The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Eiji Aonuma Yoshiaki Koizumi
Producer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmer(s)	Toshio Iwawaki Toshihiko Nakago
Artist(s)	Yusuke Nakano Takaya Imamura
Writer(s)	Mitsuhiro Takano Eiji Aonuma Yoshiaki Koizumi
Composer(s)	Koji Kondo
Series	The Legend of Zelda
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64 GameCube
Release	Nintendo 64 JP: April 27, 2000 NA: October 26, 2000 PAL: November 17, 2000 GameCube JP: November 7, 2003 NA: November 17, 2003 PAL: March 19, 2004
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask^[a] is a 2000 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was the second The Legend of Zelda game to use 3D graphics, following Ocarina of Time (1998). Designed by a creative team led by Eiji Aonuma, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and Shigeru Miyamoto, Majora's Mask was completed in less than two years. It featured enhanced graphics and several gameplay changes, but reused elements and character models from Ocarina of Time, which the game's creators called a creative decision made necessary by time constraints.

The story takes place months after Ocarina of Time. Link arrives in a parallel world, Termina, and becomes embroiled in a quest to prevent the moon from crashing in three days' time. The game introduced gameplay concepts revolving around a perpetually repeating three-day cycle and the use of various masks that transform Link into different forms. As the player progresses through the game, Link learns to play numerous melodies on his ocarina, which allow him to control the flow of time, open hidden passages, or manipulate the environment. Characteristic of the Zelda series, completion of the game involves successfully navigating through several dungeons that contain complex puzzles and enemies. Majora's Mask required the Expansion Pak add-on for the Nintendo 64, which provided additional memory for more refined graphics and greater capacity in generating on-screen characters.

Majora's Mask earned universal acclaim from critics and is widely considered one of the best video games ever made. It received praise for its level design, story, and surrealist art direction, and has been noted for its darker tone and themes compared to other Nintendo titles.^[1] While the game only sold about half as many copies as its predecessor, it generated a substantial cult following.^[2][3] The game was rereleased as part of The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the GameCube in 2003, and for the online services of the Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch. An enhanced remake for the Nintendo 3DS, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, was released in 2015.

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