No three-day countdown will prepare you for this one: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D is 10 years old today.
Yep, on 13th February 2015, we all opened our 3DSes (some of you might have even landed one of those sexy gold special edition consoles — you lucky gits) and sat down to replay one of the weirdest Zelda entries to date in glorious autostereoscopic 3D.
Much like its OOT predecessor, this clamshelled remake was a delight. The 3D effect was the headline addition, obviously, but Majora’s Mask also landed a couple of modern quality-of-life improvements that made the whole thing feel a little more, well, modern.
Be it the renewed inventory management, motion-controlled aiming, or the ability to jump forward in time to a specific hour (a godsend for anyone who had previously mopped up all the side quests in the N64 original), we’d say that the 3DS remake is pretty much nailed on as the ‘best‘ version of MM you can play. But do we actually prefer it to the 2000 release? Now, there’s a question.
You see, for all MM3D’s technical improvements, there’s still something about the original that we just can’t shake. Perhaps it’s the N64’s muted tones and lower-poly models that add an extra layer of nightmarish weirdness to the whole thing. Maybe it’s because it was the first time that we got to experience series-best moments like the Anju and Kafei side quest or walking onto that climactic glade. Could the Rumble Pak really have made that much of a difference? Maybe.
And let’s not forget that 3Dmake had some controversies of its own at launch. We remember more than a handful of Zelda fans getting upset over the reduced Zora swimming speed, and while the inventory was a welcome change in most respects, it was still a headache having to map the central Transformation Masks to the face buttons — particularly when the touchscreen was right there.
Whipping around Nintendo Life Towers, it seems that we are split pretty much 50/50 when it comes to our preferences for MM vs. MM3D, so we thought it was only right to throw it over to you, our lovely readers. Do you think Majora’s Mask 3D is the cream of the crop, or is the N64 original still your fave? You can let us know your gut reaction in the following poll and then take to the comments to tell us why.
Which version got your vote? Don your Mask of Discussion in the comments and let us know.