Game Informer Readers Label Ocarina Of Time "The Greatest Game Of All Time"

It still is and always should be.

It set the design template for every 3D game that followed which is basically all of them. It’s not just the entire mechanics but the little things: Kratos carries his weapon on his back because Link did.

But unlike a lot of other highly influential games from the past Ocarina is also still very playable in the modern era as well. It has aged remarkably.

Yes there are lots of other really, really good games over the years but none of them have been as influential.

The only other game I would say is possibly close is Space Invaders. Take your favourite modern shooter and boil the mechanics down and what do you have? Moving from side to side, hiding behind destructible cover and fighting off waves of unrelenting enemies. Halo was just Space Invaders with an extra axis to worry about.

For everything it did just utterly stunningly well at the time it released, and always keeping in mind I'm thinking of it relative to its time, I'm not going to argue with them.

It's a fair choice.

It's easy to forget the impact N64 games made when you first played them. You had to be there - and I don't mean to offend those that were not there, but it really is true.

That sense of wonder and discovery is genuinely unrivaled. The closest I've ever come to it is with the freedom of exploration in BotW - but ultimately the gameplay still fell into charted seas, so to speak.

OOT was all new. The possibilities were limitless. (Of course in reality, and we soon learned, they were not limitless at all. But this is my point. Ocarina of Time is the only game I have ever played where I had that feeling).

The remake of OOT that's coming will be great, but again it still won't beat that first time.

Well it is the greatest game of all time, so I agree.

It's certainly one of the most important games of all time, and it remains immensely enjoyable today.

But I think efforts to declare the "best game" of all time are silly. There's far too much variety in gaming (or any form of media, really) to funnel it all down like this. How do you even compare a game like OoT to something like Tetris? Or Pac-Man? Or Disco Elysium? Games can be great in such starkly different ways.

It's not just apples and oranges. It's apples, oranges, dragonflies, clarinets, and motorcycles.

It's an obvious choice, but the correct answer is Shenmue.

Also have to say I miss the old Game Informer, before Gamestop gutted their staff. Spent a lot of time watching their YouTube content. Still go back and watch it sometimes, especially their Super Replays of "bad games," like Overblood and Blue Stinger. Had a subscription for a while, but since their magazine focuses on modern games unlike their YouTube content, I really didn't find it interesting.

OoT is a very valid and acceptable choice. I would also have accepted Tetris, Pac-Man, Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Final Fantasy VII (not a typo), Metal Gear Solid and Shadow of the Colossus (for the sheer artistry). No game made since 2005 has mattered at all. 😜

I’d have accepted Galaga but I agree with OOT as the top of the heap

I certainly wouldn’t argue with OoT getting the top spot, it’s still an amazing game to play even today (it’s my joint favourite Zelda alongside ALttP and ALBW).

I have noticed (and I’m not criticising) that RPGs tend to be over represented in topping most online games polls. I’m not sure why, maybe RPG players surf the web more than most gamers? Whatever it is, you can usually expect to see an RPG win even if it actually sold less than other games in the poll.

@BulkSlash Because players invest part of their own identities into stories and characters, and that's where RPGs live and breathe.

I always find these lists a bit odd to be honest. I'm happy with the games I'd consider to be my favouites of all time and their validation in a collective list, or not, doesn't trouble me much.

@RadioHedgeFund

I'm not disagreeing with your whole comment (which i enjoyed btw!) but:

"Kratos carries his weapon on his back because Link did."

I must point out that they both carry their weapons on their backs because people IRL have been doing this for time immemorial. Link mightve been the first (I'm not quite convinced) but it's hard to give a game credit as innovator when the designers were simply modelling what already existed in the world.

Your comment got me thinking, and it's just my opinion of course! ✌️

@-wc- It’s entirely realistic yet to my knowledge 3rd person games with swords had the character always carrying it at the time, eg Tenchu: Stealth Assassins or Excalibur 2555.

I think Ocarina was the first game where the protagonist sheaths their weapon to then interact with the world. Lara Croft may have got there first but she used firearms

@RadioHedgeFund

"I think Ocarina was the first game where the protagonist sheaths their weapon to then interact with the world"

interesting! come to think of it, I noticed the distinction too, when I first played TOoT. especially the "put away" command. you're right, that really seemed new at the time. 😊👍

EDIT - metal gear solid definitely had holstering/readying of weapons, just months before Ocarina IIRC, but it's not third person or a sword, as you mentioned. I like this topic!

EDIT 2 - many games I can think of either had the character running around with sword in hand, as you pointed out, or carrying nothing, and the sword/weapon magically appearing during the attack animation, only to disappear again! i dont know which is stranger haha.

i feel as though resident evil had weapon ready/ unarmed states, but that's guns again. I'm determined to come up with an exception but so far i can't! 😊👍

ocarina is a simple game.
It has some cool moments, but it's mostly boring and empty.
I also hate Majora's mask.
Skyward sword sucks
Twilight Princess is the best 3D Zelda game.
WiiU never got it's own Zelda game outside of the NintendoLand mini-game.
Zelda 2 and A Link to the Past are the best 2D Zelda games!

Breath was bad
Tears was worse!

Tri Force Heroes was unplayable/unenjoyable singly!
Four Swords (all versions) is unplayable singly!
Zelda 1 is good

A Link between Worlds was okay, but the world was shrunk down a few squares each screen/segment. Not sure why.

Minish cap was fun

Spirit Tracks was bad! No real exploration.
Phantom Hourglass was fun

Wind waker was fun but both needlessly long and too short!

Forgot:
Oracle of X/X
Great games!

Link's awakening:
Mostly okay. I still hate that damn owl!

CD-i
All underrated!

@NinChocolate My 5 year old gets to have Xbox time some nights, and the amount of times he chooses to play Galaga over the plethora of more modern games I have on there really says something about how much of a timeless classic Galaga really is.

Finally the TotK divorce begins. Can’t wait for it to be kicked out of the Top 5 so we can start having real Zeldas back again.

OoT, MM and WW will always be top notch 3D Zeldas.

@no_donatello Shenmue is easily one of the most overrated games ever made, and I curse it every day for making QTEs a thing that exists.

It's hard to pick a definitive best game of all time. There are so many elements that go into it. Game mechanics have built upon the likes of Ocarina, but many of those newer games are less important. With that said, Ocarina has always been highly regarded, and made a huge impact when it came out, so I can't take issue with it topping the list.

I've thought about this before. Again, there's no way to pick a true definitive best game. I tend to favor Super Mario Bros. 3 as a good pick for greatest game. It was a huge leap forward in game design at the time and set a new standard going forward. It was a very important game and was an amazing experience when it was new and current.

@nocdaes Where did you hear about a remake?

@Arcata sorry I realise now my comment is misleading! I mean what I said in terms of an OOT Remake being an inevitability. It's not confirmed at all. Not yet...!

@Gitface that’s awesome

@-wc-
Carrying a weapon on your back is not great if you need to access it quickly. Same with how link carries his arrows in botw / totk.

Ocarina of Time isn’t even the best Zelda game.
if l was to pick the best zelda game it would be Wind Waker, especially the HD version which cleans up the triforce search. But plenty of the games beat Ocarina now both 3D and 2D. I also really love Minish Cap for example. People do the same with Mario 64.

@Rambler

that's... probably true! 👍

@superdad64

hard disagree, I've been trying to get into Wind Waker for years and I just don't like it 😐

(POV - Zelda is my favorite game series of all time. ✌️)

@sdelfin

I played Mario 3 the other day and it's still a remarkable, fun game. Great graphics and sound, too! Just about perfect ❤️

@-wc-
The person who told me this (who was obviously dressed as a medieval archer whilst standing in a castle) as mentioned middle-ages biological warfare, where the archers stood their arrows in cowshit in preparation for firing. Euch..!

(There's also the siege technique of using a trebuchet to launch the bodies of the dead over the walls of the besieged town - horrifying and also full of disease...)

As with any art form, it's all subjective. It's definitely one of my favourite games personally. I played it when it was still new and it absolutely blew my mind, so there's for sure some nostalgia involved. I'm curious what the young gamers of today would think it, going in completely blind.

Ocarina of Time: it's controls are just clunky the puzzles are brain-dead navi is just the worst and this is still people's favorite game lm not saying this is bad there is lot of good thing in the games but it have its flaws and most people only used nostalgia just to overshadowed people opinion and make it one of the best games

@-wc- SMB3 was just an amazing achievement in game design for its time. There's magic in that game. It's amazing how many ideas and details are in it. I remember back in the day accidentally triggering the white mushroom houses or the coin air ships. Mind blowing.

Zelda is one of those series where I think there's more disagreement among players over which games are best, especially 3D. For example, you didn't get on well with Wind Waker, but the other commenter and I did. Someone above picked Twilight Princess as the best 3D one, and I hate that game. Even Skyward Sword has a fan or two(couldn't resist that one).

@nocdaes Oh ok xD