The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Countdown

The moment Link enters the twisted land of Termina, the game's internal clock begins to tick. Link has a scant three days and nights to solve the mystery of Majora's Mask and halt the descending moon, so every second counts.

The internal clock does not run in real time. One Terminian day is equivalent to 20 minutes of gameplay (If you don't skip time or stuff like that). The entire three-day cycle, then, can be completed in one hour. Sounds like a pretty short game, right?

Wrong.

The soul of Majora's Mask and the thing which makes it such a wonderful experience is that throughout the game Link relives the same three days over and over again. Anyone familiar with the movie Groundhog Day will immediately recognize the potential of this premise.

Link's major accomplishments remain intact from one three-day cycle to the next, but his encounters with other characters and certain day-to-day activities are completely wiped clean when a new cycle begins. Because of this, you have to plan your activities wisely to ensure that you're able to accomplish at least one major goal before the end of the cycle.

This format is obviously rooted in fantasy, but sursprisingly it makes the game seem incredibly realistic. Since Link is able to relive each day as many times as he desires, over time he acquires the ability to actually experience every moment of every day at every map location. Instead of just observing a particular character at a specific moment on a certain day, for example, Link can eventually discover what occurs in that character's life — both night and day — for an entire three-day period. You can begin to get a feel for the depth of Majora's Mask when you consider that Termina is home to dozens of characters which are brought to life in this manner. The liveliest one is the Anju and Kafei subplot.

How does Link gain the privilege of eternal life? At the stroke of midnight on the night of the third day, a special door opens in center of Clock Town, the Clock Tower. Now he can face off with the Skull Kid wearing Majora's Mask. Once Link learns the Song of Time, he can just play it to return to the first day. If he doesn't learn the Song of Time, the kamikaze moon succeeds in its suicidal plan to destroy the world.

After playing through a few of these three-day cycles, the magnitude of this project hits home and you can't help but appreciate the vision and execution of Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, Takashi Tezuka and the entire development team.