link begins the game as a child with a couple of basic skills and the clothes on his back. In the process of exploring his home, Kokiri Village, he picks up the essentials of adventuring. As the game begins, Link who can be renamed if you want is summoned by Navi the fairy, who from then on becomes his constant companion, to see the Deku Tree. This big old stick is the guardian of Link's village, but his roots have recently been infested with evil creatures. He also knows that Link's been having nightmares about a malevolent force taking over the world - realising that it could be a prophecy, the Deku Tree decides that Link is the key to preventing a catastrophe.
Once the Deku Tree has been fumigated, Link has to set out into the world of Hyrule to find the young girl glimpsed in his nightmares Princess Zelda. If you've played any of the previous Zelda games , there are many things about the N64 game that will feel familiar - places, people, being able to pick up chickens and hurl them around like feathered beachballs.
If you haven't played one of the older games, there's no need to worry - the Tolkien-style world is a fantasy archetype, and after a couple of minutes you'll feel right at home.
On the surface, Zelda might look similar to Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie , in that you control a character who can roam freely through a 3-D world.
If you're expecting a platform game, though, you're in for a shock. While there are places where Link has to leap from ledges and climb up cliffs, the game engine is smart enough to perform these actions automatically when needed. What, no jump button? Run Link at the edge of a raised area and he'll jump, move him to a ladder and he'll climb, send him into water and he'll swim.
Taking these actions out of the hands of the player may seem as though control is being surrendered, but it isn't. Only donkey work is being given up - more specific actions are still entirely up to you. The key to all this is the incredibly clever control system.
The A button is the 'action' command, which depending on circumstances lets Link open doors, talk to people, enter small spaces, climb walls, push objects, uproot plants, attack enemies, jump in battle You only have to glance at the icon at the top of the screen to see what Link can do at any given moment. The B button controls Link's main weapon - by using this in conjunction with the analogue stick, he can make different kinds of attack - and R brings up his shield.
The ingenious part of the combat system is the use of the Z trigger as well. By holding Z while attacking. Link locks onto an enemy and will always face it, even while moving around. The combination of these three buttons gives players what is quite simply the best combat system ever.
Until you've used it in action it's hard to appreciate just how good it is, but Link can dodge, feint, probe for weaknesses, defend and dart in for devastating effect against multiple opponents, without the action ever becoming confusing. Even the inventory system is ingenious, with no need to keep stopping the game to switch between items.
Using the objects that Link collects is simplicity itself. On the Select Item subscreen, move the cursor over an item, push whichever C button you want to assign it to, and that's it.
Back in the game, every time you push that C button the item will be used, be it a weapon, a magical spell or a fish in a bottle. Once Link gets out into the big wide world, the game becomes a mixture of combat, exploration, character interaction and puzzles.
Hyrule is vast, but is laid out in such a way that players don't have to spend hours slogging back and forth between areas. It's usually made clear where Link needs to go next, and if you forget, the in-game map helpfully puts up flashing icons to show places of importance.
Later in the game, shortcuts become available to cut down still further on travelling time. A few people have been heard to complain about Zelda's lack of support for the Expansion Pak. You know something? It doesn't need it. The game looks gorgeous enough as it is; it's hard to see how banging in a few extra pixels on screen could improve matters.
Watching the sun set over Hyrule Castle, battling against the massive bosses, seeing the lengthy expository cut-scenes unfold or just sitting down to go fishing Zelda, unlike most games, goes to great pains to give its characters Minor actors are given typically Nintendo exaggerated facial characteristics to make them stick in the memory the Quasimodo-like gravedigger.
Talon the bog-eyed, sinister-'tached farmhand with ideas above his station and major characters like Zelda, Seria, Ganondorf and Link himself have facial expressions that perfectly emote their feelings. The characterisation helps pull you into the story in a way no videogame has managed before. There are also plenty of delightful comedy moments that help provide relief from the main story. From Navi banging head-on into a fence in an opening scene, to Goron disco dancing, to fun with chickens, even the most cynical will crack a smile.
Because Zelda never takes you out of the game world, unlike FFVII constant stop-start turn-based attacks and CD access, Nintendo's game completely immerses you in the story and gets you involved with what happens to the characters. I speak from experience. Like most adventure games apart from Holy Magic Century, which took the brave step of not bothering with all that tedious discovering stuff in favour of hour after hour after hour of random monster attacks Zelda has loads of puzzles and problems that have to be solved before Link can progress.
Some of them are straightforward enough -anyone who's ever played Tomb Raider will feel right at home with the sliding block sections. Other parts require more imagination to solve.
Some of the puzzles seem impossible to work out at first, until with a mighty slap of the head and a cry of "Duh! If you remember that all the necessary clues and items are available by the time you reach a puzzle, and that for the most part things behave as they do in the real world, you'll get there in the end.
If you ever get stuck, then it's almost certainly your fault for not exploring the vicinity properly. In the whole intensive odd hours play at Nintendo HQ, there was only one time - quite near the start of the game - when Link had to go back to an earlier point to get something he'd missed in order to solve a puzzle.
The rest of the time, when you reach a problem, the means of solving it is either a short distance away or already in your grasp - you just have to work out how to use it. Just as a hint to new players, which won't spoil the game at all, once you've been given the ocarina it's worth going back and finding the person who gave it to you again before you begin the main adventure. It'll save you a walk later on!
Just how big a game is Zelda? In the course of two days at Nintendo of Europe's headquarters, 64 Magazine put in about 22 hours of play. To put this in perspective, it took 12 hours to complete just the first, relatively straightforward part of the adventure, at the end of which Link winds up seven years older. According to Nintendo, a player who has already completed the game, knows where everything is and how to defeat all the enemies, would take about 40 hours to reach the finish.
As well as the main quest to save Hyrule, there are all kinds of smaller missions, challenges and amusing subgames to do on the side. Some readers gave us stick for saying Banjo-Kazooie was challenging when they finished it in no time. Well, apart from saying that these people should get out more, we can confidently say that it will be quite a while before Zelda gives up all its secrets.
Remember, you need to eat and sleep and stuff like that. Obviously it wouldn't be a proper 64 Magazine review without finding some things to complain about, so here goes; once you've figured out the pattern of a boss's attack you can always beat them without harm; you can't speed up text, only skip it; the targeting system occasionally takes a few tries to lock on; narrow corridors put the camera too close behind Link for comfort; the chirpy music drills into your head like a Cerebral Bore and won't leave.
As far as things wrong with the game go, that's pretty much it. You'll live with them. If you have an N64, buy this game. If you don't have an N64, buy one, then buy this game. That's how good it is. Nintendo's problem now is that they've created a game that's so good, it's hard to see how they can top it. But then, people said that about Super Mario 64 , and compared to Zelda, Mario is just a demo knocked up in someone's spare time.
Even Goldeneye looks a bit anaemic alongside Zelda. With less than 13 months to go, it's a fairly safe bet that nothing more stunning is going to come along before the turn of the millennium. Even if you're one of those smart-arses who witters on about the millennium not really starting until it still applies.
If you don't buy Zelda 64, you're missing out on the game of the century. We flew all the way to Japan to interview Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto in his secret underground train that whisks him around Japan. No we didn't. We got this from the press release like everyone else. But it's still interesting stuff So, Shiggsy; what do you think is the secret of a great game?
Well, I think the most important factor is the correct mixture, ie the weighing of the different elements of a game. My successful principle bases on a 70 to 30 percent share, that is to say 70 percent of tasks to be performed and the remaining 30 percent of secrets and mysteries to be unveiled and solved by the player. How does Zelda 64 compare to Mario 64?
In the creation of Super Mario 64, I was actually the director of the game, this time I am the producer. In Zelda 64, there are actually four directors, responsible for different fields of the game. How many people were cracking away on Zelda?
About persons, the biggest development team ever involved in the creation of a game! Additionally, we closely co-operated with another company to perfect the programming of the adventure. If we add this group to our own team, I can say that about persons were involved. How big's this sucker, then? This is a difficult question to answer, for the playing time depends on each player and on his individual skills. I think that it will take a versed player at least 40 hours of gaming to finish the adventure.
Nintendo has had a great history with the Zelda series of games and it was always presumed that a bit version would appear around the same time as the new machine. This one looks like it might be a little late however, since Nintendo plans to release it at the same time as its top-secret Ultra 64 device, currently known as the Bulky Storage Device.
Not much is known at present with regards to how Zelda will play, but similar puzzles and an all-new 3-D environment are definite inclusions. The character animation is incredible. The main question up until now with every new Zelda game has never been "is it good?
Instead it's "how good is it? Majora's Mask is not really a new take on Zelda--most everything from the controls Z-targeting, auto jumping to the items fire arrows, the Lens ofTruth, Hookshot to even the characters return from the last N64 Zelda, Ocarina of Time. Graphically you might even mistake them for the same game, although Majora's Mask seems to use the required RAM Expansion Pak for a few larger open areas.
But similar to how the Super Nintendo version of Zelda improved on the original NES title, this new N64 edition doesn't totally rethink the game, but rather refines and polishes the gameplay using the same overall shell. The biggest gameplay change is the fact that, for most of the game, you don't play as Link. You play as Goron Link, Deku Link or Zora Link-transformations with all new powers whose identity Link assumes when he wears certain masks.
The beauty of Majora's Mask is how it uses the different advantages, disadvantages and special abilities of each of these forms; they are seamlessly woven into every part of the game, from secrets scattered throughout the overworld, to all the people you interact with, to the ingenious dungeon puzzles. The other inspired difference is the new importance of time: Taking place over three repeating days, what time it is in Majora's Mask becomes as important as where you are and sometimes, who you are in figuring out many of the game's devilish puzzles and subquests.
Even if you are one of the lucky few to find a PS2 on launch day, you won't find a better game for any system in the stores this Oct. I still think Ocarina of Time is one of the best games ever made, so it's no small thing when I say Majora's Mask is even better. The "Wow" factor of being in a 3D real-time Zelda game for the first time is gone, but the thrill of exploration is still there and the controls and actual gameplay are stronger than ever.
Swimming with Zora link, rolling around with Goron Link, and flying with Deku Link make getting from place to place a lot easier and more enjoyable this time around. Plus there are thankfully now plenty of warp points, with a single Ocarina song to fly instantly between them. As with OoT, the game isn't totally linear either; you can choose to continue down the road toward your ultimate objective, or take a side journey through any of the insane amount of minigames or side-quests.
The dungeon designs are works of art, each totally different except for the fact that they all incorporate the items and different forms you can assume seamlessly. Filled with all sorts of tricks and traps, they are like intricate puzzles themselves--only with persistence and real thought will you figure them out. The save system is a big improvement over the Japanese version, too.
It doesn't make the game any easier, but lets you turn your N64 off when you need to. Everything else is done right: the memorable characters old and new , the funny subplots, the added emphasis on time, the bosses, the mini-games.
I love the time-travel aspect in Majora's Mask, even moreso than Ocarina of Time in some ways. Technically this game only lasts three game days, but with the use of the ocarina you get to replay those days over and over again.
Kinda like Zelda meets Groundhog Day. Besides the novel approach, what you really get in Majora's Mask is more of the same great gameplay from the last game, complete with an entirely new, though eerily familiar, world to explore and a unique set of quests and mini-games.
It's too bad the N64 is aging so poorly. The fuzzy graphics really hurt this game in my opinion. Not enough to mess with the score, though. Playing Ocarina of Time was such a wonderful experience I was utterly convinced nothing would be able to top it for many, many years. OK, I was wrong, but at least it was another Zetda game that smashed my prediction, so I don't feel as bad.
Step 1: you can start by downloading a reliable and bug free emulator. Once you have finished downloading Mupen , extract the downloaded. After, double click the mupen A ROM is essentially a virtual version of the game that needs to be loaded into the emulator. Navigate to the downloaded. The game will now run on the emulator and you can play the game freely. Tip: Saving games on an emulator functions a little differently. The integrated save system will not save your progress.
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