It was such a brilliant system that the entire games industry immediately took note. One only has to look at other games that came out around the time of Ocarina to realize just how revolutionary Z-Targeting was—and to this day, variations on this control system are as commonplace as ever.

Camera System

For a reminder as to how difficult it is to implement a workable camera system into a 3D game, look no further than 1996’s Mario 64. Great though that debut 3D Mario outing was, even its staunchest defenders would surely agree that its camera was a complete pain in the backside—it made an admirable attempt at handing some camera control over to the player, but it was often skittish and unwieldy at the same time.

In Ocarina of Time, Nintendo managed to create a camera that was so perfectly integrated into the game that you could almost forget that it existed. Constantly tracking along behind Link, the camera could be adjusted by the player, and immediately sent rushing back behind Link with a tap of the Z button. It’s something that may sound unimportant 15 years later, but at the time, it was remarkable to play a 3D game that always seemed to provide the player with the optimum perspective on the action.

While the passage of time has made some of the glitchier aspects of Ocarina’s camera system more apparent, its place in the history of video games shouldn’t be underestimated. Along with Z-Targeting, Ocarina’s camera system showed other developers just how a 3D game should be made.

Context-Sensitive Controls

Another innovation that has since become an industry standard, context-sensitive controls were a large part of what made Ocarina of Time so accessible. The A button was used to interact with diverse aspects of Ocarina’s world, whether it was mounting your horse, opening a chest, or chatting to a non-player character. Ocarina of Time offered an entire 3D world of characters, adventures, and complex puzzles, but thanks to its context-sensitive controls, interacting with it all immediately became second nature.

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