The moon is plumetting towards the earth and in just 72 hours all must be overcome to avert the catrastrophe.
Link returns in the year 2000 release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64. You need an Expansion pak to play on this game on your N64 so be prepard to get one.
While the gameplay is near exact to Ocarina of Time, this game is completeley different.
Links gets attaked by a skull kid wearing a mask and has his ocarina and horse stolen. He then gets turned into a duku shrub by the skull kid.
But then Link meets a Mask salesman who says if tou get your Ocarina back i will turn you back human. So eventually Link returns with his ocarina, after a confrontation with skull kid, and gets returned to normal. But in return for helping him, Link agrees to help get the mans mask back, the mask worn by the Skull kid. The mask saleman says 'but in 3 days i'm leaving so you'll have to get it before then'. But little does Link know that in 3 days something bad will happen.
In just 72 in-game hours (72 minutes in real time), the moon will hit Clocktown and destroy Termina (the new world Majora's Mask is set in). If the 72 hours runs out, it's game over. The mask salesman knows this but doesn't tell Link. Don't panic though because if you play the Song of Time on your Ocarina, you will be taken back to the dawn of the first day. You can also slow time down by playing the Song of Time backwards so this may come in handy in the last dungeon of the game. If you go back to the first day all your progress in the dungeon your attempting will be lost, but you will keep all the masks you've earned and you will keep all the wepons, such as the Hero Bow or Bomns.
But you lose things such as all your arrowa and your bombs will be lost but there still dispalyed on the Quest sub-screen. You will also lose all your rupees but if you put them in the bank then go back to the first day you keep all your Rupees you put in thus bank which is tidy.
To stop the moon you must awaken the four guardians sleeping in the four temples of Termina, them call for them to stop the moon. (Duh...)
Majora's Mask is relatively short compared to other Zelda agames as it only has 4 dungeons but this game is based more on side-quests and gathering masks, which may put gamers off, you can be attempting to do some minor side task in the game that you have to do, but you'll attempt it, and you may have to do it multiple times if you keep failing it, and you do loose track of the story sometimes. But this is not a terrible thing.
As I said this game is based on Masks too and there are a total of 24 masks, but only 4 of them physically transform Link. You can turn into a Deku shrub, Goron or a Zora. But one mask is impossibelto get without first acquiring the first 23 masks, this mask is the Fierce Deity's Mask. This turns Link into an adult and doubles his power, but you can only use it against bosses anyway! Ah well...
Because you have to change into one of these 3 creatures, the dungeons are more difficult then the ones on Ocarina because you may have to do half a temple as a Zora just to do the human half of the temple, but don't worry none of the temples compare to the brilliantly difficult Water Temple off Ocarina. The puzzles you do as Link's alternate forms are fantastic and are in some respects are just as difficult, or even more difficult than the puzzles you do on Ocarina of Time.
The Final boss is the Majora's Mask itself, and can be difficult if your not a hardcore Zelda fan like myself. All the way through the game Skull Kid is made out to be the last boss, but he is actually a good guy, it's just the mask brainwashed him to do all those evil things.
The way you have to hurt it is similar to other bosses and enemies on other Zelda games and Zelda fans will notice this. If this is the first Zelda game you've been on, be prepared for a tough fight.
There is a brilliant level of sound in this game, as there is in most Zelda games. All the music is done orchestrally, as is the music in Ocarina of Time, and all the enviroment noises sound fantastic. The problem with the music is that some of the in-game background music is the same as on Ocarina of Time, and even some of the Ocarina melodies are the same too. This is the only downpoint in the game for me. The music is fantasitc, but I've already listened to it all in the previous game. Most Zelda fans will be happy to hear that the traditional Zelda theme makes a return in this game, you hear it when your on Termina Field.
Now, I'm going to say that this game, in my opinion, is NOT as good as Ocarina of Time, never the less it's another absolutly brilliant game in an absolutly brilliant gaming series. But because this game needed an expansion pak to play, it never sold as good as it could have, and also because of this it didn't get the credit it deserves, but this game should be talked about in the same breath as maybe Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past, as it is also a masterpiece.
If you're a Zelda fan, you should absolutely get this game. But because of the reliance of side-quests in Majora's Mask, if your sceptic about games you should try to borrow a copy to see what it's like first before you actually get it.
