Retreading the legend... in 3D?

Obviously, it has been awhile since my last post. So, that said, moving on.

Awhile back I went and played some game called the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Apparently it has some name recognition. Okay, to be more technical I replayed it for... I don't know, somewhere in the vicinity of the fourth or sixth time? But ah ha - it was the first time I played it on the newfangled Nintendo 3DS doohickey (says the guy who bought it nearly two years after it came out).

So how did it stand up? Approximately the same, which is to say approximately the same amount of awesome. I mean, it's Ocarina of Time, it really doesn't need to be elaborated on too much unless I'm talking to someone who really needs to brush up on their Zelda's.

The most noticeable thing about the 3DS version is some highly polished visuals. Then I looked between the new polish and what it looked like on the N64, and I realized just how significant an upgrade it was. The textures are now greatly improved and look much nicer. Overall the game looks more detailed and less murky. Many objects also have quite a few more complex polygons for their model. A good example of this is to compare the roots of the tree-like houses in the Kokiri village between the versions. Yet, it struck me as odd that so much was done on this front but the angles and such of the environments themselves were essentially copy and paste. It doesn't bother me really and I guess it goes along with the game providing a more perfectly accurate translation of the gameplay, but I wouldn't have minded if the very unnatural angles in the mountains, hills, cliffs and the like were given a more stylized look.

The only thing that really bothered me is there are a few icons on the bottom screen that must be touched to use - there is no button for them. Considering there are three directions of the D-pad that more of these functions could have been mapped to (in addition to being functional as touch screen icons), this was a baffling design choice. My hands hurt playing this game due to the way I naturally hold it to use L targeting. Although some extra button mapping probably wouldn't change that, it might have helped a little.

To kind of undermine the praise and fanfare I introduced Ocarina of Time to in this post, I will say it's not my favorite Zelda game. That honor goes to Wind Waker on the Gamecube. It's not even my favorite Zelda title on the N64. Gasp! That goes to Majora's Mask. But, you know, Ocarina of Time is still up there. Wind Waker I love for so many reasons: the unique art style, the ocean setting, the finely tuned gameplay, the fun exploration, the merging of new and classic ideas, and more. Majora's Mask... is harder to define. To simple it up, I'll just say it fits my tastes better. Also, I love the creepy moon, the mask transformations, the day/night passage combined with the schedules of people in town, and all the bizarre moments the game offers.

I haven't talked about the 3DS before, so I guess I'll go ahead and say I think the 3D functional is an unnecessary gimmick (again, says the guy nearly two years late to the 'party'). I don't hate it, but it's not something I'm interested in. From my experimenting with the 3D slider and after careful analysis, I've determined it results primarily in headaches. I also am not sure my eyes pick up the 3D in an optimal way. Still, I think it can have some extremely marginal value so I keep the 3D on the most minimal setting possible. That way there's some visual addition from this gimmick that's supposed to be a selling point on this thing and it doesn't seem to cause the headache effect. Other than the stupid 3D, it's basically a more powerful DS, which is far from a bad thing.