Thursday, November 28, 2013

Go Cucco Yourself, Nintendo!!

I'm seriously mad right now about this stupid Cucco minigame. I've played it for more than 200 times now and I don't seem to get any better at it. I never made it past the 200s mark, I can rarely survive the 100s. The hitboxes are ridiculous and you really need to stay focused for a long time here. I regularily lose the game by just scratching the Cucco's shadow... come on!

Why did there have to be an unlockable? Why? If there wasn't any, I could just ignore this alltogether. And if you want to show off that you can beat the full 999 seconds, you always can simply show the record. Nintendo has a serious issue with maximizing all digits to 9s, because this wouldn't be the first time they rewarded something like this...

I was seriously was considering that A Link Between Worlds could become my new favorite Zelda game, but this is a big flaw. I'm not kidding about this. A good Zelda game doesn't have any bullsh*t like this. I always go for the 100% completion rate in video games and I like Zelda games, because usually they don't have ridiculous requirements for completion, but there's still enough to it. And when I replay a Zelda game, I always try to get the 100% again. But now A Link Between Worlds sunk from "best replay value in the Zelda series" to "prepare to play HOURS of Cucco Run"... no thanks.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to demand surviving this ridiculously unfun minigame for about 17 minutes needs to be fired from Nintendo. And this needs to be PATCHED. Add three lives to the minigame or unlock the chicken at 100s. I don't care, but this is a serious flaw with the game.

I seriously hope that Nintendo NEVER EVER adds anything like this to their Zelda games again. It just ruins the replay value for completionists.

/rant

Yes, this whole post is very unreasonable and it's just some stupid chicken, so I probably shouldn't get so angry. I still am though and needed to channel my anger somewhere, sorry...

Also, please understand that I'm not complaining about the challenge, but the fact that it was put into a questionable minigame and that it hurts the replay value for 100% runs. I'm determined to beat this sooner or later and I will keep practicing. But it's definitely not something I want to do over and over again with each new playthrough. Also, if Nintendo wants to add a challenge to Zelda, they should consider a boss rush mode and not a minigame, where you have to dodge chickes for 17 minutes straight. I would love to spent my time practicing all the boss fights, but instead I'm dodging chickens. And I'm not happy about that.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good thing that you admit that the post is unreasonable.

The game is great and you know it! Don't let it ruin it for you just because of this minigame. I agree, however, that 999 seconds is inexcusably stupid.

Maybe just try not... to focus on this minigame everytime you replay ALBW, but focus more on the aweseome flexibility the world offers you.

I'm a long-year blog reader of yours, but this is the first time I think your passion and "compulsion" to 100% every game everytime almost angers me a bit, Howver - I can really understand the "itch" you get when not finishing a game completely.

Guess I'm also overreacting a bit, but I really want to defend ALBW because I think it's the best what has happened to the series in a long while.

Anonymous said...

Apologizing for the rude tone of my message.

TourianTourist said...

It's fine. I wasn't even sure, if I should even release this post, because it's really over the top.

But I was angry about it and had to channel my anger somewhere. :D

Overall ALBW is near perfect. There are only few things I would change about it, it's the most satisfying Zelda game in a long time. But as a completionist this thing is a big flaw that ruins the perfection.

TourianTourist said...

Also, Nintendo now can fix things. They can release patches. So, it's a good idea to state what you like and didn't like.

And I'm not the only one, who doesn't like this requirement. Maybe they hear the complaints and add three lives to the minigame or something. :D

Anonymous said...

I'm really curious as to where the proof of this 999 second challenge is. Is it even real?

It seems completely ridiculous to make someone sit down and dodge birds in a small enclosure for 17 minutes just to get '100%' of the game.. It really sounds like something a troll would make up.

Do you actually have hard evidence it exists, not just someone saying "I did this and so-and-so happened"? Because if not then I wouldn't even bother with it.

TourianTourist said...

It's in the official Prima Guide. Of course those guides are usually based on a beta version and things get changed, so it might be that Nintendo removed the chicken.

But I've heard from two people (one at GameFAQs, the other at zfans) that they already beat the 999 seconds and got it.

Anonymous said...

Wow you're such a crybaby. If something challenges you past your comfort level, guess what you have to do? GET FUCKING BETTER AND STOP FUCKING COMPLAINING. Complaining isn't going to help you get better so what's the point?

Before you say "you don't know what you're talking about", guess what? I'm struggling with this minigame as well and I've tried hundreds of times with no evident signs of improving, but you know what? Instead of complaining about the game or hoping for a patch or more lives or something, I know that this achievement is definitely possible (while certainly hard) and every time I get hit, it's MY FAULT and that I need to invest even MORE effort than I previously thought. That's the reality you need to address for yourself, whether you like it or not.

If you were truly passionate about completing everything in Zelda games, I'd think you'd have a more tough mindset. Nope, looks like you're just a fragile crybaby fraud who isn't dedicated enough to overcome challenging difficulty for the sake of completion. Go back to Ocarina of Time if you want a game that isn't challenging to complete all the way.

TourianTourist said...

@the previous post:

Yeah, because it's your fault that the game is completely unforgiving and doesn't leave any room for error. It's badly designed and not much fun to play. And there shouldn't be any unlockable linked to something like this.

And while I do like challenges in Zelda games, this is not the kind of challenge I'm looking for. Give me a super hard boss rush challenge in Hero Mode, I'm in! But dodging chickens for 17 minutes straight? Put that into Wii Play or whatever, but not into my Zelda games. This is just silly.

Also, I never said that I gave up. I'm determined to complete all Zelda games and I will eventually beat this as well. I already got a lot better at it... But it feels like a waste of time - time I could spent to replay this otherwise great Zelda game. Time I'd rather spent in a boss rush mode, which isn't there...

And the main point of this post was that it hurts the replay value for 100% runs, because THIS is definitely not something, youd'd want to do again. And even if I will somehow manage to beat this, all my savegames afterwards will be inferior.

That's a valid point of complaining. And Nintendo has proven that they actually listen to the fans by now. ALBW did so many things the right way, it's awesome. But I won't shut up until the remaining flaws with Zelda are taken care off as well. The minigame madness being one of them.

Mephistophoscrub said...

I enjoyed your post because I know what it's like to be that pissed off about something. :) If an important part of a game I loved was deliberately, sadistically hard, I would be mad. I resent it when I feel a game is wasting my time.

There are certainly things I am very particular about, but I'm glad I don't care about getting 100% in Zelda. It seems like a really uncomfortable itch to have.

I used to view my completed game saves like precious, hard-win treasures. but over time I realized I don't go back to most of them. When I do return to an old favorite, it's usually more fun to re-experience it from the beginning.

One of the best things about this new Zelda is how repayable it is. It's a nice medium length but feels fast, there's no filler to wade through, and you can play it differently each time. I expect to play through it many times. Why treasure that one save file with everything laid bare but nothing left to do? The beauty of the game is in playing it.

TourianTourist said...

@ Mephistophoscrub:

You're absolutely right. I still want to get that chicken though, before I go back to enjoying the game. :D

It's not even so much about having that one perfect savegame (those will be lost over time eventually anyway), but about this feeling that I've completed everything possible in the game.

And I guess, if I replay the game, I probably won't bother with the chicken again - but I'll still have the one save file with it.

K2L said...

This reminds me of that uber-stupid cannon game in TWW. Not the one in Spectacle Island, but the one in Windfall. Man, I hate that minigame.

TourianTourist said...

@K2L:
But you can always win that with a little luck.

This Cucco game requires massive amount of practice and patience. No minigame has ever been that bad in Zelda. :D

K2L said...

It's easy to say "a little luck" is all it takes when it's put very early in the game, when you don't have many Rupees to spare.

And you have to do it at least twice to get all rewards. Many more times if you fail to complete it with less than 20 cannonballs used. >_>

Edward Alan Bartholomew said...

Maybe you should take this as a lesson that you don't need to complete every game 100%. Like, when you read a book, do you always buy multiple annotated versions and read every essay written about it? Probably not. There's no need to go to extremes just for completion's sake.

TourianTourist said...

If I really, really like the book, I might do that.

I never said that I need to complete EVERY game. There are quite some games, where I'm still missing some things. Some trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, some Mirror Mode levels in DKCR... there are games, which I never even finished, like Super Mario Sunshine. I just didn't care enough.

I do care about Zelda, however. So much in fact that I want (not need, but want) to complete them all. And that I usually enjoy completing them again, whenever I replay them.

Unknown said...

this minigame killed the 100% completion replay value in albw. the shadow links is a whole other issue, but this one independently is by far the worst. anyway who says the 64 rings is the worst does not realize that a password exists. I replayed oracle of seasons on my 3ds and I still had the password from my gbc cartridge.