"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," considered as the world's greatest video game ever created, will now have a virtual console edition when the game publisher brings it to Wii U.
Nintendo of Europe announced through Twitter last week that the iconic game will have a new version that will be released on Thursday, July 2, for the Wii U Virtual Console for those who are living in European countries.
Since the announcement did not mention any possible inclusions in the upcoming "Ocarina of Time" remastered version for the Wii U virtual console, it will probably be released as an enhanced version of the classic Nintendo 64 edition which first came out in 1998. A Gamecube version was also released in 2007, and a Nintendo 3DS edition came out in 2011.
"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" has been highly acclaimed worldwide, garnering almost perfect review scores from just about all the major gaming publications during its first release. It was given a 99/100 rating by Metacritic, while GameRankings gave it a 97.54 percent rating.
Critics and players love the level design of the game, as well as its interesting gameplay mechanics. It was the first game that introduced the target-lock system as well as the context-sensitive buttons, which is now rampantly used in most 3D adventure game releases.
The game's original soundtrack, composed by "The Legend of Zelda" series composer Koji Kondo, was also widely lauded since "Ocarina of Time" came out.
The role-playing action-adventure game also received multiple awards and recognitions since it was released in 1998, including the Grand Prize in the Interactive Art division of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 1998. It also received six major honors at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards of the same year, namely the Game of the Year award, the Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering awards, as well as the Console Game of the Year, Console Adventure Game of the Year, and the Console RPG of the Year awards.
There's no word yet whether or not the remastered Wii U virtual console edition of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" will also come out in the U.S. market, but the European players can start purchasing the game on Thursday for £8.99.
