The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask[a] is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in 2000 as the sixth main installment in The Legend of Zelda series, and was the second using 3D graphics, following The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Majora’s Mask is set in Termina, an alternate reality to Hyrule, where the Skull Kid has stolen Majora’s Mask, a powerful ancient artifact. Under its influence, the Skull Kid causes the moon to slowly fall towards Termina, where it will crash after three days. The protagonist Link repeatedly travels back in time to the beginning of the three days to stop the moon from destroying the world.
The gameplay is centered on the perpetually repeating three-day cycle and use of various masks, some of which allow Link to transform into different beings. Link learns to play several melodies on his ocarina, which have a variety of effects, like controlling the flow of time or opening passages to four temples. Unlike Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask requires the Expansion Pak, which provides enhanced graphics and more on-screen characters. Critics acclaimed Majora’s Mask, praising the graphics and complex story. It is now considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made. Approximately 314,000 copies of the game were sold during its first week in Japan, and three million copies were sold worldwide. The game was rereleased for the GameCube as part of The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition in 2003, for the Wii’s Virtual Console service in 2009, and for the Wii U’s Virtual Console service in 2016. An enhanced remake for the Nintendo 3DS, titled The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, was released in February 2015
