GS Gives Ocarina of Time 3D an 8.5

One of the most anticipated 3DS games was released last week in the US, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, an enhanced port of the N64 game. While many other game sites gushed all over the game, giving it similar praise to the 1998 original with scores of 9.5s and 10s, GameSpot give it an 8.5. Oh. Snap.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not appalled that the portable, arguably superior version of Ocarina of Time got an 8.5. But many Zelda fanatics probably are. This certainly isn't the first time GameSpot has given a Zelda game a score lower than a 9. Twilight Princess was rated a very high score of an 8.8. To say that a good chunk of the fanbase that reads GameSpot flipped out over the score would be a massive understatement. This was seen as an insult, almost as if the score meant that Twilight Princess was a bad game. Is there some decreed rule that demands every Zelda game must be given a 9 or a 10 to be considered good? I mean, come on, you know an 8.5 is a very high score, right? 8.5 is the marking of a great game. Bad and subpar games get rated 5 and under, like Duke Nukem Forever.

This does make me wonder. Did Zelda fans freak out when Majora's Mask rated an 8.3 on GameSpot? Or what about when Ocarina of Time hit the Virtual Console and scored an 8.9? Were there riots in the street that I did not know about? Someone please tell me so I can sleep well at night.

By the way, GameSpot isn't the only site that gave Ocarina of Time 3D a "less than perfect score." 1UP gave the game a B+. Man, it must be a terrible game.