S4E01: Majora’s Mask -or- Bad Moon Rising

Derick from the Underrated movie podcast and RiRiYells from Twitch cared who Link was before he put on the mask, so they’re both back to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64, 2000) as they join Mike and Jaymo to launch Season 4 of The Old SwitchAroo’s epic quest to research and review every retro game in Nintendo Switch Online’s Nintendo Classics catalog!

In this episode, we talk about Majora’s Mask’s origins in an intended redesign of Ocarina of Time called Ura Zelda, how game development crunch time was so intense that it became a feature of NPC dialogue, and correct some misconceptions about the origins of the name Majora. Plus we start the season with double the mini-games, with RiRi giving a read of the rest of the panel based on their favorite masks and Two Masks and a Lie dipping into everyone’s past costumes.

Thanks for listening, and a very special thanks to Kristal Fields of The Lazy Circles for our catchy theme song! Subscribe to The Old SwitchAroo to get more retro goodness delivered straight to your feed! You can also join the fun on https://www.theoldswitcharoo.com, where you'll find links to our Discord, social media, and so much more!

Game on, everyone.

(0:00) Intro

(1:25) Welcoming RiRi

(1:55) Welcoming Derick

(2:20) Majora’s Mask

(40:03) Mini-Game Minute: TaRiRi Reading

(49:08) Majora’s Mask (cont’d)

(56:03) Mini-Game Minute: Two Masks and a Lie

(1:04:58) Majora’s Mask (cont’d 2)

(1:29:10) Ranking Retro

(1:30:25) NintenDO or NintenDON’T

You can join RiRiYells on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/ririyells

You can find more from Derick and the Underrated movie podcast at https://underratedmoviepodcast.com/, wherever you get your podcasts, and on social media.

Majora’s Mask Manual: https://www.nintendo.com/eu/media/downloads/games_8/emanuals/nintendo_8/Manual_Nintendo64_TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask_EN.pdf

Iwata Asks| Volume 1 : The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/ds/zelda/0/0/

Majora's Mask's most infamous line is actually all about crunch by Ed Nightingale | Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/majoras-masks-most-infamous-line-is-actually-all-about-crunch

25 Things You DIDN'T Know About The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask | MojoPlays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rSRSPw756w

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask by thesausage in 2:23:15 - Summer Games Done Quick 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCnQ81UD9O8

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask by ClaireLynnD in 26:50 - Awesome Games Done Quick 2021 Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tic8kXvkiGM 

Zelda Dungeon: https://www.zeldadungeon.net/

Man vs Mask by Derick McDuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DyvQuiB3H4

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was never supposed to exist by Gabe Durham | Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/30/21241902/the-legend-of-zelda-majoras-mask-was-never-supposed-to-exist/

Aonuma talks Majora’s Mask – Majora and Termina name origins, lots more by Brian | Nintendo Everything: https://nintendoeverything.com/aonuma-talks-majoras-mask-majora-and-termina-name-origins-lots-more/

Majora’s Mask art director wanted to work on one last ‘strange’ Zelda by Andy Robinson | Video Games Chronicle: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/majoras-mask-art-director-wanted-to-work-on-one-last-strange-zelda/