The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the fifth installment in the Legend of Zelda series, published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the first 3D installment to the series, and the gameplay was used again for it's direct sequel Majora's Mask.
== Plot ==
Set in the kingdom of Hyrule, the protaganist, Link, sets off on a quest to prevent the Gerudo Theif Ganondorf, from obtaining the Triforce. Due to unforeseen events, Ganondorf obtains part of the Triforce, and Link must travel back and forth between a period of seven years using the Master Sword. Link must obtain the Six Medallions from the Six Sages, needed to defeat Ganondorf and restore peace to Hyrule.
== Gameplay ==
Ocarina of Time's gameplay system introduced features such as a target lock system and context-sensitive buttons that have since become common elements in 3D adventure games. In Japan, it sold over 820,000 copies in 1998, becoming the tenth-best-selling game of that year. During its lifetime, Ocarina of Time sold 1.14 million copies in Japan, becoming the 134th-best-selling game of all time, and has sold over 7.6 million copies worldwide. The game won the Grand Prize in the Interactive Art division at the Japan Media Arts Festival, won six honors at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and received overwhelmingly positive acclaim. The title is widely considered by both critics and gamers alike to be the greatest video game ever made. In 2008 and 2010, Guinness World Records declared that Ocarina of Time is the highest rated game ever reviewed.
== Development ==
First shown as a technical demo at Nintendo's Space World trade show in December 1995, Ocarina of Time was developed concurrently with Super Mario 64 by Nintendo's EAD division. Both were the first free-roaming 3D game in their respective series. Nintendo planned to release Super Mario 64 as a launch game for the Nintendo 64 and later release Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64DD, a disk drive peripheral for the system. Nintendo eventually decided to release Ocarina of Time on a cartridge instead and follow it with a 64DD expansion. At its release the 32 megabyte game was the largest game Nintendo had ever created. Early in the game's development concerns over the memory constraints of the N64 cartridge led producer and supervisor Shigeru Miyamoto to imagine a worst case scenario in which Ocarina of Time would follow a similar structure to Super Mario 64 with Link restricted to Ganondorf's castle as a central hub, and using a portal system similar to the paintings that Mario used to transport to different areas. An idea that arose from this stage of development, a battle with a doppleganger of Ganondorf that rides through paintings, ultimately made its way into the finished game as the boss of the Forest Temple dungeon.
While Shigeru Miyamoto had been the principal director of Super Mario 64 he was now in charge of several directors as a producer and supervisor of Ocarina of Time. During its development individual parts of Ocarina of Time were handled by multiple directors—a new strategy for Nintendo EAD. When things were progressing slower than expected however Miyamoto returned to the development team with a more hands-on directorial role. Although the development team was new to 3D games assistant director Makoto Miyanaga recalls a sense of "passion for creating something new and unprecedented". Miyamoto initially intended Ocarina of Time to be played in a first-person perspective, so as to enable the players to take in the vast terrain of Hyrule Field better, as well as being able to focus more on developing enemies and environments. However, the development team did not go through with it once the idea of having a child Link was introduced, and Miyamoto felt it necessary for Link to be visible on screen. The development crew involved over 120 people, including stuntmen used to capture the effects of sword fighting and Link's movement. Some of Miyamoto's ideas for the new Zelda title were instead used in Super Mario 64, since it was to be released first. Other ideas were not used due to time constraints.
Ocarina of Time originally ran on the same engine as Super Mario 64, but was so heavily modified that designer Shigeru Miyamoto considers the final products entirely different engines. One major difference between the two is camera control. The player has much control over the camera in Super Mario 64, but the camera in Ocarina of Time is largely controlled by the game's AI. Miyamoto says the camera controls for Ocarina of Time are intended to reflect a focus on the game's world, whereas those of Super Mario 64 are centered on the character of Mario. Miyamoto wanted to make a game that was cinematic, but still distinguished from actual films. Takumi Kawagoe, who creates cut scenes for Nintendo, says that his top priority is to have the player feel in control of the action. To promote this feeling, cut scenes in Ocarina of Time are completely generated with real-time computing and do not use pre-recorded or full-motion video. Toru Osawa created the scenario for the game, based on a story idea by Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi. He was given support by A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening script writer Kensuke Tanabe. The dungeons were designed by Eiji Aonuma.
Customers in North America who pre-ordered the game received a limited edition box with a golden plastic card affixed, reading "Collector's Edition". This edition contained a gold-colored cartridge, a tradition for the Zelda series that began with the original game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Demand was so great that Electronics Boutique stopped pre-selling the title on November 3, 1998. Later versions of Ocarina of Time feature minor changes such as glitch repairs, and the alteration of Ganondorf's blood from crimson to green. For a time the Fire Temple chant was thought to have been removed because of public outcry, however this change was made months before the game was even announced.
== Ports and Remakes ==
Ocarina of Time had four major re-releases on the Nintendo GameCube and Wii consoles. It was ported to the GameCube as part of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Master Quest, featuring reworked dungeons with new puzzles, and The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition as a direct port. It was also ported to the iQue Player in 2003 and the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2007. These re-releases were well received: while some critics considered the relatively-unchanged game to be outdated, most reviewers felt that the game has held up well over the years. 
=== 3D Remake ===
An improved version of the game called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D was released in 2011 for the 3DS. It has better graphics and newer features.
Shigeru Miyamoto originally maintained that Ocarina of Time 3D was merely a tech demo with the possibility of being developed into a full game, but Nintendo of America officially announced the production of a Nintendo 3DS version of Ocarina of Time via its Twitter page. Alongside Star Fox 64, the title was chosen to be remade for the Nintendo 3DS because they were two examples of games that they made for the Nintendo 64 that were limited by the Nintendo 64's hardware, and the developers wanted to make them on more advanced hardware. Series designer Shigeru Miyamoto noted that timing was important in the re-release of Ocarina of Time, as they did not want to remake the game too soon. Another reason why he wanted to wait was so that the people who played Ocarina of Time when they were younger were now in their mid-20s. He also wanted players to experience the "majestic scenery of Hyrule in stereoscopic 3D" and provide the sense of "really being there". Ocarina of Time 3D runs at 30 frames per second, which is an increase over the Nintendo 64 version's 20 frames per second. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D was co-developed by Nintendo and Grezzo.
According to Grezzo's Shun Moriya some Ocarina of Time N64 bugs were intentionally left in 3DS version, because Grezzo was so committed to deliver Legend of Zelda: Ocarina on Time to 3DS just the way fans remembered it that it even intentionally left in some of the bugs. "As programmers, we wanted to get rid of bugs, but the staff members who had played the old game said the bugs were fun. It wouldn't be fun if your friends couldn't say, 'Do you know about this?' So we left them in if they didn't cause any trouble and were beneficial. If something simply could not be allowed to stand, we begrudgingly fixed it, so some bugs don't appear. But we left in as many as we could, so people will grin over that," explained Moriyama. Eiji Aonuma, producer of the original game, said that a desire to make Ocarina Of Time 3D more "formidable" was behind the decision to adjust The Master Quest for the remake of the classic N64 adventure.
Category:The Legend of Zelda series
Category:Games released on the Nintendo 64
Category:Games released in 1998
Category:Games that are rated E
Category:Games released on the iQue Player