When the Legend of Zelda (LoZ) games first came out, they were a big hit.  When Ocarina of Time came out for the Nintendo 64, thousands of copies were preordered and flying off of store shelves. As Majora's Mask (the sequel) came along, the exact same thing happened as with Ocarina. So if you are trying to find out which game to buy or which to buy first, this is where to go!

Let's get down to business, shall we? I will be rating on a scale of 1-10. If it's given a 1, it is probably very bad. A 10 would be the best thing you could ever play.
 
Story:
Ocarina: 9.5
Majoras: 9.5

I really don't think one of the stories is better than the other; they are just different. Take note of what I write for both of the games and find out which one interests you most.

Ocarina of Time:
In the beginning of the story, you play as a young boy (Link) who lives in a forest. He gets a guardian fairy who tells him the spirit of the forest is dying. When Link visits the spirit, it tells him that it is dying because of a man in the far off desert. The man wanted a jewel of the forest and when the spirit wouldn't give it up, the man put a curse on it. The spirit gives you the jewel and tells Link to go to Hyrule Castle. You then have to battle your way through riddle-filled dungeons and hordes of baddies to find the man, who wants to take over the world.

Majora's Mask:
After Link defeated Ganon and returned to his proper time period, he decided to go on a journey to find his old fairy. All he has with him is his sword, shield, horse, and the Ocarina of Time. While traveling through the Lost Woods, Link gets mugged by a mysterious Skull Kid wearing a mask. Following him, Link falls into a trap and gets turned into a Deku Scrub by the Skull Kid. Two fairies that were following him get separated, one with Link and one with Skull Kid. Link goes on and stumbles into a different world that is about to be destroyed in three days. Link has to save this new world, Termina, from its doom.

I know it sounds sort of weird, but I don't want to give away any secrets, okay?

Sound:
Ocarina: 10
Majoras: 9.9

The sound in both games is truly suburb! I could almost say it can be better than GameCube. They never play the same music in two different places. For Majora's Mask, they never even remixed the sound from Ocarina! Each different tune fits each place perfectly! Well, except for the castle near Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask. It's really bold and very annoying! It really didn't suit the mood for a cursed castle of the undead.

Graphics:
Ocarina: 7
Majoras: 9

I took off a couple points from Ocarina because of the fact that it doesn't look like everything goes off in the distance, making things look more realistic. This was fixed in Majora's Mask. In MM the graphics look very real, even for N64! I was very surprised by the amount of characters that could be crammed on the screen at once. There is little depth, but there is more than what is in Ocarina. Basically, you can make out what's what and that is what I think matters about graphics.

Now that that's over with, let's move on with the details about gameplay.

Controls:
Ocarina: 8
Majoras: 6

The controls are sort of simple on one side of the controller. That side is the left. With the D-pad you can turn maps on and off and the control stick moves you around. The Z button can target signs, people, items, animals, and bad guys so you can pivot around them. If that sounds tough, go for another game, pal.

Now it's the right side of the controller. What I took off some points for was the fact that you can't choose when to jump, you just do. The A button turned into the action button. The action button can make Link do different things depending on what form you're in (there are five forms in, Majora's Mask). In Ocarina the controls are much simpler than MM. The B button is torture for short term memories in MM. It can (and will) drive you insane!

C Up lets you talk to your fairy in both games and will let you stand and look through a first person perspective. It would be very cool if you could walk around that way, but it is just for standing still.  :(   The other C buttons are what you equip items to. You push the button and you use the item. To help out, on the screen it will show a small picture of the item.

Items:
Ocarina: 9
Majoras: 10

There is a great variety of items, each fun and useful. I gave MM an extra point because of the masks.  There are five masks in Ocarina, but they don't do much. In MM there are 24 masks that each do something that will help you progress in the game. All the other items are the same except for the masks, which set the two games apart.

Characters:
Ocarina: 8
Majoras: 4

I was a little disappointed when they reused characters from Ocarina in MM. Remember the lady who got goosebumps from her chickens? She is now an innkeeper. Something that I liked about the characters is that you can ride your horse even though she is still a colt, while you can only ride it on Ocarina when she is a full grown mare.

They do have tons more characters in Ocarina, however, and they all have personalities that reflect on the gameplay.

Difficulty:
Ocarina: 8
Majoras: 5

Ocarina has a difficulty that will slowly get harder and harder. I actually didn't have very many problems with the toughness of the game as I got better as the game got harder. By the end of the game, I beat Ganon with ease. The game is very long, but you enjoy it very much.

Majora's Mask was way hard! I started Ocarina on the same day as MM and I beat the first level oi MM when I was halfway through Ocarina. I spent about three hours on each every day. There are actually four levels with tons of sidequests in between. The one thing that annoyed me is the fact you are timed. You have 72 minutes to beat the game, with the opportunity to go back in time and save. If you go back in time you will lose all progress in temples, which can be very frustrating. This is definitely a game you should play if you have beaten Ocarina.

Replay Value:
Ocarina: 5
Majoras: 3
 
AAAHHHH! Replay!!! I really don't want to play Majora's Mask again. I really hate the Stone Tower Temple! I could never restart the game. On the plus side, if you go back in time after beating a temple, you can teleport to the boss to complete sidequests that come after beating bosses. I really don't see any point to it, though.

I'd play Ocarina again if I was super bored, but I'd already know what to do to beat the game and I could beat half of it in about four hours. It is very easy to play after you beat it. There are a few glitches you can put into gear if you'd like.

Overall:
Ocarina: 8
Majoras: 7.5

You can tell Nintendo wants you to play the Zelda games in order. Majora's Mask is a very tough game. If you are thinking that you are a very advanced player, dive into MM immediately. For those who are new to the games or semi-new, try out Ocarina of Time. I would just say to play what interests you the most or listen to me: Ocarina is the best game to warm up for Majora's Mask.

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