On October 25, 2000, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was released in America. It's been ten years, can you believe it!?
(Well, there have been several Zelda games released since than so it's somewhat more believable).
I remember playing this soon after it got released. I beat all the dungeons and got up to the final boss. I attempted to beat the final boss about two times. And then I just stopped and never played again. 8 or 9 years later I played Majora's Mask again in a serious attempt to beat it. While playing it I forgot how much I enjoyed the game. The Bomber's Notebook is the most creative and addictive side quest I have ever played in a Zelda game. And mask collecting was always fun. Of course, the final boss turned out to be easier to beat than I thought. Altogther, though, the whole was game was great from start to finish.
I know that Majora's Mask used a lot of the same character models from Ocarina of Time, but I haven't played Ocarina in years, so when I played Majora's Mask I could accept it as its own game despite Ocarina's long shadow. Majora's mask took a really unique approach that differed greatly from Ocarina, and it wasn't just the three day cycles. This game was unusually grim for a Zelda game, but with that came some dramatic and (I'd hate to sound mushy) pretty heartfelt moments. I suppose the story, the masks, and the sidequests are reasons why Majora's Mask is one of my favorite Zelda games of all time.
To commemorate the month of it's release I'm going to contribute to articles related to the game (almost) everyday in October. If anybody know anything about the game please add something to these articles. Some of them are actually just stubs but they have the potential of becoming really good quality articles.