Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Call Me Rollgoal Master (Twilight Princess)

Remember Rollgoal? No? Well, that's the marble slalom minigame found at the fishing pond in Twilight Princess:


If you've never played it, it's probably one of the worst minigams ever in the Zelda series. It has every criteria in the book of a bad minigame. It's more something that belongs into Wii Play, but not into Zelda. It's not much fun because of the frustrating controls and you have to complete it staggering 64 times in order to get everything.

Well, I only ever beat the first eight levels to get the frog lure and then ignored the game. All it does is repeating it's eight levels over and over again with a stricter time limit. However, if you beat all 64 levels, you get a nice level select. And for a true 100% completion this counts (since there's something unlocked here).

Because I'm trying to truly complete all Zelda games (not just all items, but basically every small unlockable like with the 999 hits in sword training or the 999 seconds in Cucco Run) and this was part of it.

And actually it wasn't that bad. I always hated that game, but I guess you can grow to like every minigame in Zelda, if you play it long and often enough. As soon as you get better at it, it's starting to be "fun".

Well, at first I did the GameCube version about two weeks ago. The controls are more precise, so it was more a matter of getting the right timing for the slopes. It didn't even take on hour to complete all 64 levels, so I even completed it a second time on another savegame.

Today I decided to complete the Wii version as well. I feared, it would be absolutely terrible because of the controls, but then I found a nice trick. Actually I used the same trick, when I completed the game for the first time on the Wii. Don't hold the Wiimote in your hands. Place it on a flat surface and only tilt it to the sides. Use the analogstick to change the camera and with it your directions. Basically what I did was just holding the Wiimote to the right and steer with the analog stick.

The trouble with the Wiimote controls is always tilting it forward and backward. That's a lot more imprecise and can cause the ball to roll off many times. You might even accidently change the stance and screw up. Tilting the Wiimote only to the sides is a lot more precise. I even found it easier to control than the GameCube version! And with the Wiimote laying flat, it can't accidently cause your ball to roll off. And you even get an higher time limit on the Wii. On the GameCube you have to beat the levels 8-1 to 8-8 in 30 seconds. On the Wii that's 40 seconds, which is enough to beat the levels with my method. So, I can only recommend this playstyle. I did the whole 64 levels without any trouble. It went so smooth that I even beat level 8-8 on my first try! And now finally after seven years I fully completed both the GameCube and the Wii version of Twilight Princess! Yay.

So, the only things left for me to do in Zelda are the 2nd Quest in The Wind Waker HD (I'm going to save this for next year) and the Cucco Run 999 seconds record in A Link Between Worlds... I'm not sure what of these two things will happen first.... :D So far I was able to find nice tricks to overcome these ridiculous minigames, but with Cucco Run this is going to require lots of practice (and abusing the Start button).

No comments: