The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time was first released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 games console. It is the fifth game in the Zelda series and went on to be one of the biggest selling games for the console.

This game shows Zelda in 3D for the very first time. Previous entries in the series have all been top-down view, with everything being in 2D so it is quite a change for the game.

The Game centres around a young boy named Link that lives in the Kingdom of Hyrule. He awakens one day to a small fairy named Navi, flying around him and telling him to go and visit the Deku Tree, a tree in the nearby forest that is dying. When Link gets to the tree, it is dying due to a curse from "the wicked man of the desert" and the tree tells link he must stop him and go and see princess Zelda in the Castle of Hyrule.

The story progresses from here but I don't want to give too much away. The gameplay consists of meeting many different charcters such as the Deku tree, that are often in need of a favour of some sort, which is more often than not rewarded with an item or piece of information that is essential to progress in the game.

This "socialising" of sorts is punctuated by visits in to areas with vast amounts of enemies and puzzles. These are called dungeons. Within the dungeons, you will have to utilize weapons you have acquired throughout the game to solve many of the puzzles. The weapons range from boomerangs and bombs to slingshots.

Here is an example of the genius of the puzzles encountered in this game: you need to go in to the water temple but it is at the bottom of the lake and Link is unable to swim that far down. How can he get there? Well, try putting on those iron boots you acquired from someone earlier in the game and then try swimming! Obviously Link can't swim too well with these on, so floats to the bottom where the entrance door to the Water Temple is.

In the game Link also uses an ocarina. The ocarina is played as an instrument and Link learns various songs from people. These songs are essential to the game as they trigger certain events. One song may change the time from day to night, one will see your horse Epona to come running along to you, allowing you to move much quicker than being on foot.

The final thing that I have not mentioned but is a major part of this game is the time travel element (after all, it is called the Ocarina of Time). When you get to a certain point in the game Link will be able to time travel between being a youngster to an older version of him. I found this very interesting when exploring areas previously trodden when a young un, as many of them have become derelict and are inhabited with zombies. Time travel is essential for some puzzles where you have to do something as young Link (e.g. plant a tree) and the carry on when you are the older version (the tree will be fully grown).

This was a groundbreaking game for its time, and due to the sheer depth in this game, I believe it can stand up to many of the games that are still being developed today.

10 / 10