Ocarina of Time: From 3D to 3D

I recently was reading a review of Ocarina of Time 3D by The HD Room and it got me thinking about 3D in general. Way back in the mid-90’s when the Playstation and Nintendo 64 had just released, one of the biggest draws was 3D. No, I’m not talking about the same 3D as what we see with the Nintendo 3DS, I’m talking about seeing our favorite games transition from a 2D environment to a 3D world.

Games such as Super Mario 64 took what we always knew as a 2d side-scroller and turned it into a 3d platformer. For Zelda fans we had seen the top-down Zelda titles such the Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, and Link’s Awakening, as well as a side-scroller with the Adventure of Link. Yet, Ocarina of Time was the first game to take the Zelda world into a 3D environment. It was surreal for me the first time I experienced Super Mario 64 and then years later with Ocarina of Time. It was foreign and took quite some time to fully adjust to the new style of play.

Now flash-forward 13 years and what do we have? Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS and one of the games announced was Ocarina of Time. So 13 years later we are still talking about Ocarina of Time and we are also still talking about 3D, yet the context of these discussions is totally different. The 3D from the Nintendo 64 is not the same 3D effect that the Nintendo 3DS offers, yet those words have both been ways of describing Ocarina of Time across two generations.

Ocarina of Time is the first 3D Zelda title and it also is the first… 3D Zelda title. It sounds strange saying that and without any context it doesn’t really make sense. When people think back to the Nintendo 64, any conversation wouldn’t last 5 minutes without the words Ocarina of Time being uttered. Now, when talking about the game library of the Nintendo 3DS the same can be said about Ocarina of Time 3D. Going back to the original review I mentioned earlier, the author had this to say about the two versions of Ocarina of Time.

So with all that, I raise a few questions for you all. When people use the term 3D, what immediately comes to mind? If this was ten-years ago and I asked the same question, what was 3D to you back then? Lastly, do you think Ocarina of Time 3D will have the same lifetime attachment to the Nintendo 3DS because of the 3D… as Ocarina of Time had with the Nintendo 64… because of the 3D? If you are confused, don’t worry, I am too. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: The HD Room
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