The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Master Quest (Bonus Disc Edition) (Nintendo GameCube, 2003)

When this game originally released in 1998, I like many, considered it to be the best game of all time. Not having played "The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess" yet, I am still inclined to think this. Sometime ago, I disposed of my Nintendo 64, along with all my games. This was a huge mistake. To my relief, Nintendo decided to re-release this game for the Nintendo Gamecube. The game itself is actually two games in one. You can chose to play the original version, or you can chose to play the ultra-hard Master quest version. The storyline is still the same, but the dungeons have been what I call "ultra-upgraded." This version is freakishly hard, plan and simple. It took me three months to beat it!
Playing the Gamecube version of this game has both advantages and disadvantages. This game features slightly improved graphics over the original 64 version. However, they are still dated by today’s standards. The controller takes some getting used to as well.
Some minor things have been changed, even in the original version. For example, the song to the Fire Temple was completely re-done, along the Korki Forest song. The large blocks in the dungeons also bear a new symbol, as opposed to the original “moon” symbol. The mirror shield design has also been changed. The "Relinqum of Sprit" song was also slightly deeper in the original 64 version.
Overall, I would say that this is an awesome rebirth of a true classic and is well worth the price. Any hardcore Zelda fan like I am should give the Master Quest Version of this game a go. It will keep you guessing for months!

Thanks to a large deal of generosity, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest was handed out as a preorder bonus disc for those who purchased Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Master Quest is much like a remake of Ocarina, but many of the dungeons have been altered and the difficulty has been increased somewhat, hence the name Master Quest. Despite each level being redone, several of them are still similar to their original version. While it isn't massively different from the original, it's still pretty good for preorder bonus.

Battles remain the same as they were in the original. Link's fairy companion Navi can assist him by allowing him to lock-on to enemies and even occasionally reveal their weakness. Link naturally has a large variety of sword techniques such as swinging his sword from a variety of different angles, jabbing, and charging to release a powerful spinning attack. To defend himself he has a shield and evasive abilities such as the roll, sidestep, and backflip. As with other Zelda games, he has a variety of tools which can be used in battle as well. Battles are fought in real-time and are often quite exciting especially in Master Quest as Link is often outnumbered. Bosses remain the same as in the original, each with their own weakness he must discover.

Despite the increase in difficulty, Master Quest isn't nearly as difficult as its name suggests. While it is true that it is more difficult, the original wasn't very challenging to begin with. Aside from the much harder first level, there is only a mild increase in battle and puzzle difficulty. Bosses remain the same as they were before and even seem rather easy after completing some of the harder levels.

Ocarina certainly wasn't designed for the Gamecube controller and it shows. The C-stick makes it very difficult to reliably play songs and use the tools Link has equipped. There are other buttons the player can push to easily use tools equipped C-left and right, but the Z-button is very small and can make it difficult to use the C-down tool. Aside from that problem, Master Quest plays much like the original. The camera has problems at times which can throw off Link's movement, especially jumps, but otherwise the interface is well done. The localization is also very well done, but neither of these can fully make up for the poor controller port resulting in an only slightly above average interaction score.

Master Quest is very similar to Ocarina of Time. The only differences are found within the dungeons which often retain a similar layout and feature only a few new enemies. Despite some interesting new twists such as the disturbing amount of cows inside Jabu-Jabu, Master Quest is rather unoriginal as a whole.

Master Quest's plot also remains the same. While the plot isn't bad for an action RPG, it can't compete very well with the stories of most of the other RPGs that came out at the same time and measures up even less by today's standards. Most of the game involves simply collecting special items and completing dungeons with small pieces of plot here and there. It should come as no surprise that the story is below average overall.

Master Quest takes about the same amount of time to complete as Ocarina of Time did. It takes only about 30 hours to collect all of the heart pieces and complete all of the sidequests, but probably takes only about ten hours if the player rushes through the dungeons and avoids excess questing.

world best game review of year

one of the awesome game of the year fun to play if your inrested in this game i got say well u just can't get enough of this & take my word for it this game is awesome to play if your gamer & u don't what to play this is it i recommend on this game it so worth playing 10 out 10 perfect
plus beleave gamers i got the worlds greatest to the worst & take from me i just love even the world dumdest game could be awesome on my book to graphic well don't see the problem with but all i can is a job well done sound hmmmm i hear just it perfecly the music i think i love videogame music i just can't get enough of it & the gameplay well as u see its like i all ready knew how to play when i got it at the store ready if u don't beleave what i say then take look at the game 4 yourself if u don't like it then don't play it

Graphic 10/10
Gameplay 10/10
Sound 10/10
Music 10/10

In other just an awesome game of the year

If you loved the Nintendo 64 version of this game, then you've got to buy this one. This faithful port of Ocarina of Time also includes the never before released Master Quest version, featuring remixed dungeons and tougher challenges.

The visuals are upgraded to run in 640x480 resolution on the original Ocarina of Time, and 480p (progressive scan) support on the Master Quest version. The sound is upgraded to Dolby Pro-Logic. Minimal load times before initial start-up and when accessing the menus

Both versions of the N64 classic are included on one disk. Disk includes demo movies of Nintendo titles like F-Zero, 1080, and Wario World.

the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest is a re-release of both versions of the game, the original Nintendo 64 version, and the cancelled Ura Zelda version for the N64DD add-on. Both games are included on this pre-order bonus set, and it is indeed worth checking out.
The Master Quest itself is mostly the same as the original game; as far as I know only the dungeons were altered. The dungeons' room layout is basically the same, but each room holds new puzzles and fiendishly-placed extra enemies that make things a lot more difficult in some areas. Overall it was nice to play these remixed dungeons, but I wish they had made some more changes for this release, it's different enough to be fresh and fun if you haven'tplayed the original OoT in couple years, but the games are too similar to warrant playing both versions back-to-back.
Being a Gamecube release, Nintendo wisely decided to put the games into high-resolution, making the graphics quite a bit crisper than the originals. Too bad the framerate hasn't improved, it runs at probably 20-30 FPS, which is pretty strange considering the Gamecube is probably 10x more powerful than the N64. Still, OoT is plenty playable, the framerate is only an occasional nuisance. There a a couple minor sound issues as well, and the save system seems tedious with the addition of the memory card (much like the FF anthologies on PSX). But hey, still no load times, God bless cartridge games for that.
The control is nice, adapting to the GC controller really only takes a few minutes to master.
Overall I'd recommend checking out the Master Quest if you're a big Zelda fan and you like OoT as much as I do. The upcoming 3DS release is said to include both versions of the game, so it's up to you whether you'll want o to play it on the big or little screen.