The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
It's from 1998, before you were born.
- Developer
- Nintendo
- Genre
- Action-adventure
- Debut platform
- Nintendo 64 (1998)
- Director
- Shigeru Miyamoto (producer)
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About
As of 2026, it's 28 years old.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is, by a suspicious number of 'greatest games ever' lists, the greatest game ever — and in 1998 it earned it by figuring out 3D adventure design so completely that everyone else just started copying it. It even invented a targeting system so other games could finally make swordfighting work in 3D.
It sent Link across time, taught you to play songs on a literal ocarina, and gave a generation a nemesis (the water temple) and a beloved annoyance (a fairy named Navi who would not stop saying 'Hey! Listen!').
Vast, inventive, and endlessly praised, Ocarina of Time is the game so good that 'best ever' is the boring, default answer.
