The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D - Remaking a Classic

Remaking video games is always a touchy subject. Ever since Square started the trend by porting Final Fantasy V and VI to the PS1, then later fully remaking the graphics of the first two Final Fantasies, other companies have followed suit and partaken in what has been criticized as just plugging away games that already exist without adding many new features. The Game Boy Advance was a huge offender of this, porting over Super Nintendo games that were now playable on the GBA, the first handheld system capable of truly reproducing graphics similar to the SNES. When the DS was launched with Super Mario 64 DS, a remake of Super Mario 64, some debated how long it  would take for Nintendo to port The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to the DS. It never came, Nintendo preferring to wait for their next handheld, the 3DS.

The wait was well-worth it, because although on the surface Ocarina has been re-done with improved graphics and not much else, it does boast 2 integral differences: a vastly improved frame rate and a 3D environment. The game also takes advantage of the 3DS' motion sensor, allowing you to aim and view in first person by simply moving the 3DS around. I thought this was going to be a stupid gimmick, but I was really impressed by how accurate it was. Clearly, this game was made with LOVE.

Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 9.5/10
Replay Value: 10/10

Average Score:      9.88/10

 

How could I give this game a less than perfect score (Even though it's damn close)? The one incredibly minor flaw that this game has is that when the original Ocarina was released, the game itself was ground-breaking. We'd never seen anything like it and was proof positive that old 2D classics could be translated to 3 dimensions. This game takes a 3-dimensional game and literally springs to the real 3rd dimension, but there's been plenty of Zelda clones in the past 12 years or so. This game does nothing to mess with the formula of the original, and that's a good thing. But this game is not the ground-breaking game that I played as a 10 year old. Simply put, this version is missing an X-Factor (or is it Z-Factor?) of being a game that you need to play.

Even the bonus features of re-fighting bosses, the Boss Rush Challenge, and the Mirror Master Quest aren't enough to say that Ocarina of Time 3D will be the Game of the Year. It's just a little to easy to say, "We're remaking the greatest video game ever made for the 3DS, you can worship us as gods now." Nintendo says they will make another game like this one based on Ocarina 3D's success, so I think it's without a doubt that Majora's Mask will be heading to the 3DS soon enough.

Before I close this review, I have to share something incredibly interesting from this morning when I picked up my copy. Two of the people waiting for Gamestop to open this morning weren't even born when the original game came out. And despite that, they were fans of the original and were just as excited as I was to replay their favorite game on the 3DS. I've heard tales of kids these days hating older games and being graphics obsessed (and admittedly even when I was a kid), but those 2 kids brought a gleam to my eye, knowing that the future gamer is safe.