There's a string of good dungeons and the strength of the yet-to-be-played-out Zelda formula really pulls you through. The game also starts quite strong I feel, if you ignore the annoying and unnecessarily-punishing stealth section. The music is fantastic and memorable, they did some cool stuff with the weapons, and most of the dungeons were at least on par with the ones from Ocarina. I still used all my pocket money to preorder the game, and my memory of that first playthrough is still quite positive. I wanted what was in that Space World demo.
Ocarina of Time was dear to my little preteen heart at the time, and it was a profound disappointment when I saw the art style of Wind Waker for the first time. My opinion of the game has always been a bit of a roller coaster.
