The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

1001 Video Games

The N64 version of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

As with Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask was meant to be released for the 64DD add-on, but eventually got crammed into cartridge format. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto originally wanted to re-purpose Ocarina of Time's dungeons into a new game and only gave director Eiji Aonuma a year to create the game. When Aonuma requested that he create a brand new game in the series instead, Miyamoto agreed, so long as the one year deadline remained, creating a rushed development cycle.

Ganondorf

Both this game and The Minish Cap are the only Zelda games in which Ganon/Ganondorf doesn't appear, not counting Link's Awakening in which the shape-shifting final boss assumes his form briefly.

Music

The song Ballad of the Wind Fish previously appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

References

Several persons, items and music from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time return in this game, in either the same or a different role.

References to the game

In the MTV animated series Undergrads, the game's black countdown screen (which greets you at the beginning of each dawn, provided you're not in a dungeon) was parodied with the words "72 HOURS UNTIL THE END OF FRESHMEN YEAR" in the season finale.

Tingle

This game marks the first appearance of Tingle, the strange man who thinks he is a fairy.

Awards

• Electronic Gaming Monthly
  • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #155 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time"
• Game Informer
  • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #68 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll

Information also contributed by Big John WV, gamewarrior, Mark Ennis, Tiago Jacques and Zovni