Poll: Ocarina of Time... Overrated?!

[Tonimata]

It's not overrated, it deserves all the praise it gets for being downright amazing. I'm telling you, since those days, there has not been a single one game that has made me plow through it to achieve 100% completion, and considering just how bored I get of games sometimes, that is the one true example of well invested money. It is certainly not perfect, the dialogue wasn't the best, and the story was only interesting in themes and motifs, and not actually in characters, but since of course it's the recurrent argument of "The hero within" that makes Link such an effective character game after game, it's astonishing how well the developers manage to re-enact that same thing over and over again. It's an astonishingly breath taking game, and it deserves to be re-made for current generation consoles and gamers to fuly appreciate it's beauty.

 

[JacOak]

Not to a huge extent... I voted no, anyway.
I mean, I played it after its time and after I played it's successors (Majoras Mask and Wid Waker), and I thought it was an inferior to them. Not a bad game by any means, and certainly and excellent one, but I think it's always been topped by what came after it.
But for its time (I wasn't invovlved, so I hazard a guess here), it must have been a godly beast of a game.
I am a 10-15 year old, and do not scoff at a mighty game. No sir.

 

[Arrogancy]

Ocarina of Time is and will always be an amazing game. If not always my #1 it will remain in the top 3 always. Nothing I can say at this point would be worth anything because it has already been stated. The game was extremely fun to play regardless of what it did or did not do for the gaming industry. That game set the world on fire and it still burns hot. Hell, I still have my old N64 just to play the damn game.

 

[CK76]

If we evaluate it, using today's standards, of course it isn't going to measure up, and that's not what I'm trying to do here.

It is hard asking in 2010 for people to go back to 1998 and evaluate the game. To me, it did everything I wanted in Zelda title and more. It is so rare to have massive hype (most hyped game for me since Super Mario Bros 3) and yet completely live up to and exceed expectations. I also do not care for view on games in relation to a rating. If have to give numerical rating, to me Ocarina of Time is a 9.9, as close to perfection as a game can be in its time. If someone thinks it is a 9.8 or 9.6, then I fail to see how it diminishes the game because I love it so much.

If there were 10 games every gamer needed to play (Pong, Pac-Man, Mario Bros, etc.) Ocarina of Time would have to be on there for me. I have not played a game that impressed me as much or made me love gaming as much as that title. It is an amazing game, and just because a lot of people agree on that does not make it any less worth anyone's while.

 

[Danzaivar]

It's one of those games that's gotten worse with time, imo. By todays standards I guess it's kinda of mediocre, but going off when it was released (As in the year between FF7 and FF8) the graphics were fantastic, the games atmosphere was brilliant in going from happy and cheerful to really quite dark at points and the sound was excellently done to boot.

Mario 64 was in a 3D environment, and did show off a lot in regards to how a game in 3D could perform, but OOT was one of the first to nail atmosphere and the in-game world. Mazza 64 was essentially a fancy level select and then a variety of levels set in themed environments, OOT had the feeling of an interconnected world. It just drew you in.

 

[Boneasse]

If we evaluate it, using today's standards, of course it isn't going to measure up, and that's not what I'm trying to do here.

It is hard asking in 2010 for people to go back to 1998 and evaluate the game. To me, it did everything I wanted in Zelda title and more. It is so rare to have massive hype (most hyped game for me since Super Mario Bros 3) and yet completely live up to and exceed expectations. I also do not care for view on games in relation to a rating. If have to give numerical rating, to me Ocarina of Time is a 9.9, as close to perfection as a game can be in its time. If someone thinks it is a 9.8 or 9.6, then I fail to see how it diminishes the game because I love it so much.

If there were 10 games every gamer needed to play (Pong, Pac-Man, Mario Bros, etc.) Ocarina of Time would have to be on there for me. I have not played a game that impressed me as much or made me love gaming as much as that title. It is an amazing game, and just because a lot of people agree on that does not make it any less worth anyone's while.

It's not hard to ask them to do that, if it's had such a big impact as it obviously did on you or me

And I absolutely agree with you, It's one of the games everyone should play.

 

[Grounogeos]

I still think that OoT is one of the best games ever made (maybe not THE best, but it's pretty damn close at least), but other games are starting to catch up to it. As much as I loved OoT, I later played Majora's Mask and Wind Waker and found that I enjoyed those two even more than OoT.

I don't have a problem with people saying it's overrated, because maybe it really is. What I DO have a problem with is people saying it's overrated due to how it compares with modern games ,especially when they bring the graphics into this; the N64 Zeldas are still awesome games even by today's standards as long as you don't bring in something as trivial as the graphics (seriously, those people need to be slapped and then gutted using some Zelda merchandise, ideally a sword or broken Empty Bottle).

 

[tyranuus]

I'd say that whilst Mario 64 was more of a technological advance, Zelda was a better game (both being excellent however). Zelda was an exceptionally well put together, almost to the point that Twilight Princess, which garnered excellent reviews, still uses many of the systems derived from the new 3d environment of OoT.

I actually loved both games, but if I had to play ONE of these games right now, it'd be Zelda, Mario is very good, but as a game, Zelda was better.

Zelda OOT is to consoles, almost what Half Life 1/2 is to PCs, both very well made games that were exceptional at the time, have had both had some elements done better since by other titles, but are still very good, very playable games in thier own right. Zelda OOT can be slow, and the graphics aren't great nowadays, but gameplay wise it hasn't aged very much at all, it's STILL a good game.

Edit:
This and Tie Fighter are perhaps still my 2 favourite games of all time.
I still kick myself from time to time for selling my original cartridge. At least I have the gamecube bonus rereleases (both of them).

 

[sup3ri0r]

definately not, LoZ was the first video game I had played other than a racing game. LoZ has one of the greatest stories and the levels were definately fun to play especially the spirit temple. It will always be a classic.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

It's one of the few games from any year beginning in 19XX that I still occasionally go back to play.

Considering the game was released in 1998 it's incredible how deep the story is and how fluid the controls felt. Level design in the temples was exquisite and the characters had a real sense of humanity in them, which is all the more impressive when you could only really talk in text boxes back then.

The camera, targeting system and inventory management set the standard that we still use in gaming today, and the (albeit slight) character customization was a welcome break from, "you are this guy, you wear this, swing that and have these... Go." formula we were used to (be honest, how many of you wore the red/blue suit for purely cosmetic reasons)

 

[Mutie]

Ocarina was one of the first sword and sorcery games I ever played and pretty much sparked my love of the genre. I'm fully away of it's pitfalls and such, but I've placed it on a pedestal; I may talk about Resident Evil 2002 remake being my favourite game, but nothing touches Ocarina.

Sort of like Iron Maiden. I may love Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocauste, but Maiden will always be top, even if I haven't listened to them in months.

 

[Rifty]

I still now remember playing it for the first time when I got it for Christmas and how amazed I was at the experience. Not sure if a game has made me feel that same way since. But then again we don't really get games showing huge improvements to the current standard, its always little improvements, so that may be why.

But yeah awesome game, just looks far too dated for the newer generation of gamers. So that will probably ruin the experience for new people trying it out.

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

There should be an option for "I love this game, but I don't agree that it's the best game ever".

 

[Xan Krieger]

It's far from the best game of all time...

Spoiler: Can you guess why?

Because it's a God-damn fantasy game.

For me this is only part of it. It's the setting that killed it for me because I prefer science fiction (Front Mission 3 kicks Zelda's ass easily, it's the only game from that era I still play thanks to an emulator on this computer). Only Fantasy games I play are Oblivion and the Third Age Total War, a total conversion of Medieval 2 Total War.

For gameplay, I got through about 15 minutes before I went to play something fun and engaging so yeah, it was not my idea of a game.

 

[Taerdin]

Its definitely overrated. I don't even feel the need to fully qualify that statement because it just seems so obvious to me why it is so.

I loved most of A Link to the Past, but even within that game I felt the "Zelda formula" getting stale, and I didn't feel that ocarina made it any fresher to me, in fact it made it even more painful to me because of the increased amount of time it took to get anywhere or anything done.

 

[Rayansaki]

It is nearly perfect, yes.
If they would remake it in todays graphics, it would be perfect

And the 3D-thing isn't the point, it's the gameplay!

Actually it would probably be shaite in today's graphics. Alot of stuff got perfected overtime and new standards have to be met. Ocarina might have been near perfect when it came out, but today, even with Crysis grade graphics (tho it would be more like Mario galaxy grade because of the wii) it would be a very weak experience.

 

[coldfrog]

Only due to personal opinion. I personally think that Majora's Mask was an incredibly better game but, due to its complexities and bizarre and unfamiliar mechanics, understand why many people would find Ocarina to be the more fun game.

I would probably agree that Mario did more for the 3D platformer game than Ocarina, mainly because I wouldn't really call Ocarina a platformer. Both games were that particular series' first foray into the extra dimension, but Mario truly showed what one could do with the 3D world, while Ocarina mainly focused on using it to innovate in their dungeon puzzles and boss fights.

(Side Note: As much as I'm not a fan of the Ratchet and Clank games, I have to admit that the company that makes them is pretty much the only one regularly putting out decent 3D platformers. (Mario Galaxy excluded) )

However, even with respect to its innovation, I think Majora's Mask outdid Ocarina of Time, having a more original universe, a different story and setting (not that they couldn't make an original story set in the same universe but, well, the closest they've come from breaking the usual was with Windwaker) and totally new mechanics that I think were what made this game in the series so unique and attractive. In fact, I have a suspicion that, kind of like Mario 2/Doki Doki Panic, the only reason it was set in the land of Hyrule is purely due to IP recognition. Otherwise it would likely have been a complete unknown and would have sold less. Funnily enough, this mentality still works for major companies today.

OK, I've pretty much strayed completely away from the point of this topic. Yes, I think Ocarina of Time is overrated. The end.

 

[sup3ri0r]

There should be an option for "I love this game, but I don't agree that it's the best game ever".

The poll never states that this game is the best, just whether it is equivelent to the hype it produces.



p.s. it totally is

 

[Soxafloppin]

Its a great game, Some people think its cool to hate popular things, let them go ahead and do that.

 

[nolongerhere]

It. Was. Amazing. Stil is, in fact. Though, in my opinion, Majora's Mask was better. Still, one thing I remember about that game is my mum kicking me out of my room at night so she could play it.