Top 25 on N64: #1

Hi there! Welcome to a bonus VIDEO GAME POST, sponsored by taco salad. Today I break down, in detail, my favorite N64 game! You know all of the other stuff, so let's not mess around here!

This is the one time I wish this site was one of those terrible ones that made you go to the next page for every selection. It would make this more suspenseful. Since I can't and don't want to do that, though, I decided to give the top game its own post! So let me try to concisely (ha!) tell you about my favorite N64 game:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The story is tremendous, let's get that out of the way. It's basically two games in one if you think about it: the child Link story and the adult Link story. Is it weird that you have to save the same world twice? Maybe, but the fact that you need to travel back and forth through time to do it makes that a moo point (like a cow's opinion).

The graphics, especially for the time, are amazing. So much detail in all of those wonderful landscapes. I could fill a whole page with them. (There I go again, saying I could ramble while continuing to do it anyway.) They do get a little wonky at times, but the positives FAR outweigh the negatives here. They may be outdated now, but they still hold up for me. I didn't think a game from 1998 could still be so...immersive graphically, but dammit it is and I love that about it.

The gameplay, still, is great, It's challenging enough to keep diehards interested, yet easy enough for casual players to pick it up quickly. And the story, again, is good enough to hook everybody. Also: A lot of people dump on the N64 controller, but I love that this game made full use of it. Every button serves a purpose throughout the game. (One of them has a better use with Gameshark, but still.) Not many games do that on this system, or even today. Yet Ocarina of Time did it almost perfectly. So great!

You'd think I would have told you my favorite part of this game by now, but like most of the universe I saved the best for last: the music! Friends, I don't think I can describe in any number of words how much I love the soundtrack to this game. Every location has a different tune (or would it be score? I don't know), and they all fit so perfectly. I said up there how the graphics, surprisingly to some, make this game so immersive. Well the music does that tenfold for me. I could (and do) listen to this OST weekly, if not more often. And I wish I could have the Gerudo Valley theme on autoplay for this post. That's how stupendous a job Koji Kondo did. If this didn't win an award, I demand a recount! (I won't actually do that autoplay thing, don't you worry.)

Although it didn't factor into my decision, this game was voted the best of the year by some fancy group, which I think gives credence to this long-winded love fest of mine. This game is the one on which I base all Zelda titles. Stubborn, and a bit unfair? Sure, but it's a good way to hammer home why this game is number one. And, as a final aside, every New Year's Eve (no I don't have a reason for the date) I complete Ganon's Castle. It's probably my favorite section of the game and, like the rest of it, never gets boring.

So as often as I boot up No Mercy, which is very often, this takes the cake. Every aspect of it is incredible. The first game I bought when I [finally] got my 3DS on Black Friday was the remake of this and I pretty much couldn't put it down until I was done. It was tremendous and if I could put the Master Sword back in the pedestal, I would do the exact same thing again. No foolin'! HYATT!

And that's all she I wrote, friends! I'm sad that's it's over, but this was so much fun. I am very glad I could a) finally finish this project, and b) share it with you!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and let me know if you think I missed any great games!

Until whatever comes next, have fun! Crap open a cold one!