My sister gave me The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for Christmas, and I have been fastidiously trying to complete it since the holiday. The whole concept of the game — conducting a train and restoring train tracks connected to ancient spirits — is rather odd, but Nintendo has made the adventure entertaining. The game is enjoyable, but its experience is rather detaching.
My personal favorite incarnation of the Zelda series, and also my choice for best video game of all time, is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game is over a decade old now and was released on hardware that is considerably dated by today’s standards. No Zelda game comes close to its standard save for its sequel, Majora’s Mask, which is a close contender.
The game’s plot and pacing is one of mystery and excitement that really makes the player personally vested in the adventure. The introduction to the game is dark and mysterious that suddenly forces the player to immediately take the role of Link, the Hero of Time. Little background is revealed about Link and the game, but it sets up a responsibility that is almost overwhelming that is slowly discovered as the game progresses. Once the player progresses enough, the plot becomes more comfortable and familiar while retaining the sense of new adventure throughout the game.
The other strong point of the game is the time-travelling concept, one of the most common science fiction plot devices, that really shapes the entire adventure. The player initially controls Link as a child, and then is suddenly forced into adulthood (through a seven-year slumber of time travel magic) to save Hyrule. The evil that has spread over seven years changes locations and their inhabitants, and the player has to time-travel back and forth to restore the balance to the world.
Each step that the player takes and every completed task brings about a sense of accomplishment. The game creates an emotional evoking environment, a “big picture” painting of the universe, that becomes the player’s personal world. Actions that the player does in the past affects situations in the future, and it’s done in a very compartmentalized manner. The game’s presentation treads lightly on the cinematic front and holds back from overdoing it so that it doesn’t detract from a full interactive gaming experience.
Few games come close to the emotional experience of Ocarina of Time but often remove the player from full immersion by providing much more backstory that creates something akin to an interactive movie instead. What I think makes it the greatest game above all is that it is the archetype of good versus evil without the complex grey area of morality that other games have. The game becomes an emotional investment right from the start drawing you in until the ending scene that leaves you with a breath of relief and wonderment of everything that you had done before.
