Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time is considered one of the greatest games of all time. Gamespot gave it a score of 10 when it was released on N64. According to the game page, the average critic review was 9.8 out of 10, and the average user rating is 9.7. It was reviewed again on the Wii when it was released for the Virtual Console a couple of years ago, and received a score of 8.9. While there are no other critic reviews (according to the game page), the average player score is 9.5. As you would probably know, this was next on my Zelda marathon, and I downloaded it recently, to finally get my hands on this revered game, and see why it is one of the greatest games of all time.

After a few play sessions and a handful of hours, I'm shelving this game. It just does not do it for me. My main point of contention is the controls, something that I've heard was revolutionary for the time. And I'm sure it was. But that time is not now. We only had one analog stick back then, so in 3D games we had to make do with computer controlled cameras to decide what the best view was. "But it has lock-on" I hear you say. Yeah it does, but that didn't seem to work anywhere near as well as I expected... or at least would expect today. It seems to lock on I already had to be close enough and facing the enemy anyway, so trying to lock on when I knew an opponent was behind me or to the side just never seemed to work. A number of times I was tapping the lock-on button when hearing a bat somewhere near me but just couldn't see it... and then I lost my wooden shield to a flaming bat that I couldn't see or lock on to. Multiple times. This wasn't so bad in Link To The Past, where travelling the overworld was relatively fast. Here it takes forever to get anywhere (though I imagine you do get a horse at some point).

Aside from the lack of camera control, other controls were also tedious. The slingshot is ridiculously sensitive. I tried the slingshot game and I have no idea how you are supposed to manage to complete it. I like the fact that you jump automatically when he reach the end of a ledge, but I also found that I was jumping off at times when I just wanted to drop down, and narrow ledges became something of a chore to navigate. The lack of direction in places was also annoying. I get to the Dogongo's cave, and eventually look up a FAQ to find out I have to play the Royal tune on the Ocarina to open the door. Ah, fair enough. Then he won't help me anyway. It doesn't strike me that this is right; surely I wouldn't have gone through all of this for him not to help me, right? Back to the FAQ. I have to play him Sariah's song. How on earth was I supposed to know that? So begins the trek back to find Sariah...

Technology imrpoves. Control schemes get more refined. I'm used to 3rd person games that give you the control of the camera, such that trying to play Ocarina of Time is simply cumbersome to me. Was it the best game of 1998? Seems that way. Is it still one of the best games of all time? Of course you could debate that it is, but if it still is, does that mean that the progress we have made since then means games have not improved?

My next question is, given that I've stumbled this far in the marathon, is Majora's Mask, released on the same platform as Ocarina of Time, going to have all the same issues that I'm complaining about? My guess is that it will, I'll wait for your feedback before I lay down the Wii points on that one. Otherwise I'll jump straight to Wind Waker.

For now I'm playing Oblivion on PS3, which I've only given one play session for a few hours, so I've not really formed a full opinion of it yet. Pretty good so far (I did play it for a few hours on 360 a couple of years ago but then never continued with it). I did find it interesting that I was with the emperor when he died, I headed to my first destination and found a monk reading news that the emperor had died. Man news travels FAST in Cryodiil! The way you level up is intriguing and makes sense in some ways, but possibly flawed in others. I decided to be a spellsword and most of the stuff I'm doing contributes to my major skills, though it is funny that I'm jumping around like a madman while travelling to improve my acrobatics skill. I've done enough that I can level up if I can find somewhere to sleep... but I tried near Kvatch but there were enemies nearby, so I don't know what effect leveling up has yet. Talking doesn't seem to be doing much when I come across random strangers. I met someone out in the wild, so I got off my horse to fight him... and then he chased my horse. And because we both had the same running speed, I couldn't catch him, so there went my horse. That lead to a tedious walk to the next town...

...but hey, at least I can control the camera.