#37: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Many people still to this day see Ocarina of Time as the best game ever made and at the time of it's original release it certainly was and still is one of the best games ever.
I personally never liked the game as much, it never was in my top 10. But qualitywise it tops most games that I enjoyed more.
The story is one of the best in any Zelda game with one the best endings to a game ever. Ganondorf is the perfect Zelda game villain. He is cunning, menacing and just purely evil. He is one the most memorable main villains I've seen. The best part is that his plan succeeds and he actually overtakes Hyrule. The only thing he didn't have was the full Triforce.
The original was the first game to create a world that actually felt alive. Right from the start everything in the game has so much character and atmosphere. The environments and levels are all designed with so much love and care. Even tough the original's graphics have aged so poorly it still has something special about it. The in-engine cutscenes still hold up well.
The dungeons are brilliant, almost all of them. The very first one, in the great deku tree is very short and works as a perfect tutorial dungeon. They all have their own unique theme with fantastic level design and puzzles as well as a wide array of enemies.
I especially like the shadow temple and the forest temple. They have the best atmosphere and level design. Especially the spiralling corridor in the forest temple is quite creative and the environments in the shadow temple with all those torture devices and blood (but only in the original sadly).
The bosses are also insanely creative. My favorite one this one:
Bongo Bongo is very creepy and really left a lasting impression on me. Dead Hand is the where the real freak show is at though. He is pure nightmare fuel.
The side characters are all very interesting and also well designed the way they behave and move according to their personality. I like how expressive some of them are.
So much for the game in general. I played it for the first time on the Gamecube, but not the Masterquest version but instead the one from the The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition. Why did I choose the 3D version over the original. Simply because it improves on almost everything and with completely new models for everything looks way better. The water dungeon is way better to navigate, which negates the only design flaw I saw in the original.
Only a few minor things are worse than in the original. Namely the final fight against Ganon being way to bright, which is detrimental to the atmosphere that was created in the origonal where it's way darker. The other thing is the removal of the blood in the dhadow dungeon, which is again detrimental to the atmosphere. Everything else is improved upon where it was needed.
Here is a good comparison for the final fight:
The left one is from the original where he looks way more evil. The other one is to bright.
Concluding Ocarina of Time is a masterpiece that is, barring a few minor things basically perfect. An absolute masterpiece and an industry defining product that truely raised video games as a whole to a new level. The Mona Lisa of video games.
If this list would be about quality and not what my favorites are, then Ocarina of Time would be in the top 3.
This is the third Zelda game on my list so far.
