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The Legend of Zelda Turns 25
harrymcc writes "The Legend of Zelda originated 25 years ago today, when Nintendo released the original game for its Famicom console in Japan on February 21st, 1986. Benj Edwards is celebrating with a look at some of the franchise's odder sidelights, from a version broadcast by satellite to the unexpected true story of where the game got its name."
If you're in the mood for more nostalgia, 1Up has a collection of articles delving into the past two and a half decades of Zelda. And since it's cool, here's a link (sorry) to a guy who hacked an oscilloscope to display Gameboy games, using 1993's Link's Awakening as a demonstration.
A friend linked this article to me earlier and I thought it was just the one page...didn't know there were more.
Although sounding a bit pedantic, the game was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986. The cartridge version for the Famicom didn't get released until a few years later, well after the American NES version's 1987 release.
Boy were those bad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-i_games_from_The_Legend_of_Zelda_series
Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.
For what it's worth, that was the only title in the franchise that I ever actually enjoyed. So, maybe you just missed the diamond in the rough. ;)
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Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.
You really should. The first three Zeldas were the only ones I liked. The third is basically a refinement of the first. The second one was a bit of an experiment with the side scrolling, but the physics and play control were great.
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I'd sooner:
(a) Use the Gameboy Player w/ my Gamecube.
(b) Use the o-scope to play old vector games like Asteroids, which really aren't as good on regular displays.
Like his ending: "About Craig - Craig is getting towards the end of a PhD in experimental nanotechnology. Arguably he might be finished by now if it weren't for all the crap described on this blog."
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
Maybe they will do what they did with Mario and release a horrible 25th anniversary edition of Zelda. For those that do not know: for Mario's 25th anniversary, Nintendo release Super Mario All-Stars on disc form for 29.99. Nothing has changed from that version and the version that came out on SNES. It is seriously the same exact game. What makes it even more messed up, is that every single one of those games is available within the Wii Store (sorry, I forgot the proper name of the Wii store) for cheaper than buying the disc. Maybe we will get lucky and for Zelda, they will just take the Zelda: Collector's edition from Gamecube and directly shove it onto a Wii Disc, repackage it, and sell that for an insane amount. For those that do not know, Zelda: collector's edition was on Gamecube (Wii is backwards compatible with the Gamecube) and for free (there were like 3 things you could do to get it for free from nintendo, and they were all very easy things to do) and this disc contained Zelda 1 and 2 for NES and Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for N64. Very awesome disc that you could seriously get for free. Knowing Nintendo, they will release the game saying it is limited, and then slowly push out more units to make money off of something that they put out for free.
Expect a rehash of a game that is already out, very readily available, has no modifications from the original games (no updated graphics or sounds or anything even like TV spots for the game or anything), and it will cost 5 times more than just hitting eBay and getting the original, and Nintendo will use classic Nintendo selling that they have been doing since they released the Wii (probably even sooner) to hype up the game and get way too many people buying 25 copies when the game is not hard to get.
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I remember going to the local toy store to get The Legend of Zelda with the original gold cartridge. It was my second console game after I had played out Super Mario Bros.
When did "Those were the days." become "Damn, I feel old."?
On another note, Hindsight is 20/20, but nostalgia is totally blind.
The original Legend of Zelda was fabulous for it's time. I still enjoy it today, but that is undoubtedly influenced by nostalgia to some degree or another. That said, "A Link to the Past" has always been my favorite. All of the 3D installments feel pretty much the same, even if Wind Waker was fantastic to look at.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Playing The Legend of Zelda sent me down the path to a depraved life of home invasion and malicious destruction of pottery...
The biggest problem with the Zelda series is that it hasn't really advanced, it still uses at its core the same game mechanics and story elements that it did 25 years ago and while that wasn't a problem for say the first 15 years of Zelda (tech improved, 3D, etc. made it still feel fresh enough), the series really shows its age by now, not so much because its bad, but because we have seen the same old stuff for the last two decades. Fighting Ganon again and rescuing Zelda again, just is kind of a snore by now and the Zelda games haven't been all that great when it comes to story telling to begin with (Links Awakening being the exception, loved the ending).
Anyway, I can certainly see why those games have been popular in the good old days, I used to love them myself and Link to the Past is worth a play, but these days I just don't care for the newer ones, to much of the same old stuff and I doubt that a little watercolor effect and being able to swing the sword horizontally in the next one will change that.
It wasn't an official release, but man, it was great fun. I used to play that and Tetris in class all the time...instead of paying attention. Good times.
I'm sure other people feel the same as you, but I have enjoyed them all except the 2nd one (side scrolling). The early games had puzzles but plenty of action as well. I think they have always had a pretty good mix.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
The first LoZ game that I played was Link's Awakening for the Gameboy. That one is amazing, and has a lot of interesting items and even has some platforming elements (it's fun to use the Pegasus boots and the feather to jump across huge gaps, and I think it had side-scrolling elements as well!)
I think playing one that's "good" first really pulls you into the series. Not that the first one isn't "good", but I don't know why'd you ever play it over Link to the Past at all. LttP is easily the best top-down version in the series.
As for the 3D ones, I don't know why people hate Majora's Mask so much. It kept all the things that made Ocarina of Time so great (innovative Z-targeting controls, unique fighting, fun puzzles) and added tons! The 3 forms that you have to use really added tons to the gameplay. It also didn't rely on the "3 initial dungeons, then 8 "real" dungeons, then get the triforce" model. There was a LOT that you did in the non-dungeon areas, tons of side-quests, and playing with all of the masks was way fun! The impending doom of the moon was also pretty crazy, and while sometimes you got screwed, most of the time you had plenty of time to finish what you were doing.
I tried playing Twilight Princess on the Gamecube, and to be honest I had fun, but for some reason stopped playing it about 10% in. Part of that might be that I generally stick to multiplayer games, but there's something that's not quite there in the newer ones. Maybe it's all nostalgia, and I just wouldn't even like OoT if I hadn't played it until now, but I do think that they were pretty innovative and cool at the time, and now they're sticking to the same old formula.
I think they need to try something new now... and I think a large part of that could be some form of multiplayer. The 4 swords adventures was sort of interesting, but it wasn't really anything special. If they could do a full-fledged co-op game in Zelda, or even some sort of combative multiplayer (dare I say deathmatch?) I think that it could be really interesting.
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The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Same here. Only tried the 3D version of Zelda64 though. Too much roaming, not enough action, lack of detail in the graphics, and general 3D unfun compared to the SNES 2D version I find.
Are the other 2D variants (which I haven't tried) not as good ad Zelda 3 on the SNES? Any idea why?
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I first played the game at the age of 11 in early 1989. I'll never forget this game. Mostly, I'll never forget that feeling of being completely absorbed into the game, as if the outside world no longer existed. I remember finishing an extremely long session (maybe 4-5 hours, which is kind of a lot for a kid), and going outside into the warm springtime. I recall thinking..."wow, the outside and fresh air and sunshine still exist. what IS all this?"
Making that experience all the more special is the fact that it doesn't happen to me anymore, and probably never will. Getting old is hell.
Wow...I'm old. And games were MUCH harder back then.
No youtube tips. No cheats.
I remember the Zelda cartridge was one of the first (if not THE first) to have a battery built into it to save your game state (no more stupid passwords!). I checked mine about 5 years ago and it still had juice....I wonder....
now get off my.....meh.
They're one-hit kills with a bow and arrows. Not only that, the arrow pierces through, which allows multiple kills with a single arrow-- no other monster in the game is killed this easily by that weapon. Probably not as bone-headedly easy as yelling into a microphone, but a lot easier than the author lets on.
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The GameBoy ones are very classy, following in the footsteps and formula of A Link to the Past. Zelda 2, which has the distinction of being a sidescroller with a Dragon Warrior-style overworld, is generally considered the dark sheep of the family. The original Zelda 1 would probably feel very archaic to you, given that it's an ancient NES game. But later 2D games, like the Oracle of Seasons/Ages and Link's Awakening are great stuff, and newer DS games borrow even more heavily from A Link to the Past in style, but scaled down to make the adventure more compact—all of the GameBoy and DS games have less roaming than the SNES game.
(P.S. Technically, only the original NES games are numbered; the rest of the continuity is a shitstorm.)
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Are the other 2D variants (which I haven't tried) not as good ad Zelda 3 on the SNES? Any idea why?
As good? No. Zelda 3 is still the best 2D Zelda.
That doesn't mean there are no good ones, though.
Of the 2D Zelda games, the one other that is closest to Zelda 3 is likely:
Minish Cap - Game Boy Advance - The art is nice, the music is a throwback to earlier Zelda games, and it uses abilities to lock off areas of the world map until you have the equipment to deal with it.
The transport bird from Zelda 3 makes a reappearance, although you have to unlock its target locations by finding specific stones on the overworld.
One of the dungeons is actually a throwback to Zelda 1, right up to the music and sound effects in it.
It also uses a number of new items rather than just rehashing the same items from every other Zelda game.
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Other good 2D Zelda games are.
Oracle of Ages - Game Boy Color - Upgraded version of the Link's Awakening DX engine. Graphics are still somewhat more primitive than Zelda 3.
The item trading sequence unlocks the level 2 sword.
Uses the time portal mechanic instead of the Dark World mechanic of Zelda 3, but it works out much the same.
Has a few new items to the series, but most are shared with Oracles of Seasons.
Makes one continuous story with Oracle of Seasons.
--
Oracle of Seasons - Game Boy Color - Same engine as Oracle of Ages, but the game isn't as good. Instead of the previously mentioned time portal mechanic, it instead allows you to change the season for the current area; there are four versions of every outside area.
The two Oracles games form one single storyline with two final bosses after each game's respective boss, but you will only encounter said bosses if you finished one game and used the code it gave you when starting a new game on the other.
--
Link's Awakening (DX) - Game Boy (Color) - DX version is in color. Graphics are somewhat more primitive than Zelda 3.
Uses a lot of the same of the same items as Zelda 3.
Engine features (these are also found in the Oracles games):
Has two item slots instead of one, but the Sword is now an item you have to equip. Shields are no longer automatic.
Rooms do not scroll, each room on a map is exactly one game screen wide and one game screen tall.
Item Trading sequence, which in this game is required in order to locate the last boss in the final dungeon.
Link does not start with the sword. It must be found first.
Some dungeons require keys before you can enter.
If you have a dungeon's compass, the game will play a tone if you enter a room that has a key in it.
Every dungeon has a mini-boss. Beating the mini-boss unlocks a portal to the dungeon entrance.
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The Legend of Zelda - NES - Fairly good, but very unintuitive in places. Badly in need of a remake.
Most items from the NES Zelda went on to appear in the same or upgraded form in Zelda 3. Best example: The Red Candle was upgraded to the Lantern in Zelda 3.
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And the other 2D Zelda games that you may or may not want to avoid:
The Adventure of Link - NES - Exchanges top-down view for side-scrolling view. Black sheep of the family. OK, but doesn't feel like a Zelda game.
Phantom Hourglass - DS - Sorta fun, but the touch-screen controls means you may have a bad case of handinthewayitis. Areas are separated on the world map, and you must navigate by boat, but it doesn't suck like Wind Waker's boat did.
Has one really irritating, timed dungeon that you need to visit repeatedly.
Spirit Tracks - DS - Somewhat fun. Same as previous entry, but without the tedious dungeon, plus your main mode of transportation around the world map has changed from a ship to a... train. Also involves teaming controlling a second character at certain points using the touchscreen.
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The original ZELDA Gold Cart I purchased new when it first came out. And it is still in really good shape!
I think I will setup my NES today and play it again.
( I have already modded the cart to make replacing the batteries easier. It has 2 battery spots now. I can change the battery without loosing my save games)
I remember wanting to rent the game because of the gold colored cartridge. When I finally did rent it damn what a let down. After 5 minutes I got bored and turned it off. Now keep in mind I loved the King's Quest/Space Quest series of games from Sierra but Zelda, wtf?
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Picture and story time kids, a few lines of short words, a medium sized picture and enormous slow loading adds, repeat 13 times to celebrate the birthday of a series of games where the hero visits the houses of oppressed villagers and smashes all their crockery, looting all their gold and potions.
Some images for those who are not interested in the game: http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/hot-chicks-with-zelda-tattoos
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I think playing one that's "good" first really pulls you into the series. Not that the first one isn't "good", but I don't know why'd you ever play it over Link to the Past at all. LttP is easily the best top-down version in the series.
I dunno, I still think it's fun, but certainly I go back to play LttP the most.
As for the 3D ones, I don't know why people hate Majora's Mask so much. It kept all the things that made Ocarina of Time so great (innovative Z-targeting controls, unique fighting, fun puzzles) and added tons!
Because the central mechanic is an interesting experiment but in practice pretty annoying. Okay, time is a real factor, you have a limited time to get things done, and certain events only happen at specific times and places. And yeah, Impending Doom staring down at you from the sky. Neat. But then you realize that, outside of your inventory, things you accomplish will be undone when you go back, so if you have to do a series of things to get access to a dungeon, you're on the clock and can't stop halfway through. It's a real wet blanket thrown over the free-form exploration aspect which is such an integral part of previous Zelda games.
However, everything you said about the good aspects of the game is completely true. The game improves upon OoT in many respects, and has tons of great gameplay content. Which is why on the balance I think it's a highly recommendable game, and highly underrated.
But I also understand why a lot of people don't want to touch it.
Maybe it's all nostalgia, and I just wouldn't even like OoT if I hadn't played it until now, but I do think that they were pretty innovative and cool at the time, and now they're sticking to the same old formula.
This is just me, but I find that while nostalgic feelings will make me pick up an old beloved game or movie, it won't make me like it. The nostalgia factor wears off quite quickly and the real game's qualities make themselves apparent. Sometimes that means I realize the game is crap and I put it away, or I realize why I liked it in the first place. Not for warm-fuzzies, but fun.
OoT is fun.
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Suggesting to someone that they play the Return of Link?
You are a cruel, cruel man.
Until I played Darksiders.
People, do yourself a favour, go check out this game. It's generic looking in screenshots but brilliant to play and frequently called a 'dark version of zelda'
I've played about 10 hours of one of the zelda games and actually did quite enjoy it but gave up, in hindsight they most certainly are similar.
Some call it 'zelda grown up' as well, since it has blood, darker themes etc. Really good stuff, I finished it and rarely finish games nowadays.
If you liked Ocarina of Time, then what did you think of Majora's Mask? It's the same game engine, but I found its world to be much more expansive and detailed. Characters didn't just stand in one place waiting for you to interact with them. They moved around and had their own lives that you could learn about and influence. And the world was so sidequest-heavy that I didn't feel like I was on a prescribed linear path through the plot. I'd just do a bunch of sidequests and one of them would eventually give me what I need to reach the next area.
Ocarina of Time's time travel was basically a variant of the dark world system from Link to the Past with its two parallel worlds, but less interesting because you couldn't go from one world to another at any position on the world map, so there was less puzzle and exploration potential. OoT was overall very good, and established how the whole genre should work in 3D, but I think it has lost its uniqueness today as many comparable games have been created since its release. MM, on the other hand, is still unique today.
Anyway, I'd guess that it's a fluke that you only liked Ocarina, between it, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker. They are similar games and should have similar appeal, but they're involved enough that you really have to get into them to enjoy them. There's an element of chance to that, and other things going on in your life can be a distraction.
Zelda 1 is kind of primitive today and the puzzle elements are pretty minimal so I can understand not liking it on those grounds. And Zelda 2 is of course a totally different game with a different appeal. Link to the Past still holds up well today, so yeah, it's a good game to try next.
I played MM first, then OoT, so I saw it from a different perspective.
And objectively, Majora's Mask is indeed the better game. The world is richer with more things to do. Despite technically being smaller world and only half the number of dungeons.
In Ocarina of Time the dungeons felt more repetitive. Sure, the epic nature of the game combined with the music and memorable events like getting Epona of traveling through time, and the fact that it actually had a somewhat interesting story really made the game the masterpiece it is. Put from a pure game-design perspective it was inferior to it's successor.
That really depends on what you want out of your gaming experience though. While I find that yes, the Zelda games aren't incredibly innovative per se, they are probably the most well put together single player games in existence. Everything from start to finish feels polished and you just want to explore. Thats as much the mark of a good game as anything that is "innovative"
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The original Zelda was revolutionary for its time, but it's obviously dated by now. So if you didn't play video games back then you might not be able to appreciate it. The second game is a mysterious oddball of the series which even divides fans, so it's not a good place to start.
I'm surprised you liked OoT but disliked the others.
BTW I seem to remember more story in Wind Waker, but maybe my memory's failing me.
In any case the series is very unique (I don't recall any game quite like it) so I think that explains the fandom very well.
And objectively, Majora's Mask is indeed the better game. The world is richer with more things to do. Despite technically being smaller world and only half the number of dungeons.
In Ocarina of Time the dungeons felt more repetitive... Put from a pure game-design perspective it was inferior to it's successor.
Heh, I can see your point about the difference versus Ocarina, but I'd think an objective pure game-design perspective would also have to take into account the new central game play mechanic. Which I think is kind of a mixed bag, and certainly explains why a lot of people had trouble getting into the game. Yes, there's a lot of things to do, but it's I think understandably annoying when you have to do them again simply because you're not moving fast enough towards a specific goal.
So, basically I think it's a lot harder to say which is better. :)
The enemies of Democracy are
Actually, it was the Nintendo Fun Club back then.
Vol. 2 Issue 6 April/May 1989 pg 16 and 17
Hints on defeating enemies, a map of all the places you could bomb and burn trees for secrets. There was even a section on the 2nd Quest.
Well, excuuuse me princess!
So, maybe you just missed the diamond in the rough.
That phrase doesn't mean what you think:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diamond+in+the+rough
The "rough" part refers to an uncut/unpolished diamond.
The last time Nintendo tried to really "innovate" with The Legend of Zelda, we wound up with The Adventure of Link, with its mix of top-down maps and side scrolling. Though I personally enjoyed the hell out of Zelda 2, as it turns out, that sort of change just wasn't the proper formula for popularity. Tangentially, for those who forsake it, I'll point out that it did introduce a number of elements which persisted or re-appeared, including metered magic use, the hammer, and the downward jumping sword thrust. Furthermore, the side-scrolling gameplay serves as a functioning archetype for games of the 3D era, while the art style laid the perceptive foundation for that which is found in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.
In any case, I for one, have no issue with old franchises maintaining their core mechanics from one release to another. "The Legend of Zelda" isn't really just a NES game, so much as a type of game, featuring a core set of re-occurring elements, which get added to or tweaked from one installment to the next, as the technology improves. Having a gimmicky game (such as Link's Crossbow Training, for a local example) from time to time is fine, so long as the core is not abandoned in the main series.
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The quests were always the right length IMO. You were able to complete most of them with enough time to spare. I do remember running out of time seconds before the clock ran out on a few occasions.
But on the second run you were more familiar with the quest and was able to do it much quicker, and some parts of the story became clearer. Sometimes it's good when a game lets you fail. The challenge in Zelda games is relatively limited, particularly for sidequests the trading sequence. I think the countdown added to the experience in that way.
The problem is that in a game series that is traditionally about allowing relatively free-form exploration and sidetracking, having to do a series of quests in a "run" or risk having to do them all over, even the ones you actually finished, is contrary to the whole point. And since they stuck to traditional Zelda design for the game world, with plenty of things to do and see that are tangential to your current "run", this is particularly onerous. Oh look, a tantalizing mystery, but, gotta stay on task!
It's fine to be able to fail at a task. It's annoying to succeed at a task, to succeed at several tasks, but then have to do them over again because you didn't get to the point where you entered the dungeon, or found the item, or whatever it is that will last into the next cycle. And not because the task you didn't complete was hard, but because you moved too slowly and deliberately on it or earlier parts, or were distracted by the secret cave you discovered that had nothing to do with your current run but was fun and interesting.
Making all the fun and interesting things the game designers added into the game into traps that can cause you to fail is not a good way to add challenge. Resisting the temptation to explore should not be part of the challenge in a Zelda game.
it's still a great game, and the time aspect does add to the experience. It just doesn't add in a universally positive way. It was an interesting and bold experiment, and I personally think the result of that experiment is that "Zelda-style adventure game" and "strict time schedule" don't go together well.
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Everything from start to finish feels polished and you just want to explore.
Polish doesn't make we want to explore, it is the mystery and the unknown that makes me want to explore things and Zelda games spend far to much time in very familiar "been there, done that" territory, devoid of any mystery or surprise. For example there is no doubt that Zelda:TP was an masterfully crafted game, but playing it where also the most boring 35h I ever spend with a brilliantly designed game.
In any case, I for one, have no issue with old franchises maintaining their core mechanics from one release to another.
The problem is that they maintain to much of the core mechanics. Pushing blocks around on a grid for example feels really really old, why haven't Zelda games taken some inspiration from other modern games and use a proper physics engine instead? That was one of the things that really impressed me back when Tomb Raider: Legend came out, you still pushed blocks, but they where no longer fixed to a grid, they could be thrown around, used to block traps and many other things. It felt dynamic and fresh. That's what I would expect from a new Zelda. How about the Portal gun? Would make a great fit for a Zelda game that could be used in a ton of puzzles. How about finally providing a real open world and not just a collection of small rooms with forest-decoration? The world of Shadow of the Colossus feels far bigger, far more impressive and far more realistic then anything modern 3D Zeldas have ever come up with. Wind Waker kind of had an open world, but it was a boring one, why was water in there just a plain blue area of boredom? Why not WaveRace style water physics?
Basically Zelda used to be at the forefront of game development and offered exciting worlds to explore, today it just feels really old school and I would have a really hard time naming anything original the series has done in the last ten years, which is sad, given that there are so many things the series could do instead of just giving you yet another boomerang.
I don't know why people hate Majora's Mask so much
The problem with MM was that it required far to much planing and provided far to much room to screw up. Forgot to use that spell that slows done time? Have fun seeing time run out and playing all that stuff over again. It also introduced one of the most horrible mechanic ever seen in a Nintendo game: It delete your savegames. You can store your state an an owl statue, but when you load that state the game deletes it, thus you have to go back to another statue to save again. If you forget that you can lose many hours of playtime and have to redo everything. Incredible stupid design decision.
From a pure concept perspective MM is easily the most interesting Zelda game, but it also is by far the most punishing and annoying Zelda game, which is why I never finished it. I still would love to see that concept realized properly.
I love the idea of Zelda games, but something that bothers me is how easy the puzzles are. Even the dreaded Water Temple from OoT, while a bit drawn out, didn't seem very difficult, and I was in middle school at the time. It's as though Nintendo is catering to the Youtube commenter crowd in regards to the difficulty of the puzzles. I was excited before Spirit Tracks came out, because I read something about the game's programmers helping to design puzzles in order to make them more difficult, but if that was true I certainly didn't notice.
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
Rupees and hearts, you mean.
I am not devoid of humor.
They did on the DS. Then they did again a few years later. (Warning sites use flash)
Both of those games are pretty good. The first has an idiotic feature of returning you to a central dungeon periodically but it's still a good game. Then again, I happen to think both Majora's Mask and Windwaker are great games, Twilight Princess is mediocre, and Link to the Past is way too overhyped so you may feel differently. I did really like Ocarina of Time and the original Legend of Zelda though.
Actually the game has progressed until 1995 or so.
The first zelda purely action, second one incredibly hard 3d, third a link to the past was basically an action game with a storyline and npcs. From that one. Oracle of Seasons etc... added a heavy puzzle element and Occarina of time added 3d.
From a game mechanics side of things, however Zelda has stalled. The puzzles now are repetitive and are recycled over and over again so is the story.
From a graphics perspective it still is progression. But it is noticable that the Heydey of Zelda was 1995 when Capcom have released the best handheld Zeldas under Nintendos Name and Occarina of Time borrowed a lot of the Capcom elements and added 3d to it.
Btw. for me the best newer Zelda is Okami a game heavily undersold on every platform released so far, Capcom again at its best doing the best Zeldas. The handheld sequel Okamiden will come out in a few weeks, cannot wait for it. But I see the same problem that it wont sell on the DS due to not being kiddie compatible shovelware.
Btw. outside of Okami and Zelda are there other games trying to follow a similar formula?
One recommended Darksiders, is there anything else?
Well for me it was the first Zelda, so I have fond memories of TP probably as most people have of Occarina of Time, but now having played a bunch of other Zeldas I can see the point of most people. Very polished and well done but once you played one newer Zelda there are no real surprises and even in every Zelda since occarina there is one part of the game which is so annoying that you want to stop playing and want to put the thing into the garbage bin.
But it is noticable that the Heydey of Zelda was 1995 when Capcom have released the best handheld Zeldas under Nintendos Name and Occarina of Time borrowed a lot of the Capcom elements and added 3d to it.
You got your dates wrong, the Oracle of Ages/Season games where released in 2001, over two years after Ocarina of Time (1998) and they borrowed very heavily from Links Awakening (1993), as they used basically the same engine and graphics.