The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 home console. It was released worldwide in 2000 as a main installment in The Legend of Zelda series and was the second to use 3D graphics, following 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, to which it is a direct sequel. Designed by a creative team led by Eiji Aonuma, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and Shigeru Miyamoto, Majora's Mask was completed in less than two years. It featured enhanced graphics and several gameplay changes from its predecessor, though it reused a number of elements and character models, which the game's creators called a creative decision made necessary by time constraints.
The story of Majora's Mask takes place two months after the events of Ocarina of Time. It follows Link, who on a personal quest ends up in Termina, a world parallel to Hyrule. Upon reaching Termina, Link learns that the world is endangered as the moon will fall into the world in three days.
The game introduced several novel concepts, revolving around the perpetually repeating three-day cycle and the use of various masks that can transform Link into different beings. As the player progresses through the game, Link also learns to play numerous melodies on his Ocarina, which allow him to control the flow of time or open passages to four temple dungeons. Characteristic of the Zelda series, completion of the game involves successfully traversing through several dungeons, each of which contain a number of complex puzzles and enemies. On the Nintendo 64, Majora's Mask—unlike Ocarina of Time—required the Expansion Pak, which provided additional memory for more refined graphics and greater flexibility in generating on-screen characters.
