It was the second half of the ‘90s and I played a game that completely changed my perceptions of what games could be. I remember it so well that every part of seeing it again is steeped in nostalgia. The product of a different culture and language from mine, it was an epic, mythic tale, played out across a massive world, all in startling new 3D. It mixed combat, puzzles and open-ended exploration across beautiful and distinct areas. It also mixed moments of total goofiness (including some very silly voices) with a touching earnest sincerity. It had a tunic-wearing, humanoid main character who gradually picked up new equipment and abilities, and spent a lot of his time searching random objects for hearts and cash. Throughout his adventure he interacted with a charming supporting cast of assorted anthropomorphised animals and objects. This game was followed by an even better sequel, in which you worked to stop the world from being destroyed by the moon crashing into it. Yes, after Little Big Adventure, nothing was the same.
I’m not quite as confident in betting that more people in the UK had played a Little Big Adventure game than a Zelda one prior to Ocarina of Time as I was on the equivalent Dizzy/Mario bet in 1990. There’s a good chance, though. (If it’s not the case it’s most likely down to Link’s Awakening, given the Game Boy’s greater reach than the NES or SNES). With Ocarina of Time, we’re not talking success out of nowhere quite like Final Fantasy VII, but Zelda went from a minor series to a major one for the UK only at this moment. I think the scenario I mentioned right back at Hardball in 1986 kind of applies:
Sometimes a game gets a budget and level of work appropriate to the country it is made for and will be popular in, and that overflows into giving it a big ad spend elsewhere to go with its technical impressiveness, and it works there too despite not having such receptive starting conditions. An unearned confidence can still do a lot of convincing.
In this case there’s also the undeniable weight of Zelda’s history on other games. A lot of Little Big Adventure‘s similarity to Ocarina of Time is because it was either inspired directly by earlier Zelda games, or just using common language that they were central in establishing. Little Big Adventure (1994) still got there earlier when it came to doing all of it in (isometric) 3D, and Little Big Adventure 2 (1997) got there first in also providing big open 3D spaces where you could change the camera view and centre it behind your character. Still, it didn’t do it all as a Zelda game. And even having never played one of those before this point, I was a little familiar with the NES games from this sticker book I had as a child, full of promises of unobtainable wonders.
The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, NES, 1987) 
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Nintendo, NES, 1988)
Ocarina of Time wasn’t the first one I got to play, but does deliver on the exploration and secrets promised in that book. And it does so many things very, very well. There is something wonderful about how easy it is to get sidetracked and how well-rewarded doing so is. It tend to go the same kind of way each time. Now I have bombs I should try just blowing up that one wall… and navigating my way through the musical maze it leads to… and completing this location. I discovered all that! Half an hour later, time to go back to whatever it was I was actually mean to be doing, and it turns out that the tune I got from it was needed to go further in the main quest too!
When it comes to giving you interesting places to explore and things to do in them, the game is a triumph. The designs of the dungeons that make up much of the game are intricate and imaginative, both in their settings and getting the most from them in puzzles (from the one that takes place inside a fish to the one using a giant statue). It doesn’t just transplant Zelda into 3D but really thinks about the possibilities of 3D. Z-targeting, pressing a button to lock onto a target, is an ingenious compromise to get around the added difficulties of aiming. It’s such a great solution that it becomes a bit wearying in how often it’s used in fact. So often the answer to getting stuck in the game turns out to be to use more Z-targeting.
When playing the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time in 2011 (which I won’t be covering separately, since it was kept from #1 in the chart by Zumba Fitness), it was striking how much of the game was perfect for showing off the handheld’s stereoscopic 3D capabilities. But, of course, the game was made to show off a different kind of 3D to begin with. It starts with a point-of-view flight through the forest, and there are lots of similar shots throughout. Ocarina of Time is unusually concerned with looking at things, from the first boss that remains a distant scritching noise until you look at it, to the Lens of Truth that reveals hidden passages. It’s not a surprise to discover the whole game was meant to be first-person at one point in development. But beyond that there is not so much to mark it out individually with its own concerns, because when it was released providing this experience in 3D was enough for that.
So much of it hinges on the newness of the experience it offers, and that is a big part of why, despite being frequently called one of the greatest games ever, it’s only about my seventh favourite Zelda game. Without having experienced the emotional appeal that would gone along with it being more of a new experience, I never enjoyed it far beyond appreciating its very well-implemented gameplay. Its story has a couple of fine twists (not least the time jump in the middle of it) but is mostly a matter of fairytale simplicity, complete with magic beans and a dark suspicious man from abroad threatening the lighter, rightful Royal Family. Sometimes what gets swept into the box of neutral universality results in some interesting juxtapositions, like the multiple Goddesses existing alongside a Temple of Time which looks like a British cathedral. It is, trying to be detached, probably at least as good as the story of Little Big Adventure. But I don’t feel that much even when it obviously tries to tug at my heartstrings. My magic 3D action adventure moment was never going to come with Ocarina of Time. There was still a chance for a magic Legend of Zelda moment, though…
