Art & Music
The use of color in this game was one of its distinguishing features, as the dungeons and various zones would often characterize themselves by fully embracing a singular feature of the environment, such as a volcano or lake, and emphasize the feature by coloring and scoring each dungeon appropriately. In this, every dungeon in itself has a unique character, as such defeating a dungeon is the ultimate player vs environment, and beginning a new dungeon feels like embarking into unknown terrain. Every complement due to the art goes also to the music. The music is a defining feature of this game, characterizing every moment just as well as the art, if not better. Although the likeliness of you wanting to listen to the music outside of the game is on the rare side, it will define every moment, keeping pace during combat, changing between night and day, and setting the stage for some incredible boss fights. The music in this game mirrors and exemplifies the wide scale perfection achieved in every aspect, and could easily be many people's longest lasting memory of this game.
Gameplay & Controls
Narration & Presentation
The Long Summary
Well before video games were a socially acceptable sole hobby for 'grown-ups', this game made us forget about our lives, troubles, and for those of us lucky enough to recognize the divine when it's in its natural form of a game, it made us forget our families as well. The Legend of Zelda franchise has one of the best track records of any franchise in gaming history, and making a game that raised the bar higher than it had ever been raised before is a good reminder why. The controls are both flawless and revolutionary, and after about and hour of playing the game, all frustrations with the controls are generated on the player's end, as the controls are simple enough to pick the game up within 5 minutes, and in my multiple playthroughs, the camera has never caused a single moment of frustration . The learning curve is the perfect I've come to expect from top shelf Nintendo franchises, such as Metroid, and most 3D Mario games, with practically no confusion or dead ends in what to do next, the acquiring of items merge seamlessly with the progression of the story, keeping the 8 usable buttons fresh the whole game through by introducing new items in unwaveringly fun and exciting ways. Alone, the story itself is nothing too remarkably impressive, however the presentation, characters, and narration combine to create the most enjoyable dungeon crawling, horse-back riding, and evil-fighting experience to ever grace the face of the earth, and one of a select few games to really evoke the innocence and care-free attitude of childhood. This game, along with Majora's Mask, is easily my favourite of all time, not only by virtue of being a solid game, but also due to the fond memories it evokes from playing it years ago.