What does Zelda mean to us?
What fresh magic Nintendo can conjure up
Ocarina of Time wasn’t the first Zelda game I played – that honour goes to the dreamily black and white Link’s Awakening – but it was certainly my gateway into modern gaming. Where the Game Boy game hinted at an epic world I expanded on in my imagination, Ocarina of Time presented it right to me, in full colour and 3D. My tiny mind was blown.
An avid reader of N64 Magazine, I pored over screenshots of this impossibly beautiful fantasy world in the months leading up to release: its towering volcano, its sweeping fields ripe for horse-riding. A world that fizzed with magic and opportunity.