I loved The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but sadly had never heard of Majora’s Mask because it came out in the year 2000. At that time I was on active duty in the U.S. Army and spent all my free time in college or in the Pacific Ocean trying to make it as a surfer. I got back into gaming in 2001, but I was in Thailand where they preferred PlayStation. Back then all the consoles were easily hacked and could play burnt discs that shops everywhere were selling from fifty cents to over a dollar. As a gamer it felt like Christmas walking home with a bag full of cheap games. N64 cartridges were expensive and weren’t easily pirated like the CDs used in the original PlayStation so most people in Asia (outside of Japan and Korea) never saw an N64 or any of its great games. Even now, people see me playing Super Mario 64 on my phone and ask about it.

I have good internet at home and most restaurants have WiFi so I don’t waste money on a data plan for my phone which means I will use it offline often. Getting a phone ready for offline mode has many benefits. If you’re at a party for example and the power goes out and then there’s no internet, you’ll be able to jam on because you have the song files ready or can still play games that don’t need the internet like N64 games. I can imagine going back in time and telling myself that every single Nintendo 64 game can be played on a phone that fits in my front shirt pocket and I would think that we made it to Star Trek. When I think about the limitations of file size, RAM, and speed they were working with back in the 1990s, these games really shine as true digital masterpieces of artistic creation and ingenuity.

After downloading every N64 game ever made on my phone, I had to delete 99% of them because most looked horrible, some wouldn’t load at all, and most were boring. I was sad to see that GoldenEye 007 couldn’t be controlled with the touchscreen and had to go in the bin too. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Super Mario 64, Wave Race 64, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Star Fox 64, Perfect Dark, and Super Smash Bros. were the only games that could be controlled with touch screen well and also survived my love of putting files in the trash bin.

The graphics looked good on my phone’s screen and the controls were smooth. It felt like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time but a bit different at the same time too.  The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was one of only three N64 games which REQUIRED the Expansion Pack which added 4MB of RAM. It really did make a difference and improved the quality of the gameplay, but was it worth buying it if it only worked on three games late in the life cycle of the N64? I remember having it and didn’t regret it at all. It was only $30 and came with the games that needed it so it was kind of a fair deal. I think many of us bought it individually and then bought games that came with it, so we’d just give the spare ones to friends who didn’t have it. I don’t know if it made any difference, in fact I remember many people complaining it made older games freeze up sometimes.

This starts off fun, getting to be Link again in glorious 64 bit plus expansion graphics, then this guy in a mask comes along and jacks our horse and ocarina.

He also turned us into this tree kid.

Flying around with flowers is fun. Nintendo always had a magical way of making games feel alive and full of fun compared to the competition. I bet that some new form of AI will be able to read these old games and reproduce them exactly like they were designed only in 8K resolution. There are many fan boys doing this now, but I think it will be done perfectly when an advanced AI does it.

With only three days left until time runs out I felt myself running around like a chicken with its head cut off not knowing what to do.

I rode my bike to this food court located at the start of the night market. I didn’t have WiFi, so I couldn’t rely on Youtube for a solution. Back in the day we’d get stuck for days or weeks on a game until someone’s older sibling told us what to do or we found a clue in an old Nintendo Power magazine.

Boom. Game over. The world has come to an end because I wasn’t fast enough. Oh wait. It’s like a 72 hour version of Groundhog Day. You get to start over, just without anything gained along the way. I would love if real life were like this without the getting stuck in the loop part. Playing old N64 games on my phone is kind of like that with the save option. It really makes the game a lot more fun not having to start all over again. I want to play these old games for nostalgia and relaxation, not to get stressed out, so I cheat using the save option all the time.

I found myself frustrated by this game, turned it off and went back the Super Mario 64, but it kept bugging me and I came back the next day to try again. I wish I had played this when it came out. I would’ve really loved it then. It’s honestly hard for me to get that into it after playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it’s only 32MB in size and I’m glad it’s on my phone incase I ever want to play what is considered by many to be one of the greatest video games of all time.