The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

There is one game that critics and players alike have been proposing for decades whenever the question „what is the greatest game of all time?" comes up – and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has sat at the top of that debate practically since its release. It holds one of the highest Metacritic scores ever, and its influence on the entire action-adventure genre is hard to overstate.

The first great challenge was bringing Zelda into three dimensions, and Nintendo EAD solved it elegantly. The key was the „Z-targeting" system – a way of locking onto enemies that turned the dance of combat into a clear and intuitive affair. You could circle your opponent, keep them in your sights and focus on the rhythm of the fight instead of wrestling with the camera. This idea became the foundation for countless 3D action games that followed.

The story guides you through the life of the hero Link across time – you travel between childhood and adulthood and experience the same kingdom in different eras. This play with time was not merely a narrative backdrop but a mechanic too: some puzzles and paths open up only in one era. Hyrule felt like a living, cohesive world that was a joy to ride through on horseback at dusk.

The dungeons rank among the finest the genre has ever offered. Each one was a self-contained puzzle box with its own theme, item and boss. The infamous Water Temple etched itself into players' memories as a symbol of difficulty and complexity – cursed and admired in equal measure. And the ocarina that gave the game its name brought music into play as a tool: melodies could teleport you, change the weather and shape the world.

To this day Ocarina of Time is the yardstick against which 3D adventures are measured. It defined what exploration, combat and puzzle-solving should look like in an open three-dimensional world, and its solutions became so self-evident that we now take them for granted. That is perhaps the greatest proof of its greatness.

Why play it: Because it is the canonical benchmark for 3D adventures and one of the highest-rated games in history – an experience that shaped an entire genre.