Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’re streaming a song you absolutely love (or, if you’re old like me, listening to it on the radio), and you find yourself cranking up the volume and singing like there’s no tomorrow. And from that point on, that song just travels with you. You might not hear it every day, but it has left such an impact that it will flit through your mind every once in a while, and you’ll find yourself returning to it frequently. It may captivate you so much that you can’t focus on studying, watching TV, or playing video games. This happened to me one time, when a song prevented me from even starting a particular video game.
Ocarina of Time is considered one of the greatest video games ever made, and I’ve finally gotten around to it for the first time on the Switch. I could talk about how I now understand why it’s such a big deal even to this day, or how the Water Temple isn’t really as difficult as everyone says (it really isn’t). But today, I want to talk about the one thing I enjoyed more than anything else in the game: the title screen.
Yes. The title screen.
Hearing the gentle piano notes and watching Link ride Epona across Hyrule Field is a mesmerizing experience that sets the tone for the entire game. As I listen to the music, I am transported back to the time when I was just an 11-year-old kid, watching my friend play Ocarina of Time at his house and becoming enraptured by the piano and ocarina playing through the speakers of his TV.
While he was showing off how he could defeat Ganondorf without getting hit a single time, my mind kept drifting back to the game’s intro. I just wanted to listen to it again so badly. So once my friend completed the game and the credits finished rolling, I pressed the reset button on his Nintendo 64 so I could go back to the beginning and watch the title screen again. He may have thought I was acting more strangely than usual, but that music just captivated me. It was peaceful and relaxing, but also mysterious. I would find out much later on that it perfectly sets you up for what to expect in the game, but even knowing that, I wasn’t in a hurry to start the game. The music made me want to keep pressing reset and listening over and over again.
People talk about Ocarina of Time being the greatest game of all time, but I think its title theme deserves to be acknowledged as the greatest in video game history. It takes me back to when I first heard it over 20 years ago. Even as a kid, I knew I was listening to a timeless theme — a theme that will always be a welcome presence in my mind while I’m driving to work, studying, or playing a video game.
Or, in this case, not playing.
