Bongo Bongo (Ocarina of Time)
Bongo Bongo is the culmination of one of Ocarina of Time’s most pronounced detours into spooky, scary shit through the Shadow Temple. It’s a horrifying, ghostly beast juxtaposed against a silly premise: Link faces the monster on a giant bongo drum that it beats on to no discernable rhythm beyond its murderous intent, throwing our hero off-balance on the unstable ground. But the only way you can actually see Bongo Bongo and strike its glowing red eye is to use the Lens of Truth, which helps you see horrors not visible to the naked eye. Even as a kid, I remember recognizing that Bongo Bongo was both kind of a pushover, but still a pretty terrifying encounter, and the moment when it clicked in my elementary-school brain that I had to use the Lens of Truth was when what had seemed really scary became just another monster for me to slash through. — Kenneth Shepard
