Released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time.

It uses the same game engine; it even uses some of the same character models and a number of the graphical assets of its predecessor, although it is a very different game overall.

Both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask are rightly regarded as classics. Majora’s Mask, though, is a nightmarish adventure through time and space that Nintendo themselves – in the intervening years – have admitted is so weird that it would probably never get made today. Indeed: you begin the game as Link – as ‘normal’ – but soon fall under a curse that robs you of your identity, and then the rest of the game is Link assuming the identities of any one of a number of different characters, all by wearing various masks found within the game.

And – as if that wasn’t weird enough – Majora’s Mask also employs a very strange time mechanic that sees Link re-playing the same three days in the game, but every time in a different way. Groundhog Day-style….

Oh, and the moon is hurtling towards the planet and will eventually collide with it and destroy everything… That is: unless you stop it.

A lot of people prefer Ocarina of Time to Majora’s Mask, but – for me – it is the other way around. I love how dark this game is – it’s a surprise from Nintendo, and a refreshingly different one.

More: Majora’s Mask on Wikipedia