My Top 5 Games of All time - Part 2

This is basically a list of my top 5 games that I have played in my entire lifetime that I will be presenting in 5 parts with each part containing each game. Obviously they are my own personal choices but I would urge any avid gamer that hasn't played these games before to give them a go, with that said lets continue.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (for N64)

press start for fun

I guess I should start by saying this is probably a classic for allot of people, almost a really obvious choice for alot of ultimate game countdowns due to how groundbreaking the game really was at the time and just how awesome it was and still is for some people, me included. A great game for a generation of gamers and now widely available on many formats including 3DS but for me it was more than just a game.

For me it was an experience, one that when it ended inevitably at the time I was almost upset.  I remember buying the game as a young boy not knowing anything about it, simply taking the word of the cashier who advised me to buy it and how glad I was I decided to take their advice.

Kokiri village.

Basically you are a young boy named Link who comes to find out he was adopted into a village of people called the Kokiri. Each of the Kokiri have a guardian fairy as such which obviously you do not posses, until the Great Deku Tree sends a fairy called Navi to summon you to speak with him then eventually help you on an epic quest that he sends you on to save the land of Hyrule, which of course is the land the whole game is set in. This is how you require your cool but at times very annoying fairy friend. (In no way does Navi constantly shouting in your ear every five minutes ever make the game any less enjoyable, far from it).


At heart the game is a wonderful action/RPG with collecting items to overcome bosses and obstacles to keep the game rolling forward and opening more of the land as you collect and fight your way through many foes and new and exciting areas. Now at the time, for me anyway, open world games were somewhat linear, single path, smoke and mirrored affairs and when this magical game came to rest in my faithful Nintendo I had never experienced its like before. It was vast, rich, free roaming and so exciting I was sucked in instantly.

Dungeons are the main concept of this game and going through them are a real treat, finding chests with maps, compasses to show more chest locations which then inevitably bring you to a boss key and some new shiny item to defeat the boss for that dungeon and also serve as a new tool to collect items or reach locations that were unreachable before and that's just for starters.

Hyrule castle, lovely.

How many kilos?

There is also many towns and locations to explore all with fun and vibrant characters (some creepy and somewhat scary too I may add) and it doesn't stop there. They also include side missions as such, little things to be done to collect more heart containers (Your health bar, the more you have the more punishment you can take) and there are secret fairy locations to uncover which will give you powerful magic to use and increase your magic bar (obviously the bigger you have the more magic you can shove right in your enemies faces). On top of the side missions there are also some very cool little mini games to collect more heart containers or some extra rupees (the games currency) such as fishing and many game shops like archery practise or treasure hunting to name a few. It all adds to the whole experience creating a massive feeling of a living breathing world that you will come to love.

Fast Travel? Whats that..

Time is also a very cool feature in the game and of course so is your magic ocarina, both tied together beautifully. The ocarina is used as a tool to learn songs which hold power in the game, some simply create rainstorms others open new paths or it is even just used to beckon a mount. The mount is a horse called Epona which is given to you to get across the vast land more quickly, another feature that when the game hints at the very prospect, I personally got a little excited.

Rock Star

With this feature explained it brings me to the time aspect of the game which ties in so well with the latter. You see you start off as a boy but without any spoilers, as such, you inevitably become an adult due to an event in the world and with that you will eventually learn a song that will let you travel back and forth in time from being young to an adult again where the world is very different. With this you can do many cool things like plant seeds, water them with your ocarina with a certain song then go back as an adult to find a bean sprout that will take you to a hidden item you can then collect and that is just one thing you can do with this amazing feature of the game. You will also have to use it at times to progress through the story and for me it was just an amazing aspect.

There are swords, shields, items, many different races and locations all to be found, explored and enjoyed.
Overall it was more than a game, it was a childhood memory and one that I cherish and re-played countless times and why not. With the game being accessible in many formats such as handheld on 3DS or from your Wii marketplace there was no reason not to take a trip down memory lane and even though the game is from an era gone by and some may even say outdated, for me it still surpasses allot of these so called epic next gen titles that, in vain, try so hard to recapture the very essence of what made this game so great.

Epic, classic. Yes.