The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Play it on: Switch, 3DS
Current goal: Defeat Volvagia
I recently returned to Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the first time in over a decade. I play a little bit each night while my kids watch before they get ready for bed. Its Nintendo 64-era jagged polygons and ugly textures have them completely entranced. I find myself equally surprised by how well the game still holds up. The music is still incredible. The dungeons are very clever. And the game has a remarkable sense of humor. It’s amazing what the team at Nintendo achieved at the time, taking a still evolving franchise into a completely different perspective on transformative new hardware. It’s also fascinating, and a little bit emotionally unsettling, revisiting a place I once knew so well and recalling my forgotten memories of it in real-time. I expected my kids and I to get bored after the first night. Now I can’t wait to finish it. — Ethan Gach
