30 Day Zelda Challenge: Day 1- Your favorite Legend of Zelda game

My favorite Legend of Zelda game is not my first Zelda game, but it is the first game that I became obsessive about. From the second that piano started playing the intro music and I saw a man clad in green riding his horse across Hyrule field, I was already in love with this game. Ocarina of Time was, is and will forever be not only my favorite Zelda game, but also my favorite game period.

I was 13 years old when Ocarina of Time came out and sadly my brother and I did not have a Nintendo 64 but hope was not lost because my grandmother HAD a N64 and more importantly, Ocarina of Time. From the very moment that she turned her N64 on and I saw the scene that I just mentioned above, I knew that I had to make this game mine. I spent many a nights over at my grandma's house solely for the purpose of playing this game and all those sleep overs resulted in me beating the game before I had possession of it.

I didn't actually own Ocarina of Time until the following Christmas and I spent my entire Christmas vacation collecting the three spiritual stones, awakening the Sages and kicking Ganondorf's ass. I loved this game, everything about it was perfect to me...with the exception of one annoying companion, haha. How could I NOT love this game? After beating it again for the second time, I still had a week of winter vacation left and I then went on to beat the game again. My family didn't see or hear from for pretty much all of Christmas break. My love of this game goes so far that I have since beaten the game at least once a year and pretty much have the entire game memorized. I have in depth conversations with people about this game and it is my mission to get every fledgling Nintendo nerd to play this game, at least once.

My most vivid memory of Ocarina of Time is that moment when you see adult Link for the first time, I saw that grown hero and my 13 year old heart fell in love. I have had an incredibly huge crush on Link ever since and have compared many a man to my Hero of Time. My favorite fight of Ocarina of Time is the Twinrova battle, I remember getting so pissed off because Kotake and Koume would use their magic to freeze and burn me and I would have to start all over powering up my Mirror shield. I was so proud of myself for kicking those two witches asses and then confused because I never REALLY understood why they had halos and went to heaven, haha??

Like a friend of mine who is doing this challenge with me, Ocarina of Time's ending made me cry, it was a bitter-sweet moment when Zelda sent our hero back to his original time. I had never cried at the end of a video game before and I realize now it's because I felt a connection with the characters and I felt like I was the hero running all over Hyrule trying to save the day. It's a little embarrassing to say this but I actually believe that my love of the Zelda series has had a role in instilling the strong sense of justice and doing what's right in me today.

So to try and make this already long post short, Ocarina of Time is my favorite game because it is so much more than a game to me, it's a beautiful told story of good overcoming evil, it's a world full of characters that you come to love and most of all to me, it's the perfect escape to land where you can be the hero that makes a difference.

Defender of Hyrule out...