Nintendo’s continuing to (slowly) add more games to its online service. This month, we got the Rare 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie, and soon, we’re getting another classic N64 title, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Making the announcement on Twitter, Nintendo of America said that Majora’s Mask will be coming to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription service.
Save Termina before it’s met with a terrible fate!
The Legend of #Zelda: Majora's Mask comes to #NintendoSwitch for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members in February! #Nintendo64 pic.twitter.com/WN2Q0Wqc8Q
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 21, 2022
With Banjo-Kazooie, Nintendo only announced the release date the day before the game joined the subscription service’s roster. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is likely to get a similar treatment.
If you missed Majora’s Mask when it was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, you missed a truly unique Legend of Zelda experience. The game was a sequel to the mega-hit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it reused Ocarina’s game engine and graphics, so Majora’s Mask will feel familiar initially, but the tone is much darker.
Taking place two months after the events of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask follows Link as he finds himself in Termina, a world parallel to Hyrule. For fans of A Link to the Past, this parallel world concept won’t be all that surprising. In Termina, Link can use different masks to gain new abilities, and he has to make his way through a series of four temple dungeons and face Skull Kid to stop the moon from crashing into Termina.
The strict three-in-game-day (a little less than an hour in real-time) game loop adds an interesting twist to Majora’s Mask. Link can use his ocarina to move back and forth in time, but if he doesn’t complete his quest by the time the timer runs out, Termina will be destroyed.
