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Hi again. For all of you die-hard Nintendo fans like myself, you have already played or even bought a copy of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That, and it's been out for almost 4 months now. Well, if you're a big web surfer and read lots of reviews of video games, then you're probably sick to high heaven of reading Zelda reviews. So, what I'm gonna do is make this more than JUST a review. And for all those out there that still haven't gotten your hands on this jewel, maybe this will convince you.

I, along with more than 500,000 Zelda-drooling consumers purchased my gold copy of Zelda one that radiant November's day. And for all of you that didn't know, ZT was blessed (he'll HATE me for saying that, heehee) with sharing a birthday with one of the greatest games ever made: November 23. I played and played and played. I played right through Thanksgiving. I played right through my own birthday (Dec. 1) and I didn't stop until I saw Link put the finishing swipe on Ganon. I achieved something with Zelda that I rarely get out of most games: pure and emotional satisfaction. But WAIT! Before you click-away thinking of how I'm just going to go on and on with how great Zelda is, keep reading, and prove yourself wrong.

First I'm going to say the good points of the game, and yes, there's A LOT of 'em. First off, the music. Being a very big game-music buff (I own 8 game soundtracks and counting...) , I totally find that in games these days, good games come with good music. Music is one of the elements in the game that grasps the player and brings them into the non-existent world. Zelda is ALL about music. (and for all that are thinking of buying the soundtrack, don't, it doesn't do the game justice) Music is half of the entire game. It teaches younger kids about playing their own music and playing an instrument. Heck, even ocarina sales have risen because of this game! The music in OOT is very engulfing, ambient, and just lovely. One of my big problems, though, is that THE ZELDA THEME (which has been in all 4 previous ones, mind you) is NOT in the game!!! That's what gamers like us LIVE for! We need all that nostalgia so we can remember how good it was back when we played the 8-bit versions! If you listen closely to the overworld theme in OOT, it plays the first line of the theme, and then goes off into the rest of the song. It's very hard to pick out, and that was a disappointment for me. Other than that, the music in every single part of the game (Gerudo Valley is awesome) perfectly matches the surrounding atmosphere.

I'm sure you're all probably familiar with reading about how Zelda's control works. At a glance, someone might be completely turned off by the "automatic jumping" and the "lock-on" system, but after you start PLAYING the game, you wonder how you could ever play it without it. I think that the idea of automatic jumping is pure genius. Miyamoto and the others at Nintendo are pushing ingenuity and innovation to the limits. It was a big risk to not include a jump button, but the risk was worth it. And besides, if there WAS a jump button, it would spoil many of the games intricate puzzles. Leave the jumping to Mario, Sonic, and Crash. If you play any recent games, like Castlevania, they are all beginning to adopt the system of locking-on to an enemy to confront it in 3-D. I think that many more games in the future will definitely use this technique, because it has great benefits. Not only does it give the player ultimate control over 3-D battle, it furthers intensity and challenge. A prime example would be the Stalfos. Completely redesigned, they dodge your attack from side to side as you dodge theirs. It's great fun! Now, all they need is a Nintendo fighting game.....NEVERMIND! Oops! I'll get to that in another article. The graphics are, in a word, WONDERFUL. In more than one word, they are intricately drawn, placed, built, and engineered. The game's environment is very very organic and realistic. Fog awakens to every morning ONLY for a realistic effect, and then it clears away. You can almost smell the cow pies at Lon Lon Ranch! Lighting effects are some of the best on the system. The only one that rivals it is Turok 2. They achieved things in the game that I didn't think were possible with the N64 hardware. If you want a good example, ask someone to beat the game for you, and you'll know what I mean!

Well, since you might have two other articles to read, I'll keep the rest short. One complaint is that even though the overworld of Hyrle is huge, I wished that it would be even bigger. In Hyrule Field, it's basically a giant circle that's fenced in from almost all the sides. I know that Miyamoto proably wanted to make the game bigger, but was forced to trim it down due to cartridge constraints. Hopefully, the "Ura-Zelda" add-on for the DD in Japan will fix this, but we'll never get to play it. Unless they bring out a lock-on cartridge deal...

I also have a tad problem with the day and night. If you stand Link still and just go into first-person mode and stare at the sun, you literally watch it WHIZZ across the screen like the planet Hyrule is on is rotating at 1,000,000,000 mph. It's that fast. This is especially annoying when all you want to do is run to the castle, and just when you get there the sun sets, and the draw bridge raises up right in front of your face. Don't get me wrong, it's a great, realistic idea, but they could have made the days WAAAYYY longer. Example: Castlevania, the HOURS last for minutes, not seconds! I also think that they could have used the time sequencing for more puzzles. It wasn't used as much as it could havebeen.