The second game you play in a series is an important one. Arguably the most important one, really. It is the difference between “I love that game” and “I love that series!” You open the packaging excitedly, hopes high because of how much you loved the first one you played, but with caution in case it does not live up to those standards. Later games you might just hope are good, but if they aren’t it isn’t a big deal, because at least you have a few from that series to play and enjoy forever. But that second game, those are some real stakes. You probably aren’t buying #3 if #2 was a dud.
So you load up the new game, as I did with Majora’s Mask when I was a kid who’d never played a Zelda title before Ocarina of Time. You watch the opening credits positively buzzing with anticipation, marvel at the similar-yet-slightly-different file selection/name selection screens, and finally begin to play. This is when it really starts – when you can really see just how much time you’re going to want to put into this series. This is the moment, basically.
And in my case, for this particular game, after a tantalizing cutscene, Link decided to front, side, and backflip his way into my everlasting love for the Zelda franchise.
I’m not entirely sure I can fully explain why, but this blew my young mind. Sure, Link has always been capable of backflips when he’s standing still, and he has for many generations been the Tumbling Champion of Hyrule and all surrounding lands, but jumping from ledge to ledge while performing intense acrobatics was not something I had ever associated with him. I’d played as this Link before, and had fallen down thousands one or two giant chasms, definitely not more than that, as he gamely leapt directly into danger, and never had he ever done more than reach his hands out to hopefully grab some sort of thing within reach.
Yet here he was, back in his Child form, auditioning for the Olympics, right at the start of his next adventure. And even though it was confusing, it was also AMAZING, and I was hooked. Yes – soon after, super-acrobatic-flipping-Link transformed into a Deku Scrub, and the game started showing all of the other fantastic qualities that it is known for. But it didn’t even need all of that. I would have been perfectly happy just running around Termina as this newly skilled Young Link, and in fact I was pumped to complete the first three day cycle and earn back my new abilities, even as I explored the wonders of being a Deku.
So sometimes, it is the little details that game creators include that can create an instant connection for a player. Sure, the rest of Majora’s Mask is a truly great game, probably still in my personal top three for the Zelda series, and it would have earned that status regardless of Link’s style of jumping from platform to platform. But by including that, the fun and rather reckless way the Hero of Time decides to leap, the game leapt right along with him into my favorites within ten minutes of popping in the cartridge. And it is a video game memory that will stay with me for far longer.
