Majora’s Mask Retro Review

The folks over at airship over water have put together a lengthy retro review of the Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask. The author goes into some great detail discussing many of the things that have made Majora’s Mask garner quite a cult following over the years. In fact, many Zelda fans today consider it to be by far the greatest of the Zelda games, mostly because of its rather deep, metaphorical storyline. Listed below are some of the pros and cons that the author of the article gave about the game.

THE BAD –
*If you’re not very fond of sidequests and working with a very story driven game, you likely won’t enjoy Majora’s Mask.
*Not counting the sidequests, the game is not nearly as long (or physically spread out) as Ocarina of Time.
*Not counting the mask transformations, you can only play as Young Link (which some have a problem with).

THE GOOD –
*It was a unique concept that Nintendo successfully acheived.
*Playing in different forms is super fun (especially swimming around as the Zora Link or racing around as Goron Link!)
*The story is fantastic.

Most people that know me personally, know that I am not a huge fan of Majora’s Mask. While many people consider the storyline to be its strongest point, it really is quite bittersweet in my book. The biggest downfall of Majora’s Mask is that almost all of its best features are optional, and the average gamer going through the game will play through the main quest while never even scratching the surface of many of its hidden gems. When I first played Majora’s Mask and got through it the first time, I did not enjoy it at all and thought the storyline was incredibly empty. I’ve since gone through and completed a vast majority of the side quests that it offers, but the memory of my first play through is still ingrained in my head, and this makes it so that I can never hold Majora’s Mask up on a pedestal that I do for my other favorite Zelda titles such as A Link to the Past, the Legend of Zelda, or the Oracle of Ages.

I eventually plan on creating a more formal response about my personal views towards Majora’s Mask, but for now, it sits near the bottom of my list of favorite Zelda games. Still one of my favorite video games in general, but one of my least favorite Zelda titles. So what do you guys think of Majora’s Mask? How did you like it when it first was released and how does that compare with how you look back at it today? How does it rack up with the other Legend of Zelda titles? Let us know in the comments below.