Majora’s Masks, I’m satisfied it merits a remake greater than Ocarina of Time

After I were given The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Masks as a birthday present in 2000, I simply did not get it. The place’s grownup Hyperlink? Why am I remodeling right into a Deku Scrub, a Goron, and a Zora? There are simplest 4 primary dungeons? And that’s the reason all prior to I attempted to wrap my 12-year-old mind across the three-day time-shifting mechanic that, on the time, most commonly ruined the sport for me (I by hook or by crook ignored that you’ll play the inverted Track of Time to sluggish issues down).

I slogged my method via Majora’s Masks, depending on a technique information to unravel lots of its extra irritating puzzles, particularly removing the 15 Stray Fairies present in each and every dungeon. It wasn’t till 15 years later, after I revisited the sport at the 3DS (I even reviewed it for a Canadian newspaper I used to be running for again then), that I began to expand an appreciation for one of the crucial Zelda sequence’ most unearthly titles. That is when the sport after all clicked with me, even if I wasn’t keen on the remaster’s visible overhaul, the adjustments to the boss battles and Zora swimming, or the truth that you’ll skip to express hours of the day the use of the Track of Double Time.

2015 used to be a very long time in the past, although, and I have not performed and even in reality considered Majora’s Masks since then. After I determined to dive again into the sport with its very unofficial 2ship2harkinian port, created with a complete decompilation of the Nintendo 64 vintage, I wasn’t positive what to anticipate. Ocarina of Time has elderly remarkably neatly, particularly when taking part in it with Send of Harkinian at 60fps with mods like OoT Reloaded that upload trendy 4K/HD textures.

So, after taking part in Majora’s Masks for a number of hours, is it simply as compelling as Ocarina of Time? Now not completely, however I additionally suppose that is why it is the easiest Zelda identify for an entire remake, slightly than a remaster.

A contemporary tackle Majora’s Masks may really feel very authentic in 2026

Its environment, tone, and mechanics are distinctive to the long-running sequence

The Zelda franchise has been round for a very long time, and till Breath of the Wild for the Transfer, it most commonly adopted a particular system. You move via an overworld (most often Hyrule) and get admission to a number of themed dungeons, the place you in finding key pieces just like the boomerang, hookshot, bow, and extra. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom threw this idea out the window for an open-world tackle that very same system that modernized the sequence in a large method, and whilst I in reality like each video games (Breath of the Wild is considered one of my favourite video games ever), I would love to look a go back to a extra structured Zelda system.

With this in thoughts, Nintendo turns out to already be making plans a go back to fundamentals with its rumored Ocarina of Time remaster (which nearly indubitably exists following the Superstar Fox 64 remake’s contemporary disclose, indicating that NateTheHate’s record is most likely correct), however what I would like to look as an alternative is a whole overhaul of Majora’s Masks. Ahead of you scroll right down to the remark phase to inform me that I do not know what I am speaking about, pay attention me out.

First off, Majora’s Masks is completely not like the rest within the Zelda sequence. It is darkish… like in reality, in reality darkish — in the end, Hyperlink is making an attempt to forestall the moon from crashing down on Termina, which might kill everybody in Clock The town and its surrounding areas. The Cranium Child’s backstory is mysterious and downright unhappy, too. There is an atypical otherworldliness to Clock The town’s characters, with maximum in their tales specializing in misfortune and preoccupation with their very own problems, in spite of the looming finish of the sector. Then there is the original three-day cycle that forces avid gamers to be aware of the consistent float of time, serving to Clock The town’s electorate with their issues to assemble dozens of distinctive mask.

Majora’s Masks is a critically unusual sport, and replaying it in 2026 makes me query the way it used to be even launched again in 2000, particularly as a follow-up to Ocarina of Time. What I would like to look is a whole remake of the sport, very similar to Ultimate Delusion VII Remake and Ultimate Delusion Rebirth. Take the sport’s distinctive global, environment, and characters, however enlarge on them and provides it a whole visible overhaul. On the identical time, clear up a few of Majora’s Masks’s key problems, like increasing the three-day cycle to every week, giving avid gamers extra time to discover whilst nonetheless keeping up the sense of urgency that makes the sport paintings so neatly, and ditch probably the most repetition, like desiring to start out dungeons once more if you do not end them prior to desiring to roll again time.

Additionally, upload the power to hold a minimum of some non-key pieces again in time, and perhaps a couple of further dungeons — in some way, the probabilities are unending.

My 2ship2harkinian setup is lovely easy

The PC port is not relatively as solid as Ocarina of Time’s

To revisit the N64 vintage, I performed Majora’s Masks on my ROG Xbox Best friend X by means of 2ship2harkinan, a fan-made PC port of the sport created via reverse-engineering its authentic code, identical to Send of Harkinian and Ocarina of Time. In contrast to emulation, this can be a extra original enjoy that is nearer to the unique Nintendo 64 unencumber. For 2ship2harkian to paintings, you can want a sell off of Majora’s Masks’s ROM from your personal cartridge (or one you gain in other places). The PC port brings a number of trendy options to the N64 vintage, together with widescreen strengthen, upper body charges (I want 60fps and in finding that anything else above that appears atypical in N64 video games), loose digicam controls, a number of quality-of-life tweaks, and strengthen for mods.

I love to make gaming studies like this as original as conceivable, so I saved the mods I put in to a minimal. First, I added MM Reloaded, an HD/4K texture pack for Majora’s Masks. It does not appear to be relatively as whole as OoT Reloaded and Ocarina of Time, however it is nonetheless lovely just right. I tried to put in the 3DS Hyperlink fashion, however the procedure is, sadly, ridiculously sophisticated (fortunately, Hyperlink’s personality fashion already seems to be lovely just right in Majora’s Masks). For some explanation why, I could not get any Xbox controller mapping skins to paintings. Whilst those don’t seem to be primary problems, they are nonetheless slightly disappointing (I am positive higher mod strengthen will make its solution to 2ship2harkinian quickly).

At the extra certain aspect, Reddit person KingdaToro is again at it once more with a complete setup information outlining which settings they suggest turning on in 2ship2harkinian. For probably the most phase, I adopted the whole thing on this information, together with turning on Loose Glance, Fast Put Away, Proper-stick Aiming, and extra (all of the quality-of-life fixes are nice, too). In case you are on the lookout for a simple information that outlines what settings are value enabling, that is it.

2ship2harkinian modernizes Majora’s Masks, however it wishes the overall remake remedy

During the last decade or so, appreciation for Majora’s Masks’s darker tone and weirdness has grown considerably, however the sport remains to be tough across the edges, and having a look again at it 26 years later, it surely hasn’t elderly in addition to Ocarina of Time. Such a lot of of its aspect quests are extremely difficult to understand, and a large number of its puzzles are very difficult and finicky.

Every now and then, Majora’s Masks seems like an authentic Ocarina of Time ROM hack, particularly as it reused lots of its predecessor’s property to suit inside of its strict one-year building cycle. Nonetheless, there is a nice sport in there that is the easiest candidate for an impactful remaster.