The Weekly WTF: A Whole Lot of Creeptastic With Majora’s Mask and BEN

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has long been the black sheep of the Zelda family. With its dark tone, general weirdery and that whole the-mothereffin'-moon-is-going-to-crash-into-our-faces thing it had going on, this was new territory right here.

This was the game that brought us Fierce Deity Link, those crazy dancing freaks, and that thing that lives in the toilet. This was back in the year 2000, and we still haven't forgiven it. If, fourteen years later, you still check the ol' WC for disembodied hands before taking a dump, you'll know what I mean.

And that's just what's in the game proper. The urban legends and such surrounding it are much worse. Prepare your eyes, ears and asses for the story of... BEN.

This one's been doing the rounds for some time now. You may have heard it already. But with the 3DS remake of the game finally inbound, it's time to revisit the tale of the haunted game cartridge.

The totally-not-BS-at-all story starts with an innocent young dude picking up a second-hand copy of Majora's Mask at a yard sale. It was battered to hell (not much of an issue for N64 carts; those robust buggers look as though they could withstand a bomb blast), and the owner made enigmatic remarks about the original owner ‘not being around any more.' Said young dude almost soiled his nerdly undercrackers when offered it for free, and so the legend of BEN began.

Yup, stranger than THIS sort of thing.

Apparently, this was the name of the previous owner. At any rate, it was the name of the save file left over. Not being a fan of sloppy seconds, this was immediately deleted, and Nameless Young Dude started the game afresh. With no idea that he was about to be thrust gonads-first into The Twilight Zone.

‘Something was off,' quoth G4TV. ‘The NPCs in Clock Town still referred to him as BEN; music played backward; Link would spontaneously erupt in flames; and he was hounded by a strange statue—the same one that appears when you play the incredibly creepy "Elegy of Emptiness" on your ocarina. Only this one teleported wherever the player went, seemingly taunting him with vague threats and menacing laughter.'

This weird-ass weirdery brings up all kinds of questions. Who was BEN? Who damn well still is BEN? What does he want? How did he fandangle his way into the game's coding? Most importantly, wasn't Majora's Mask freaky enough to begin with?

None of these questions will ever be answered. Not that they need to be, as the story's all BS anyway. Still, it's enough to put me off preowned games for a fair while. For a more detailed account of the creepypasta, check this out: