Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: A look at the future of gaming through the past

If you played Nintendo 64, you've always had that moment where you're going over your old stuff and you find that beautiful system. You hook it up, and its like you're 6 again. You start playing the same games you played as a kid but you see them in a whole new light. They're all too familiar but all too new. I think that's the secret brilliance of not only Nintendo games, but any game that was a childhood favorite.

Its kind of a shame that kids these days are really into Call of Duty and Halo. A worrisome trend in video games now is the amount of pre teen kids playing these violent war first person shooters. Other people could talk all day about the psychological effects and harms of exposing these kids to so much violence but I'm thinking it from a different route.

As much as I have enjoyed the Campaigns of Halo and Call of Duty, the fact that I'm calling them Campaigns instead of Story modes is a telling piece of evidence in itself. These kids aren't playing these video games for the story, they're playing it for the online multiplayer. If they are playing the story, I don't think they understand it the way I do. That isn't a condescending remark, its just a fact. As you get older you understand stories in different ways. That's why kids are exposed to fairy tales and simplistic stories early on. I would be very surprised if a 7 year old can understand the historic significance of Cherynobl, from Call of Duty Modern Warfare, or the religious implications of the Covenant and the Halo rings. To be fair there may be a couple of adult gamers who don't understand that themselves, but the point still stands.

Again this is not to say these games are bad, they're just not for kids. If you let your 7 year old play these games, I probably don't think too highly of you as a person.

Anyway, (this post took a turn I was not expecting it to) so if you're an adult you've probably felt the feeling you had as a kid. And what I've noticed over the past year is that a lot of people are pulling out an old gem from the 64 era and catching their tune to it.

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is a very odd video game. I thought that when I was a kid and I think it now. That being said, I love it.

Majora's Mask was made a year after the critically acclaimed Ocarina of Time. (one of my favorite video games of all time). It took the engine of Ocarina of Time, kept most of the character models and made a new story. It takes place after Ocarina of Time and Link is looking for his old fairy friend Navi. He goes looking for her in the Lost Woods and is attacked by a Skull Kid bearing the mask of Majora. Link follows him into a world called Termina that the Skull Kid has created mischief all over and its up to Link to set it all right. All of this done in a span of three days. In three days the moon that is on a path towards Termina will crash killing everyone. The unique feature of the game is the three day mechanics and the ability to jump back in time to the beginning of those three days and redo multiple parts of the game.

Though this sounds brilliant, this was one of the biggest complaints of the game when it was first released. Gamers just couldn't really adjust to the three day mechanic and it caused frustration when the game would require waiting around for specific events to happen at specific times. If you missed it, you'd have to play the song of time and return to the beginning of the three days.

While this was incredibly challenging and sometimes discouraging as a kid, playing it as an adult has given me new challenges and I actually really enjoy the gameplay.

And I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment. There have been so many youtube videos, reviews, and other mediums praising this game and remembering it as a hidden gem of the 64 years. This has sparked theories of the game and thought provoking analysis of the game and its connection to the Legend of Zelda universe.