Super Smash Bros. 4: Hyrule Castle Returns

This Friday, on July 31st, a big update is coming to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U, which will include the previously announced Tournament mode for the Wii U version amongst other things. It will also come with new DLC, which includes two returning stages from Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64: Peach's Castle and Hyrule Castle.

Well, finally there is something for Zelda fans, even if it's not much... But this is the first time that this stage ever returns, so it's interesting and a nice-to-have classic. I can't say it will increase my interest in the new Smash games, though.

And it's still a little bit lousy that you need to pay extra for something like this, where it costs 1.99€ per stage or 2.99€ if you're buying the stage for both games. It's not much, but these stages aren't exactly new.

Source: @SmashBrosJP

The Ultimate Zelda?

On ZeldaEurope we have some rumors about Zelda U going on from an "inside source". Some of the stuff sounds more like wishful thinking and other things appear to be quite obvious to come up with, but from what I've seen the source seems to be very believable. (Update: in fact after some back and forth with the guys I have no reason to doubt it and those are probably the most solid rumors I've seen in all these years. Not that any of this gives away anything specific, but it's still nice to get something about Zelda U in all this silence.) However, you should still take it with a grain of salt, while I try to write a summary:

• There were plans to show the game at E3 2015, however, the footage was outdated and still looking "too empty" and they originally wanted to give a March 2016 release date. But currently they're aiming more towards a Q4 2016 release and they didn't want to officially postpone the game a second time.
• In 2014 the game was facing budget cuts due to the lack of success of the Wii U, Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4 simply didn't drive the Wii U as much as they hoped. This is another reason, why the game got delayed to 2016. At the moment things are looking better for Zelda U with new resources for the game.
• The game has a day & night cycle, as well changing weather (rain).
• The overworld is more peaceful with surprising threats (as showcased already). The dungeons seem to do the opposite, it's described as "even in the darkest dungeons you might find some light, something positive".
• The game has areas that give you a familiar feeling to places from past games, there's even a part on the water reminiscent of the Wind Waker. They are aiming at a "Best Of", while also providing areas that feel completely new. But this can also be said about the whole game, not just the world.
• Right after Skyward Sword the members of the development team had to search through old Zelda games for valuable things. If someone didn't play a certain Zelda game yet, he had to do so in his free time.
• They want to draw connections to the older games like A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker or Twilight Princess. No matter, what Zelda games you have played before this one, you should be able to find some small easter eggs and maybe even some answers. Instead of creating many new questions with this game, they want to fill in some gaps here.
• Most importantly: ever since Majora's Mask the Zelda games were defined by certain key gameplay elements, which shaped the story and the entire development of the game, even limiting the creative freedom. This time, instead of focusing on a specific gimmick, they instead try to compile the all best things from the Zelda series into one game, while also mixing it with some new ideas. It's a much larger creative process than with any other Zelda in the past 15 years, which also cost a lot of budget, causing some internal trouble at Nintendo. Luckily Aonuma had people to back him up, mainly Miyamoto.
• Aonuma's goal is to finally top Ocarina of Time with this one, which he never really couldn't do, even with Twilight Princess. Miyamoto on the other hand constantly spurs the team on and pushes them, (jokingly) says things like "you have to do more than that to top Ocarina", even if they might already surpassed elements from the game. But because Miyamoto is so fond of the game, he always gave his support, granted more time, people, etc.
• There's still lots to do and they don't want to pressure themselves. The game might be done before Q4 2016, but Q4 2016 seems to be the likely release date at this point. In any case they are convinced to create the ultimate Zelda.
• The title of the game is already set and was supposed to be revealed at E3. Source won't give the title though, because this would add later credibility to these rumors...

Fake or not, what caught my attention was the general approach of creating a Zelda game, where they would bring together the best gameplay ideas from past Zelda games, instead of focusing on a specific new idea, all in a large world, which combines many aspects from past games as well. After Skyward Sword I had this fantasy about a "perfect Zelda" going through my mind. It was mainly based on the world of Zelda II, which is a lot larger than the worlds in any other Zelda game. So, you get a world in a much more massive scale, where you ride on a horse and visit many different towns. But one third of the world would be also an ocean, where you travel by boat. Later you could also fly around. And you also would have had access to other kingdoms like Holodrum and Labrynna, the ability to change seasons like in Oracle of Seasons, a gigantic main dungeon like in Spirit Tracks, and many other things and connections from past games, all coming together in one giant, epic, open-world Zelda adventure. But I never really shared these ideas, because they were out of scope...

In a sense they already tried this on a smaller scale with Skyward Sword, which had easter eggs and connections to most of the previous Zelda games, even some bigger gameplay stuff like the boat part in Lanayru Sand Sea, which worked like in Phantom Hourglass. But overall the game focused too much on the motion controls, the story became a mess and they came into linearity deadlocks with those level-like overworld sections.

Zelda U doesn't seem to struggle with these things, but it appears that they are back at the "empty world" problem, which they also had with the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. In that sense it's a good thing that they take their time and maybe my fantasy from three years ago might come true. Still, I don't want to get too excited, which is why I will put my focus on Hyrule Warriors, TriForce Heroes and replaying past games, until Zelda U comes closer and we know more for sure.

But in general the Zelda series needs the next big thing after Ocarina of Time. All the game ever since were based on experiments. Very different art styles, motion controls, Link as a wolf, Link on a train, multiplayer Zelda, etc. This kept things fresh and turned the Zelda series into the most versatile gaming series there is, but it also never came to a big leap forward, a game that really defines an entire generation like Ocarina of Time did.

Golden Classic Controller Pro

This is the newest hardware piece in my collection:

It's actually from a bundle with the Wii game Goldeneye 007, but it's still an official Nintendo product and matches the color of the golden Wiimote, which came with Skyward Sword, perfectly. They look really nice together.

Some ebay sellers offer the controller without the game, so I decided to get one. ZeldaEurope user Wyrule Harrior gave me the idea and it was certainly a good one. I will use this controller for whenever I play Zelda games on the Virtual Console, like the freshly released Ocarina of Time. I even tried this today, though you really have to get used to the low framerate again after playing the 3DS remakes.

I also would like to get my hands on the golden Nunchuk, which they had in Japan's Club Nintendo. I was always saving stars, if they ever would offer it in Europe, but now it's too late for that, because I already invested all my stars.

But that's the kind of hardware bundles I wouldn't mind to see more often. Some extra stuff. Like they could have sold Hyrule Warriors with a Limited Edition Pro Controller, which has golden emblems similar to the Wind Waker edition GamePad. I would have liked that. But instead we got a scarf and Nintendo tries selling Zelda fans Nintendo 3DS systems over and over again.

Replaying A Link Between Worlds

With the announcement of TriForce Heroes I decided to play through A Link Between Worlds again for the first time since release. I still had an empty cartridge of the game around, which wanted to be filled with complete savegames. And with the New Nintendo 3DS XL and its easy to push Start button, I might even give the Cucco Run 999.99 seconds challenge a second try after all this time.

But in any case A Link Between Worlds is a Zelda game with good replay value. It's a short Zelda game, you might not even need 10 hours for the core, it took me around 15 hours to complete everything again including StreetPass medals. So, you can essentially beat this in one weekend and with that it's easy to pick up, even if you don't have too much time. But what makes replaying A Link Between Worlds so interesting, are all the options. What items to buy first, the order of dungeons, exploring all the areas. It's for sure the most non-linear Zelda experience.


Dungeon Order

While the game is quite non-linear, you have to force yourself to play things really out of order and not fall into a certain pattern. I guess most people play either Thieves' Hideout or the Swamp Palace first, simply because they are in the area and they give you good benefits with the Blue Mail and the Sand Rod, where the latter lets you get the Titan's Mitt next, which is like the one big item that you can't really early. Turtle Rock and Ice Ruins are probably played last, because they are the more difficult ones. And dungeons like the Dark Palace and Skull Woods end up in the middle. This order makes especially sense in Hero Mode, where you want to keep things easy enough.

But since I had to play through the normal game again to unlock Hero Mode (as I said, this was an untouched cartridge version), I decided to mix things up and go for the hard stuff first. So, I started with the Ice Ruins and then continued with Turtle Rock. When I originally played the game for the first time, the Ice Ruins were my second dungeon and provided a great challenge, so I wanted to re-experience that. And it can be tough, you can't block any of the Ice Wizzrobe attacks without the Hylian Shield and you take some good damage without the Blue Mail. For the boss Dharkstare I actually needed two fairies, though I don't have any practice here (it's a shame that this game never got a Boss Battle mode).

I played Thieves' Town next, because I wanted to play the Desert Temple without upgrading the Sand Rod before. I've never done that before, but this time I forced myself by upgrading all other items first. I wanted to see, if this adds any challenge, but it was only really noticeable with the boss Zaganaga, where the sand walls would disappear while attacking the creature. I played the Swamp Palace last, so that I wouldn't profit too much from the advantage of the Blue Mail. That way I stayed a little closer to Hero Mode.

My least favorite dungeon is probably Skull Woods by the way. In general the dungeons feel weak when compared to their counterparts in A Link to the Past, especially with the enemies, but at least most of the dungeons in A Link Between Worlds have a great feel to them and unique ideas. Skull Woods is just a complete disappointment though. The original Skull Woods had this really good idea of a dungeon with multiple exits. Now here they streamlined this so much that it almost seems to be linear... and the dungeon feels very empty, when compared to the original.


Ravio's Shop

In general buying and upgrading all the items had a very natural flow to it, while replaying the game. It's very well balanced, the amount of Rupees, which I got to buy the items in Ravio's shop, perfectly matched the numbers of Maiamais I had already gathered. So, I would always buy the items to upgrade them immediately. And I've never ground for Rupees, I just explored and got all the chests in dungeons.

The main issue with the item shop though is that you can just rent them all at once in the beginning. You have more than enough money for it and suddenly you can go everywhere and take everything, the only exceptions being things and paths, where you need the Sand Rod and Titan's Mitt. A better system would have you get one item after another, but then you would have the problem of making the wrong choice, where you can't make any progress, until you get enough Rupees to effort another item. So, the rental shop certainly won't have any future in Zelda games, but it was interesting to have it one game. It also adds to the most powerful start in any Zelda game, it can be exciting to get so many items at once.


StreetPass

I also replayed the StreetPass battles and got all 50 medals again. I love this feature, I'm really looking forward to the Coliseum Mode in TriForce Heroes, if it's anything like it. It's just so much fun and I hope they keep the Zelda II music, maybe even remaster some more tracks from the game, like the battle music or the song of the Great Palace. I also hope that the Coliseum Mode will have challenges again, because it can be a lot of fun to collect the medals. Since it has been a while, I even looked up my StreetPass guide. It's a nice moment, when past-you can teach you something. If it can help me, I know for certain that my guide is really helpful.

Anyway... with a third Nintendo 3DS at hand and playing the game on a cartridge, I tried to optimize the strategy of StreetPassing myself to the fullest. I can switch the cartridge around all systems and accumulate 18 Shadow Links with a single StreetPass meeting. With that many you can easily complete all the StreetPass challenges in a single day. However, it seems like it doesn't add any signs onto the meadow, if you haven't played the savegame on that system before, so you have to setup StreetPass again at first, before it loads the Shadow Links.

Of course HomePass would be the best option, but I have yet to set this up and doing it on my own has the advantage that I can create cheap Shadow Links with a bounty of 50, no shield or items for some easy kills, which is very helpful with some of the tougher challenges.

But in general I like, how the StreetPass feature adds some afterplay to the game. You keep returning to the game and go over all of Hyrule and Lorule for the Shadow Links. It's a good feature, which keeps the game alive a lot longer than any other Zelda game.


Rupee Rush

This is the best and most addicting minigame in the entire Zelda series. Period. Like the Shadow Link battles this never gets old. My current records are 342 Rupees in Hyrule and still 993 Rupees in Lorule.


Hero Mode

I've only started the file to setup StreetPass here, but I haven't really replayed Hero Mode yet. I will save that for later this year, when we're getting close to the release of TriForce Heroes. With a fresh experience of A Link Between Worlds I can make better comparisons between the games.

TriForce Heroes: Costume Frenzy

Shikata confirmed at IGN that TriForce Heroes won't support amiibo! Thank Nayru! They are already following one of my three golden rules for this game and to celebrate, let's talk about the costumes, since now I can look forward to collecting them all without tracking down overpriced figurines.

I have to say, the costumes are probably my favorite aspect so far about TriForce Heroes, next to the Coliseum Mode (which also got confirmed to be online). But with the costumes they are adding something, which the Four Swords games have been dearly missing: a global collectible. You only got collectibles inside the levels, like Magic Seeds, additional Heart Containers, Rupee Shards, Power Bracelets and so on, but those would go away, after you've finished the dungeon. The only thing that stayed with you were the objectives. Well, the first Four Swords at least also had the medals and two unlockable sword techniques, but that wasn't much. And now with the costumes you have a nice additional goal than just completing the game.

They also add a strategic RPG element, because you want to make the right choice for the next dungeon or the next battle in Coliseum Mode. The costumes remind me a lot of the Magic Rings from Oracle of Ages & Seasons, only that they give real visual clues to what "ring" the player has equipped now. But in the Oracle games you also had to chose what rings to bring, you could only wear one ring at a time and it would give you specific perk. And depending on the dungeon and the situation, you might go for different rings.

According to Shikata there are many different costumes in the game, enough to keep you busy for three months collecting them (source). And I'll take him at his word. At least there are already more than there were of those disappointing medals in Skyward Sword, since we know of ten costumes so far:

• Hero's Tunic: default costume
• Kokiri Clothes: Nice Bow
• Big Bomb Outfit: Nice Bombs
• Spin Attack Attire: Great Spin
• Lucky Loungewear: chance of taking no damage
• Zelda's Dress: better chance of finding hearts
• Goron Garb: swim through lava & pass through fire unharmed
• Prince Costume: effect unknown (might be Fire Arrows)
• Cheetah Costume: effect unknown (might be speed)
• Boomerang Costume: Nice Boomerang?

In general it can be said that all the Maiamai abilities probably return as a costume, if the item is still in the game. But probably new items will also receive upgrades in the form of costumes, like the Gust Jar. And probably some of the other upgrades in A Link Between Worlds, like the increased Energy Bar or the Blue Mail, will also return as costumes.

So... let's have some fun here with ideas:

• Fierce Deity Costume: Sword Beams
• Fiery Costume: flaming sword for double damage
• Armor Costume: take only half damage / stronger shield
• Tingle or Ravio Costume: Rupees count double / get more Rupees
• Fairy Costume: slowly regenerate
• Postman Costume: larger Energy Bar
• Zora Costume: breath underwater and swim faster
• Zuna Costume: Nice Sand Rod and/or no sinking in quicksand
• Anouki Costume: Nice Ice Rod and/or no sliding on ice
• Bee Costume: summons a friendly golden bee at each level + bees won't attack you

The Fiery Costume and the Armor Costume are basically the classic Red and Blue Tunic from Link's Awakening DX, which also reappeared as the Red and Blue Ring in the Oracles and then got later redefined by the Spirit Gem abilities in Phantom Hourglass, which is what I'm using here.

In case you don't remember the Zuna, those were the desert tribe in Four Swords Adventures. It would be interesting to bring them back for this game, since this is the spiritual successor of FSA. And with the Zora costume I have the classic River Zora in mind, like they also appeared in A Link Between Worlds. Link's face could look through the mouth, haha.

If you have any good ideas, leave them in the comments. I might add them to the list!