2024 – Year of the Princess

With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in 2023, we had a big year for the Zelda franchise behind us. It was such a massive game that you may have been playing it in 2024 still, so that rarely anyone expected a new Zelda game to follow this year... Especially not one that puts Princess Zelda in the role of the playable protagonist for the first time in the main series.

You could see the launch of Princess Peach: Showtime! in March as a foreshadowing, where Princess Peach got a game of her own as well. It wasn't her first, but it had been almost two decades since Super Princess Peach on the Nintendo DS. And she was setting an example here, giving a taste of what might follow in the later year.

But before Nintendo revealed the next Zelda game, they still had some open business with Tears of the Kingdom, which led to two announcements in May – the game was getting a nine-disc-long soundtrack later in 2024, and a more comprehensive artbook, called "Master Works". Both were also a thing for Breath of the Wild and are currently exclusive in Japan, however.

If you were looking for something completely different, then maybe the LEGO set of the Great Deku Tree had you covered. Announced in May and released in September, Nintendo's newest cooperation with the famous plastic brick company brought into the worlds of Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, where you can recreate the Great Deku Tree from either game, alongside a variety of extras.

They had also announced the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition back in May, picking up the mantle of NES Remix, scheduled for July. Here you can compete in a large number of speed-running challenges in 13 different NES games, which of course includes The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II - The Adventure of Link.

The Zelda series also played a role in other releases by Nintendo throughout the year, mainly in the audio department. There is the Alarmo alarm clock, which can get you out of bed with the sound of Guardian lasers. And there is the new Nintendo Music app for smartphones, which currently features the soundtracks of Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, among others.

In June then came the big Nintendo Direct, the only one of the year. We finally got to see Metroid Prime 4: Beyond for the first time, which likely will become Nintendo's last big game for the Nintendo Switch. But we also learned that a brandnew Zelda title had been in the making in the style of the Link's Awakening remake for Nintendo Switch, which came out five years prior, titled The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

It certainly left an impression, where the footage started off with Link fighting Ganon, only to be swallowed by a mysterious rift soon after. And then the player would take Zelda's role, which caused a lot of excitement all over the internet. This change came with a completely new gameplay idea for the series, where you can summon all kinds of objects and monsters to your aid. Nintendo kept this one close to their chest, where the game was already set to release three months later.

To entertain the Zelda fans in the meantime, Nintendo also released the Game Boy Advance classic A Link to the Past & Four Swords on their Nintendo Switch Online service, where it's possible to play this with friends online. This made the multiplayer game a lot more accessible than it used to be, so that some fans out there finally had the chance to experience it for the first time.

September 26th was the launch date of Echoes of Wisdom, where Nintendo also released the golden "Hyrule Edition" of the Nintendo Switch Lite on the same day. Otherwise the newest Zelda game entered stores without much fanfare – there was some merchandise to get, like a scroll, but no Special Edition of the game, no new amiibo, or anything else of the usual. But after Nintendo had done the full program with Tears of the Kingdom in 2023, this was a much needed break from straining the wallets of the fans.

The game itself offers the biggest world for a top-down Zelda yet, while giving a similar amount of player freedom like the recent 3D Zelda titles, thanks to its echo system. But it's still on a much more digestible scale, comparable to classic Zelda titles, which makes it just the right adventure after Tears of the Kingdom. It's also a perfect game to play after Christmas, before the year ends...

Got the F4F Daruk

This is what I got for Christmas, so I must have been a good boy. Mipha and Urbosa were already in my collection, where all of these have been presents from my partner, who is being quite generous here. But I already had a feeling when a big package arrived earlier this month and I was told to stay away from it...

Well, Daruk is certainly the most impressive of the bunch, who brings a nice weight with him and the largest weapon with his Boulder Breaker. It's the same as with his amiibo, only much larger, where the statue is roughly 29cm tall and the amiibo 9.5cm, so about three times the size. But the small Daruk could fit in big Daruk's fist.

Packaging was also much better than with the other two, because they used polystyrene foam to pad the backside and the plastic cover is simply put over the front. There is little risk of damaging anything this way and it's also much easier to put him back into his box.

I still need to keep them all in their boxes, because I didn't really have space for a big display cabinet in my old apartment. But these times are over and I will post pictures of all of them next to each other once I set everything up.

Echoes of Wisdom x Tetris 99

The 44th Maximus Cup is currently a thing in Tetris 99 and finally you can unlock a new Zelda theme, based on the most recent game in the series – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. That's only the third Zelda theme in the game and the second Maximus Cup for a new Zelda title. The other was Skyward Sword HD in 2021, over three years ago...

While I'm still salty that they haven't done anything for Tears of the Kingdom, where the Zonai stuff would have been fantastic as a theme, the new one for Echoes of Wisdom is certainly nice. It plays the lovely overworld music in the beginning, then it goes into the Swordfighter form, and for the last 10 you will hear the dungeon battle music, which is also used in the Slumber Dojo. The game even ends on the same jingle.

So, the Echoes of Wisdom theme is worth it for the music alone and it's also a neat detail how it targets other players with Tri, or how the incoming garbage blocks have little Moblin icons. The only complaint is that your blocks looks completely generic, but at least it's easy to read.

This might become one of my favorite themes to use, the others being Game Boy, Ring Fit Adventure (no kidding) and Fire Emblem Engage. If you also want it, then you should hurry, because today is the last day to get this. And it generally takes very long until you are able to purchase old Special Themes with tickets, some have never even returned.

Zelda Calendar(s) 2025

The year is coming quickly to a close and it's high time to get some new calendars for your walls. If you want something Zelda-themed, you get to choose between two different companies again, which are Abrams and Danilo. I picked the latter, because their calendars are more easily available where I live and they are simply ahead of the competition.

Danilo's 2025 calendar is essentially a sequel to the one from this year. It's entirely focused on Tears of the Kingdom and uses exclusively the different characters arts for the game, but it's a different set for the next year:

You get Rauru, Yunobo, Teba, Hestu and the Captain Construct, which were all missing in 2024. And you also get the secondary artworks for Riju and Zelda this time, which is nice. However, the other five artworks are repeats, which is not so nice. Of course there aren't even that many character artworks to use, but there is still Yunobo's alternate art, as well as artworks for Purah and Mineru, which could have been included here. I didn't even know that some of these existed, like Hestu's for example.

At least the character variety is much better than it was this year. Only Zelda is seen twice and each of the sage descendants is featured exactly once. Ideally, they would have spread things out more, so that the 2024 calendar has no doubled characters except for maybe Link and then use the rest for 2025.

The overall design is fine. It's not the prettiest, but I appreciate that they were trying to do things differently for the same idea. The calendar by Abrams (not pictured) looks much cleaner with its backgrounds, but they are essentially just copying the competition from what they did last year, so they also are now doing a Tears of the Kingdom calendar with the character arts... At least they got the character variety right from the start, but this isn't the first time that they are just looking at the competition to make next year's calendar. This was also a thing when Pyramid was still around and it makes Abrams quite unappealing, because they always seem to be one year behind.

For 2026 I expect something that has Echoes of Wisdom in it... from both parties. But if you want some Echoes of Wisdom in 2025 already, you can try the free table calendar from My Nintendo.

My Nintendo Calendar 2025

Since I have lots of Platinum Points, I decided to give this one a try, which costs 300 in total. The quality is pretty much what you would expect, so it's just a bunch of thin cardboard sheets. And this isn't a purely Zelda-themed calendar, of course, but an overall Nintendo calendar:

At least there is some Zelda in there. You get artworks for both Echoes of Wisdom (in February) and Tears of the Kingdom (in July). This is the complete list:

• January - Mario & Luigi Brothership
• February - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
• March - Princess Peach Showtime!
• April - Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• May - Splatoon 3: Side Order
• June - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
• July - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• August - Donkey Kong Country Returns HD
• September - Metroid Prime Remastered
• October - Splatoon 3
• November - Pikmin 4
• December - Super Mario Party Jamboree
  

The only real complaint is seeing Splatoon 3 twice... Which apparently they also had done for 2024. Speaking of, I actually like the 2025 design much more, it's less cluttered. Anyway, I would have swapped Splatoon 3 in October for Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, but otherwise this is fine. And that's how it looks when you put it together:

Nothing too fancy. It's like a small easel made out of cardboard, which you have to fold correctly. And then you put the cards in there. That's it. But I suppose you shouldn't expect something more stable and with metal rings from a gift. So, I'm not sure I will get this again... Maybe if the motives are really nice.

There is also a second My Nintendo calendar for the retro gaming selection, but I didn't get that one, because I didn't like it as much. It does feature A Link to the Past & Four Swords, though, which was my 2024 highlight from these online services.

My Nintendo Switch Year 2024

Nintendo is offering your year-in-review statistics once again, but it's actually not as interesting as last year, because unlike in 2023 there is no way of seeing the play times of all the games that you've played during the year, only the top 3. And my top 3 doesn't really contain anything new from this year.

I've been still very busy with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the first half of 2024. But this already feels like forever ago, because we got a new Zelda game with Echoes of Wisdom in the meantime... It feels like I'm looking back at the wrong year. Though, I've spent only half as much time on the Nintendo Switch than in 2023, because it has been quite the busy year for me otherwise.

Luckily, you can also see how much you've played your games overall via your profile, even though it's rounded down to the nearest multiple of five, which you can use for new games in the statistic. So, I can compile a list that's a bit more comprehensive, with some links to the corresponding topics on this blog:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (192 hours)
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (98 hours)
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (57 hours)
   
4. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (55+ hours)
5. Game Boy Advance (40+ hours)
6. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (25+ hours)

Sadly, Echoes of Wisdom came in a close fourth – it would have been well deserved for the game to make it into my year's top 3. I don't even recall playing that much Smash Bros., though the new Spirits in the beginning of 2024 were an incentive to boot the game from time to time. And this ranking might change, because I was thinking about replaying Echoes of Wisdom in Hero Mode over the holidays. But Decembers don't exist in these yearly statistic by Nintendo.

My most active months, at least concerning the Nintendo Switch, were January and February. This is where I was finishing all side quests in Tears of the Kingdom, as well as searching for all those Hinox and Taluses for the medals and all of Addison's spots. And this took quite a while... I was left with completing the compendium, finding all Koroks, and discovering all recipes, which I did in April and May after a much-needed break in March.

Right after I had finally finished Tears of the Kingdom came two new Zelda highlights: the announcement of Echoes of Wisdom, already to be released in September, and the addition of Four Swords on the Game Boy Advance service. The latter let me finally experience the game in a four-player-set-up around June and July, but it also motivated me to replay both A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap on the same service.

The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition then came after, in late July, which is a title I keep playing from time to time. I usually participate in the weekly championships, trying to score an S-rank in all of them, but I don't overdo it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is another title that I keep playing, but this has died down from a daily to a weekly basis. During the year I finished collecting all insect and fish models, where now there is little left to achieve for me, other than filling out the Nook Shopping catalog, which is an insane task anyway and not worth the effort. But this will certainly stay on top as the most played game on my system, where it has been this virtual happy place for quite some time.

Anyway, there was a break in both August and November, where I had some other personal things going on. And between these two months my focus was on the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom, of course. It came out just at the right time.

This is all just for the Nintendo Switch, where otherwise I'm also gaming on the PC quite a bit. In March I was going back to Unreal Tournament 3  and currently I'm enjoying the original Unreal Tournament once more, where I have returned to a personal project from five years ago, the console map pack.

Also in March I've got into Lonely Mountains: Downhill, which is another title that I keep playing from time to time, with 64 hours by now, according to Steam. So, if I had played this on the Nintendo Switch instead, it would have been in the top 3 before Smash Bros. Ultimate and Echoes of Wisdom. It's very enjoyable if you're looking for something simple to play in-between. And I will continue playing this in 2025, for sure.

Last but not least, after my GBA nostalgia trip during the summer I checked out TUNIC for the first time, with 37 hours on Steam. If you like classic Zelda games, then this is also something that I can highly recommend.

Nintendo Music: Skyward Sword Added

Nintendo Music has received regular updates since its launch at the end of October, with a new soundtrack coming every Tuesday. This week we're finally getting a new Zelda title up in the lists with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

This is based on the official soundtrack that was released three years ago, which offered 187 tracks in total. You may notice that the Nintendo Music release is one track short – that's the Wii Channel jingle that came at the very end.

They've also added four games to the search lists, where it simply links to an existing soundtrack:

• Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch) → Metroid Prime (GCN)
• Skyward Sword HD (Switch) → Skyward Sword (Wii)
• Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) → Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
• Breath of the Wild (Wii U) → Breath of the Wild (Switch)
  

That does make sense for the most part, since the music didn't really change between these releases. Only in case of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe they added a lot more, where they could offer a playlist that only has the Wii U music in it.

Secret Level – Unreal Tournament: Xan (Episode Review)

Movie and television adaptions of video or computer game franchises are getting better and better, where the best examples are probably the Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Fallout series from the recent years. Both show a lot of love for the source material, while being fun to watch for everyone, whether you are a fan of the games or not.

Therefore, we can look forward to the Legend of Zelda film with cautious optimism, while in the meantime there are some other good adaptions to watch. One of them is Secret Level, another anthology series from the creative minds behind Love, Death + Robots, where this time the stories are all based on different video and computer games. The first eight episodes were released this Tuesday, on December 10th, offering a wild and violent mix.

Especially the Pac-Man episode is something else, which makes you question how Bandai Namco could have agreed to that... (Update: as announced on the Game Awards, they have been actually working on a new Pac-Man spin-off in this style, called Shadow Labyrinth, so that explains it.)

However, I'm not here to review the series as a whole, instead I want to focus on Unreal Tournament, because the Unreal franchise has been close to my heart for about as long as Zelda. This franchise is pretty much dead, however, so it's bittersweet to get this special episode for around the 25th anniversary of Unreal Tournament. And I really enjoyed it overall.

It essentially serves a prequel, where it depicts the rise of Xan in the tournament, after causing an insurrection of mining robots. They really make you sympathize with the robots, despite the fact that their designs were made less human than they are in the games. The change does make sense, however, and feels reminiscent of the E.M.M.I. from Metroid Dread or similar robot designs, where the added agility of fully rotatable limbs and body parts come into play.

The focus is on the action, of course, but for an 16-minute-long episode it was a fantastic choice for the narrative. They have also done their homework, throwing out a ton of references, which will be recognized by fans and intrigue everyone else. They don't waste time with explaining anything and there is no direct narration, but nevertheless you get a very good understanding of how the 23rd century in the Unreal universe looks like and how much there is to all of it.

That being said, since the story is a prequel and meant to display a public execution of the robots, it lacks certain aspects of the games. There are no respawners, for example, so it's really a "Deathmatch" to the death. And instead of teleporting the combatants into arenas all over the galaxy, they have borrowed the Pokémon Stadium from Super Smash Bros. Melee, where a giant metallic construction transforms into whatever they want. In the episode we can see maps like Koos Barge, Morpheus and Facing Worlds, but it's all in the same dark grey aesthetic. I also got some Tron: Legacy vibes from it all, especially during the final match.

It's also never too violent, actually, where it's one of the few episodes from Secret Level with an age rating of 12, which is a bit ironic considering the source material and its over-the-top gore. But I don't personally mind, I never played Unreal Tournament for the splatter effects and it feels more tasteful that way. They focus on the cool weaponry instead of shocking the audience with overly brutal scenes.

However, another disappointment stems from the weapon usage. Well, there is plenty of it, as there should be, and the overall gunplay in the episode was thrilling. The Impact Hammer leaves an impact in the narrative, which was well done. The Ripper was used very cleverly as well, which was great to see, since it had been absent in most of the later Unreal games. There is some Enforcer and Minigun "pew pew" action for the masses. And if you like loud bangs, then the Flak Cannon, Rocket Launcher and Redeemer will have you covered. It was all very impressive.

However, while they get mentioned in Xan's scans, we never see any secondary fire modes, which always was one of the key aspects of the Unreal games, setting them apart from Doom, Quake, and many other shooters at the time. It was a novelty. But they never show the Shock Rifle and its infamous Shock Combo, which is a sin. The Bio Rifle is absent as well. And while there is an "elite squad" of fighters all equipped with the Link Gun in the episode, they don't ever use its beam link feature that would come with the secondary fire... even though it would have been the perfect opportunity to do so.

Maybe they didn't want to overwhelm the audience with too many aspects all at once, making it a bit more grounded and easier to follow the fast-paced action. Let's face it, the majority of people who will watch this series have probably never played Unreal Tournament before, maybe never even heard of it before, especially the younger audiences who grew up playing Fortnite. But that's not the best excuse, since all it would have taken is showing a second trigger on a gun to make it understandable.

It makes me personally hope for a second season of Secret Level, where they dive a little deeper into all this with an "Unreal Tournament: Malcolm" episode. This could give us proper arenas, respawners, and secondary fire modes, so that things would get more interesting when coming from the first episode.

By the way, the weapon and character designs mostly were taken out of the cancelled Unreal Tournament alpha from 2014. The exceptions are Xan, as already mentioned, but also the Ripper and the Minigun, because these weapons didn't have official new models. The Skaarj and Necris characters also were added to Fortnite recently by Epic Games, while Digital Extremes brought back their Unreal Tournament weapon skins in Warframe, which are all based on the cancelled alpha models as well. So, while it's a shame that the last Unreal game never became fully realized, it's bittersweet that parts of it live on in different forms...

And I will take joy in rewatching this episode again and again. It's a blast.

Got Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

There is a popular German Nintendo website, ntower.de, which I visit regularly for news and such. And while I may not be the most active member, this site definitely has been worth my time over the years. They regularly hold sweepstakes in cooperation with Nintendo, where you can win recent games, merchandise, and more. And I've been quite lucky with those, where I had won a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe about seven years ago, as well as some eShop vouchers in the last couple of years.

Usually, these sweepstakes are very well done, because you have to participate in a meaningful way, e.g. tell them what you love about Zelda. So, I already enjoy participating in any case, because you're not just saying "hey, I want to win". You're sharing some thoughts or a story, which I like to do about Nintendo stuff anyway, as evident by this blog...

Recently, they had a sweepstake for Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, where you had to tell a scary story. You could write down a personal experience or make up a small horror story. Well, I wrote a small story, which reads like a personal experience. Quality shouldn't really matter, since the winners are drawn at the end, but I still like to make it worthwhile. And as you can see, I got lucky again.

Twice even... When I got the fan package from Nintendo (or their PR agency), it came with the wrong game – they confused it with Luigi's Mansion 3. To be fair, the covers of the two games really look quite alike. But they were super generous when I reported this. They later sent me the actual game, which has arrived today, and even let me keep Luigi's Mansion 3 on top. Since I was missing both in my personal collection, this was a fantastic outcome.

The package also contained the lovely Luigi's Mansion 2 HD diorama, which you can get as an exclusive item in the My Nintendo Store. I even thought about getting this earlier this year, but – luckily – it was sold out at the time. And then there was also a cup and a Polterpup smartphone stand. The mug looks like it might glow in the dark, but I couldn't confirm this.

Anyway, I'm not planning on playing either one in the near future, but maybe for Halloween next year. I also own a copy of the first Luigi's Mansion for the Nintendo 3DS, which I have yet to play, so I will probably experience the entire series in one go.

Got the NSO Nintendo 64 Controller

Since I became a subscriber to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack thanks to Four Swords, I can also play Nintendo 64 games on my Nintendo Switch now. But using a Pro Controller isn't fully ideal here, because the button layout can be slightly confusing (it puts C-Left on the Y-button and C-Down on X) and you have to hold down ZR to get the proper C-button experience, or use the right stick like on previous systems.

Now, as part of Nintendo's Black Friday deals in Europe, they have offered a discount on the Nintendo 64 controller that you can get for your Nintendo Switch, so I thought that I should give this a try... Which I did today with some Ocarina of Time.

And it certainly gives you an authentic experience, maybe a little too authentic. The analog stick is the same old stiff twig as in the original, which will probably wear down if you do too many quick spins. And the motor for the built-in Rumble Pak is such a monster that you could use this thing for a drill hammer.

I never owned a Rumble Pak for my Nintendo 64, so I've only experienced this once or so before, but I don't feel like I missed anything back in the day... Well, finding all the secret holes without the Stone of Agony was certainly a challenge, but I had too much time to play this game as a kid anyway.

The backside of the controller also features the home and screenshot buttons, as well as a tiny ZR button, which is used for the cursor and applause during online sessions. And it can be charged via USB-C, where they provide with one of the same cables that also come with a Pro Controller.

As far as I know, the emulation does not support the Controller Pak as of now, which means that you have to rely on Suspend Points with games like Turok 2: Seeds of Evil that didn't have battery saves. But I'd rather have this than the monster rumble.

Echoes of Wisdom ~ Official Timeline Placement

The Japanese Zelda website has seen an update of its official timeline, which now includes Echoes of Wisdom. As a Zelda fan who's into this stuff, it's not all too surprising that they've put it into the Downfall timeline, where you can also find A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds. After all, Echoes of Wisdom clearly takes place in the same Hyrule, which has evolved over the ages.

Earlier this month, Eiji Aonuma also talked about how they've avoided the usage of the word "Triforce", in an interview with Famitsu (see NintendoEverything), confirming that the game takes place in an era where the knowledge of the actual Triforce has faded, long after A Link Between Worlds, which is similar to the Hyrule from Breath of the Wild.

However, with all of this in mind, it made sense that they might place this at the end of the Downfall timeline, but that is not the case. It currently follows Tri Force Heroes, which was a direct sequel to A Link Between Worlds (but could theoretically be placed anywhere), but still appears before the NES games.

It's a bit of a contradiction, because this means that the royal family at some point lost the knowledge about the Triforce, but then must have regained it... It's not that this is impossible, it just feels like some unnecessary back and forth. But this placement makes sense for other aspects, where the Hyrule from A Link to the Past is still present in Echoes of Wisdom and later becomes this insignificant piece of wasteland in the NES games. So, for the overall continuity this is probably the best spot, but like with the Oracle games this could change at any point.

It's also nice that it comes after A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes, because these were the last top-down games and they all share a variety of assets, like certain monster designs. But for the future it would be nice if we were to get a title in one of the other branches, because those have been ignored for over a decade.

Metroid Prime 1-3 Visual Retrospective Announced

While we're still waiting for Metroid Prime 4, we can always dwell in the nostalgia of the original trilogy. Metroid Prime Remastered was one way of doing so, another will come next year in the form on an artbook. This one gets published by Piggyback, the same company behind the guides for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (which I have yet to get).

Here's what they have to say about it:

Developed in collaboration with Nintendo and Retro Studios, this art book showcases concept drawings, sketches and assorted illustrations from the Metroid Prime series. With an extensive range of behind-the-scenes, high quality artwork, this hardcover anthology spans more than 20 years of Metroid Prime development and includes exclusive commentary from Nintendo producer, Kensuke Tanabe, as well as the esteemed Retro Studios. Printed on premium sheet-fed art paper, this book is stitch-bound with a lavish cloth hardcover featuring an etched Samus metallic foil.

It's also said to cover Metroid Prime Remastered, where it would be a shame if we were to get another remaster now, but it didn't make the cut for the artbook. Maybe Nintendo has really no plans to release more remasters at this point, or maybe they should have waited with this book...

There is also the chance that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be released before this book, which is coming in June 2025, but that game may potentially qualify for an artbook of its own, similar to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

In any case, I will get this, because I usually enjoy such artbooks quite a lot and I love the Metroid Prime series.

25th Anniversary of Unreal Tournament

Not every gaming series thrives as much as The Legend of Zelda, where some are long in the past, but never truly forgotten. One of these series is Unreal, which had its 25th anniversary last year, but it's really the multiplayer-focused sequel that has defined the series for what it is best remembered for: old-school Arena Shooter action.

It doesn't feel that long since its 20th Anniversary, because not much has happened in the meantime, at least nothing positive. Instead, the series reached a new low in early 2023, where Epic Games shut down all master servers and took all the Unreal games from online stores (see the End of Unreal). But the hardcore fans kept the series alive with community servers and patches, where you can even find the games for free on the Internet Archive, which has the blessing from Epic Games, at least for first two.

But that's not all... Unreal Tournament is going to be featured as an episode in a new anthology series, from the creators of Love, Death & Robots, called Secret Level. It's coming to Amazon Prime on December 10th and you can find some great clips of what to expect, like this one or that one.

This is absolutely mind-blowing to me. I've been quite busy in the last couple of weeks, because I was moving, so I only had caught glimpses of this until today. And I actually assumed that this was some very ambitious fan project for the 25th Anniversary... but it's fully official! Keep in mind that this is for a franchise where the "biggest" new thing happening to it in the last five years were weapon models in Warframe, so it's quite unbelievable to see this. It feels unreal.

The premise seems to be a prequel to Unreal Tournament, where Xan Kriegor and its gang of Liandri mining robots were condemned to fight in the tournament. I'm not 100% sold on the stylistic choices, but I'm absolutely excited to see this nevertheless.

Curiously, "Secret Level" is also the name of the studio that made the Dreamcast version of Unreal Tournament, which brings me back to another project... one of mine, actually. With the 20th anniversary I've started working on an Ultimate Console Map Pack for the game, which features all console-exclusive maps in a faithful way. The project came to a halt, however, after it was about 95% done, but it's slowly getting back on track to get in the missing parts with some support from the community... I won't make any promises, but I really want to finish this at some point. And right now seems like a very good time to get back into the game.

Happy Birthday, Unreal Tournament!

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Review)

After the remake of Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, GREZZO went on to make their first own singleplayer-focused Zelda adventure, fated to become a true milestone for the Legend of Zelda series. Not counting the Philips CD-i curiosities or any of the spin-offs, this marks the first time where you play as Princess Zelda herself, which comes with a number of innovations. So, let's assess what The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom brings on the table for the franchise... by spawning another table on top with the Tri Rod.

Nintendo Music Released

The next out-of-nowhere surprise is the launch of Nintendo's newest smartphone app: Nintendo Music. Not to be confused with Wii Music, this is effectively their own little Spotify, where members of Nintendo Switch Online get to listen to video game soundtracks without any additional costs.

I gave it a try right away this morning and this is quite neat. The interface is clean and the playlists are extensive for the given games. At first I thought that these are only a sound selection, but those are the "highlights" with only the most important songs and you can also listen the complete soundtrack with everything.

For example, the default playlist of Breath of the Wild contains 62 songs, where you have the opening, the shrine music, the villages, the Champion themes, and so on. But the app also has the complete soundtrack with all 211 tracks, which only was available in Japan so far, like most of the official soundtracks. This one contains every piece of music you might want to listen to, including the DLC stuff and the epic trailer themes. It's a blast, and you also get a unique screenshot or image for almost every track to spark your memories.

Well, I don't know why the Windmill Hut theme from Ocarina of Time isn't part of the highlights, but at least it's there... And there are also playlists based on characters, which may even span different titles. Like, there is the Great Deku Tree, where you get tracks from both Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild. That's good to have when you're building the corresponding LEGO set, I guess...

The only problem with this app is the same as with any of the NSO offerings: they are drip-fed. So far there are 22 soundtracks available and they will gradually expand this over time, because Nintendo wants to keep this thing in the news. I can think of a number of reasons why they don't release all their old games at once to the service, since they still need to be tested and potentially re-rated, and so on. But in this case it's only music...

The biggest effort at this point should be translating all the titles into English and adding screenshots for every song. That's still a good amount of work, don't get me wrong, but hopefully this will see additions on a more frequent and extensive basis than what they are doing with NES, SNES, and so on.

Here's what soundtracks are included in the app as part of the launch, with the gaming system and the number of tracks in parenthesis:

• Super Mario Bros. (NES, 16)
• Metroid (NES / Famicon, 12)
• Dr. Mario (GB, 8)
  
• Kirby's Dream Land (GB, 15)
• Donkey Kong Country (SNES, 26)
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 26)
• Star Fox 64 / Lylat Wars (N64, 39)
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 82)
• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA, 100)
• Metroid Prime (GCN, 36)
• Nintendogs (NDS, 50)
  
• Tomodachi Collection (NDS, 62)
• Wii Channels (Wii, 62)
  
• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 81)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch, 211)
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, 149)
• Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 136)
• Kirby Star Allies (Switch, 213)
  
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch, 407)
• Splatoon 3 (Switch, 118)
• Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (Switch, 199)
• Pikmin 4 (Switch, 153)

The ones of bigger interest to this blog are highlighted, so Zelda fans will only get Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild for now, where they've started things with arguably the two most popular Zelda games. But we will certainly get more in the future, where The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword are already announced to come soon, among others.

However, let's hope that they will keep it simple and not bring the NSO Expansion Pack into this. It would be lame if you only could listen to the soundtrack of Tears of the Kingdom, for example, as long as you're paying for the advanced subscription.

But it would be compelling, because this is some very good value added to Nintendo Switch Online, where for me personally this is fantastic to have. I love listening to video game soundtracks, but I've gotten very lazy about managing MP3s on my phone, since there is Youtube and I rarely listen to music out in the wild. Right now I mainly have some indie game soundtracks on there, which I got from Steam: Hollow Knight, Death's Door, TUNIC, Dorfromantik, and some others. I also have some soundtracks from the Trine and Unreal series, where those are some great tunes.

As for Nintendo music, I have two MP3s from Spirit Tracks, the main themes, because that's the music you want to be listening to during a train ride, but that's really it. The other Nintendo-related albums on my phone are remixes, like Essence of Lime... So, having this app will fill a big gap for me and I love it.

In addition, you can create your own playlists, and shuffle things while hiding certain games as spoilers. You can also extend songs where applicable, so that they loop like they do ingame (which is very clever). They have thought of everything important and I highly recommend to check this out.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Announced

Nintendo can be curious sometimes. A couple of weeks ago they've announced an alarm clock out of nowhere, while the gaming world is waiting to see the successor to the Nintendo Switch. And now they casually announced one of the most anticipated ports for the current system, which is Xenoblade Chronicles X, one of the last standing Wii U titles.

The Xenoblade Chronicles series is something I have yet to get into, so please excuse my lack of insights about it, but ever since Monolith Soft had helped creating the amazing world of Breath of the Wild, it has had my interest. And I will be happy to have the entire series available on Nintendo Switch, from March 20th on, now all I need is the time to play it all...

The Switch Swan Song

Anyway, the Nintendo Switch certainly has arrived in its last year, where we can be really happy to have gotten games like Echoes of Wisdom at this point, because otherwise they will go for the low-hanging fruits, which are ports and remasters. We had Luigi's Mansion 2 HD in June, there's going to be Donkey Kong Country Returns HD in January, and now Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition in March. And there's a lot more where these games came from...

As the author of a Zelda-focused blog I'm obliged to bring out the broken record of The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD for the hundredth time, but there is a chance that we might still get these in 2025, as long as the Nintendo Switch is still a thing, because porting over these remasters is a much lower effort than giving them a better looking remaster or even a remake on the next system. And fans have been asking for such ports ever since the announcement of the Switch, so that's easy money.

For the Switch successor we already know that we're going to see a remaster of Breath of the Wild, where the U-King-O leak was proven twice by now, once by the internal codename of Echoes of Wisdom, which is in fact "Edward", as well as the recently leaked codename of the Switch successor, which is "Ounce" and therefore really starts with O.

I'll be talking about this a bit more later this year, but what matters now is that they've already moved on to remastering the next 3D Zelda game after Skyward Sword. And at some point they'll start all over again with a remake of Ocarina of Time. But that's all for the Switch successor, while the current Switch could still receive the aforementioned ports to expand its Zelda line-up.

Now, I'm personally still hoping for a Metroid: Samus Returns HD, because after Metroid Dread this would be perfect for a quick follow-up and the game could really profit from some improved controls, next to prettier visuals. Better controls is also what could give Star Fox Zero another chance, which is probably the biggest missing Wii U exclusive after Xenoblade Chronicles X.

And Yoshi's Woolly World is another candidate, similar to Donkey Kong Country Returns. They both got a Nintendo 3DS "demaster" for some reason, where it can't hurt to have an ultimate version of the game on the Nintendo Switch, as with various Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games before. It's not going to make the cow fat at this point, as we would say in German.

Echoes of Wisdom ~ Parallels to Oracle of Ages

A Link Between Worlds isn't the only Zelda game that has a lot in common with the most recent addition to the series. While playing through Echoes of Wisdom, one particular top-down title came to my mind a number of times: Oracle of Ages. It even made me believe that GREZZO was possibly looking into remaking the Oracles at some point during development. In the very least, these two games have been a big source of inspiration.

Most importantly, the Magic Rings were used a basis for the new accessory system, as already discussed. But there are more throwbacks, most of them particularly to Oracle of Ages, so let's take another look.

 

~ Story Bits ~

This may not be the most obvious part, but you can draw some parallels between the rifts and Veran. When Veran takes control of Nayru and changes the past, this erases entire beings from existence, just like how the rifts let larger parts of Hyrule disappear. In one case a boy even gets petrified to stone, which is what happens to people inside in the Still World.

The rifts also create these dark doppelgangers of people, including the King of Hyrule. And this is reminiscent of Veran possessing first Nayru and later Queen Ambi, where the latter provides a similar threat. The guards of the castle will be onto you under the command of the imposter.

A much more direct throwback to the story of both Oracle of Ages and Seasons games happens much later in Echoes of Wisdom:

The Ancient Ruins bear a great resemblance with the place where Link approaches the Triforce in the intro sequence of the Oracles. You have three-tile-wide pathway leading to the pedestal with the Triforce and a row of three torches on each side. And there is no chance that this is a mere coincidence.

~ The Zora ~

There used to be different types of Zora throughout the Zelda series. They started out as feral enemies in the original The Legend of Zelda and became a noble tribe in Ocarina of Time, where these couldn't have been any more different from each other. In Oracle of Ages they have tried to include both variants, where the hostile ones got called "River Zora" and the friendly ones became the "Sea Zora". (One of the latter also appears in a Linked Game of Oracle of Seasons.)

This distinction didn't really establish itself afterwards. The 3D Zelda games mainly evolved the Zora as we saw them in Ocarina of Time, but who predominantly live in rivers. And the 2D Zelda games kept using the Zora as enemies, with a few friendly ones in A Link Between Worlds. That is until now... Echoes of Wisdom finally brings back the idea of River and Sea Zora, where this time both are peaceful tribes, who live in coexistence.

They both worship Lord Jabu-Jabu as their guardian deity, which is yet another connection to the Game Boy Color classic. Oracle of Ages and Echoes of Wisdom are the only two top-down Zelda games featuring the favorite whale from Ocarina of Time.

 

~ The Return of Smog ~

In Echoes of Wisdom you will encounter various bosses from past Zelda games, like Gohma or the Lanmola, where this even marks the return of Volvagia. But there is one peculiar resurgence among them, probably to the surprise to many fans:

It's Smog from the Crown Dungeon in Oracle of Ages. You even get to fight him twice, once in the top-down perspective and later in a side-scrolling view, where this is one of few bosses to do this in the game. And this puts a lot of attention on this particular boss.

While this may seem quite strange at first, it does make a lot of sense considering that Smog was originally designed as a puzzle boss for the Cane of Somaria. And the Cane of Somaria is essentially the Tri Rod in its most basic form: you can summon a single block with it. We have come quite far since then, but the boss battle still works in the same fashion.

Echoes of Wisdom ~ Parallels to A Link Between Worlds

This year we got The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the newest top-down Zelda experience, and it's been a while since we got a brandnew Zelda game in this style. In fact, the last ones were on the Nintendo 3DS, where nine years have passed since the release Tri Force Heroes, and eleven years since A Link Between Worlds – if you're looking for a classic singleplayer Zelda. Curiously, there are many similarities between Echoes of Wisdom and the latter, where this post will go through the most important ones.

The most obvious parallel is, of course, their return to the Hyrule from A Link to the Past. And that's generally a good thing, where these games respect their legacy, instead of coming up with a completely new land that happens to have places called "Kakariko Village", "Lake Hylia", and "Hyrule Castle" on it. A Link Between Worlds stays much closer to A Link to the Past here, only altering smaller parts of the map, while the Hyrule in Echoes of Wisdom is loosely based on the original and expands it around all borders, in an effort to add territories for the different tribes that weren't present in the SNES classic.

Both games also feature some dark and twisted version of Hyrule, much like A Link to the Past did with the Dark World. In case of A Link Between Worlds it's the mirror kingdom Lorule, while in Echoes of Wisdom we have the Still World, made out of fragments from the actual Hyrule. These are quite different from each other in concept, but they have a similar feel to them and both are entered via fissures or rifts visible in the actual Hyrule.

The Still World and Lorule also bring forth another similarity: these Zelda games did not shy away from expanding the lore, especially around the Triforce, which wasn't even mentioned in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. They have introduced a number of things that feel quite important to the universe of the Zelda franchise, while at the same they clearly serve the story of their specific games and aren't likely to return in the future... Whether that's Princess Hilda, Yuga, or the newest villain.

That's a fate shared with the main mechanics of these games, where both the wall merging and the echoes add a completely new dimension to how you're playing a Zelda game, also giving you much more freedom than you had in traditional top-down title. And as good as these gameplay mechanics were, they will probably stay exclusive to the games that invented them.

But maybe Echoes of Wisdom will keep following the example of A Link Between Worlds and spawn a multiplayer-based sequel in the next years. Here you could play as Link and Zelda, where the ability to summon echoes might even return...

~ Two Games Foretold ~

Sadly, another thing Echoes of Wisdom and A Link Between Worlds have in common are their overly extensive marketing campaigns. If you had followed Nintendo's coverage prior to their releases, you may have felt like you had seen it all before as you were finally playing yourself. And that's because you did, where Nintendo doesn't feel the need to hold back for the smaller Zelda games. They didn't spoil the final boss and dungeon, but everything else was fair use.

In case of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom they were a lot more delicate, focusing primarily on the start of these games, until the final trailers also showed almost everything... But at least those only had quick bits and pieces, where the Depths may still have been a surprise for you and various other things. You had to truly analyze the trailers and put a lot together to get an idea of the story...

The pre-release coverage of A Link Between Worlds and Echoes of Wisdom on the other hand was a lot more thorough. "This is Princess Hilda, Zelda's counterpart. And these are the dungeons in Lorule, take a look... Here are the Deku and what they are up to. We have both River and Sea Zora in this game and they are squabbling." It's like they felt the need to show and explain as much as possible, as if they were afraid that no one would buy these "lesser" Zelda games otherwise...

Echoes of Wisdom ~ Update Suggestions

No game is ever perfect, but in the age of updates and DLC there is at least the chance that player feedback will be taken into consideration to improve things. However, only two Zelda games got major updates and content additions in the past, Tri Force Heroes and Breath of the Wild, so it's not very likely that Echoes of Wisdom will follow their examples these days.

Nevertheless, it's worth looking into what could be done, where we always should give Nintendo and Grezzo some ideas. These ideas are not meant to be overly ambitious, however, so we want this to be something that could realistically be implemented as part of an update, whether that's free or paid DLC.

Most importantly, the 2.0.0 update should address the performance issues. They are mostly caused by loading things when you walk around in the overworld and there is probably something that can be optimized here. With that out of the way, let's move on to the good stuff...

~ Tower of Hebra ~

This is a new, optional challenge dungeon, similar to the Treacherous Tower from A Link Between Worlds. You will be able to find it in the Hebra Mountains, where it's meant to represent the old Tower of Hera. Tri can't enter the dungeon, so you won't be able to use your echoes or Bind, which means that you have to entirely rely on the Swordfighter Form and Automatons. You will also need the Mysterious Bombs / Bombs of Might in order to enter it.

As usual, you will have to fight through a number of floors filled with enemies. Whenever you beat a floor, it spawns a crystal that lets you refill all your energy. You can always return there, in case you run out, but this will reset the floor above. And there is a new boss at the end waiting, which is of course none other than Moldorm.

After beating Moldorm at the top of the tower, you can enter the Stilled Tower of Hebra, where now you have to reach its bottom. Tri will join you again, so you're free to use your echoes, but you will mainly be fighting the shadow enemies, where the Swordfighter Form is advantageous. You will have to rebattle all three variants of the Imposter Link and fight a new version of him at the end, who is able to use all three of his weapons at the same time.

~ New Echoes ~

The update will feature three new echoes, bringing the total up to 130. These include one new object and two new enemies:

• Vire (4▼)
• Boomerang Boarblin Lv. 3 (5▼)
  
• Energy Crystal (6▼)

Vire returns here from the Link's Awakening remake and it will split up into two smaller bats if it receives too much damage. The third tier Boomerang Boarblin throws a large, circular boomerang made out of bones, just like the Boomeranger from Tri Force Heroes. Both are featured in the Tower of Hebra, but since you can't use your Tri Rod there, they can also be found in a new cave inside the crater of Eldin Volcano. You will first need to clear Eldin Temple to enter it.

As for the Energy Crystal...

You will be able to learn it after collecting all 150 Might Crystals. It's the thing found in front of Lueburry's house, where after the update you will be able to learn it and then place it anywhere to refill your energy, as an equivalent to the beds. The refill takes a bit longer and if it gets hit by an enemy, you will lose energy instead. It will also take all six triangles from Tri to summon it, where there is no cost reduction, so it can't be combined with any other echoes.

~ New Slumber Dojo Trainings ~

There will be a number of new battle challenges available in the Slumber Dojo. For them to unlock, you will need to have defeated all the enemies and bosses featured in them.

• EX Strongest of All: All four Lv3 monsters and a Lynel at once.
  
• EX Imposters' Revenge: All four battles against the Imposter Link.
• EX Lanmolas' Revenge: All three versions of the Lanmola... at once!
• EX Playing a Game: Both battles against Smog one after another.
• EX Guardians' Gathering: Lord Jabu-Jabu, Slime Eye, and Manhandla.
• EX Secret Titans' Gathering: Bori, Volcanic Talus, and Moldorm.
  

This serves mainly as a way of repeating all mini-bosses and optional bosses. But you will also get more options for earning Golden Eggs, where right now "The Final Titans' Gathering" is the only way to do that, which takes a bit longer. And there are some new outfits and accessories as rewards, which leads us to the next sections...

~ New Accessories ~

With the update you can find a variety of new accessories in different places, which give you some new effects to utilize.

• Cloudy Feather: Crumble-Proof
  
• Earrings of Might: Unlimited Sword Beams
• Pegasus Boots: Walk Speed Up
  
• Scepter of Power: Echo Damage Up
• Courageous Compass: Monster Appearance Up
  

The Cloudy Feather makes you lightweight, so that cracked floors don't crumble. But that's not all, clouds also won't dissolve below your feet any longer, which includes your cloud echoes. It's a reward in the Tower of Hebra.

Beating the Stilled Tower of Hebra earns you the Earrings of Might. Wearing them will let you always shoot sword beams in Swordfighter Form, even if you are not at full health or don't have the Level 3 Sword of Might yet.

The Pegasus Boots increase your walk speed to the same level as the Swordfighter Form. You won't go any faster with spinning, however. It can be purchased for 1000 Rupees at the Hyrule Castle Town Shop (the Stone Anklet can now be found in the shop at Goron City).

Holding the Scepter of Power will give a damage boost to all your echoes. The boost is the same for every monster, so it will be more significant for weaker monsters, for stronger ones not so much. It's the reward for beating the "EX Strongest of All" challenge in the Slumber Dojo.

Finally, the Courageous Compass serves as another way to make the game more challenging. Equipping it lets more monsters appear, where it works similar to the +Monsters Effect from the Chamber Dungeon in Link's Awakening. This means that the already existing monsters in the game get duplicated whenever possible. It doesn't work on very strong monsters, on bosses, or in the Slumber Dojo. You can find it in Link's house, so it can be acquired early in the game.

~ New Outfits ~

In addition to the accessories, you will also be able to obtain many more outfits, more than doubling than what's in the base game. Most of them are just for the looks, but some come with smaller perks or new interactions.

• Dog Clothes (Let's you talk to dogs.)
• Winter Parka (Protects you from cold.)
• Angler Armor (Creates light around you.)
  
• Cactus Costume (Enemies take damage when they touch you.)
• Showgirl Dress (Attracts attention of enemies.)
• Cheer Outfit
• Island Dress (Marin)
  
• Sheikah Garb (Sheik)
• Pirate Captain (Tetra)

Some of these are just uninspired copies of the outfits in Tri Force Heroes, but since those are pretty much the same thing, they will work nicely in this game as well. The most important is probably the Winter Parka, which you can get from Condé. It lets you pass the snowstorms without freezing.

After completing the "Still Missing" main quest, a new clothing store will open at Hyrule Castle Town, where you can purchase a good number of the other new outfits. The rest of them are rewards from the new Slumber Dojo challenges. In addition, you can obtain some new recolors from scanning amiibo:

• Blue Tunic (any Link amiibo)
  
• Purple Tunic (any Link amiibo)
  
• Pink Pajamas (any Zelda amiibo)
  
• White Dog Clothes (other Legend of Zelda amiibo)

This works the same way as before.

Finally, there should be an option to put down the hood while wearing the Disguise, once you've unlocked the option to change outfits. The modified outfit already exists in the game, where you can briefly play in this look right before you receive the Travel Attire. And Nintendo has used this quite extensively for their promotional materials... It's even featured on the game's box art, but you can't freely choose it for some reason.

~ Miscellaneous Improvements ~

The quick selection of echoes now will offer filters via the X button, which let you display only objects, monsters, or your favorites. The latter can be set via the A button. In addition, the notebook now will provide the same sorting options as the quick select.

On the map you can now view your "Heroine's Path", which is the same as the Hero's Path Mode from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, where it shows your journey via a green line. It records up to 100 hours of travel.

When you are in Swordfighter Form, you can now roll via the R button. This also works when playing as Link in the beginning of the game.

After completing the game, it will show you the total number of side quests, accessories, and outfits available (recolor outfits collected via amiibo will increase the total), exactly like with the echoes and automatons in the notebook.