Random: Footage Of Nintendo's Weird Zelda: Majora's Mask E3 Event Resurfaces

They should remake those two games.

Man I freaking love this game! I wish I could play it on the switch!

The early 2000’s were a very strange time, that’s for sure.

They did some pretty wild stuff to promote Majora's Mask, like that really effective newcaster ad. Then there's the one with Matt and Jeff Hardy.

This game coming out was the most hyped I've been for a Zelda game. After how breathtaking Ocarina of Time was (said it before, but there has been no change in gaming history as seismic as the move from 2D to 3D, despite what ray tracing and 60fps fanatics would have you believe) my anticipation to play more was through the roof. Have there been objectively better and more impressive Zelda games? Definitely, but November 2000 was a very special time in my gaming memory.

Despite growing up with Zelda, I never played a game until 2006. That being Twilight Princess on a rented Wii Console as I was visiting my grandparents.

It was until just a couple of years ago, I started playing the series back to back to see what I missed growing up. Majora's Mask was/is honestly a weird but fun game. I can see why fans want that kind of feeling back.

The atmosphere is borderline creepy and disturbing. The music sounds so haunting yet enchanting. I enjoy how the game never once gives you a long exposition dump into it's lore. Nor does it take the time to explain anything.

Rather that was intent or not, the game does a wonderful job of keeping you wondering even after all these decades later. Everything just feels organic.

I put Majora's Mask on the same level of Shadow of the Colossus. My favorite PS2 game and just top favorite game of all time. It's really that fun and interesting of a game.

I'm glad I gave it a chance. My only regret is Im so late to the party, that I didn't get to join the others when it first released.

I hereby pledge my eternal soul to the Cult of Miyamotology.

May Lord Shiggy guide us to the holy land where the mushrooms grow tall and the hills have eyes.

Ramen.

What a delightfully wild and unnerving discovery. Despite not growing up during that time, I miss the early 2000s and all of the wacky and creative things to come from Nintendo in that era, both in terms of their advertising and the games themselves.

Funnily enough, not only does a cult/tribe use Majora's Mask in the game's backstory, but a cult would later become the focus of a particulary famous creepypasta/ARG based on this very game. Coincidence?

@Lizuka The Hardy Boyz !?? advertised Majora's Mask ???

The creepy mask seller under the town clock towere always gave me the creeps. Never did complete this game, not even on 3ds.think i got to the 4th temple.

@jco83 Right here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE4WcEYtZwo

@JohnnyC Same here. I think I bought it on a trip to the Netherlands because it was sold out in Germany or something… I was so excited to bring it home

For me Majora's Mask is the best Zelda game ever made.

Majora's Mask was THE Zelda game per se for me.Still is, together with Twilight Princess and BotW.

@jolteon23 I know people don’t like it, but I just meant I could play the remakes version, I don’t need it to be completely new just the 3ds one. And yes I totally forgot about it being on the service as I don’t pay for the premium lol.

@jolteon23 @Daniel36 Majora Mask was already remade on 3DS back in 2015

@Giancarlothomaz Yeah I meant like a complete upgrade, make it like botw and totk.

Ah yes, I too am a member of the cult of Miyamoto.

We ritualistically burn books once a week. Not because those books contain any kind of political ideology we disagree with or anything. We burn them solely because Miyamoto hates story.

I don't like this game. Probably because I don't like countdowns, which, you know, is THE GAME'S WHOLE GIMMICK.

@Lady_Galadhiel

add Link's awakening and that's my top Zelda list, too ✌️ best series ever.

Majoras mask in my opinion is the best Zelda game. Only one that kinda comes close is ocarina

@Snatcher

I'm playing through MM presently ("for real this time!") on OG hardware.

i can tell you that unless you have one of those NSO 64 controllers, i don't think youd have fun with the NSO majoras mask. using the right stick for the c buttons is not going to be good when the puzzles involve switching masks, throwing bombs, using your bow, etc etc, all using exclusively the right analog stick. you'd even have to play most of the notes on your Ocarina with the stick.

i know this is moot for you since you dont seem interested in subscribing, and i cant blame you (but if you can work out splitting a family plan with friends, it does become very worth it.)

as an aside, this game is INCREDIBLE, and im making more progress in it than i ever have, and I'm loving it! i want a proper re release but i feel very lucky to own a cart too. ✌️

@Snatcher Personally, I think the Expansion Pass is worth the price of admission. It's unfortunate how slow they can be on rolling out new releases, but at least it's a fraction of the price of PlayStation's premium service. Maybe it's not something you'd want to pay for yearly, but I'd recommend at least trying it for a year and playing through Paper Mario ahead of TTYD's release. I think you're gonna love it!

@Not_Soos You know about a year ago I wouldn’t agree, but now after what PlayStation did honestly you have a point, PlayStation is just going to keep racking up the price without adding anything of value to the service, it’s crazy, at least I get paper Mario and a few other games out of it, maybe a month so I can play paper Mario. (Unless you can only do yearly plans that’s fine too.)

I just wanna play the majoras mask remake again! I hope they do what they did for Luigi’s mansion dark moon for OOT and MM.

@-wc- The only reason I can think about getting it is for paper Mario, I already played majoras mask n 3ds, I just want to play it again lol. MM is freaking amazing! I hope you enjoy the rest of it!because it has stuck with me three years later!

@Snatcher totally agree! Wish that Nintendo would remake Majoras mask for switch 2, but probably not happening

@Daniel36
They are more likely just going to make HD ports of the 3DS version.

@Snatcher Unfortunately, I think you can only do the yearly subscription for the Expansion Pass, which is weird considering you can do a monthly or three-month subscription for the basic plan. Not sure why they got rid of the extra options. Obviously, everyone's financial situation is different, but from my perspective $50/year for access to Nintendo's legacy titles across so many different platforms is a good value. It's less than the retail price of a first-party Switch game to have dozens of classics at your disposal on a modern console that can be taken on the go and with online support. The emulation is also really high-quality. The colors are much more vibrant than on Wii U Virtual Console. I dunno, I probably sound like a corporate shill right now, lol. You would also have access to Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, if you haven't already played that one. It's another fantastic Mario RPG I would highly recommend.

@Kirbyo I can appreciate the heck out of the game for having such a heavy narrative and just being so different from every other game in the Zelda series. But honestly, it's the only 3D Zelda I've never beaten, and for that very reason about the timer. I like the concept, but in practice, it just feels at odds with what Zelda is about. Zelda puzzles can be hard enough without the added pressure of impending doom if you don't hurry up and solve it. It's just too stressful. I can't say I love the game, but it has my upmost respect.

@Daniel36 hopefully you mean in the way of gameplay cuz as much as I loved both BOTW and TOTK, the art direction they chose makes me nauseous.. by far the ugliest looking Zelda games

@-wc-
I never played Link's awakening , is the original better or the remake?

Speaking of obscure Majora’s Mask advertising, does anyone remember the non-dramatic one where a family is at a breakfast table, and the dad’s reading the newspaper with “MOON NEARS EARTH” as the headline, and the mom tells her son “Don’t you have a game to play?” and then it cuts to the son playing the game in his room? I swear I remember this commercial vividly, but I can’t find it anywhere. Maybe it was for a local game store.

@Lizuka wwfzelda.com damn. I guess that was in the US only, I don't think we got that in the UK

@Lady_Galadhiel I know this question isn't for me, but I'm gonna answer anyways, lol.

The remake is better. Obviously, you have the visual upgrades, but a common complaint with the original is that the Game Boy had no shoulder buttons or X and Y buttons, which means you can only have 2 items equipped at a time. That includes your sword and shield. So unlike most other Zelda games where you could still have at least one (if not three) items equipped in addition to always having your sword and shield, here you'll be swapping between them constantly. Even upgrades like the pegasus boots have to be swapped in and out to use them. Whereas, in the remake, you can have your sword, shield, and pegasus boots mapped to a button at all times with two extra item slots to spare. This makes menu navigation much less frequent and tedious.

The remake is also the first and only 2D Zelda with a seamless overworld. You aren't greeted with loading times every 20 feet as the camera slowly pans over to unload the section of the map you were just in and load in the new one. This was never a huge problem in past 2D Zelda games, but now that it's gone, I don't ever wanna go back. Link can also face 8 different directions instead of 4, which makes it much easier to hit enemies with your sword.

Oh--and I almost forgot, but if you don't have the item equipped that allows you to pick up heavy objects such as rocks, each time you touch one (regardless of whether you're trying to pick it up) you're given a slow text box telling you it's too heavy to move. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Very glad they got rid of that in the remake, although there are still text boxes every time you pick up this item that boosts either your defense or attack power for a few seconds. It would basically be like if Mario games paused every time you grabbed a star so it can tell you what invinibility means. Kinda annoying, but at least the text moves faster in the remake than the original.

Those are the only substantial changes I can think of. Otherwise, the game is a 1:1 remake of the original, which means there's still a lot of archaic design elements that haven't been updated or improved. Specifically, dungeon puzzles can be quite cryptic at times, and traversing the world map can honestly be quite a pain. You'll find yourself wandering into a lot of dead ends because you don't have the right item, even though you've already been to that same area before by means of a different route. So you realize you should've taken the long way around to get to the same destination. The overworld--and the dungeons--can feel like a maze at times, which is no less grating in the HD version.

So yeah, the HD version is objectively better thanks to the handful of quality-of-life improvements, but the gameplay is exactly the same, for better or worse. The game is very beloved by many, and while I can appreciate the remake for what it is, there's no denying that at its core, this is still a 1993 Game Boy game that was made with that console's limitations in mind. Even little stuff like one of the bosses being named "Evil Eagle" just shows how little the localization team cared back then. You might come away from the remake thinking, "I expected more for a 60-dollar Switch game." And I think that would be completely valid.

@Lady_Galadhiel (continued...)

To sum it all up, if you had the choice to play either game for free, there's no reason not to just play the remaster, as it's a better experience. But considering the game is $60, and you can play the original for free if you already have an NSO account, I wouldn't say it's essential.

Edit: Something I forgot to mention--The only new content to be found in the remake is the little dungeon editor mode, but it's very insubstantial and not as cool as it sounds. You're just combining different rooms from other dungeons together like a jigsaw puzzle; you don't actually get to change the layout of the rooms themselves, just rearranging what's already there. It's pretty pointless, tbh.

Anyways, hope that helps!

@WolfyTn Nah, more in the vain of Twilight Princess graphically, just a massive graphical upscale. Doesn't even have to be open world, just a big graphical overhaul.

@Lady_Galadhiel

I've been playing og links awakening since i was a child and it has such a big place in my heart that i probably dont have objectivity.

i'll say this: sometimes the simplistic graphics of an older game can leave so much to the imagination, that you "build up" the world in your mind. something like reading a good book, if that makes sense. i definitely, absolutely feel this way about gameboy links awakening.

on the other hand, something about the style and presentation of the remake forces your mind to perceive it as a tiny, dinky little adventure that could fit in a shoebox. this was in my opinion an intentional choice, with the tilt-shift perspective and twee character designs and animations.

it is what it is, but i am very attached to the world as my child mind imagined it, and i think that if you play the remake first , you might be robbing yourself of some of that magic. 👍

you can always play the remake later, as the goddess intended. 🙂✌️

either way, its a great, sort of slightly bite sized form of pure zelda that has no damn fat on it, completely exactly what you want if you are a fan of 2d zelda at all. i love it to pieces 🥰

@Not_Soos idk what the nintendo cultists are doing but it seems to be working better than anything theyve tried sacrificing down at sega

@Snatcher

id say, and maybe obviously, only YOU know if there is value there for you based on what you get.

however, ill say that the family pass opportunity just kind of landed in my lap, and for 20 dollars a year that i already dont miss, im pretty happy to be "engaged" with the slow trickle of new games, and whatever else as it happens, and also to have what is honestly a small library of in some cases my favorite games of all time right there easily accessible, especially for when one comes up in conversation for example. or like when fzero 99 came out, i played a few laps of OG just to get a feel for the differences again.

anyway, thats my 2 cents. ✌️

@-wc- @Snatcher

My solve for this was just getting used to pressing down ZR (on the Pro controller) and using the face buttons as C buttons. It's second nature to me now, because I've played Ocarina and Majora a lot on NSO, beating them several times. Using the stick for inputs that are supposed to be button presses is just always going to feel weird. (I did the same ZR solve with Banjo. In that game, controlling the camera with the stick seems like it should work, and it kinda does, but those were really button presses back in the day and it shows.)

@Lady_Galadhiel

As someone who played the remake first and is now playing the original, I'd say: play both.

The remake has more quality of life, as @Not_Soos already mentioned. The original game was built around the Game Boy's lack of buttons, so you're constantly going into the Start screen and assigning items to A and B. It's kind of annoying. And you're also getting constant text boxes every time you so much as glance at a boulder that you can't move yet, which is incredibly aggravating. It wouldn't be so bad if you could just close the text boxes immediately, but you can't. (At least, not in the DX version, which is the one I'm playing on NSO and, admittedly, is not technically the real OG.)

On other hand, the original has its own vibe. It's not replaceable. The remake doesn't look "better," it looks completely different. It's very pretty, mind you. But the art style and material work, in the remake, makes everything look like an actual plastic toy set that you can reach in and touch. Which is neat. But it's also a different vibe from the original, which you just interpret as pixel art abstraction. It sends your mind into a completely different place. I'm not talking about nostalgia or anything like that. It's just a fundamentally different experience.

Another benefit of the original: the game and level design makes more sense, because you're experiencing the actual audiovisual context that the game was built around. So the reason certain rooms are built the way they are is just more immediately and intuitively understandable.

So, yeah, play both.

Best Zelda game ever… along Ocarina of Time and Links Awakening.

Cut the open world crap and go back to these style of Zelda games!

@Beaucine

😳 is this a standard default feature!? I had no idea!

THANK YOU! youve possibly changed my whole deal with the 64 games on NSO 🙂👍

@-wc-

Yep! For most of the N64 NSO games, if you hold down ZR, the face buttons temporarily map 1-to-1 with the C buttons. Of course, you have to let go of ZR to press A or B, but I'm pretty quick at that now. Ocarina of Time was unplayable for me using the right stick as C buttons, frankly. Using items wasn't feeling right.

@-wc- The service seems like it’s actually worth the price compared to when it came out, which was honestly my only reason for not owning it at the time.

@Not_Soos Yeah it’s just I’m not sure if I would play many of the games on there, I don’t even use the snes or nes games too much lol. But I think it’s worth it for paper Mario though.

@Daniel36 personally I played ocorina and majoras mask on the n64 on old school TVs and the 3Ds remakes are complete upgrade.

@-wc-
Much appreciate your reply!
As someone who has never played the game, the first time I looked at the remake 2D version, my mind and thoughts were exactly as you described, I perceive it as a tiny, dinky, even cute little adventure. For me personaly, Zelda games shouldn't look ''cute''.
My very first Zelda game was A Link to the Past, so am all for pixel graphics.
I decied I will try the original first.

@Not_Soos
Thanks for the detailed reply! I agree that the quality of life improvements you mentioned from the remake do make it sound more enjoyable to play but I think I will try the original first and if it gets too frustrating I might give the remake a try. Mind you on some local game stores you can find some older Switch games at a discounted price which might be the case with this game.

@Beaucine
I will do exactly that, trying the original first and the remake after.
Will see how it goes, I am intrigued about them as they both seem to be very good.