The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D
Ben Caplinger

 

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Courtesy of YouTube

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” These are the famous words spoken in the Nintendo 64 game, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, which was released back in 2000. During this time the game was considered by many fans to be the perfect follow up to the 1998 Nintendo 64 game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Fast-forward 15 years later; Nintendo has decided, after several years of the begging fan base, to remake this classic title for the Nintendo 3DS. Not only did Nintendo update the look of the game, they also changed up certain aspects, giving the original players of the game a whole new experience. On Friday, February 13, 2015 The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D was finally released in the U.S. At long last, the world of Termina was open to gamers once again, this time with better graphics and location changes, along with other alterations as well. But even with these changes, is this the remake “Zelda” fans have been hoping for?

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Courtesy of Amazon

The story of Majora’s Mask takes place directly after the events of Ocarina of Time. Link, the signature hero of the series, is riding through the forest on his horse, Epona. When suddenly, two fairies and a mischievous little troublemaker named Skull Kid, who loves to have fun at the expense of others, ambush him. Along with stealing Epona and the Ocarina of Time, Skull Kid also turns Link into a puny Deku Scrub, a plant-like creature, and slips away laughing at him. Link, along with one of the fairies named Tatl, follows Skull Kid into a mysterious location known as Termina. There he meets the Happy Mask Salesman, who explains the source of Skull Kid’s power. The power came from Majora’s Mask, a strange mask that contains dark and unusual magic. Skull Kid plans to use the magic of Majora’s Mask to crash the moon into Termina in three days, effectively destroying all life in the world. After getting the ocarina back, resetting the time back to the dawn of the first day, and regaining his original body, Link is now tasked with going to the four corners of the world (the swamp, mountain, ocean, and canyon) and freeing giants who are capable of pushing the moon back. With that, Link and Tatl begin their quest to stop Skull Kid, and essentially prevent the apocalypse.

In terms of the gameplay, Majora’s Mask 3D plays exactly like its original Nintendo 64 counterpart. This is an especially welcome aspect, as previous ports of the game have not fared well among players. The ports for the Gamecube and Virtual Console were severely bugged, causing the game to lag and in some cases crash. Thankfully, Nintendo managed to iron out these problems with the 3DS remake. Link moves much more smoothly than before and the combat is still just as entertaining as the original. On top of that, he can also equip more items and masks than before. This is extremely helpful in tense situations that require a certain items to get out of.

Aside from the updated graphics, which look incredible, Nintendo also added some changes to distance this game from the original. Certain masks have been placed in different locations and the bosses have been changed to add more of a challenge to them. On top of that, the developers also decided to add fishing holes in certain locations. This was a game mechanic from Ocarina of Time that was sorely missed in the original Majora’s Mask, but it came back better than ever in the 3DS version. Not only cane gamers fish for normal sized fish, but they can also catch giant fish that are based on familiar Zelda species.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D is a nostalgia infused adventure as well as being a fresh new experience for any devoted Zelda fan. Old fans will have fun exploring the world from their childhoods and new fans will be to discover a fantastic adventure filled with magic and mystery. With a price of $40, this is a must have title for any lover of The Legend of Zelda.