The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Master Quest (GameCube) Review

The first thing worth noting about this disc is its inclusion of the original Ocarina of Time and a 20-minute demo of The Wind Waker. Upon the reveal of the GameCube's first Zelda game, Nintendo was met with great backlash due to the sudden shift in art style. Where Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask were aesthetically darker and more realistic, The Wind Waker instead opted for brighter colours to accentuate its vast world and set a more appropriate tone for its respective journey. By including a full version of the Nintendo 64 masterpiece and a demo of the GameCube's forthcoming Zelda experience, Nintendo was able to alleviate any fans in doubt that The Wind Waker would be anything but a genuine Zelda game.

When it comes to Ocarina of Time, virtually everything is left untouched, with the only real difference being the button icons changing over to match the GameCube's controller scheme. Hyrule is the exact same as it was on the Nintendo 64, providing a nostalgic rebirth for existing fans and the genuine Ocarina of Time experience for newcomers.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Hero of Time's adventure to stop Ganondorf's reign of tyranny holds up just as well in 2016 as it did in 1998. Shigeru Miyamoto's directing is nothing short of brilliant, offering a well-paced epic with just enough challenge to never feel easy or feel too frustrating to complete.

While Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker demo are nice enough on their own, the main appeal of the disc is the appropriately-titled Master Quest - a reimagining of Ocarina of Time. Although it doesn't go to the lengths that Ura Zelda would have, adding new items and increasing the overall difficulty of combat, Master Quest changes up enough of Hyrule where even a seasoned Zelda veteran would struggle with the new dungeon designs.

Since this is more of a treat for long-time fans more than anything else, the overall design is far more whimsical and thought provoking than the original. Dungeons are littered with cows in place of switches, enemy mobs that demand focus like nothing else in the franchise, and puzzles that are both immensely challenging and rewarding all at once. As a highly anticipated title, several rules had to be abided with the development of Ocarina of Time. It needed to be accessible, it needed to strike a proper balance in difficulty, and it needed to be coherent, but since Master Quest exists only as a side dish and companion to its sister game, the developers could go as wild with design as they wanted, and the experience is better off for it.

The anomalies of Master Quest are what allows it to stand out from Ocarina of Time and other games in the franchise as its own mark on Zelda history. It may follow the story of Ocarina of Time to a T, but when it comes to pure gameplay, it's different in every regard. Dungeons are completely redesigned, with the only aspect remaining being overall aesthetic; enemies don't do more damage than the original, but they appear in larger mobs and in varied combinations, inciting a tense atmosphere that can only be shaken off with raw strategy; and puzzles linger and truly challenge critical thinking skills. Master Quest takes everything that was great about Ocarina of Time and adds its own flavour to it all. It exists for the fans and it shows.