Editorials
An Adventure Throughout Time : 20 Years of ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the greatest videos of all time. Whereas past entries in the series were top-down or side-scrolling adventures, Ocarina of Time turned the Zelda world 3D. For many of us gamers now in our 20s and 30s, Ocarina of Time was the first adventure we ever embarked on in video gaming.
Who could forget that great feeling of completing the first dungeon in the Kokiri Forest and entering the Hyrule Field; you follow a narrow path and all of a sudden your eyes take in this massive land. From there, the world opened up, leading the player to extraordinary places.
Ocarina of Time is one of the most influential video games in all of gaming history. Just like the hero of the story, we will be doing a little time traveling ourselves today; returning to the magic and wonder that is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, we will embark on a journey of celebration for a 20-year classic.
You play as Link, a young boy called to adventure by the great Deku Tree. The former learns that a terrifying evil threatens the world and that he must travel to the kingdom of Hyrule and help Princess Zelda. From there Link takes off for a journey full of danger and thrills.
One of Ocarina of Time’s most exceptional qualities is the 3D world; whereas Zelda was already a fantasy adventure driven game, these graphics brought a whole new feeling of immersion for players. As you run about the small Kokiri Forest, it’s a joy to do simple things like jumping from ledges, climbing up ladders, or running. Having the 3D space to partake in such a fantasy-oriented world at this time in gaming was breathtaking. It was a much more profound sense of participating in an adventure; through these movements, and choice of where you wanted to go, Ocarina of Time is a predecessor for larger sandbox games.
Like all Zelda games, Ocarina of Time comes with an enchanting score; whether it exudes a sense of serenity or tension, the music’s composition is captivating across its spectrum. This use of music is another element that feeds into the adventure as the player moves about Hyrule.
Upon leaving his village and entering the Hyrule Field, the land laid before Link is expansive and majestic. This field acts as the game’s world hub, allowing the player to go to different areas throughout the journey. As the game progresses, traveling becomes an essential element in Ocarina of Time. Later on, you receive a horse (Epona, who has become a staple across Zelda titles), adding an extra sense of excitement to the traveling.
The story is quite general; boy gets a call to adventure, the boy must go out and fight evil and save the land and princess. However, Ocarina of Time is unique with its use of time travel; at the halfway point of the game, you discover that you will need to travel through time to beat the game’s main antagonist Ganondorf. Upon going to the future, not only do we get to play as an adult Link, but we also see how Hyrule has changed. What was once full of life and color becomes desolate and defeated. It’s a nice switch up to the Zelda style players have experienced in the past, adding more emotion and depth to the world.
In his journey to fight evil, Ocarina of Time has Link venturing into numerous dungeons. The use of dungeons has become a significant element in Zelda titles (influencing countless other video games). Of the nine dungeons, each one provides a brand of uniqueness, weaving in fascinating gameplay mechanics and puzzle intricacy.
Take the Forest Temple for example; as you enter there’s this haunting chill lingering in the air. The rooms provide a sense of unease, with one corridor twisting itself as Link travels down it. This one example is a superb visual trick the Forest Temple uses on the player, establishing a creepy appeal. Even its final boss, Phantom Ganon, is an incredible reflection of the atmosphere. You fight him in a small room with numerous copies of the same painting on the walls. Phantom Ganon makes his way to attack you through the paintings; it’s up to you to move fast enough and find out which one he will appear from. Even more interesting, however, at one point he begins to mess with the player; you’ll see him start to make his way to you through one painting, but then he turns around, appearing out of another.
Intricate details like this find themselves throughout the dungeons of Ocarina of Time. From the anxiety of puzzles found in the Water Temple to the horror elements of the Shadow Temple, Ocarina of Time presents players with a plethora of challenges and environments to progress through.
Besides the fantastic level design, another amazing quality of Ocarina of Time is how one feels during this adventure. While previous Zelda games put you in the role of a hero/adventurer, there is a much higher sense of putting yourself into this story. Link is a largely silent protagonist; save for some small grunts and shouts at times, he doesn’t say anything (not even through text). With this in mind, this makes him a “blank avatar;” while you may control him, his lack of voice (and even personality), allows the player to put themselves within his shoes. Through this, there’s an incredible feeling that it’s you riding your horse across the land, that it’s you fighting all these monsters and saving the day.
You’re also given a cool range of equipment to help you fight and solve puzzles. The hook shot, another staple in the Zelda series that allows you to climb places, has become a significant tool copied throughout gaming. Then there’s your Hyrule shield and that of the Master Sword; for those of us who grew up playing this game, there are few words that can describe the awe and excitement of first pulling the sword out of the stone.
For a story with such a simple premise, the game delivers upon perfect pacing. There is always something pushing you towards your next big step, with room in-between to explore. Every monumental moment of Ocarina of Time shines as well; while it’s a game with some particular high points (e.g. getting the Master Sword and fighting Ganondorf), Ocarina of Time keeps the player in awe. Whether it’s the massive scale of a dungeon, the grotesque look of a monster (the ReDeads and the horrifying Deadhand come to mind), or the adrenaline that pumps during a big boss fight, from beginning to end is pure joy in Ocarina of Time.
As someone who grew up with video games, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time holds a very special place in my heart. Video games are a huge reason I love to write and a big component for why I fell in love with stories. Ocarina of Time was my first real experience being blown away by video games and what they could accomplish. I remember being young and taking turns with my brother while playing; our mom would sit in and watch as we traveled Hyrule together. To this day, playing as Link and thinking about the different dungeons, is all still fresh in my mind. And this intimate feeling of mine is also shared with millions of others who have been touched by this game all around the world.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time forever changed video games. Hundreds of games owe their design in thanks to Ocarina of Time, for it was one of the first titles ever to establish such a grandiose feeling of adventure. Even considering all the massive gaming experiences we have today, Ocarina of Time competes with them; maybe not in graphical power, perhaps not in the realm of realistic gaming mechanics, but in the emotional sense of empowerment a truly masterful video game can imbue players with.
For 20 years The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been in the heart of many gamers; its story and achievements make it a classic that will stand throughout time. For some gamers it is their first significant gaming experience; for others, like myself, it stands as an emotional experience. But for all of us who played it, I think what makes this game special, is how it made us all feel like a hero.
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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