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[Lionel Richie]

How time flies, I remember being a kid and reading about this game on magazines still under the name Mask of Mujula. I borrowed it from a friend to play it initially and bought it off him sometime later before I had to return it as he didn't like the game, I remember that beautiful gold cartridge with that awesome holographic cover. This game felt premium and yet the overall experience was definitely experimental. I'm fairly convinced this game wouldn't come out today. Its relatively diminutive main quest would get shitposted into oblivion, however the core appeal is obviously in the side stuff. It feels like a predecessor to the Souls series much more than OoT, it's bleak and demanding. It makes the player work for the lore, piece it together and offers them no tangible reward other than getting more of it.

And the soundtrack oh my God the soundtrack.



This is still one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard and it fits. The whole thing fits. Games today are all about post-apocalyptic thing, not Majora's Mask. Majora is MID-apocalyptic lol. You see tragedy unfold and the only way to stop it is by subjecting yourself to it over and over again. It features a deep story, beautifully designed dungeons, incredible side quests and it's crazy consistent with its theme. It's one of the best games of all time, one that somehow managed to follow up the possible GOAT in a way that wasn't redundant or self indulgent. Happy birthday you fucking legend!

 

[Arkam]

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Good game with a fanbase that slowly ruined it for me as time went on.

Happy 20th to one of the best Zelda's.

 

[Fake]

My favotire Zelda game.

 

[Lionel Richie]

 

[Birdo]

I never got around to finishing it. It's one of those bucket list games.

Soundtrack is amazing though. Even fan versions:

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

My 8 year old son is playing through this on his 3DS.

 

[Lionel Richie]

My 8 year old son is playing through this on his 3DS.

Great stuff, the 3DS version gets some unfair hate IMO.

Soundtrack is amazing though. Even fan versions:

Absolutely! I forgot to link these masterpieces:







These albums are legit!

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

What an utterly fantastic game. Took a while to click, but when it did... oh god.

Such a moody, creepy adventure. Basically nothing happens that doesn’t have a bitter underside. There’s always a big “yeah, but...” behind every victory in Majora’s Mask. Beat a boss? It’ll be there again. Saved a townsfolk? They’ll be in danger again, and none the wiser of the short-lived happiness you may have brought them. The Happy Couple Mask quest is one of the best love stories in gaming, but you’ll always complete it with a heavy heart.

MM has the best ending in all Zelda, music included. An exceptional sendoff to an exceptional story. Some of the best dungeons in the series, too.

 

[MaestroMike]

lol geez luweez got it on n64 never beat it i think i was close tho I remember it being hard def would like to play it again

 

[synchronicity]

I haven't played every Zelda, but it's my favorite of those I have. Just incredibly unique and atmospheric, both within the series and in general. Wonderful game.

 

[jts]

I was playing this game, on Wii U maybe. One of biggest flaws in my backlog. Suddenly I was in one of those sections where Link is in a vase and you have to shoot yourself from vase to vase and avoid falling down the pit. And for some reason I had absolutely no patience for it so I turned it off and never touched the game again.

 

[Kev Kev]

god i am so fucking old

 

[Saber]

The best freaking Zelda game ever. It's dark, without necessarily being edgy. This game tone is perfect and it works perfetcly with the story.

 

[30yearsofhurt]

Still the best Zelda by a long, long margin.

 

[Lionel Richie]

Still the best Zelda by a long, long margin.

So many correct picks among that list, but MM is my favorite as well for the sheer boldness of its design.

 

[Not_a_Sony_pony]

Undoubtably the best action adventure ever made.

given that you’re playing the n64 cart and not the bastardized 3ds.

 

[Lrnex]

Its crazy how MM is basically a rushed romhack of OOT yet somehow ends up being one of the greatest and most memorable games of all time.

 

[HaveButOneLife]

Good game with a fanbase that slowly ruined it for me as time went on.

Happy 20th to one of the best Zelda's.

And one of the best games of all time.

 

[SuperGooey]

MM was the first game I ever preordered and bought on day one.

It's my favorite game of all time, and there is still nothing else like it.

 

[Lionel Richie]

Its crazy how MM is basically a rushed romhack of OOT yet somehow ends up being one of the greatest and most memorable games of all time.

I think today it would have been a DLC and would lose a lot of its appeal. Thank God they expanded on the central idea and made it a full game.

 

[SnapShot]

Possibly my favorite Zelda game, few other games came close to topping it for me, the gameplay, the characters, the music, the exceptional atmosphere, It's really something special, well, the original N64 game that is.

 

[Bakkus]

Best Zelda game.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Still waiting for this, Ocarina of time and Wind Waker HD on the switch....

 

[D.Final]

I'm starting to feel old

 

[joseph7jk]

Best zelda, what a glorius game

 

[Lionel Richie]

I'm starting to feel old

Same here friend. Remember the expansion pak? Those were the days!

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

The fuck are you talking about that game JUST CAME OUT.


....right? No? I'm actually an old curmudgeon? Ok.

 

[Sp3eD]

I had the n64 gold cart (w holo reflect front) and Wii / Wii U virtual console versions and tried to play it at launch of each and just couldn’t get into it. It bored me to tears and I even slogged through the latter until the 2nd to last temple. I must be in some 0.01% group that hates it.

 

[Cutty Flam]

Entire game is unbelievable. Second greatest game ever made to me

This song, along with the fight in the place in which the fight takes place is absolutely surreal

And to think that somewhere in time, the Hero of Time had to go through this all because he was searching for his friend, far and wide. Link is the most badass video game character I swear

 

[Cutty Flam]

There's something about the burden Link carries on his back in this one...so many people hated on the time aspect of having 72 hrs to work with, that is what made this game so dynamic

Those moments when you would have a stakeout to wait for a certain character or even creature were unparalleled to any tension of any game I have felt since. As a kid I was so nervous and even the slightest bit on edge when waiting for Sakon to strike at 10:00 pm was it? That was insane. I loved waiting for the rendezvous at the Stock Pot Inn at midnight or 12:30 am to speak with Anju about her doubts and concerns too

There are so many good times I can talk about with this game. It's something I would recommend to any fan of TLOZ to at least try for a few hours

 

[Erdrick]

I absolutely view this as the best Zelda game ever made. Dispute that as you will, but it's certainly my favourite. This is also coming from someone who played it around 2003-2004 via the Gamecube disc that was bundled with it for a time. I love how weird it is. How different it is. How strange and offsetting it is. I'm in the midst of catching up on my Zelda games. (Just finished A Link Between Two Worlds tonight after not touching it since January of 2014, nice nod to this in not Link's house in that game with Majora's Mask hanging on the wall.) I bought the 3DS version of MM since it's the most accessible one and possibly best version of it. I know some (Most) hate the time aspect but, honestly, you can slow time enough to get things done and it's not like everything is negated when you reset time in it. You still get a satisfying sense of completion little by little as you set and change things right in the odd but wonderful world of Termina.

Did I mention I love it because it's so different? I absolutely loathe the whole and nearly constant trope of fighting Ganon at the end of nearly every game, so naturally this is such a breath of fresh air. The whole Groundhog Day aspect I'd compelling to me, and I love fixing every little thing wrong in other people's lives. (Fuck that farm segment with the Aliens or whatever kidnapping livestock though.)

I've never played it on the 3DS before so having this available portable is a super nice thing. I really wish they took risks like this with the series Ala Zelda II in changing up the formula, because it's gotten stale. Let me Also add that I've never played BotW yet so... If they did spice it up, feel free to correct me.

Just at the time when I played this on the GC... I mean hell, it's got a freaking Zora playing the OG Zelda dungeon theme on a guitar. I certainly didn't waste a whole session listening to that or anything. The variety of gameplay provided by the masks is fantastic, the stories contained within are heartfelt and touching, and the music at times is absolutely haunting. And this was done originally on hardware that was so shackled by limitations and yet still succeeded in its vision moreso to me than its more celebrated predecessor.

Best Zelda to me.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

My least favorite Zelda. I could not play it more than the 1st hour. I don't know how they have thought that controlling that thing, from the very start, instead of Link would be fun, in a Zelda game. But, yeah... i'm no smoker.

Don't believe the hype, if you like Link run from this game. None of the so called hardcore fans have ever warned about it. I was so disappointed. That shit after Ocarina of time.

 

[LeftThumbstick]

Ahh, the memories this game brings back.

Convinced my parents to buy me this at £50 back when it came out. I think it was legit my first bought game ever and i was so excited. Got home, fired the cartridge in only to be met with a message saying i needed an expansion pack. This is not something they were willing to pay for on top of the price of the game, we weren't made of money. It was returned and young me was devastated.

I've played it via emulator but never fully completed it like i did with OOT, such a shame.

 

[Tevious]

Absolutely! I forgot to link these masterpieces:







These albums are legit!

By the way, Theophany is also doing the soundtrack to Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

My least favorite Zelda. I could not play it more than the 1st hour. I don't know how they have thought that controlling that thing, from the very start, instead of Link would be fun, in a Zelda game. But, yeah... i'm no smoker.

Don't believe the hype, if you like Link run from this game. None of the so called hardcore fans have ever warned about it. I was so disappointed. That shit after Ocarina of time.

what the fuck?

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

what the fuck?

?

Fact: for more than the 1st hour you're not Link but a slow unplayable thing that has nothing to do with Link from Ocarina of Time, aka what fanboys call a sequel!

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

I really wish I had played it back when it was newer, I wanted to but the expansion requirement confused the hell out of me and I simply never did until 2011... and then I never managed to beat the game until 2017.

I love the game's overworld a lot, I love the time loop mechanic, I love the game's artstyle and overall tone, there's just one thing I don't love... the dungeons, out of all the 3D Zeldas I've played this one has by far the most tedious dungeon.

The first one is alright, but it's also the shortest, Snowhead Temple just looks really boring and is tedious to play through, Great Bay Temple looks cool but having to switch the flow of water back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth is incredibly frustrating and tedious and then there's the final dungeon where you have to totally leave the dungeon in order to solve a puzzle?

Just ugh, I found them all to be tedious slogs to get through.

It's a real shame though because I can tell the game would have blown my mind as a kid and I would have been more forgiving of it's flaws, but while I still enjoyed it a lot as an adult my enjoyment was definitely muted to some degree, still I totally respect it for being so unique and experimental and I'm glad I did eventually give it a full playthrough.

 

[nkarafo]

Fantastic game.

It's a shame though how many people are turned off by it because they think it has a "time limit"

Guys! At first it appears that the game has a tight time limit but soon enough you can control time in various ways so this never becomes an issue. The whole point of real time passing in the game is to establish the Groundhog's Day time loop story and NPC's schedules. These aspects make this game incredibly addictive and the NPC quests are some of the most interesting quests in any game, even outside the Zelda series.

Not to mention the awesome dark atmosphere this game has.

Give it a chance.

My least favorite Zelda. I could not play it more than the 1st hour. I don't know how they have thought that controlling that thing, from the very start, instead of Link would be fun, in a Zelda game. But, yeah... i'm no smoker.

Don't believe the hype, if you like Link run from this game. None of the so called hardcore fans have ever warned about it. I was so disappointed. That shit after Ocarina of time.

That "thing" is Link being cursed at the very start of the game. The first thing you do once you reach the town is to break it and you become Link again. It shouldn't even take you as much as 1 hour.

 

[gamerguywashere]

man, i imported the ram upgrade and MM cart to Hsinchu where I was working cause I was tired of pirated DC games in mostly other languages

i fucking loved this game, the time limit lead to some awesome pressure during quests, and great music!

I want to play it now

 

[Gormless Noodle]

I think this was the first game where I felt a story was being told (specifically about Link himself) by just playing. No words or much in the sense of cutscenes said it, but you could feel how lonely his existence was, at least that's how I perceived it. Oddly enough I think Shadow of the Colossus comes closest to this approach out of most games I've played.

I'm general though I always though that OoT and MM were supplements of each other, where OoT was the grand adventure and MM the much more personal story focusing on characters and such. I would say its gameplay has certainly been outdone by now but it also has a lot of aspects where it still stands very tall.

 

[Lionel Richie]

By the way, Theophany is also doing the soundtrack to Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

That's awesome! Dude totally belongs in the industry.

 

[Potato Chip PRO]

I was 9 years old when this came out.... One a hear a sad story! When my dad bought me my 1st Nintendo Console N64, He told me to choose 1 out if 2 games Majora's Mask or Wipeout 64... I chose Wipeout 64.

 

[Honjo]

It's a toss up between this and Ocarina of Time. Those were the days...

 

[Sleepwalker]

Can't wait for the $60 time limited emulated collection with no improvements next year!

Spoiler

Issa joke pls dont kill

 

[alabtrosMyster]

i fucking loved this game, the time limit lead to some awesome pressure during quests, and great music!

I dropped the game the minute the timer threw me back at the beginning, I never wen back and never will.

 

[Mr. Nobody]

And just like that.... liver spot started to appear on my hands.

 

[nkarafo]

I dropped the game the minute the timer threw me back at the beginning, I never wen back and never will.

Have you ever seen the movie "Groundhog's Day"? It's the same deal.

The protagonist in that movie relieves the same day over and over. The days reset but not his memories. So he becomes like a god after a while, knowing everything that will happen in every inch of the city he is stuck in.

In Zelda the days reset but you keep all your items and powers. Which allow you to progress the game, despite the days resetting. Just because you got to day 1, it doesn't mean you have to re-do the same dungeons or quests. As long as you got the items/powers from a quest/dungeon, you never have to re-do it.

 

[Komatsu]

The Empire Strikes Back of Zelda games. Aonuma took a bunch of OOT assets, designed an overworld ans about 5 or 6 regions and... made the greatest Zelda of all time?

They tried doing “dark” with Twilight Princess, but Majora is dark, foreboding and melancholy. I will never forget that scene when Anju and Kafei finally meet again and hug, professing their love seconds before the moon comes crashing down on them. Or that ending, with the Deku butler prostrated before his son’s gnarly remains.

I pre-ordered it, something I almost never do, and played it every single day for about 6 months. I still have the golden cartridge with the holo sticker.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Never played it, but always meant to. Maybe on its next remaster I'll give it a go.

god i am so fucking old

How old? Let's measure age pee-pee's.