8 games similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — handpicked for fans of Action and Adventure games.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time defined the gold standard for 3D action-adventure games: a vast world to explore, clever dungeon puzzles, memorable characters, and a sweeping story told with cinematic confidence. If you love the mix of exploration, puzzle-solving, and satisfying progression through a living, breathing world, these picks will hit the same notes.
Nintendo 64 | 2000 Built on the same engine and featuring Link as the protagonist, Majora’s Mask trades Ocarina’s expansive journey for a denser, stranger, and more emotionally resonant experience. Its three-day time loop creates a world full of characters with their own schedules and secrets, rewarding the same obsessive curiosity that made exploring Hyrule so satisfying. If Ocarina of Time is a hero’s epic, Majora’s Mask is a haunting fever dream — and arguably just as essential.
SNES | 1991 The 2D blueprint from which Ocarina of Time was built, A Link to the Past features the same dungeon structure, item-gating, and light-versus-dark world duality that became hallmarks of the series. Its tight design and sense of discovery hold up remarkably well, and fans of Ocarina who want to trace the lineage of its puzzle and exploration design will find this indispensable. It remains one of the best-paced adventure games ever made.
Nintendo 64 | 1996 The game that proved 3D platforming could feel free and joyful, Super Mario 64 shares Ocarina of Time’s DNA as a landmark N64 release that redefined what games could be in three dimensions. Each of its self-contained worlds rewards exploration and secrets in the same way that Ocarina’s overworld and dungeons do, and the progression through collecting Power Stars mirrors the satisfaction of unlocking new areas with new items. If you loved moving through 3D space in Hyrule, Mario’s castle will feel like home.
Nintendo 64 | 1998 Rare’s masterpiece collectathon launched the same year as Ocarina of Time and captures a similarly joyful, curiosity-driven spirit of exploration. Each world is packed with secrets, memorable characters, and environmental puzzles that demand the same attentive eye that Ocarina’s dungeons do. Its warmth, wit, and sense of adventure make it a natural companion to any Zelda fan’s N64 library.
PlayStation | 1997 Symphony of the Night shares Ocarina’s sense of gradual empowerment — the world opens up as you gain new abilities, rewarding backtracking and careful exploration. Its enormous castle is filled with secrets, hidden rooms, and the same sense of mystery that makes Hyrule feel alive, all wrapped in a gothic atmosphere and one of gaming’s finest soundtracks. Fans of Ocarina’s mix of action and discovery will find it utterly absorbing.
SNES | 1994 A criminally underplayed action-RPG that follows a young hero on a globe-trotting quest full of ancient ruins, mysterious powers, and poignant storytelling — all elements that resonate strongly with Ocarina’s tone. Its combat is brisk and satisfying, and the dungeon design carries the same sense of earned progression that Zelda fans crave. The emotional weight of its narrative punches well above what most expect from a 16-bit game.
Nintendo 64 | 2000 Paper Mario channels the same warm, adventurous spirit as Ocarina of Time while adding a charming RPG layer built around exploration and discovery in a richly detailed Mushroom Kingdom. Like Ocarina, it moves through a series of themed worlds each anchored by a memorable boss and a satisfying objective, with a light puzzle element running throughout. It’s the closest the N64 ever came to recapturing the sense of wonder that Ocarina of Time so effortlessly delivered.
Game Boy Advance | 2001 Golden Sun brings Ocarina-caliber puzzle design into a handheld RPG, using elemental Psynergy abilities to interact with the environment in ways that mirror how Link uses tools in dungeons. Its world is full of secrets that reward careful exploration, and its epic, mythology-soaked story delivers the same sense of a young hero setting out on a world-altering quest. For fans of Ocarina who want a more systems-deep experience, Golden Sun is a revelation.
Every game on this list shares Ocarina of Time’s core philosophy: the world is a puzzle box, and the player’s growing arsenal of abilities is the key. Whether it’s Link’s hookshot opening new dungeon paths, Alucard’s bat form revealing hidden passages, or Will’s Psycho Dash breaking through walls in Illusion of Gaia, these games gate exploration behind earned progression rather than raw power — making every new ability feel like a gift. They also share a strong sense of place, building worlds that feel cohesive and inhabited rather than merely decorative.
Beyond mechanics, these titles share Ocarina’s tonal ambition: the belief that an action-adventure game can carry genuine emotional weight. From Majora’s Mask’s meditation on grief and time to Paper Mario’s warmth and Golden Sun’s mythological grandeur, each game uses its adventure framework to tell a story that sticks with the player long after the credits roll. They are games about journeys — and they understand that the best journeys change the hero, and the player, by the end.
| Feature | Platform | Year | Score | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask | NINTENDO-64 | 2000 | 9.7 | Action, Adventure |
| The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past | SNES | 1991 | 9.9 | Action, Adventure |
| Super Mario 64 | NINTENDO-64 | 1996 | 9.9 | Platformer, Adventure |
| Banjo-Kazooie | NINTENDO-64 | 1998 | 9.5 | Platformer, Adventure |
| Castlevania: Symphony of the Night | PLAYSTATION | 1997 | 9.9 | Metroidvania, Action, RPG |
| Illusion of Gaia | SNES | 1993 | 8.8 | Action, RPG |
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Nintendo's most psychologically dark Zelda game dropped Link into the doomed world of Termina, where a moon falls every three days, time loops endlessly, and the inhabitant cast need his help before everything ends. Majora's Mask is a meditation on grief, identity, and impermanence unlike anything else in the franchise.
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Widely considered the greatest action-adventure game ever made. A Link to the Past perfected the top-down Zelda formula with its Light World/Dark World duality, 12 intricate dungeons, and a richly realized Hyrule.
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The game that invented 3D platforming as a genre. Super Mario 64 launched alongside the Nintendo 64 and demonstrated, definitively, that video games could work in three dimensions. Its influence on every 3D game that followed is incalculable — this is where the template was written.
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Rare's charming 3D platformer masterpiece sent a bear and a bird through nine inventive worlds brimming with collectibles, clever puzzles, and an irresistible sense of fun. Banjo-Kazooie refined the collectathon formula with exceptional world design and remains one of the N64's finest games.
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One of the most perfect games ever made, Symphony of the Night merged action platforming with deep RPG mechanics and a sprawling inverted castle to create the Castlevania series' masterpiece. It gave its name to a subgenre and remains the defining standard of exploration-based action games.
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The middle entry in Quintet's Soul Blazer trilogy — a globe-trotting action RPG following Will's journey through historical wonders (Incan ruins, Great Wall, Nazca Lines) with transformations into two powerful alternate forms.
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Intelligent Systems' charming RPG gave Mario the storybook treatment — flat paper characters in a colorful 3D world — and delivered a warm, witty adventure with a battle system accessible enough for beginners yet deep enough for RPG veterans. Paper Mario is pure Nintendo joy in interactive form.
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Camelot's technical marvel proved the Game Boy Advance could host a fully-featured JRPG. Golden Sun's Psynergy system — elemental magic used both in battle and for overworld puzzle-solving — was innovative, the presentation was stunning for handheld hardware, and the world of Weyard was richly imagined.