I think a little bit of that was bitterness on Aonuma's part.

He's been very public about how he really wants to create a Zelda that tops Ocarina of Time. Ironically, the closest he's ever been was Majora's Mask. Although not nearly as epic as Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask was just brilliant and featured a engrossing atmosphere, evocative themes, and amazing music.

It still amazes me how Majora's Mask was centered around a completely optional event that takes place during a side-quest in Ocarina of Time. I never got over how awesome that was.

The 16 bit era is better in every way, but the 8 bit era is more important!  It's the whole evolution vs. revolution thing.

And it's happening again with the Wii being the new NES, and shaking up the whole industry.  Next gen is going to be the Super Wii Entertainment System, and blow everything away.

"graphics are not as nice as they should be" What is he talking about the game still looks great on a hd tv while most ps1 games look terrible in hd!

Not if Sony and MS have anything to say about it.  Remember, the Super NES had dominance because it followed the most successful console of all time.  The Wii is going to be followed up by a Nintendo console with virtually no third party support and a still unproven Nintendo hold in the market.  Plus, we don't even know what direction Nintendo is going to go (focus on graphics, focus on 'waggle', focus on balancing the two, create a whole new gaming platform, etc).

Exactly. I discovered many things that I didn't notice when I was a kid playing the game back then. The story doesn't look big, but when you talk to the citizens and stuff, it's incredible the amount of details that was put into this game.

And I seriously think that the graphics are excellent, even for a N64 game. When I replayed the virtual console version, I was amazed at some parts in the game, especially on your way to Zora's Domain.

Also, who can forget the last few hours of the game? Probably the pinnacle of gaming right there. OOT deserves to be overrated, because as a package, it delivered beyond everything for its time (and even today).

I'm sorry. Ocarina of Time is the best thing ever conceived by man.

End of story.

Try this instead: http://www.zeldainformer.com/2008/05/the-message-of-majoras-mask.php#more

This is the best piece of writing I've ever read about Zelda.

I thought it was slow... unlike alttp, tp, ww...

I know everyone is allowed to have opinions, but explain me this:

How can OOT be slower than TWW? The Wind Waker has a very annoying fetch quest right before the end of the game, while OOT does not. It follows the old Zelda route a lot more, meaning that you get the key items from beating the dungeons, nothing else.

I want to know, and thanks in advance.

People have different opinions.  And this comes from someone who puts Ocarina in his 5 favorite games of all time.

Heck, as this thread has shown, some people think other Zeldas are better, let alone other games.

Wait...compared to Twilight Princess...?  Uh....that game is the longest and slowest Zelda there is?  I mean, you can complete half of Ocarina in the time it takes you to do all the mandatory 'side quests' in Twilight (soul collecting to awaken the gods, go back to get the iron boots, stupid puzzle game to get the Master Sword, collecting all your sword power-ups, etc).

Not to mention all the story sequences and running from one side of the world to the other.