
	Platform 3DS Genre Role-Playing Publisher Nintendo Developer Grezzo / Nintendo ESRB E +10 (Everyone) Released June 19, 2011

- The game stands up very well - Has never looked or played better - 3D is a neat little extra - Master Quest included

- PTSD - "Muscle memory" and lack of surprises

Review: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC) Review: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GC) Review: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Score: 10 / 10

When Ocarina of Time originally released in 1998, I was working a kiosk in a downtown Vancouver movie theatre promoting the N64 game. More than a year after that I finally finished the game. At that exact moment I was holding my newborn son in the crook of my arm as he slept. I have a lot of memories tied-up in this game so when I came home to find my now 11-year old son playing Ocarina of

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Time 3D, I had a hard time holding down some throat tightening emotion. I'll admit my eyes welled up.

Mind you, it didn't really have anything to do with the game. It was the frightening and startling realization that so many years had slipped through my fingers without realizing it. Or understanding it.

Here was my son, nearly a teenager (certainly

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eating like one) asking me why Navi keeps saying, "Hey!"

I stuttered something about allergies as I rubbed my eyes and stumbled to my bedroom to compose myself.

Yes, the actual game has never looked or played better and the game stands tall more than dozen years after its release. (This time around, the Water Temple is much easier thanks to the lower touchscreen to quickly swap items.) But the whole thing was like suffering through a bout of post-traumatic stress disorder. I hoped to get lost in the game, but all it did was stir up emotions, most of them good, but the occasional strike to the gut which just made me close the 3DS and stare out a window.

My son doesn't face this same issue, though I'm sure he'll remember Dad's on-going battle with allergies throughout his play time when the game gets a 25th Anniversary release. By then he might have kids of his own. Of course, if that comes to pass, I'll likely turn into a blubbering mess, slump against the nearest wall as my son and grandson (or granddaughter) play a holographic version. A hologram of Navi will fly over to me and say, "Hey!"

And I will weep joyful, nostalgic tears.

Truly one of the best games ever made.

- Aaron Simmer

(June 23, 2011)