Before the title screen had even appeared, the brief
vignettes of Termina perfectly evoked the dark
fairytale vibe. First we got a glimpse of a peaceful
bucolic setting with a familiar child swinging his legs
atop a wooden platform. Then we saw Skull Kid and
the terrifying encroaching moon and felt a shiver of
eerie horror. Supremely effective.
CLASSIC INTRO
Not so much an individual weapon as a series
of them. There was a terrible compulsion to
complete your set of masks, partly because
many of them were legitimately useful, but also
because donning almost every one of them
made Link look either funny or creepy – or
occasionally both.
CLASSIC WEAPON
O
carina of Time had taken an
unusually long time to make.
Sure, three years might not
seem like much by today’s
standards, but back in 1998 it was
out of the ordinary. Not wishing to let
those 3D assets go to waste, Nintendo
set out to make a new edition, Master
Quest. But designer Eiji Aonuma had
grander plans, defying orders by
crafting brand new dungeons in his
spare time. He pitched a follow-up, only
to be told that any such project would
only be greenlit if he could guarantee
delivery in 12 months’ time.
Development extended longer than
the original deadline, but the follow-
up was another classic, with a clever
temporal twist that saw Link replaying
the same 72-hour period in an attempt
to save the land of Termina from a
lunar apocalypse. Compact, intimate
and somehow bleaker and weirder
than Ocarina at its darkest, this twisted
fable was regarded by some fans
as superior to even its much-loved
predecessor. Whichever you preferred,
this represented a one-two punch
of adventuring excellence that had
PlayStation owners looking on with
envious eyes.