Which Video Games will my Future Children Play?

Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by video games. From Spyro to Skyrim, I’ve fallen in love with a million games in a million different ways. But which single game is so precious, so amazing that I would have to share it with any future children I may have? I can’t pick just one, so I’ll just give my children a whole series to fall in love with.

The Legend of Zelda series will be a part of my kids’ lives, no matter what. That’s just a fact. I don’t see the series dying out anytime soon. It’s already made it in the industry for over 25 years, a rather impressive feat.

With the series constantly growing, changing, and developing, I know that Zelda games will be around for my children. However, I want to make sure that they get to experience the same games that I grew up with, regardless of how inferior the graphics or mechanics may be to future video games. Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, in particular, are classic games with which I want my children to be familiar.

Ocarina of Time is one of the quintessential Zelda games. The Water Temple (of doom) is one of the most well-known dungeons of all time. It’s made many a gamer (including my brother) rage quit out of pure frustration. Since its original release on the Nintendo 64, the game has also been made available on the GameCube, the Wii’s Virtual Console, and the 3DS (as Ocarina of Time: 3D). I have, personally, only played the game on the GameCube and the 3DS, but I would love to experience it on my favorite console, the N64.

Young Link finds out that, instead of being a Kokiri, like he thought, he is actually Hylian. He is then sent on a quest to fulfill his destiny and save Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf. Link sets out, meets Princess Zelda, is given the Ocarina of Time, defeats enemies, and even travels through time. It’s exciting, engaging, and an incredible journey.

Majora’s Mask was actually my first Zelda game. My brother and I weren’t at all familiar with the series, so we didn’t realize that we were playing them “out of order” at the time. We were still able to enjoy the game, however, even if the opening cutscene and the ocarina didn’t make sense to us. To this day, it is my all-time favorite video game.

It’s actually a pretty dark game, though. Link is trying to prevent the moon from falling and crushing Clock Town and the rest of Termina. Some have even compared the various areas in Majora’s Mask to the five stages of grief: denial (Clock Town), anger (Woodfall), bargaining (Snowhead), depression (Great Bay), and acceptance (Ikana Valley). It’s actually a really interesting idea.

Link has three days to defeat the Skull Kid and keep the moon from destroying the world. This feature is what makes the game difficult. Fortunately, Link has the ocarina (that was given to Link by Princess Zelda in Ocarina of Time) which can be used to travel back to the dawn of the first day and beat the various temples and dungeons.

The entire Zelda series is full of incredible games, and I want my children to be able to experience them, to be drawn into the stories like I was. I want to be able to share that with them. Video games will be a part of my kids’ lives. I want to give them a mix of old and new, so that they can see where the industry started and how it’s developed over time. Classics are classics for a reason, and just like with literature, I feel they should be shared with future generations.