Zelda Week: Fear Itself

destructoid.com:

[As Zelda Week winds down here at Destructoid, I wanted to dig back into the archives and resurface an oldie-but-goodie. This 2011 piece from Noir seems like a fitting companion to the weird shenanigans of Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s also a good blog. So we’re bumping it up the feed again today, in 2023, to celebrate that. Happy Zelda Week! – Eric]

Many people’s first Legend of Zelda game was Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past, but me? Majora’s Mask stole my Zelda virginity. I remember seeing a trailer with this kid putting on masks that made caused him to go through a painful looking transformation into something else. I remember a boss that commanded a swarm of moths, an insane looking man with masks, an even more insane looking moon, and of course the enigmatic Majora’s Mask itself. I don’t know where I saw this trailer, I still can’t find it to this day. I know I had to have the game after seeing it though, even if those eyes filled me with terror.

As a child I was frightened of Majora’s Mask. I didn’t want to look at it, doing so filled me with anxiety. I thought I would die just from looking at those massive eyes that stare endlessly into the depths of my soul. I was also fascinated by them though, so I asked my parents to rent it for me. I even got an Expansion Pak just for it, which became another useless peripheral a week later. The point is that I needed this game, the odd nature of it just drawn me to it. It wasn’t like my other games. It wasn’t bright and light hearted like Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards or Banjo-Tooie, no. This game was different and I could feel it in my bones. Mind you, I was only about 8 years old at this time. I only had a few N64 games and they were mostly happy, child friendly