I know this probably won’t get seen much now, but man that game has a special place in my heart.

Starting with the original Zelda game, my mother and I always beat them together.

We were very poor, but she always did what she had to do to get us the latest Nintendo console. She worked as a dog groomer leading up to the release of the Nintendo 64. She would be gone for 12 hours at a time, working for below minimum wage (under the table) just to get us that console.

She got Ocarina of Time for my brother and I for Christmas. She was just as excited to play it as we were, but there was no way my dad was going to let us open a Christmas present early. We only got one big present to share, and two small presents. Sometimes if my dad had saved a decent amount, we’d get the large present (usually a game), and then we’d get something that we really wanted that we didn’t have to share.

I begged my mom, she begged my dad. He wouldn’t budge. In the weeks leading up to Christmas though, she broke. She came to me with her plan. We were going to open it every day when he went to work and play it until an hour before he got home.

By the time Christmas rolled around, we were in the forest temple. He didn’t play games so he didn’t have a clue.

It was so much fun sneaking that game out with my mom and my brother. It was so much fun. Seeing how big it was for the time, we literally couldn’t believe our eyes.

Is OoT my favorite game of all time? Not anymore. It is my favorite memory of a game though, and by a long shot.

Edit, for fun.

It meant so much to me that the only boxes I still have from my childhood are my Zelda and N64 boxes.