I’d be lying if I said that video games weren’t a big part of my childhood. I was there at the birth of the Gameboy Pocket and the Nintendo 64. Some of the finest video games to date were released during my formative years and very soon, Nintendo is releasing a game that reminds me of the good old days of gaming: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
I now find myself among a resurgence of Zelda love. This year of releases and re-releases has spurred two of my roommates into excited fits of nostalgia. While I myself have never played Ocarina, I, for the past few months, have been able to enjoy the effects that the imminent release of Skyward Sword is having on these two long-time Zelda fans.
My roommate Lindsay, most likely thanks to her having two brothers, can play video games with the best of ‘em. She’s beaten Ocarina countless times and knows every nook and cranny of Hyrule Kingdom like the back of her hand.
This past summer, Lindsay decided to pick up the old game again and give it a play-through. As she moved the blinking cursor over the onscreen alphabet to select a name (she took my suggestion of “Pajamas”), I felt a surge of excitement come over me as I prepared to witness the best game of all time unfold before me.
Needless to say, the game did not disappoint. While graphics have improved by leaps and bounds since Ocarina’s debut in 1998, the story and gameplay hold up nicely. Watching the hero Link traverse mountains, brave underwater depths, and travel through time is truly an enthralling experience. To Lindsay’s chagrin, I’m sure, whenever I found her in the living room of our apartment, I pestered her with an excited, “Are you gonna play some more Ocarina?” I was that eager to watch the story unfold.
My other roommate Sarah, prompted by Lindsay’s return to the game, soon picked up a N64 controller herself. She too had grown up playing Ocarina but, unlike Lindsay, she had never beaten it.
“I’ve only ever gotten to the part right after Link becomes an adult,” Sarah admitted sheepishly, “because after you’re an adult and you walk around Hyrule, there’re zombies everywhere, man! I just got too scared and stopped playing.”
Article comments
1 - misscake
Wrong! Redeads also appeared in the Shadow Temple and at one of the last moments in the game when you least expected it. If Sarah is anything like me, then she would have hated the Shadow Temple for this reason alone. At least she never got to meet Wallmasters...*shudders*