While time is Majora's Mask most interesting asset, having a limited amount of time is also source of some of its frustrations. These events not only give this relatively small world a real purpose and place, but there's a great sense of discovery, and then satisfaction, in coming across and solving each individual problem. All sorts of things are happening at specific times across the three-day schedule - whether it's a mugging that takes place in the outskirts of the game's hub of commerce Clock Town, to alien abductions of livestock out at a farm in the middle of the night. Of course, rewinding back to the start will reset this progress, meaning you only have a set amount of time with your world-changing actions.īut it's the side-quests that really make the most out of this three-day format. While the game doesn't do anything particularly complicated with time travel - you won't see two Links at one time or anything like that - it uses it as a means of adding a sense of pressure.įor example, the first area's poisonous swamp will become unpolluted once you've slain its dungeon's boss, allowing you to access new areas.
The loop of discovering side-quests, working out their solutions, collecting their rewards and making use of their bizarre powers elsewhere - that's the game's most compulsive and alluring aspect. Thankfully, Link's trusty ocarina can rewind time, allowing him to replay each of the three days to tick the dungeons off the list and save the world. The only way to stop the apocalypse is to seek help from deities locked away in four dungeons, a task impossible to perform in the strict time limit.
Majora's Mask 3D plays out over the course of three days, and every second you spend in the game marches you closer to an apocalypse that sees a falling moon - adorned with a maniacal grin and haunting eyes - draw closer and closer to the earth.
It was a fascinating game 15 years ago, and as Ocarina of Time has become the template for the Nintendo franchise ever since, its 3DS remastering remains just as interesting today. Majora's Mask was the perfect follow-up to seminal N64 adventure Ocarina of Time, breaking away from Zelda's traditional dungeon-to-dungeon and princess rescuing format for a time-travelling, shape-shifting adventure in a bizarre world.