Legend of Zelda video retrospective (part 3)

by Blake Snow { Oct 28th 2006 at 8:00AM }

Part three of Game Trailers' Legend of Zelda retrospect leading up to the launch of Twilight Princess explores the junkie CD-i Zelda games, top-ranking Ocarina of Time, and the controversial Majora's Mask. Third time's a charm.

See also:

[Thanks again, Koekoenutt]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

peter7898m @ Oct 28th 2006 8:10AM

neat

Anon @ Oct 28th 2006 8:37AM

Man watching that super nintendo video really took me back heh. Btw the third video isn't working for me =\

lumines yum @ Oct 28th 2006 8:39AM

frakin awesome, i had no clue that there were 3 zelda games that were not on nintendo system......thats incredible, the gameplay looked like an SNK game.....ill have to locate them.

Ignatius @ Oct 28th 2006 8:42AM

Dude, lumines, do NOT play them. They are horrible. HORRIBLE.

Anyway, these videos are freaking awesome. I can't wait for part 4. When the Wii comes out, I think most of my money will probably be spent buying VC games. >.

Steven @ Oct 28th 2006 8:43AM

I was never a huge Zelda fan, but I respect the game and believe they're great at what they offer. I enjoyed the video.

Core_12 @ Oct 28th 2006 8:45AM

Thanks to Game Trailers again for their wonderful video embed that doesn't work

fishamaphone @ Oct 28th 2006 9:22AM

wow... that was great... I'm one of the few fans that actually preffers Majora's Mask to Ocarina, but I never actually finished the game... now I'm gonna have to go back and re-play it. I thought part 2 was a nostalgia trip... hell, I barely even *remembered* some of the stuff from Majora's Mask.

But they haven't even touched on Wind Waker yet... is this a five-part series?

NuckNards @ Oct 28th 2006 9:22AM

I always thought Majora's Mask was way underappreciated. Sure, it was different, and it didn't carry as grand a scale as Ocarina, but I loved the darker tone. I liked the music more too, and one of the best things was how they gave so much more personality to the characters and world.
People made too much of a big deal over the 3 day thing. For one thing, you can easily go back to a bank to save your rupees and start over. Number two, there is an easy to discover song that slows down time more than 2x!

IggyChaotix @ Oct 28th 2006 9:55AM

Why do they keep calling zelda games rpgs?

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 28th 2006 10:02AM

Majora's mask was an amazing game--it just seemed disappointing that the world didn't seem as big as Ocarina's (mainly because Termina field was small and totally unexplorable) and that there were only four dungeons. First you go South, then North, then West, then East... the game felt too linear for Zelda, despite all its huge pluses.

Also, the game seemed to be lacking in "wow" moments (the inexplicable tree in the moon comes close, but too little waaaay too late in the game), and was more of a game you appreciated because of its nuanced complexity. Ocarina obviously had many "wow" moments because it was the first of its kind. Windwaker had Hyrule Castle frozen in time, that mirror room in the Earth Temple, and a few other surprises here and there. Yet Majora I kind of just played through, having fun, without ever pausing the game to go "holy shit." I think that's what makes it the black sheep.

Mindstormy @ Oct 28th 2006 10:04AM

Well, a RPG is a role playing game. We are playing the role of Link in these games, thus we are role playing. Action RPG means to role play out of the normal turn based combat system, and here we have any and all Zelda games.

P.S. These retrospecs are amazing

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 28th 2006 10:09AM

"Why do they keep calling zelda games rpgs?"

It's an action RPG, that's why. If you go back to the top-down games, they were like Secret of Mana, just without leveling up and that annoying percentage bar. Instead of levels, you have item collection to power up your character. Like in the first Dragon Quest, where you learned that you couldn't travel too far in the world without getting slaughtered by powerful enemies, in Zelda you can't get to travel too far because your inventory won't allow you to. Same concept, different implementations.

potato @ Oct 28th 2006 10:19AM

I'd have to say that I enjoyed MM more than Ocarina of Time.
I'd say MM had more "wow moments" for me, probably cause I played it first.

Windwaker seemed kind of lame to me.

snapperdragon @ Oct 28th 2006 11:30AM

I haven't really gotten into the Zelda series yet (never got into Nintendo as a kid), but now as an adult I'm hooked.

I somehow feel like I've missed out on something special by not having played this series...but I bought a cube last year (primarily for Metroid Prime -- loved it) and I plan on beating Ocarina, and if time allows, MM and Windwalkers before getting the Wii and TP.

I've come to realize that having to go to work really interferes with my plans here, though :) Will sturggle on...

Eduardo Ferlani @ Oct 28th 2006 11:36AM

I've owned pretty much every console since the Atari 7800 yet I've never played a single Zelda game.

Just have no interest in them.

Koekoenutt @ Oct 28th 2006 11:57AM

I've beaten every Zelda game besides Majora's Mask and the crappy CD-i games. I honestly never knew about the CD-i games until a few weeks before when someone on here commented about them.

I just got done replaying the first Zelda and I've been looking to play Ocarina of Time again, Just beat the young link part last night, but this video makes me want to play MM just for the fact that I never even got anywhere in the game.

Anyways, I noticed GameTrailers comes out with a new Zelda Retrospect every Saturday. So that leaves 3 weeks into the Wii comes out. Im guessing they will have one of the Gameboy and DS, and then Windwaker and then probably a sneak peak at Twilight Princess or something like that. Great games, Great review and look at the past of the game.

Josh @ Oct 28th 2006 12:01PM

What was up with the remark in the video about Ocarina of Time's graphics? Since when has any PlayStation game come close to those graphics?

unimental @ Oct 28th 2006 12:03PM

I hate Navi.

HEY... LISTEN!

Ugh.

Crazylink @ Oct 28th 2006 12:12PM

Dang, I got even more goosebumps from watching that.

Francisco Sainz @ Oct 28th 2006 12:14PM

Dont you people just love and hate the water temple at the same time?

Aaron @ Oct 28th 2006 12:39PM

I want to play and finish Majora's Mask, as it's the only Legend of Zelda title (excluding the CD-i titles, obviously) released that I haven't played to completion. I'm going to wait for the Virtual Console release, since the port in the Zelda Collector's Edition is pretty much trash: low framerate, constant freezing, and sound studdering. Why bother with it?

superbagman @ Oct 28th 2006 12:41PM

Josh, I was thinking the very same thing, the N64 was better than the PS1 in every department besides sound and storage capacity.

Jules @ Oct 28th 2006 12:51PM

lol! the CD-i game 'the faces of evil' was the Zelda game I ever played and i actually liked it. But then i never had any other Zelda game to compare it to. I'd actually like to play it again. Some of the cutscenes with the characters you meet are quite funny.

Is it just me or does anyone else think these games should be called Legend of Link or something like that as Zelda doesn't do anything except get kidnapped!!

kelekod @ Oct 28th 2006 12:54PM

Zelda games are the best. I skipped over a link to the past and MM and the oracle of seasons/4 swords games. I'm probably the only one that isn't familiar with a link to the past. Luckily however, I did manage to find a cartridge of it when gamestop announced they weren't accepting NES/SNES/N64 games anymore along with other systems. Just haven't gotten around to trying it out. One of the few games I own and haven't decided to power it up. Probably in the coming weeks I'll replay the NES ones, fire up link to the past, and play through Ocarnia hopefully within the time before I get TP. Windwaker is one of the ones I've hated the most, I beat it, but I sold it. MM was kinda annoying with that time thing. I like being able to explore the world/level without a time frame. I'm choosing not to go through that pain again figuring out all those stinkin schedules.

nintendo fan @ Oct 28th 2006 12:56PM

Jules you are sick

Seroth @ Oct 28th 2006 1:09PM

I, too, believe that Majora's Mask is under appreciated...

When Twilight Princess was revealed, people were going, "FINALLY! A dark, mature Zelda game!" ...when they already had a dark, mature Zelda game, by the name of Majora's Mask. Majora's Mask's story was just so twisted and deep.

Zelda fans are just like that. They forget their own games, and they are afraid of change. Like all the people who go, "Link has never spoken, and he never will!" ...they forget his small line of dialogue in Wind Waker: "Come on!"

Wolfrider @ Oct 28th 2006 1:35PM

Damn. Just when I had convinced myself not to blow what little money I have on the Wii, these retrospecs are making me want Twilight Princess even more.

NOAkobiyashi @ Oct 28th 2006 1:47PM

i too, jules, belive it should be called the legend of link, it'd make a whole lot more sense.

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 28th 2006 1:57PM

"What was up with the remark in the video about Ocarina of Time's graphics? Since when has any PlayStation game come close to those graphics?"

I think he's talking about PlayStation's ability to show prerendered videos... which makes whoever wrote the script sound like either an absolute non-gamer or just plain ignorant, but that's besides the point. The truth is, because the PSX and PS2 discs had the space (or at least four discs, a la FFVIII) for prerendered videos, most folks uneducated about how all this stuff works assume that the PSX and PS2 were more capable of handling pretty graphics than the N64 and GCN--while the truth of the matter is quite the opposite during gameplay.

striderhayasa @ Oct 28th 2006 2:55PM

@ fishamaphone

Hey, you're not alone. I loved Ocarina but I prefer Majora's darker themes.
_____________

@ fuzzypickles

As an example:
there is absolutely no game that matched Turok 2 on PS in terms of graphic quality. There were other developers that accused Acclaim and Iguana of using PC renders to represent the 64 game. But the 64 version looked almost exactly like the PC version.

I think the comment about the lack 64 graphics compared to the PS is not accurate. Playstation had really good lighting effects and pushed more polygons but 64 could do more effects with the less polygons they pushed. As Perfect Dark, Turok 2, Indiana Jones and many other 64 games have proven, 64 could do impressive lighting effects as well that in many cases surpasses the PS. It was just a pain in the ass to do them.

Zelda FTW. Here's to hoping Twilight Princess continues the legacy.

Can I get this retrospective in one compilation?

Ninegauger @ Oct 28th 2006 2:56PM

That is a pretty ignorant remark. No Playstation game ever matched the Ocarina of Time graphically. FMVs don't count as a system's graphical capibility as for the majority of the time you're faced with the Playstation's crappy graphics.

Mr. Khan @ Oct 28th 2006 3:02PM

Exactly, Sony and Sega both seemed to like the idea that "We show them the Pre-rendered videos in the commercials, and they think the game looks like that" kind of like the Video at the beginning of Sonic Jam (for the Saturn) or the mind-blowing (for the time) CGI at the beginning of Sonic Adventure

And basically all the commercials for all the Sony games (when i first saw the Dirge of Cerberus Commercial, i thought it was supposed to be for PS3)

Nintendo has only rarely gotten on the Pre-rendered video train (Metroid Prime Hunters, and that was NST) and all those lucious cutscenes in Mario or Zelda games are real time

Dave @ Oct 28th 2006 3:17PM

This is the best game ever!!!

n8dogg @ Oct 28th 2006 4:00PM

Wow.... This entire presentation is one big love song to the Legend of Zelda, and you guys are pissed at an off hand comment the guy made?

Grow up.

Jonathan @ Oct 28th 2006 4:04PM

Man, these videos really are taking me back. Link to the Past is still one of the best games ever made.

As for the two on the N64, I have to prefer Majora's mask to Ocarina of Time. MM just seemed like it had a bit more imagination and creativity in it. Albeit, I could never get past the temple that was frozen over.

fishamaphone @ Oct 28th 2006 5:24PM

@ n8dogg: when someone re-enforces a bad stereotype, we're allowed to complain. Overall it was a *really* good show...cast...thing, but that one line bugged a lot of us.

Andrew Yoon @ Oct 28th 2006 5:44PM

Majora's Mask is easily the best Zelda game, and Seroth has it right. People that want a "mature" Zelda game often forget that MM features the most complex of the Zelda storylines. This video talks about the theme of healing, which is very important in the story. But, there's other themes, and other subtleties in the story, that show how wonderfully complex this story is. Too bad most people avoided the game due to its difficulty; and those that did play it tend to miss the game's much more subtle points.

Kevin @ Oct 28th 2006 6:14PM

Great way to fuck up pronouncing the word ocarina

FuzzyPickles @ Oct 28th 2006 8:21PM

"Great way to fuck up pronouncing the word ocarina"

Did he? He does get paid to pronounce words "neutrally", so who knows. I was never too sure about the pronunciation myself. I always assumed the o corresponded with the o in "coffee" and the a in "ball". So if you're from England or NYC, it's "oar-carina" (since both dialects "r-drop", it would be homophonous with how we say "oar"), but from most of North America it's "ocarina" with a short o.

TheDetective @ Oct 28th 2006 9:03PM

I too think Majora's Mask was under-rated. As the video points out, OoT basically perfected the style of game it set out to do, if they continued in the same vain it would have just been a rehash. But Majora's Mask tried for something totally different... a different tone and a different play dynamic, and I truly think it succeeded.

Donn @ Oct 28th 2006 11:10PM

"I've owned pretty much every console since the Atari 7800 yet I've never played a single Zelda game.

Just have no interest in them."

Wow, that's probably unheard of. But I'm not one to talk, I've missed out on the FF franchise and surely more.
I'd recommend everyone at least giving the Zelda series a try or two. At least one 2D game and OoT. It's probably the only Nintendo franchise that still delivers.

Pince @ Oct 29th 2006 1:49AM

I know it is from Part 2, but Link's Awakening is one of the most underappreciated games ever. People never say a word about it anymore while Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past are still raved about. Don't get me wrong, Ocarina and LttP are amazing, but Link's Awakening is still my favorite. As they point out in the video, it has a wonderful sense of self-referential humor. Beyond that, I think it has the most fun gameplay of any zelda game. It is the easiest to just pick up and play. I have beaten that game like 10 times and I can still go back and play again...and still be stumped by some of the puzzles and secrets.

Thanks Gametrailers for the huge nostalgia fest / reminder to go back and play some old zelda when I have time.

D3stiny_Sm4sher @ Oct 29th 2006 2:10PM

Wow, this retrospective series is great.
Can't wait to see more.
What about Wind Waker/Minish Cap? Will they get the 5th part, or what?

Kasty @ Oct 29th 2006 4:38PM

Was anybody else put off by the narrator's pronunciation of "ocarina"

OH-CA-REE-NA? WTF, mate?

Crimemaster Gogo @ Oct 29th 2006 7:08PM

Am i the only one who remebers the fairy in Oot. The one with the ahem.. big assets that could poke someone eyes out. Though walking out on to Hyrule field is the my favourite memory of videogames ever and with this video you know that Twilight princess is going to be special.

William @ Oct 29th 2006 9:56PM

I have to say that these retrospective are excellent. I still can't get the smile off my face. All the Zelda games are awesome and seeing them again is great. I hope you decide to do this with over games.

Chris. @ Oct 31st 2006 8:59AM

how random... im glad people eventually started referring to the playstation graphics comment because I couldn't disagree more - at the time they were the best graphics on the console... along with lylat wars maybem, and yea i would have to assume they are referring to the pre rendered backgrounds ala resident evil and fmvs that the playstation could display when they referred to graphics (and they don't count) - but you cannot compare one single playstation game to zelda 64 - nothing came close.