Despite a brave attempt at wrestling Epona from the masked figure's grasp Link eventually loses him and it's then that you take over. Then before you can say "Oy that's my horse and Ocarina you git!" a masked figure pinches his Ocarina and jumps onto Epona. The story begins with our hero Link, once again back to being a little boy following his generation-spanning adventures in The Ocarina Of Time, wandering through a misty forest on the back of young Epona (his horse).Īn instant later Epona is startled by two fairies and Link tumbles to the ground, knocking himself unconscious. However, since the first Zelda game was none too shabby in the visual and audio departments, this one is looking pretty darn groovy. The first thing that you notice about Zelda: Majora's Mask is that it looks very similar to the original title (well okay, the first thing you notice is that it's in Japanese - but the similarity thing is definitely next on the list!) This means that if you're expecting some fantastically improved graphics and sound then you're going to be in for a bit of a disappointment. So what we thought we'd do instead would be to bring you a massive feature on the game including our impressions, some of the secrets and our hopes for the UK version. We did toy with the idea of getting someone who could read Japanese to review it but since (as far as we're aware) the majority of you lot aren't fluent in the language it seemed a little pointless. If you're playing the game in a language you don't understand, then you lose all this. While the graphics are not going to change and the gameplay will remain pretty much the same for the UK translation, the elements that made the first Zelda game such a joy were the storyline, the minigames and the interaction with the myriad of characters. However, upon playing the game we soon realised that there was no way we could fairly rate this title in its current form.
We could in theory have reviewed the game from this version, thereby being the first magazine in the UK with a review and thus guaranteeing huge sales and lots of smiling shopkeepers. Having gained possession of an import copy of the Japanese version of the hotly anticipated sequel to Legend Of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time - namely Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask - we had a serious decision to make.
While the graphics are not going to change and ourselves with something of a dilemma.
It's fair to say that we found ourselves with something of a dilemma.