Category: Zelda

November reigns

Well sir, I’m gonna have to call it: November 2011 is going to be the best month ever. I’m sure that my wedding day will still be the best day of my life, but May is going to have to work really hard if it wants to compete for month.

Oh, and by the way, I’m basing this on the fact that the new Muppets movie is in theaters on November 23rd. Officially I’m very excited, but I also can’t help but wonder who opens a movie on a Wednesday? That’s just crazy. Nobody goes to the movies on a Wednesday. I’ll likely be too absorbed by Skyward Sword to remember to go right away anyway.

Anyway, The Muppets. I can’t imagine that it’s going to be a bad movie; the trailer alone is awesome. Especially that first one from a long time ago, where they faked you out into thinking it was a romantic comedy and then Kermit showed up. And it’s co-written by Jason Segel, which should be more than enough. If you watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall (and there’s no reason not to have), you’ll remember the Dracula puppet rock opera. I still wonder why that hasn’t been adapted into something bigger. That little five-minute scene is more than enough reason to sit through the whole rest of the movie. If you still can’t make the commitment, look up “A Taste for Love” on YouTube.

I don’t have a taste for musicals. Every time I watch a Disney movie and the characters stop what they’re doing to sing a song about how it’s awesome to be completely irresponsible (The Lion King) or how much they yearn for true love (anything with a princess), I get annoyed and wish I could skip to the next scene. Somehow, the Muppets always manage to get around it. I’m not sure why I’m so much more open to music on film when Muppets are involved, but I am. Maybe it’s because they do it so well. Head back on over to YouTube and poke around there for Muppets music video covers. There is tons of it, and for the most part, it’s all golden.

So now, really, the only way I can think of that could make November even better would be for there to be no snow. And/or for me to be able to find some time for (non-portable) video games. Things had been so good over the last few months, but in October I think I’ve logged maybe two hours in Darksiders. That’s it. 🙁

Lights of Ecstatic Species

November is going to be the bestestist month ever. Super Mario 3D Land and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword come out a week apart from each other, and the latter comes bundled with a CD of the Zelda 25th anniversary symphony tour and a gold Wiimote. But besting even my insatiable lust for Nintendo games (and swag, and VGM), I’m going to see Matthew Good in concert.

If I had a bucket list, seeing Matthew Good live in concert would be damn near the top of my bucket list.

Van Halen might have been the first act I really liked, but Matthew Good was the first artist I ever truly got into. After getting Beautiful Midnight for a birthday or Christmas or something and listening to it every night for months, I was hooked. Napster hit the scene not long after, and I was able to listen to some of Matthew Good Band’s older tracks, but was constantly put out because I wasn’t able to find their previous album, Underdogs, no matter how hard I looked.

Back then I was still fairly green as far a music goes, and I was unsure about asking for the follow-up album, The Audio of Being, because I hadn’t heard any music from it (a trait I still have). I really wanted Underdogs, but I ended up getting The Audio of Being for Christmas in aught-one, and I may have listened to that one even more than Beautiful Midnight. I know that for several months, I not only put it on to listen to as I fell asleep, but also listened to it repeatedly as I whiled away my after-school hours on an emulated copy of Picross 2.

Over the years I’ve lost the vigor to keep up with new CD releases, so whenever I see a new Matthew Good album on store shelves, it’s like a tiny little Christmas for me. The two that really got my blood pumping though, were In A Coma and Live at Massey Hall. He actually did a tour to support In A Coma right after it’s release, but it was a bar show, and since I was afraid of bars at the time, I didn’t go.

In A Coma, by the way, is the gigantic 3-disc collection of not only his best work, but new material as well. The first disc is essentially the “greatest hits” disc, with a few new and unreleased songs thrown in for good measure. The second is part acoustic versions of old songs, part Loser Anthems (a limited edition EP), and half B-sides. The last disc is a DVD filled with music videos (with commentary), and some behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s essentially the physical manifestation of a wet dream for me.

Live at Massey Hall is exactly what it sounds like, and the reason I’m so excited to actually go to a show. I listened to both discs of that album every day that I got a chance for at least a month and still make time to listen to it on the long trips to and from work. So yeah, I’m pretty pumped. I thought new Zelda was going to be the event of the year for me, but I think it’s been topped. If the show is anywhere near as wonderful as the live album, I guarantee that I’ll be walking on air for weeks afterward.

So yeah, just wanted to share that. November 7th can’t come fast enough. </fanboy raving>

UPDATE – I just got an email from Chapters that’s going to make Novemeber even better. Way, way back in May or June or something I pre-ordered the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ultimate Collection Volume 1 as a birthday present for myself (as it was due to release mid-September), which is a collection of the first seven original TMNT comics, plus a bonus Raphael issue. But then, less than a month before the shipping date,  I got an email saying it was delayed to January 2012. Sucktastic. Today’s email however, says it has been un-delayed to November 22! Hooray!

I’ve never been really into comics, but I’ve always wanted to read through the original TMNT series. Even if they never produce another one of these, I’ll be glad to have the first few. While searching for that image, I found out that Kevin Eastman headed up a new TMNT comic series in August (issue #1 promptly sold out), and that Nickelodeon is producing a new animated series next year. Oh, 2012 is going to be a good year. New Turtles cartoon, new Nintendo console, end of the world. I feel like I’ve forgotten something important though…

Mirror, mirror, on the… everything.

I started up Master Quest mode in Ocarina of Time 3D the other day, and it threw me for a much bigger loop than I’d expected. I finished Master Quest on the Wind Waker pre-order bonus disc many years ago, but this is different still. In this version, the entire world is flipped around.

Actually, I can’t recall if the bonus disc Master Quest was flipped or not, but I certainly feel like I’d remember such a thing.

Anyway, I’d heard about the mirrored world before the game’s release, but shrugged it off as an insignificant change. After all, I never had any trouble adjusting to the mirrored courses in Mario Kart. Why would this be any different? Oh, maybe because I haven’t spent as much time with all the Mario Karts combined as I have with OoT. I’ll admit that in my old age I can’t remember where all the heart pieces or gold skulltulas are, but I have the maps and puzzles quite clearly committed to memory. The only game I know better is Super Mario 64, though not by much.

Anyway, playing the mirrored OoT is terribly unsettling. I can only describe the sensation as being like walking into your kitchen and finding that someone has exchanged the contents of every drawer and cupboard. It’s weird. Almost alien. It’s far more disorienting than I imagined, and it’s almost frightening that I constantly find myself getting lost in Kokiri Forest. I can’t imagine how much trouble I’m going to have navigating the Lost Woods and Gerudo Fortress.

Oddly, the Deku Tree’s flipped version didn’t make it any harder. Maybe there were so many other changes that my brain just interpereted it as an entirely new dungeon with some familiar scenery. Hopefully the rest of the dungeons go as smoothly.

On the flip side, it’s kind of nice to have a new challenge. Remixed dungeons are all well and good, but now the entire world has an air of freshness to it. Yeah, it’s just backwards, but I can’t just cruise around Hyrule on autopilot anymore. I actually have to put a bit of thought into which way I’m headed. Twice now, I’ve walked out of Castle Town and wondered where Kakariko Village went. And I’m sure it’ll happen several more times before I’m finished with the game.

In other Zelda news, the three extra stages in Four Swords: Anniversary Edition are so awesome. Grezzo needs to remake even more old Nintendo games. Or just re-release Four Swords Adventures with similar extras. As much as I like handheld Four Swords, the big screen version is just so much prettier. And has a little more variety.

Oh, I’m getting all excited about Zelda now. If there’s a surprise last-minute delay on Skyward Sword I might pop. Or play Wind Waker again. Know what? I should probably just do that anyway. It’s a crime that I’ve finished Twilight Princess more times than Wind Waker. Ramble, ramble, ramble…

Like a bullet from a gun

I bought my 3DS on launch day, and sadly, while Super Street Fighter 4 and the included apps were neat and kept me busy for a while, I pretty much didn’t use the machine until the eShop launched a couple weeks ago. And now that I have both The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D I see no lack of 3DS usage in my future. Haven’t played Mercs yet, but I have thoughts about Zelda!

Firstly, wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game where the graphics are so… inconsistent. At least where it wasn’t done on purpose. Yeah, the textures are cleaned up, the pre-rendered areas are completely remade, and character models look better, but not all of them! I’d need to stick them side-to-side, but most nameless NPCs still look very N64, and I suspect that maybe the bosses weren’t touched at all aside from a brightened colours? Maybe it’s not so drastic, but you can certainly tell that the game was just touched-up and not truly remade. The game looks spectacular in 3D though! It’s just a shame that you have to keep it at that perfect angle though. Oh well. Glasses-free.

Also, I’m surprised that I immediately took to the tilting mechanic for aiming. I didn’t think I’d use it when I read the reviews, but it just happened instinctively. Of course, doing so with 3D on usually makes a blurry mess because I don’t think to move my entire body in relation to the screen, but whatever. It’s cool, and almost as immersive as aiming bows and hookshots with the Wiimote.

It would seem that I’ve forgotten the locations of several heart pieces and gold skulltulas! This is crazy, because I used to be able to 100% the game without even a glance at a FAQ or map. Old age is starting to catch up with me, I suppose. And was there a stone of agony in the N64 version? I assume it used the rumble pak instead of an onscreen cue, but I don’t remember it at all. Possibly because I never had my rumble pak plugged in. And as I final note, after 13 years I just got the “skulltula” pun (skull + tarantula). Never clicked before. I’m stupid.

 

Feeling downtime

So you may have noticed that the site was down for the last couple of days. Oops! Looks like I forgot to pay my hosting fees. Anyway, back in business and back to posting. I’ll probably get that article up tomorrow. By Saturday, at the latest. Actually there are two to post, and only one of them is even sort of good. But whatever, need to get back on the content-creation train! Anyway, that’s all I had to say for today. Must Ocarina of Time 3D now.

Get on your bikes and ride!

First thing to mention today, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I’m working on a new little side project for this summer. The, uh, “field research” is going quite well, and it should be ready to launch on the first of July. I’m thinking that since it’s a wannabe-professional writing project that I should probably hire an editor, but we’ll see how it goes. Maybe it’ll work, maybe not. We’ll see come the end of the summer.

Also, how great is Link’s Awakening DX? I think it’s pretty awesome, though it is probably the single most obvious piece of evidence that I’m not nearly as patient with my games as I used to be. See, right at the beginning of the game, you can buy a bow from the shop. But it’s 980(?) rupees, which is way more than you can afford at the outset of the quest. But there is a crane minigame that, for the cost of 10 rupees and a little professional insight, you can grind and have that money much faster than you’d acquire it normally. Each play costs 10 rupees and there are two thirty-rupee prizes, so you have a net gain of 40 rupees a run, which means it takes 25 rounds to secure the necessary funds. It takes roughly a minute to grab both rupee prizes, which doesn’t sound so bad, but who wants to grind a crane game for half an hour? So for the first time ever, I’m skipping the bow for now. I’ll wait to come back once I’ve got the cash or the need for the weapon. I seem to remember having more rupees than I’d ever need by the third dungeon, and I don’t recall the bow ever being required to advance. As far as I can remember it’s more of a convenience, which is a far cry from modern Zelda games that have you use it all the time.

Lastly, where my recent Final Fantasy addiction is involved, I think I need to take a break from Dissidia and focus on Final Fantasy XIII. The game (Dissidia, that is) informs me that I’ve played it for forty-something days in a row now. That’s great and all, but at this point I’m mostly just grinding up my characters so that they’re overpowered when I start up Dissidia 012. FFXIII, on the other hand, I am crazy about and need to spend more time with. Over the last few weeks I’ve been powering my way through the “slow” part to the game, but it’s been slow going, getting in maybe one play session a week that lasts more than an hour. I really have no qualms with what I’ve played so far though. Yes, it’s running through enemy-filled hallways to the next cutscene, but I like it that way! Plus, the battles are dynamic enough that I don’t care if I’m just mashing the auto-battle command over and over. Not to mention that the game rewards you for ending battles as quickly as possible, and I love that the game doesn’t keep an average of your battle results. I would hate to open my menu and see a less-than perfect four-star rating there every time, spitting on my pride. Really, I could talk about FFXIII all day long, but this post is long enough already and I’ll save it for another time.

We’ve got a line in the sky

The past 24 hours have both strained and bolstered my love for Nintendo. Not equally, but we’ll get there. For now, let’s just focus on the worst of it, and then end on a positive note.

Yesterday we were promised a system update for the 3DS that enabled, among other things, the eShop. This is a feature that should have been included at the release of the hardware, but I can understand that they wanted to make sure it was as good as it could be, and delays are always better than half-assed product. But then the update was pushed back and back again up to yesterday. And then I got a message saying it would be available in the evening. I waited all damn day, and when did the update go live? 11:40. PM. If not for the fact that I love my system update, I might still be a little bitter about that one.

The eShop, however, is the glorious ship upon which all my hopes and dreams ride. See, ever since before the original Wii (more on that later) launched, I’ve been dreaming of a time where classic GameBoy games would be provided via some sort of download service. And now they are! Yeah, maybe the only ones worth a look are Link’s Awakening DX (still my favourite Zelda ever) and Super Mario Land (debatable), but some day Pokémons in all colours of the rainbow will be available, and maybe more importantly, the Wario Land series. And Donkey Kong ’94! Oh, and the Kirby’s Dream Land and Final Fantasy Legend series! And Metal Gear Solid! …I could go on like this all day. For now I’ll just revel in my favouritest Zelda and the fact that I actually really like Super Mario Land.

And now, about today’s overload of Nintendo goodness. Where to even start? To put it simply, I think the 3DS is about to really come into its own. The first-party lineup alone is more than I need, nevermind the love Capcom’s showing: two Resident Evils and the all-important MegaMan Legends 3. But that Wii U? I am ever so excited about it! With the first Wii, I admit, I was just as skeptical as everyone else, but I have no doubts that Wii U will deliver on every count. USB hard drive compatibility? Check. Awesome new tablet controller? Check. Some decent horsepower? Check. Console that’s an adorable cross of Wii and 360? Check and double check.

Let’s just get one thing straight; I think that the name Wii U is so, so terrible. That is not the name of a game console, that’s the sound a fire truck makes!

But on the plus side, we’re going to have a plethora of great games to play! Think about it this way: Four Swords could get a real revival! And not like I’ll play any of them (Arkham City being the only possible exception), but there are a buttload of “core” games headed to Wii U too, which nearly knocked me off my seat. Anyway, I should go and actually watch that press conference now. Following like five live blogs of it was all well and good, but I’d like to see some of this stuff in action.

A dream of sweet illusion

Okay, I’ll admit it. I blew it. On the last damn day too. But hey, it was Christmas Eve, and I had absolutely no time to do any blogging. So let’s just be happy that we got a solid twenty-three Days of Materialism. I did a lot better than the last two years anyway!

Christmas was pretty rad too. Aside from the ginormous day-before snowfall and subsequent driving through said snowfall, of course. I got most of the stuff I wanted, and tons more because I’m a spoiled little shit. But I spent more than half as much as I received (probably) so I’m thinking we can call it even maybe? The main thing to consider here is that I got Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and it’s everything Tomm promised it would be. Well, maybe not in the way I perceived it would be, but it’s still awesome! I also got The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, but I haven’t played it yet because I’m finishing up my second playthrough of Phantom Hourglass, which I don’t hate nearly as much as everyone else. And I bought Pokémon Rumble with the one (shame, people!) Nintedo Points card I received, and the full version is even more addictive than the demo! Hooray! And finally, Z sent me Zombies Ate My Neighbours, which is still great, but I need someone to play it with.

Also I got a shitload of clothes and a bunch of movies and a sweet RC helicopter, but those don’t really fit the theme of this blog, which has been “talking about a video game once a month” lately. Sad. Here’s hoping that this new year will bring back the variety, creativity, and volume of content that this stupid site used to have before I started dating.

Steamed out

Well, I said I was running low on on-hand reviewables. But I’ve been saved by the mail! Indeed, it’s only a one-day fix (and sliding right under the line at 11:50 to boot), but it’s something.

Eh? Whatever could it be? Oh, come on. Like the gold colour and the fairy doen’t give it away.

You may not have heard about this promotion, but if you’d bought The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and registered it on Nintendo.com, they would send you this swanky feather pen stylus for free. Free! There’s no better price, especially for special crap like this. I’m not sure if the offer’s still on, but it’s pretty worth it. I mean, if you’ve already got Phantom Hourglass, getting a sweet bonus for free is icing on the cake. It’s no reason to buy the game, like some special offers before it, but neat anyway.

I’ll admit I haven’t used it to play anything yet, but it feels nice, being particularly larger than both the original and Lite stylus. It doesn’t fit in the stylus notch in any DS unit (obviously), but that’s hardly an issue unless you want to show it off in public. I don’t think I’ll ever really use it at all, myself.

Yeah, so you can see that there’s a good size difference between the feather pen stylus and the regular types. I don’t really know what else I can say about the thing. It’s nice and clear. Ummm… Yeah. That’s about it. If you have Phantom Hourglass, go register it for free goodies. If not… well, why don’t you have it? It’s a pretty good game.

You can join in too

Well, the tall one is now officially a high-school graduate. My parents feel very old, despite the fact that they are decidedly not.

My wisdom teeth came out last Wednesday, which I may have mentioned before, and things did not go nearly as well as I’d hoped. I mean, the surgery and everything went off without a hitch, but it took many days to heal! I had to call in sick on Sunday! I’ve never called in sick to work before… On the upside, for the most of my downtime, I had Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition by my side to ease the pain. Well, my pain anyway. I can’t say the same for all those ganados. More on that tomorrow though.

So anyone else really like Zelda’s redesign for Brawl? I love it. Though to be anal about it, it’s Link who was originally a brunette! God damn.

In any case, I’m sure I must have mentioned this before, because I’ve told like everyone I know about it, but the official Smash Bros site is updating every weekday. It’s usually nothing big, but on the odd days when they reveal a new item or remixed song, I’m a very happy me. The soundtrack, as it currently stands, is probably going to be a two-discer at least, and will totally be worth buying. The current handful of samples that are up on the site are fantastic. Motoi Sakuraba’s take on the menu screen theme is wonderful, and it’s just the menu theme. I really hope he gets to work on at least one more track, and I’m looking forward to Akihiro Honda’s and Yoko Shimomura’s contributions in particular.

But yes, the daily updates have pretty much been my reason to wake up in the morning for the past couple weeks. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m quite excited about this game. I know I’m getting my hopes up, but is it too much to ask for any Capcom character to show up? Doesn’t have to be MegaMan you know. Arthur? Dan Hibiki? Nemesis? If Solid Snake can make the roster, I’m sure any of those are valid nominees.