"THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME" IS RANKED BY ALMOST EVERY MAJOR OUTLET AND VIDEO GAME AUTHORITY FROM "BUSINESS INSIDER" TO "IGN" AS THE GREATEST GAME IN NINTENDO 64 HISTORY AND IS IN THE TOP 5 OF ALL TIME GAMING. 

You are looking at the first release of history's highest average score of all professional video game review to date - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.   Under gaming's most famous creator and developer, Shigeru Miyamoto oversaw what would become widely considered to be one of the greatest games ever made! To say, Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a game changer is an understatement.   And this game got played.  It didn't sit  on shelves, it didn't end up in markdown bins and people played it....a lot!.  A similar comparison is Resident Evil first release on the PS1 longbox - how many of those you find sealed?  Nada. It got played!  Created in Japan, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, was released on 21 NOV 1998 in Japan.  2 days later, it was released on 23 NOV 1998 in the USA.  So you tell me what is worth more - a USA gold edition or the first release of the game?  Not only was it released first in Japan but the Japanese version has way better box art and at the end of the day, it will be the ONE that is most sought after; that is just how it goes.   I laugh at the graded game market - let me explain.  People are spending large sums of money for "North America" PORTS of Japanese games.  Think about that for a second.....Nintendo and many other Japanese gaming companies, created, developed and released their games onto the world when the game was introduced in the Japanese market.  However, funny thing - you will see people dropping thousand and thousands of dollars for "early", "mid" and "late" production of a North American game.  Again, these North American games are PORTS so why does it matter when it was released, production-wise, in the USA market?  THEY ARE PORTS OF JAPANESE GAMES.  Too funny but sooner or later, the video game market will figure it out and a lot of "collectors" will lose a lot of money as some of their games are not first appearances or releases but really ports of games.  It is just a matter of time before I am proven correctly; sooner or later, collectors will want the first appearance and not the first port.  This important Mario title is way more valuable than a USA version that was ported to North America over 3 months later.  Too funny that many can't wrap their head around that.  Same goes for Pokemon, Mario and on and on. Therefore, this is the most important release of the game - the Japanese version.  Released there first, created there and developed in Japan as well.  Besides, the Japanese versions have, by far, the best artwork whereas the USA version box art is usually pretty weak - which is pretty standard across the board for all N64 games. Nintendo did not put plastic seal on their N64 Japan games however, one can, under magnifying lenses, tell if a box lid has ever been lifted and opened.  Wata Games has inspected this unopened game from a factory 10-pack box that I owned for a VERY long time and determined that the box lid has never been opened or tampered with.  Therefore, they graded the game seal (no seal) and gave it a grade of 9.2.  Serial # is 576076-007.  The highest graded Japan Import of this classic game is a 9.4.  Shipping with online signature confirmation and insurance is $20 (I WILL PAY THE DIFFERENCE FOR THE FULL INSURANCE AND PROFESSIONAL PACKAGING BY THE UPS STORE)