Several years ago, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 3D released for the fledgling handheld. People had both expected and desired a port to Majora’s Mask as well. After some time later, Nintendo had teased if players wanted a new game in the vein of A Link to the Past or a Majora’s Mask port. The result of which led to the release of A Link Between Worlds. A year later, a Majora’s Mask port was announced. It seems that they only wanted to know which to release first, although Majora’s Mask 3D has been in develop for a long time. And now that it’s finally out, it was definitely worth the wait.
The game for those unfamiliar, is about the continuing adventures of Link from The Ocarina of Time. One day while riding through a forest with his trusty horse Epona, a Mysterious masked boy runs into him, causing Link to fall into a hole. He emerges in a new land called Termina, Unable to leave this town, he travels across the land to find a way to stop Skull Kid from causing mischief before three days are up, as the moon is going to crash into the earth. If you spend too much time, you can rewind back to the start of the first day. While any collectibles are lost and unfinished side quests might need redoing, Link keeps all health pickups or weapons and masks he finds; time traveler immunity and all that jazz. The unique aspect to this game compared to other Zelda games is the ability for Link to use masks to accomplish different tasks in addition to his usual arsenal. And you only have three days to do so, which actually are measured in minutes, although you can slow time down a bit.
This time limit actually allows for the creation of a world with intricate depth. The characters that you interact with all have schedules, and they also offer you the basis for all side-quests and main quests. All of these events are tracked in the Bomber’s Notebook, which has received a much improved system. Now, you can more easily track which events are ongoing and which are complete. In addition, you can now set reminders at times that certain events happen, allowing for even easier completion. Other improvements include the tweaking of the Save system. You no longer need to reset time permanently. The Owl Statues that used to only do quick saves now replace the old save system from the N64 original. This makes getting through the game easier. Other touches include: Moving the banker to the same location as the Owl Statue in Clock Town. If you have a Circle Pad Pro, you can use the second analog to freely rotate the camera. And the New Nintendo 3DS will be able to do this as well. The bosses have some tweaks that will keep returning players on their toes a bit.
Although the game doesn’t have anything new like a Master Quest (that I can tell), there are two new fishing holes for your leisure time. The music has been faithfully reproduced and sounds as good as it ever was, and the graphical updates are similar in quality to The Ocarina of Time 3D, which is good. With the updates and portability, Majora’s Mask 3D is a solid experience that newcomers and Zelda fans will enjoy. I highly recommend it.
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