Replaying through MM made me realize how much the game has truly become overrated over the years. Yes it's a great game, like all 3D Zeldas, but I actually think Twilight Princess may be better and I'm not a huge TP fan. It definitely sits comfortably at the bottom of the 3D Zelda heap with TP.
The biggest issue with it really is the dungeons. And no not because there's only 4. I think that there's enough mini-dungeons/ in between stuff in the game that the 4 dungeons thing isn't a huge deal. IF they were great quality that is. Unfortunately they're not. I would easily place The woodfall and great bay temples both in my top 10 worst Zelda dungeons, possibly top 5. Woodfall has to be one of the most basic and forgettable in the whole series, and the great bay one is more annoying than OoT's ever was with the damn water currents and the Zora controls. I also think it's just an uninspired layout on the whole. Nothing stands out about either of those. Snowhead is decent, and I think back in its day it seemed a lot better since we didn't have some of the amazing dungeons of TWW, TP, or SS yet. But now it also comes across as kind of forgettable. Give my most of the dungeons in OoT over it. So that leaves Stone Tower. Yes, this is still a great dungeon (though again it has been surpassed by a lot of later ones), but one memorable dungeon does not a great Zelda game make.
The plot is really dull compared to OoT's epic cinematic one too. Basically skull kid steals a mask that is trying to destroy a world by somehow controlling its moon and you stop it from happening. The end. Hardly the epic time traveling plot twisting adventure of OoT's plot. Also Termina really lacks its own identity as a separate world from Hyrule, given the characters, races, and even locations are pretty much recycled right outta OoT. The big scary ass moon always glaring down at you is about the only thing that makes it feel different as a location.
Now to its credit, MM does side quests the best of 3d Zeldas, and that hasn't changed. The problem with that though is that side quests rarely have much of a reward in Zelda games, and that's no different in MM. You're doing nearly all of them to get that piece of heart. And let's face it, after 7 or 8 hearts you really don't need anymore or you're gonna make the game way too easy, especially since MM3D's damage was nerfed to be more in line with modern Zelda damage.
The only thing MM truly has going for it compared to other 3d Zeldas are the unique time and mask systems. Now the time system is love or hate as far as I'm concerned. Yeah it can be fun to feel that foreboding sense as you play and have to think about time management, but there's also always times where I find it just annoying and by the end it feels very repetitive and stale. The mask system is still a great idea. However, this time playing I realized how little 80% of the masks actually matter. There's only 3 transformation masks, and the bunny hood is really the only other one that's much use. Most of them are just used to get a piece of heart, and as I already said you don't need anywhere near all of those or you'll basically break the game.
All in all, MM is still a great game because it utilizes the same amazing fundamentals as OoT. But I can safely say after replaying it that it's one of the weakest if not the weakest 3d Zelda to date. It does nearly nothing better than OoT, especially the big stuff where it counts (dungeons, plot, sense of adventure, items, etc). It's just an interesting little diversion the OoT team quickly cooked up since they had all the assets together, which is all it was ever meant to be anyways.
