Ocarina of Time: 10 Years On

If you're a gamer, there's no way you could of possibly escaped the word "Zelda" for more than a month within picknig up the pad. And if you havn't heard of that word, you've got no right to read this. Infact, use that handy, yet often useless, search bar tab in the top-right corner of Firefox to look it up. Enter the three key words "Ocarina", "Of" and "Time" as well, and most the results will carry a further three words: "Best", "Game" and "Ever".

The Zelda series is among the world's greatest franchises, be it games or TV, film or books. Besides Mario, the adventures of Link is Nintendo's flagship series, and when it comes to "Hardcore" gaming: There's nothing better than Zelda.

Future Zelda titles like Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess have tried to challenge Ocarina's crown, but have failed. Both where amazing games, but have a long way to go if they want to muster the magic of Ocarina of Time. Many will claim they where "The best Zelda ever" or "The new Ocarina of Time" at launch, but we all know that it -Quite frankly- isn't. Perhaps this is why Nintendo tryed to change the visual style straight after the second N64 3D Zelda: They couldn't top it, and they knew it wasn't worth trying. The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass are both amazing titles, and some of the best games ever, and not directly competing with the gaming might that is Ocarina of Time helps majorly when it comes to this sort of thing.

Infact, only a handful of titles do own the right to eb able to look Ocarina in the eyes. Okami on PS2 and Wii may have flopped when it comes to sales, but it's the closest challenger to the title that doesn't come from Nintendo it's self. Twilight Princess, Majora, Wind Waker and Link To The Past are all amazing games, and among the best Nintendo, heck, any developer have ever made. Yet Ocarina just floats above them.

The scale of Ocarina is also a major selling point. Back then, no other game was nearly as big as Ocarina. Maybe the same thing could be said of the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV nowadays, but we've seen big open worlds before. And in Zelda everything was pulled along by the story, and you never saw the lead characters commiting crimes. Link's a good guy, y' see?

Actualy, GTAIV just -To be honest- wasn't worth the hype. Ocarina of Time was known as the most anticipated game of that decade. And it surpased pretty much all expectations. Zelda's the best game ever now, and it still was even better back then.

"Hold it!" screams Phoenix Wright, the defense in the case against the other Zelda titles. "This is a ten year old title we're talking about here!". Well, yes it is. Sure, the screenshot from this year's Super Smash Bros. Brawl of Link in his Twilight Princess "Gear" may be nice on the eyes, (Even if he is firing an arrow right into it) but A). Twilight Princess was almost identical to Ocarina of Time, but with the abilty to play as a Wolf and the whole Twilight twist. Plus, B). Ocarina of time's eccence is yet to eb captured. And it's one so pure that even the Three Goddesses Of Hyrule have yet to discover how Nintendo managed to trap it in a bottle and then ram inside a Game Cart so sucessfully. And we dobut anybody will ever discover the true reason why Miyamoto's masterpiece is such a brilliant game. It just is.

IGN, Edge, RPGamer, EGM, NGamer, Famitsu... All these and far more have seen Ocarina Of Time top their "Top Games Of All Time" lists, and both Metacritic and GamesRankings have it at the top of their rankings. (For those who don't know what I'm on about, both of those sites basicly add up Review Scores and find the average review score. Ocarina is the only game at the moment to have 97%. Super Mario Galaxy and GTAIV have breifly taken over, but Ocarina has got it back before long.) This just goes to show: Ocarina of Time is the Best Game Ever, and it rightfully deserves it. No matter how much longer Nintendo go on making games, it pretty much definatly won't be topped. Actualy, we can probaly safley say that no matter how long the games industry go on, Ocarina of Time will still stand as at the top spot.

See you for our 100th Aniversary Celebration in 2098.