Friday, September 11, 2026

Age of Calamity - Definitive Edition: Save Data Bonus Weapons

images of the Training Sword and Soldier's Broadsword

Similar to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, you can also receive bonus weapons in Age of Calamity's upcoming Definitive Edition whenever it detects save data of related games on your system.

As in the Nintendo Switch version, you can get the "Training Sword" for when you have save data for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild present. So, that's actually not new and you may even have this already. But they have also added a bonus for Age of Imprisonment, where you will get an "Ancient Sword", which is the Soldier's Broadsword from that game.

Having this weapon in Age of Calamity feels a bit odd, like something that shouldn't belong in this era at all. It's also funny how Age of Imprisonment gets a save data bonus via Age of Calamity, where this now goes back and forth.

Ocarina of Time Remake: New Items?

screenshot of the equipment screen with the Kokiri Tunic selected

Let's take a closer look at the Equipment and Items menu screens again, because speculation is always fun. We haven't seen the Collection screen yet, so an important part of the picture is missing, but it seems like each screen has a clear purpose. "Items" is for what you can put onto the ZR button for active usage. You can also swap these by holding down R for a quick menu, just like in all the Zelda games made for Nintendo Switch.

The "Equipment" screen on the other hand includes everything else that can be changed somehow. Like in the Nintendo 64 original, this is where you alter between the three different swords, shields and tunics. But it now also comes with the "toggle items". These are different from the "action items" on the ZR button, because all they did was to turn a piece of Link's equipment on and off. This includes the Lens of Truth, which are now a pair of goggles, as well as the masks. And in Ocarina of Time 3D both the Iron and Hover Boots became a similar item.

Since all of these used to clog item slots in the past and there is now only one item slot, they have moved them onto the D-pad for convenience. But since the D-pad also triggers the ocarina and Navi, they had to come up with a solution here, where pressing up is for changing headwear and pressing down is for changing footwear. It's not exactly clear yet how you will quickly swap between the two alternate boots, or between the goggles and your mask, because going into the menu for this would be inconvenient. My guess so far was that you will hold down the button for that.

Anyway, there is one more item slot below these four. It's probably for the ocarina, since this item also gets activated via the D-pad. And everything that is completely passive has moved into the Collection screen, like the Goron's Bracle, Silver and Golden Scale and Gauntlets, the Bomb Bag, and so on.

It could also be the Stone / Shard of Agony, which you can simply turn on and off here, similar to the Seashell Sensor in the Link's Awakening remake. But I personally hope that this item won't return at all. It was originally a gimmick meant to sell the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pack, as a means to find all the secret grottos. And these grottos were so obscurely hidden at times that it's basically a remnant of the NES era.

Ideally, in the remake you will have clear visual clues on the ground whenever you can find a grotto. They can be subtle, but they should be there. And these clues should even make it also clear whether you have to use bombs or the Song of Storms to open it. Though, there are different clips on the Japanese website and in the trailer, where young Link fights the Wolfos at the entrance to the Sacred Forest Meadow. And there doesn't seem to be anything there that indicates a hidden secret, but it's hard to tell and they also could have moved the location slightly.

Alternatively, they could just give the new "Goggles of Truth" the ability to easily spot hidden grottos. This would probably be the most streamlined solution – combine both of the secret-finding items into one.

screenshot of the Items screen with Deku Nuts selected

Let's move on to the "Items" screen, because that's where the real question marks await us. It got split into three different sections. One is for young Link's items in the top right, one is for adult Link's items in the top left, and everything in the bottom half can be used by both. Each slot has a shape that resembles the item somewhat, so you can make educated guesses what goes into what.

For young Link you get the Deku Sticks, the Fairy Slingshot, the Magic Beans, and the Boomerang. It's curious that the Magic Beans seemingly remain as an action item in the new system. Maybe they are functioning differently to justify this, where using them anywhere might lead you to the nearest spot of soft soil. But if they work exactly like in the original, then this will be just an unnecessary waste of space, because a simple prompt at the soft soils would have done the trick.

Adult Link gets the Hookshot, Fairy Bow, the three magic arrows, and the Megaton Hammer. Not necessarily in the exact order, because here it's a bit harder to tell what goes into what slot. You'd expect the largest slot for the hammer, but that one is clearly shaped like the bow. But it doesn't matter, because everything is accounted for.

Things get more interesting in the shared section. First you have Bombs and Bombchus. Then you have the Deku Nuts below, an open slot next to them in the same hexagonal shape, and then three magic spells. Then comes a square slot and an octagonal slot below it in the bottommost row. That row has otherwise slots for the Empty Bottles, five in total, which means that they have added a new one.

Either the square or the octagonal slot in the bottom right could be used for the trading quest items, given that they haven't made those prompt-based now. But there are actually two different lines of these, one for the child and one for the adult era, but they should combine these into one, because there is no good reason not to. In the original game Zelda's Letter was replaced by the masks, which now function differently. They could just remove it from your items and then later use the same slot for the Pocket Egg, which eventually ends up as the Claim Check. It would also explain why this slot sits in the shared section.

Now, this still leaves two items unaccounted for. One idea would be that they are introducing the Pictograph Box from Majora's Mask already. They love giving you the option to do selfies in the 3D Zelda games, and Nintendo loves dedicated photo modes in general. They may even introduce a new side quest line where you have to take photos of monsters and other things, but it doesn't have to go full "Hyrule Compendium".

Then there is the open slot next to the Deku Nuts. The identical shape suggests that this might become a similar item, so potentially another consumable, maybe also something that can be thrown at enemies. Maybe it's something like the Scent Seeds from the Oracle games, which lets you attract and distract enemies.

Or, if they were to redesign the Ice Cavern to turn it more into a proper dungeon, then maybe the Blue Fire could evolve from a bottled item. Maybe you have something like fire crystals that can be thrown and turn into a flame on impact. This could even give you more combat options for burning enemies, in addition to Din's Fire and the Fire Arrows, or the possibility to light fires even when you're out of magic. But that's just an idea. It would be totally fine if the Blue Fire worked the same as before, especially when there is one more bottle to find.

In either case, if there is a new consumable, it could mean that you might be able to expand its totals, like with the Deku Nuts and Sticks before. Well, it could get the same treatment as the Bombchus, where their total is maxed out from the start and you're not using them as frequently anyway. But if it's another plant-based item, and maybe something that appears early in the game, e.g. "Deku Fruits", this could warrant a new reaction at the Forest Stage.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Master Quest?

Link moving underwater through the Water Temple's central room

It's a question that many Zelda fans have on their mind right now: will the remake come with the Master Quest mode and dungeons? Ocarina of Time 3D did, but the Nintendo 3DS game was truly a 1:1 remake, even based on the original game's code, so they could easily duplicate the quirky ROM hack nature of the modified dungeons, where you suddenly have cows stuck in the walls of Jabu-Jabu's Belly.

This may not be the case for the remake, where they are truly redoing everything from scratch and also taking many liberties in the process, especially when it comes to the environments. The Water Temple, for example, now features a new bombable wall in of the tunnels around the middle section, as you can see above.

They could, of course, still replicate the ideas and nature of Master Quest, maybe also throwing in some spins of their own, but it would be a lot of extra work. Luckily, they haven't said much about additional features yet, other than the amiibo masks and the microphone support, where they are likely introducing some at a later point. And maybe the Master Quest mode will become a headline then, or maybe they will release it as paid DLC in the future.

If they add Master Quest, then I hope that they won't mirror the game this time. I hated it when they did this in Ocarina of Time 3D and I will always find the Wii / Hero Mode version of Twilight Princess to be utterly confusing. I'm not a fan of Mirror Modes in general, because they are just the cheapest and most literal way of putting a spin onto a game. The remade world of Ocarina of Time will be novelty enough.

Also, things like double damage should probably moved into a simple Hero Mode option, which can be chosen right from the start. It could just be a toggle like in Echoes of Wisdom, so you won't end up with four combinations of different game modes.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Nintendo Today: The Legend of Zelda Collectible Cards

Nintendo Today! Collectible Cards, receive a new card each day, from September 9th

Nintendo wants you to use the Nintendo Today app. They really do, and they are trying all sorts of things to motivate people to click on this app on a daily basis. One of these strategies are digital collectible cards. And I would be lying if I said that this trick didn't work on me, because I have all the ones for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

As part of the 40th Anniversary initiatives, they are now doing the same thing for The Legend of Zelda, with more than 300 cards based on the entire series. Every day you can collect one predetermined card, but there is more to this: each card you claim will come with a quiz question. And if you answer correctly, you will earn a medal. You can use these medals to obtain the cards you've previously missed.

So, if you've missed the one from yesterday, because you were too busy screaming at the Nintendo Store, then you can use the medal from today to obtain it. But this one won't give you the quiz question, so you won't be able to earn another medal from it. You can only get one medal per day.

There are also four phone wallpapers to unlock, which cost 130 medal in total, which is nearly half of what you can earn over the course of all 300+ cards. But they will add more of these wallpapers, one for each card set, where those seem to cost 10 additional medals per set. It's unclear how many sets there are in total, where in the end you should not be missing a single day if you truly want all the things. Of course, you can just get these wallpapers elsewhere, but even if you ignore them, you still need to be there every second day and get all of the quiz questions right if you want a full collection of cards. It's quite strict.

With the Super Mario Galaxy Movie this wasn't the case... I kept forgetting about it, but there weren't as many cards and the event was running for quite some time, so it had a lot of leeway.

At least, the 40th Anniversary also solves one of my biggest issues I had the with the app: the Zelda theme so far was purely based on Tears of the Kingdom, and I'm sick of seeing that game. Now the theme is based on a different Zelda game every day. Yesterday it was Oracle of Ages, today it is A Link to the Past + Four Swords. And that alone already makes a big difference. I want to see what art they are using, it's like a daily Zelda sheet calendar.

I also love Zelda quizzes, because I'm good at them. There is so much knowledge about the Zelda games stored in my brain, but it's only really useful for two things: this blog and answering questions about the games. But there is no timer there, so you can also look up the answers just in case.

Age of Calamity + Definitive Edition = Game Key Card

mock-up explaining Game Key Cards with the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity cover art partly visible

Nintendo has opened their pre-orders today for the Definitive Edition of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. And it's indeed going to be a Game Key Card, the first in connection to Zelda, making this as unattractive as it could possibly be.

This whole Definitive Edition thing feels like a pure scam. It is technically just one of those Nintendo Switch 2 Editions you keep seeing, like it was done for both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Normally, you can either upgrade your existing game for a small fee, or buy it all anew as a physical release (with all of it on the card).

For some reason they didn't want to offer this for Age of Calamity. Instead, you will have to buy the whole game again. Sure, there is a 50% discount for those who already own the Nintendo Switch version, where even your physical copy can be registered for it. But this discount doesn't take into consideration whether you have already purchased the DLC or not. You will have to pay 30 bucks either way, which is unfair. And that's three times as much as you normally have to pay for a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade.

Link fighting a larger horde of red Bokoblins in Hyrule Field

Plus, with how little this upgrade is offering, it really should be just five bucks. All it has – in addition to the performance and resolution boost – is more monsters on screen (which were there before, but couldn't get rendered at the same time), and a new difficulty mode absolutely nobody asked for.

Well, the pricing of the upgrade wouldn't really have mattered for me personally, because I was going for the physical edition anyway. I like to have as much on cartridge as I possibly can. But now it turns out that I can't have any of it on card. In fact, when upgrading to the Definitive Edition, I will have to get the whole game digitally now, whether I like it or not.

Game Key Cards are a Nintendo Switch 2-specific topic that I have yet to discuss, mainly because it didn't affect me so far. In general, I think they can be a good compromise for games that are simply too large to put them on a card. If you want the option to easily lend your games to friends, or to resell them, or if you still want something haptical for your collection, then the Game Key Cards will be better than nothing at all.

However, otherwise they are basically the worst of both worlds. The games will take up space on your Nintendo Switch 2 system, forcing you to eventually buy a large Express MicroSD card, but you still lack the convenience of going digital-only, because you will have to change cartridges whenever you swap between games.

So, in the end it won't make much sense for me to buy the physical release, but I'd love to have it all on card. It wasn't an issue for Age of Imprisonment, so what has changed here? It can't possibly be larger than its much prettier sequel. It's really just to reduce production costs and increase margins.

Of course, Koei Tecmo is known to be one of the greediest and scummiest publishers in the history of video game publishers. Their collection of DLC for Dead or Alive 6 costs more than the entire Zelda series combined. And it's not even close. I love the Hyrule Warriors games, but Koei Tecmo can be awful and very anti-consumer.

Up until now this got contained by Nintendo, who has done the publishing of Hyrule Warriors in the west. But it looks like they had to strike a shitty deal to make this upgrade happen, which is the only explanation for this "Definitive Edition" nonsense and them using Game Key Cards, even though the game shouldn't be as big in size. As much as I love Hyrule Warriors and want the series to be a success, I very much hope that this release will get a ton of backlash and sale like stale onions. They need to learn.

It's a real shame, because this upgrade for Age of Calamity is something I really, really wanted and where I was looking forward to returning to the game. And now this has completely killed my excitement from yesterday.

Nintendo Switch 2 System Transfers Now Possible

About System Transfers: Use a system transfer to move data from this system to a Nintendo Switch 2 system

Today the Nintendo Switch 2 received a system update to version 23.0.0, which – among other things – now also lets you do a system transfer between two Nintendo Switch 2 systems, which previously wasn't possible.

Well, Nintendo knows what they are doing. They know that some Zelda fans are going to double-dip for the 40th Anniversary Edition console, and then potentially sell their old Switch 2. So, this is an important step for next month. You can even do one of these server-based transfers, where you can sell your Switch 2 already and then complete the transfer on October 29th.

Anyway, I hope this will be as easy as it was with moving from a Nintendo Switch in regards to your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. You didn't need any additional transfer software or whatever, it was very convenient.

 

Source: @OatmealDome

Mario Kart World: SNES Courses

Yesterday Nintendo has released version 1.8.0 of Mario Kart World, right after the Nintendo Direct. And it comes with another neat feature: VS Mode and Time Trials will now treat the ten classic SNES courses that you can find in the open world, which sometimes were used as roads, as individual courses for you to play on.

  • SNES Mario Circuit 1
  • SNES Mario Circuit 2
  • SNES Mario Circuit 3
  • SNES Ghost Valley 1
  • SNES Ghost Valley 2
  • SNES Ghost Valley 3
  • SNES Choco Island 1
  • SNES Choco Island 2
  • SNES Koopa Beach 1
  • SNES Vanilla Lake 1 

You can select these via Mario Circuit, Boo Cinema, Choco Mountain, Koopa Troopa Beach, and Sky-High Sundae. Unlike the normal courses, they retain the SNES prefix. It will also play music from Super Mario Kart and the item boxes are replaced with question mark panels, which makes this a true celebration of the first game.

They are also played in five laps each, and some of them feel like Baby Park with how short they are. But if you enjoy short courses, where you can potentially lap the opponents in the back, then this update will be a blast.

Technically, none of this is new. The courses have been already part of the world and you could even race on them via the P-Switch missions in Free Roam mode, though it wasn't exactly the same. And whoever is still developing Mario Kart World has proven to be very resourceful. They are making the most of what the game already has to offer. This is true for the Bob-Omb Blast mode added in 1.6.0, using stickers for the photo mode in the previous update, and of course also the new Knockout Tour Rallies.

Speaking of, two more of these got added, the Propeller Rally going from Acorn Heights to Airship Fortress, and the Turnip Rally, going from DK Pass to Shy Guy Bazaar. 

Propeller Rally in the menuTurnip Rally in the menu

So, two of these updates are going to follow and the last one will likely add 200cc. Would be awesome if they made this version 2.0.0 at the same time, as in version 200. It's the perfect conclusion for this line of updates that have mainly utilized what's in the game already. 200cc will make everything in the game fresh again.

However, they could go a step further and add more Kamek transformations, which become playable drivers. There are a variety of different enemies and animals they haven't use for this yet, e.g. the Buffalo, the Bully, the Camel, the Crocodile, the Hermity Cone, the Ostrich, the Skeeter, Spike, and more. All of these could become new drivers, where the game already has the models for them. People absolutely loved playing as a cow or whatever, so adding more of the same will certainly be received well.

But this would be more work than what has been done so far, because all these additional drivers would require new animations and such. And it looks like Mario Kart World is getting updated by a skeleton crew, where the main resources of the development team are going elsewhere... Maybe they are making ARMS 2?