Zelda World Championships Concept

While playing Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, but also NES Remix in the past, I personally had the most fun with the different challenges for The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, to the surprise of no one. As a Zelda fan since my childhood, those are the two NES games that I've played on an actual Nintendo Entertainment System and that I find the most enjoyable. And the rest of the NES games feels like a mixed bag, where I can't find the motivation to really dive into all the different challenges.

So, I had this idea that they should make a "Zelda World Championships" instead, which entirely focuses on Zelda and Zelda alone, spanning the majority of the classic games that are part of the Nintendo Switch Online service. This could be a great idea for the 40th Anniversary in 2026, as a nice way of re-experiencing the series in one competition-based package. On the successor to the Nintendo Switch, which should be a thing in two years, they could potentially even include GameCube titles, so we're looking at the following list:

• The Legend of Zelda (NES)
• Zelda II - The Adventure of Link (NES)
• A Link to the Past (SNES)
• Link's Awakening DX (GBC)
• Ocarina of Time (N64)
• Ocarina of Time - Master Quest (N64)
• Majora's Mask (N64)
  
• Oracle of Ages (GBC)
• Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
• The Wind Waker (GCN)
• Four Swords Adventures (GCN)
• The Minish Cap (GBA) 
• Twilight Princess (GCN)
  

That's 13 games in total, same amount as in the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, so that's actually more than enough. Master Quest is probably the most exotic addition, taking a similar place to Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels, but the version for the Game Cube also was just an N64 ROM hack, essentially. It would even be nice to have it in the Nintendo 64 library on Switch at some point...

As for the two NES games, they should get a completely different set of challenges than what is already present in the current Nintendo World Championships, of course. For some of the more fun challenges, like defeating some Octoroks, they could simply bring it to a different screen. They could also go more into "spoiler" territories and include the Ganon or Thunderbird fights. And overall they probably don't need as many challenges this time, because they will be the least popular games in this collection.

Four Swords is missing in this list, because that's a tricky case. For it to work they would have to use the singleplayer mode from the Anniversary Edition, but that might not be an option... It would still be nice to have this, just so that some people may give it a try and like it enough to then play the new online version.

The Nintendo DS or Wii games aren't included either, but that's because of their different control styles. You want to be able to play everything with either a pair of Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller, effortlessly switching between different challenges from different games. Technically, Skyward Sword HD can be played that way, but they won't be able to emulate that version of the game.

As for the challenges, there is so much that they could do here, from basic stuff, like quickly defeating enemies and bosses or solving certain puzzles, to mini-games and exotic things.

In Link's Awakening they could make you steal from the shop as fast as possible, or clear the Dream Shrine. With Ocarina of Time they could emulate the Running Man Challenge, where they make you go from Gerudo Valley to Kokiri Forest on horseback. That Donkey Kong homage from a linked game in Oracle of Ages, where Vire has abducted Princess Zelda, is certainly a must. And in The Wind Waker they could make you win the battle in the Shark Island grotto, or hunt down all the kids in Windfall Island.

As for the 3D games, especially the ones from the N64, there is the question of how they will handle the controls and inventory. With most challenges they could just preselect the allowed or necessary items, and only assign them to the X and Y buttons, while the main menu is blocked. You don't want things to get too clunky and the menus were rather slow on the N64.

Beating entire dungeons from start to finish also isn't an attractive option for the 3D games, because it simply takes too long, save for something like the Bottom of the Well. But it should work fine for all 2D games prior to The Minish Cap. The best example is probably Link's Awakening, because the Chamber Dungeon from the remake already comes with some speedrunning aspects and this can be a lot of fun. And the dungeons are all quite short and sweet, also offering lots optional parts for optimization.

Anyway, this concept isn't meant to go into details, it's really just an idea. Do what they do with the Nintendo World Championships, but make it all about Zelda. Of course, this can be applied to other franchises as well, like Super Mario, Kirby or Metroid...

But Zelda probably has the richest history here overall, because they've made a new main game for every system, except for Virtual Boy. Metroid has skipped over the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Or Super Mario had only remakes on the Game Boy Color and Advance. But with Zelda you go both through the history of the franchise and Nintendo's classic systems. And that's beautiful.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Review)

Are you a true American, who was born in the 70s or 80s and thinks that the classic Nintendo Entertainment System is the best video game console ever made? And do you still love to compete in who can do things quickest? Well, then Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was made for you, congratulations!

If not, then you might be wondering whether this game is really worth it or not... And to be upfront, this really should have been part of the Nintendo Switch Online service's offerings, alongside Tetris 99 and F-Zero 99. Instead, it costs 30 bucks, or twice as much if you're going for the Deluxe Set physical edition.

Under the hood you will get what's effectively a reskin of NES Remix, with a couple of main differences. There are only individual challenges, so no stages where you do a series of tasks. There are also no remixed levels or special conditions, it's all about doing a certain task or reaching a certain goal as fast as possible. You also don't have any lives or tries, instead it will rewind whenever you potentially screw up or do things that you're not supposed to, like a majority of possible glitches.

The rewind functionality is rarely ever useful, however. The timer will keep running, so there is a huge penalty attached to it. With shorter challenges you're always better off to reset. In addition, you don't have any control about how far it rewinds, where it might set you back into a situation where you just fall into your death again, potentially even keeping you in a loop... So, you have to reset anyway.

And when you reset, the three second countdown at the beginning can get a bit annoying, especially since the this may take longer than some of the challenge themselves... It's still good to have, because you want to be ready and already started with the right button(s) pressed, but it could be shorter.

Also, what could be better is the button layout, where NES Remix gave you Y as a second Select button, which is very useful and more comfortable for a variety of games, e.g. Metroid and Zelda II. At least, you can use X as an alternative to B, so that's something... But there are no control options of any kind, which is always a negative and a general problem with Nintendo.

As for the emulation itself, it feels similar to the Nintendo Switch Online offerings, meaning that you will experience the games in all their messy glory. There will be significant slowdowns whenever there are too many enemies on screen in Metroid, for example. The timer won't slow down for you, though, so you will have to take this into account.

For each challenge they've created a specific RAM save state (essentially a Suspend / Restore Point), so you should get the same RNG on each try, to make things as consistent as it gets. In practice this means that you can predict enemy movements in certain challenges, because they always will be the same, which then enables you to become even faster.

That's it for the basics, in total there are over 150 challenges to play, spread over 13 different NES titles, which is far less than what the NES Remix games had to offer, but it aims to be a bit more of a quality selection. Here is a list of the games in question:

• Ballon Fight
• Donkey Kong
• Excitebike
• Ice Climbers
  
• Kid Icarus
• Kirby's Adventure
  
• The Legend of Zelda
• Metroid
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
  
• Zelda II - The Adventure of Link
  

This should cover most of the fan favorites and focuses on the early Nintendo games that have aged best, though none of them have aged particularly well, except maybe Super Mario Bros. 3. You will still get some stiff and clunky stuff in there, like Donkey Kong, Ice Climbers, or even Kid Icarus and Metroid. And your enjoyment of the Nintendo World Championships will heavily depend on the enjoyment of these games.

At least the challenges weren't spread out equally, so the more popular games get more challenges than something like Excitebike. Also, you don't have to play other games first in order to get to the good stuff. You can just focus on whatever game(s) you like best, because everything you do is rewarded with coins, based on your score and the difficulty. Those coins then can be used to unlock challenges and purchase player icons based on the 13 games. So, you can technically play the same challenge over and over again to unlock everything in the game, even though you probably don't want to do it that way.

The score is determined by eight different ranks: C, B, B+, B++, A, A+, A++, and S. For the S-rank you usually have to get close to perfection, with a little leeway. So, getting those can be quite challenging, especially if this is your first contact with speedrunning. But it also heavily depends on the challenge in question and the required times, where some will give you an easier time than others.

As for the challenges themselves, they range from "short and sweet" to "speedrun the entire game, please". In case of Super Mario Bros., for example, you start with picking up the first mushroom and collecting some coins. This goes over into entire levels, until finally you have to beat the entire game. To be fair, this is the exception and it can be achieved within a couple of minutes thanks to the warp zones.

That is the game's "Legend" difficulty challenge, where each title gets one such lengthier task, some more than others. In case of the two Zelda games you will have to speedrun the entire first dungeon. Meanwhile, in Metroid you only have to do the final escape sequence, where the developers were merciful enough to leave out the atrocious Mother Brain fight before it.

For those Legendary Challenges you can read hints, called "Classified Information", where it shows you the intended route for the S-rank or other useful tips, so you don't have to look at online maps or guides of these games to figure it out yourself. These hints look like pages from classic manuals or strategy guides from that era, which is really awesome and something that more games should do.

The manuals used to be a fantastic source of information and beautiful artworks back in the day, where Nintendo slowly economized this to a point where modern games don't came with any manual at all. It's understandable, but games like TUNIC and now Nintendo World Championships show how you can bring these back within the game itself. It's very lovely!

This is entirely subjective, but you may find the shorter challenges to be more fun and addicting. In those you really focus on one task to get it done just right. Fight that one Lynel at the cave to the White Sword as quickly as possible. Again, again, and again until you get that one near-perfect try. It gets you into the "zone".

The longer the challenges become, however, the more it goes into conventional speedrunning territory, where you have to put everything together and optimize both in large and small scale. In some cases, like Super Mario Bros., it even feels like all the challenges before are just there to teach you how to speedrun the game in its entirety. And that might not be to everyone's taste.

But these longer challenges also often have more leeway for the S-rank, where you can afford to make some mistakes and potentially still get it. The Parapa Palace from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link is a great example of this, luckily.

However, this wouldn't be the "Nintendo World Championships" if this was just about personal highscores. There needs to be some competition and the game let's you go at it in three different ways: Party Mode, World Championships, and Survival Mode.

Party Mode let's you compete locally with up to eight players. Here you get different themed sets of challenges, or you can just create your own. You then score points based on your placement and the winner gets it all... This is entirely separate from the rest of the game (the one player mode), so none of your highscores here will have any effect. And this can run out of steam quickly, so don't bank on it for this to become your next party game.

Otherwise, you have the two "online" modes, Wold Championships and Survival. For both you get the same set of five challenges, which are going to change every Monday. In World Championships you get to play these challenges individually and you can try to achieve a highscore. New highscores will be transferred into the singleplayer Speedrun Mode, even if you haven't unlocked the given challenges yet. But this won't work the other way around, so you have to make a good score for the running competition.

You won't see your standings until that competition is over, however, so there are no real leaderboards to follow until then. That's probably not to demotivate players from trying their best, because seeing the highscores on online leaderboards can be daunting. And there is a sense of wonder of how well you did in the end... But for those who really want to compete for the top this is a questionable decision at best.

In Survival you will play three challenges back-to-back against the ghost data of seven other players. Each round the bottom half gets disqualified and you goal is to make it to the end. This is divided into Silver and Gold levels, where for the former you get generally more easier opponents, while in the Gold Division you're often up against people's best attempts, making this fairly challenging.

Winning here will earn you some pins, where there's 183 to unlock in total, most of them from scoring an A-rank in all the individual challenges. These pins are like little trophies (and also what the physical pins in the Deluxe Set are based upon), where you can show off one of them in pride next to your username.

The other customization a statement, like "Game Boy Generation", your favorite NES game from a comprehensive list, as well the aforementioned player icons. The latter are unlocked via coins and can get rather expensive, e.g. the awoken princess from Zelda II costs 1000. The hardest challenges only cost 300 to unlock, in comparison, so this may keep you busy for a while, grinding all that virtual money.

Finally, if you're super crazy about all of this and can't get enough, there is the "Legendary Trial" to unlock, where you will have to clear all 13 Legendary Challenges one after another, which can take half an hour. Good luck with that!

Conclusion

All in all, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is another take on NES Remix, with a bit of competition sprinkled on top. If you enjoy speedrunning and mastering individually segments in video games, then you should have a good time with this, given that you don't mind the age of the games in question. Otherwise this title won't have much to offer...

Hopefully, Nintendo will move on from the NES with this concept and offer something for Game Boy and SNES generation in the future, or potentially even something based on individual franchises with a mix of different platforms.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition Impressions

Well, this is essentially NES Remix again... just with less games and less challenges per game and without any remix, but with online competition... without any leaderboards. The focus is a lot more on speedrunning individual chunks, where they've put quality over quantity with the selection of challenges.

And it can be quite addicting to the get one single thing just right for the S-rank, where I personally do enjoy these smaller tasks more than the longer ones. It can even ruin a potentially fun challenge if there's more to it than necessary, where the best example is probably the Ridley fight from Metroid. For some reason they thought it to be a good idea to include the room before in all its laggy glory.

To make things worse they let the game rewind whenever you might fall into lava, but you can't really set where you get back into the game, so it might just place you above the lava once more... The rewind is truly useless, especially if you're going for the S-ranks, because the timer keeps running, even as it rewinds. So, you're always better off just resetting.

Controls could also be better. Like in NES Remix, you still have X as an alternative to B, but Y isn't any longer a second Select button, which would especially be useful in Metroid for the missile switch. There are options for some things, e.g. how it displays the screen(s), but overall it's lacking.

My main problem with this game is similar to NES Remix, however: the only two NES games that I've ever played on the original hardware are The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. Those are the two NES games that I care about and not much else... I've also played and beaten Metroid, of course, but that's actually my least favorite game in the series. It's a bit too archaic for my taste, as are most NES games.

Now, there are 15 challenges for each Zelda game and I quickly got S-ranks in all of them. The only ones that gave me some trouble were "Labyrinth Champion" and "Rebonack Attack". The latter always was a painful bossfight for me, where here I really had to master it for the first time. And as for the Level 1 dungeon, I simply took a suboptimal route, because I've collected both keys in the rooms next to the entrance, where this isn't necessary. I should have looked at the "Classified Information" sooner, which are super awesome in this old strategy guide style, where being able to look at those is essentially a reward for itself.

Anyway, now I'm left with little motivation to go on. I'm giving some other games and challenges a try, also in combination with the "online" modes, but it just doesn't have the same spark. And while I am more interested in a potential SNES or Game Boy Edition, those still would come with many games and challenges I don't particularly enjoy playing, e.g. F-Zero.

What I'm trying to say here is that I personally would prefer something like "Nintendo World Championships: The Legend of Zelda Edition", where they focus on one franchise and include all games that are currently part of the Nintendo Switch Online emulation, so you would have up to ten Zelda games in total. This would really get me excited to complete everything and to compete in those weekly online tournaments.

It's understandable that they are doing this on a console basis, because otherwise many Nintendo games would never be featured at all. And hopefully these types of games are not stuck with the NES for all eternity, where a Game Boy Edition would probably be so much more fun for me. But they could also do these franchise editions in addition, at least for the most popular ones, like Super Mario and Zelda. Maybe as a free offering for the 40th anniversaries?

Got Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition Deluxe Set

Well, I already got this yesterday, because for some reason Nintendo decided with this fiscal year that their new games should launch on a Thursday... But this was on a Thursday, so I couldn't even be bothered to unpack it. Anyway, it's finally here, the big summer release that we've been waiting for... Not really, but it could be a nice diversion for in-between, where I already got hooked with beating some Octoroks as fast as possible.

As for the Deluxe Set, this is the only way of getting a physical copy of the game. It costs it much as a normal Nintendo Switch game would, but you get a variety of goodies on top:

There is a replica of the golden NES cartridge for the Nintendo World Championships, though they felt the need to use this game's logo on a black background, so it isn't exactly the same. And of course it's not a real NES game, it's just plastic, but it comes with even more plastic in the form of a standee, so you can put it nicely into a display cabinet.

In addition, you get a pin set, which is surprisingly nice, because it feels like little trophies. I'm normally not a big fan of such pins and I don't get Nintendo's obsession with them, but in this case it seems like a very good fit.

 

Finally, there is a card set with the original covers of all 13 NES games featured in the game. It's actually a very good selection, they've went with the absolute best games here, unlike NES Remix and NES Remix 2, where they had one too many of Nintendo's old games in there. On the backside you get some pixel arts:

And that's it. Nothing too special, but still neat. My only real complaint is that the cover of the card case still has the huuuge age ratings on it. Why is that? One of the biggest selling points of these Special Editions, at least for me personally, is to get a clean cover. And they are not even selling this separately!

Though, maybe they had planned to... The pin box also comes with a plastic wrapping that's normally used for My Nintendo stuff, complete with a bar code sticker for the item. Maybe they first made the retail game and those pins separately, but then decided to create this Deluxe Set instead. Add some more cardboard and plastic, and then sell it for full price. Oh, well, it's obviously working...

Remaking The Minish Cap

If you're asking fans what (handheld) Zelda game should be remade next, you will often see The Minish Cap as an answer. This is curious, because – unlike the Oracle games and the Nintendo DS games – it doesn't seem like the Game Boy Advance title really needs one. Its 2D sprite graphics are the best looking in the series and have aged gracefully. It also doesn't have some hook, where addressing that alone would already make the game better for most people. There is no convoluted password system and it doesn't have touchscreen or microphone controls.

You can play The Minish Cap just fine in 2024 via Nintendo Switch Online, given that you're willing to pay for the overpriced Expansion Pack. The game is not flawless, but compared to the other handheld Zeldas it still looks and plays quite nicely, so it's not in immediate need of a remake. But this doesn't mean that it won't ever get one...

There is even a big hook here, it's just not as obvious at first, because it's mainly about the graphics. Yes, the 2D pixel visuals of The Minish Cap are the best in the series, as the last game that made use of them. And yes, the game still looks pretty. Nevertheless, 3D graphics would offer a whole new perspective, one that really let's you dive into the world of the Picori.

In The Minish Cap the shrinking was displayed in one of two ways. Either you were a small dot within the environment, similar to the Gnat Hat from Four Swords, or you've entered special zoomed-in screens, like the "Minish Roads", the homes of the Picori, or even entire dungeons. In those you appear normal-sized relative to your screen, but the environments are heavily enlarged.

With 3D graphics you could handle this a lot more dynamically and offer whole new perspectives. Imagine running through Hyrule Castle Town as a Minish, but it's actually zoomed in and you can see details like grass and tiny rocks, while the people around you became huge. It would be breath-taking and a completely new experience. Of course, this could potentially go more in the direction of a re-imagining, instead of a faithful remake, but either way it would be an incredibly charming incentive to re-explore the world this game.

With that in mind, it's easy to understand why people want a remake of The Minish Cap, other than the fact that's probably the most well-rounded out of the Capcom titles. It still has some rough edges, however, and the rest of this article will talk about those.

Controls & Hints

With the Nintendo Switch you get twice as many face buttons and twice as many shoulder buttons than what you had on the Game Boy Advance. This alone can already provide much more comfort, as demonstrated by the Link's Awakening remake, which didn't even make use of everything. In the very least, sword and shield should get their dedicated buttons. Pegasus Boots and the Roc's Cape are good candidates for this as well, while you still have the X and Y buttons for the remaining items.

Map and inventory should now be separate, with the inventory screen on ⊕ and the map on ⊖. The inventory can also display the main items, all your gear, and the status items at once, so there won't be any need to switch pages via L and R any longer.

As for Ezlo, the Select button was originally dedicated to getting advice from him, where this can move to some direction on the D-pad, together with the Kinstone fusion. Nintendo probably won't support the D-pad for movement anyway, since neither Link's Awakening nor Echoes of Wisdom did so. Plus, the remake will probably become more three-dimensional, where you'd want to use a stick.

Ezlo should also get the Fi treatment from Skyward Sword HD, meaning that he will only make some sound when he wants to give you a hint, instead of popping up and interrupting the game. If the player wants the advice, they can press his button at the moment.

Kinstones

In concept the Kinstone system was pretty neat, but its execution is quite flawed. Some characters won't fuse Kinstones with you until you've reached a certain point in the game, without giving you any real hints about that. And with certain characters, like Epona, you won't ever have the pleasure of fusing Kinstones, because they are part of the random pool that will run out quickly. Finally, finding Kinstones in treasure chests, sometimes even as a reward from other Kinstone fusions, rarely ever feels exciting, because you're getting so many duplicates.

There is a simple solution to all of these problems: make all Kinstone Pieces behave like the golden ones, meaning that there is a fixed number of each shape in the game and that every fusion is assigned to a specific character. There should be more shapes and colors, like purple and orange, where many pieces will be entirely unique. Let's say the remake will have 128 different fusions, because they've added some more stuff, then there will be exactly 128 Kinstone pieces hidden in the world. No more and no less.

Characters should always be ready for fusing Kinstones. If you don't have the matching piece yet, it will leave a marker on your map with the other side displayed. This even let's you open your Kinstone Bag to compare, just to be safe that you have obtained the right piece before revisiting the character in question.

If you're not meant to activate the fusion until a certain point in the game, then the required Kinstone piece will be hidden accordingly. For example, there is the Minish who lives in the northeast corner of the Minish Village and who gives you access to the final Heart Container at Lake Hylia. In this case the Kinstone piece should be found behind the 4x4 rock on the schoolyard, ensuring that you already have the Four Sword.

There also shouldn't be a shared pool of fusions any longer, giving you a reason to fuse with everyone, even that Cucco on Anju's house, where reaching it was usually pointless so late in the game. But the remake then also needs to make sure that every character still can be found at the end of the game somewhere.

Speaking of pointless things, you should be able to obtain the Mirror Shield right after summoning Biggoron via Kinstones, which doesn't happen until very late in the game anyway.

Figurine Gallery

A simple fix for the Figurine Gallery would be to increase the maximum of Mysterious Shells from 999 to 9999. This way you can simply collect as many of them as you want and then tend to this minigame whenever you're ready, even if that's at the very end of the game. The main issue here always was that reaching the maximum effectively forced you to stop whatever you're doing and go invest your Mysterious Shells, or else any more you find will go to waste.

The same goes for Rupees, of course, where the individual wallet sizes should probably be closer to what we have in Twilight Princess HD, also with a maximum of 9999.

As for the figurine game itself, there are a number of ways to improve this and speed things up. Like, it could allow you to make multiple draws at once, instead of always ever going for a single figurine. Or maybe it let's you choose between different eggs, so that you can target a specific color, similar to other common Gacha games.

Finally, there shouldn't be a Piece of Heart locked behind collecting 130 figurines. For those who want to have all hearts, but don't care about the figurines, this is just a painful requirement, no matter how much you improve it.

The Minish Cap Referencing Previous Zelda Games

Recently, I saw someone make the claim that Twilight Princess is the "quintessential Zelda game",  because – on top of using the foundations laid out by A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time – it's "full with cameos and references to past games". I can't say that I agree with any of that, because it became too linear to truly respect those foundations. And while it certainly has some references to past games, it's mainly A Link to the Past and the other 3D Zelda games. As for cameos, I can really only think of the Skull Kid and the Postman...

However, there is one game from that era that truly was filled with references and cameos to ALL past Zelda games and that's The Minish Cap, where I was reminded of that while replaying the game once more on the Nintendo Switch. So, I thought that I should make a list of how every Zelda game before The Minish Cap gets represented. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, only to give examples to proof this point. But if you can think of anything important that I should have mentioned, feel free to leave a comment.

The Legend of Zelda

Royal Crypt. Period. This mini-dungeon is a callback to the labyrinths of the NES classic. You can hear a rendition of the music, and you can hear the secret item melody when you make keys appear, which are also just put on the ground, instead of inside a treasure chest. Gibdos can also be seen carrying items, which they otherwise don't. It's a shame that this wasn't turned into a full dungeon...

In addition, the Ocarina of Wind plays the same little tune as the Flute / Recorder.

Zelda II - The Adventure of Link

Well, Zelda II is probably the one game that has very little to go with, but in the very least The Minish Cap featured a series of learnable sword techniques, as it was first done in The Adventure of Link. And one of those techniques is even the Down Thrust, though you don't get to use it in a side-scrolling perspective here.

A Link to the Past

Mostly, A Link to the Past is represented via different music pieces. Of course there is the usual stuff, like Zelda's theme and Hyrule Castle, which are also featured in many other Zelda games. But there is more than that, like the unique callback to the beginning of A Link to the Past during the rainy part on Mount Crenel.

Also, you get to hear the cave theme when you're inside the secret passage that leads back into Hyrule Castle. And if you have unlocked the sound test, then you can listen to a rendition of the title screen theme from A Link to the Past. This one doesn't play anywhere else in the game, though, so it's really just a hidden feature.

The Four Sword's curse-breaking magic looks like the sword beam of the Master Sword from A Link to the Past. And while the Ocarina of Wind plays a different tune, the way you call a bird to travel over Hyrule is very similar to the Flute (which was also an Ocarina) from the SNES. The witch Syrup also returns, who had been present in all handheld Zelda games til this point, except for Four Swords.

As an environmental reference, you get the same prison cells in the basement of Dark Hyrule Castle as the ones in the beginning of A Link to the Past. Instead of Zelda, the king of Hyrule is imprisoned here, but overall it's quite similar in how this area is structured.

 

Link's Awakening

Naturally, the first handheld Zelda game had to be referenced in several ways. The Mysterious Shells are a nod to the Secret Seashells, even though they work differently. Simon's Simulations are reminiscent of the Dream Shrine. And your normal sword beams make the same sound as those from the L-2 sword.

This might be a minor detail, but the room with the two Sparks before the boss chamber in the Fortress of Winds is a callback to a similar room at the end of the Face Shrine, Level 6. More importantly, The Minish Cap is one of the few Zelda games other than Link's Awakening to feature enemies from the Super Mario series, like the Bob-ombs and Lakitus.

Ocarina of Time

Mainly, Ocarina of Time gets represented with a variety of recurring characters. Malon, Talon, and Epona make an appearance – there is even a whole Lon Lon Farm and you can get Lon Lon Milk for your bottles. Then we also have Biggoron, the carpenters, Anju (as the Cucco lady), Dampé, and more. The Hyrule Castle Town music is also a remix of the Kokiri Forest theme.

Majora's Mask

Similar to Ocarina of Time, the other N64 classic gets multiple character cameos, including Tingle, Gorman, and the Postman, but also characters that are present in both N64 games, like Dampé and Anju. Well, technically Gorman and the Postman also exist in Ocarina of Time, but here they are based on their iterations from Majora's Mask. Otherwise, Major Hagen's obsession with masks can be seen as a reference to Majora's Mask overall.

And let's not forget one of the most impressive boss fights in the game: the Gyorg Pair. Though, why they are called "Gyorgs", we will never know...

Oracle of Ages & Seasons

Din, Nayru, and Farore make an appearance. Also, each of them are looking for a new home, but you can only give two of them a house, which happen to have a red and a blue roof. This can be interpreted as a callback to how they were only able to make two of three planned games in the "Mystical Seed" series, though you don't have to go specifically with Din and Nayru.

There are even more characters from the Oracle games to be found, like Stockwell and Dr. Left (who was a reference to Mr. Write from Link's Awakening). And the Roc's Cape returns as an item from Four Swords, which originated in Oracle of Seasons as an upgrade to the Roc's Feather.

The Wind Waker

This is probably one of the most obvious examples, given that both Four Swords and The Minish Cap translated the toon style of The Wind Waker into 2D sprites, which can be seen in certain enemies, like the Moblins. However, The Minish Cap went a step further by also bringing many of its characters into 2D. We have Tingle's siblings, Beedle, Carlov, Sturgeon, Zill, or the Goron Merchants. And King Daltus greatly resembles the King of Red Lions, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule.

Also, the Mirror Shield looks exactly like the one from The Wind Waker. And one of the bosses, Mazaal, is clearly based on Gohdan. In German they even share the same name: Quartoxuma.

Four Swords

In this case it's probably easier to list what didn't make it into The Minish Cap, since the game uses the same engine and assets as Four Swords. They essentially took the multiplayer Game Boy Advance title and used it to make a new singleplayer experience.

Major story aspects, like Vaati and the Four Sword, made a return here. Even the Minish Cap itself is based on one of the items from Four Swords, the Gnat Hat.

Four Swords Adventures

The Minish Cap and Four Swords Adventures were developed in parallel, so it's far-fetched to claim that there are any intentional references between the two games. Still, since both are based on Four Swords, they share many similarities, other than featuring Vaati and the Four Sword. For example, both games use the four stones from the Four Sword Sanctuary as key items: in The Minish Cap they became the four elements, while in Four Swords Adventures they are the four "Royal Jewels".

Replaying The Minish Cap on the Switch

While waiting for the next sessions of Four Swords via Nintendo Switch Online to happen, I felt like playing the Zelda game once more that was made out of the same assets: The Minish Cap. Back when the Game Boy Advance was new and I had no one to play Four Swords with, The Minish Cap was a real treat, because it let me experience something in the same style all by myself. And I suppose this feeling never went away, even after twenty years...

There was an additional incentive, however, because with Nintendo Switch Online you get access to both the US and the European versions. Normally, this isn't all too interesting, since the differences between these two regions are usually minor. But The Minish Cap was one of the exceptions and a special one, because this game was released in Europe before North America, over two months even, very shortly after the Japanese release on November 4th 2004.

Today you have simultaneous worldwide releases for every new game, which is fantastic, but this wasn't always the case and 20 years ago Europe usually was the last in line, because the games had to be translated into multiple languages first, which took time. So, usually Nintendo games came out in Japan first, then in North America, and finally in Europe (I'm ignoring poor Australia here, sorry).

To get the game so soon was truly special, but it came at a price: the European version was based on an older build of the game. You can read all about it on TCRF, but the biggest issue was a bug that makes you unable to fuse Kinstones with Eenie, which ultimately prevents you from getting the last Empty Bottle, Biggoron and the Mirror Shield, as well as the Tingle Trophy. Imagine you reach the end of the game and then have all those missing...

In addition, there was a third Bomb Bag upgrade added to Stockwell's Shop, which wasn't available in the European version, so you could only have 50 bombs at max. It's not that you really need the 99, but it nevertheless felt like something was missing, because both your wallet and your quiver can be enhanced three times in total:

• once from Stockwell's Shop
• once from the Great Fairies
• once from fusing red Kinstones

There is a pattern here and with that there was clearly something absent in the European version, making this a bigger deal than you may think. (I still remember how some North American fans were disappointed that all they got was a bigger Bomb Bag, despite waiting two months.)

The most important part are a number of quality of life updates, however, where my favorite is that all the Kinstone markers on your map will go away once you've collected the corresponding treasures. In the European version opened doorways and similar remained forever, cluttering your map, where this also meant that you didn't have an overview of what you've already obtained.

So, overall you want to be playing the US version, unless you don't understand English (in which case you probably won't be reading this blog anyway). And thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, I can finally enjoy that version on official hardware, so this was also a big part of my motivation to play this over what I already have on Game Boy Advance and Wii U, other than the fact that using my Switch is the most convenient way of playing games for me right now.

Anyway, so much for the history lesson. While it was great to play the US version again, the rewind feature of the Nintendo Switch Online emulators also improved the experience quite a bit. I've already talked about how it helped tremendously with the figurine collecting, where for the first time all the shells that you obtain from treasure chests were more than enough for getting everything. You can read all about that here.

In addition, it also helped quite a bit with the annoying Cucco minigame, because you can quickly undo mistakes and try again, without the need to repeat the entire round. I've always hated this minigame, because it's a perversion of the fun Cucco search from Kakariko in Ocarina of Time and completely overstays its non-existent welcome. But at least the rewind made it somewhat bearable to do it all over again...

Though, its most potent usability comes with the last minigame in Hyrule Castle Town: the Chest Mini-Game Shop. Unlike in A Link to the Past, it's completely predetermined what chest contains what before you open it. So, all you have to do is rewind and pick the right chest. The "triple or nothing" variant let's you turn 10 Rupees into 999 Rupees in less than a minute, so money won't ever be an issue again. Even if I had to grind for Mysterious Shells, which I didn't, I could have simply bought them from the shop, and then "gamble" to refill my Rupees.

What the rewind won't help you with is Ezlo. He's still annoying me greatly, telling you the most obvious and mundane things, interrupting you in the middle of your actions. He even tells you the solution to puzzles while you're already solving them, which might even cancel what you've been doing, like creating clones. Ezlo comes straight out of handholding hell, where he's making babies with Fi. And this makes me actually worried about Tri... Maybe it's their offspring...?!!

Begone, talking hat! May the Minish Door never open again!

It also didn't help that I've been playing TUNIC recently, a game that does not spell things out for you (quite literally) and challenges your intelligence, instead of insulting it. More on that later, but it makes it so much more painful that there was this phase for Zelda, where Nintendo simply was too afraid that the players wouldn't understand things. And I'm glad that's history.

Another thing I ended up disliking is something that I've always been praising about this game in the past: the Kinstones. Well, I still enjoy this idea of making things appear all over Hyrule, adding to the environment, opening new ways, and so on. But the execution is quite flawed...

The main problem is with characters who refuse to fuse Kinstones until some arbitrary point in the game. So, you go and explore, find some Minish living in a small hole somewhere, but all you can do is talk to him. He may give you a hint that he is up to something, but you don't know when this is going to happen...

A prime example is the Minish who lives at the "lake" in the northeast corner of the Minish Village. He will open the way to the final Heart Container, but not until you've obtained the completed Four Sword. How are you supposed to know this? Well, apparently you aren't supposed to know. All you can do is revisit everything and everyone once you've reached the end of the game, just in case you're now allowed to fuse all of sudden.

I personally keep forgetting about the Deku in the Minish Woods, but at least it's easy enough to remember that you have to go back to the Deku in the Castor Wilds for this. And my last fusion this time was the second fusion with the Smith. It's stupid how a variety of characters have two fixed fusions, while others are part of the random pool and may get cut short, where then there is no reason to ever visit them (like the Cucco on Anju's house).

Another thing I will never understand is why the Mirror Shield is exclusive to the post-game only. It makes sense for the additional figurines, because otherwise they would spoil the final bosses for you, but there was no need to make Biggoron do absolutely nothing until after you've beaten the game. This is yet another character who you can visit, but where you can't do anything at first, except for taking a mental note to come back again later. And that's not fun.

Well, I've put some thoughts into how to improve the game for a potential remake, especially with the Kinstone system, but those will go into a follow-up post, coming in the next days!

The Minish Cap: Figurine Gallery Probabilities

Currently, I'm replaying The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on the Nintendo Switch and one of the worst parts of the game always has been the Figurine Gallery, at least if you are looking to fully complete everything, to get that Carlov Medal and the last Piece of Heart. Now, with the rewind feature of the Nintendo Switch Online libraries I thought that I could easily cheese this minigame – bet a single Mysterious Shell and if I don't get a new figurine, I will simply rewind. Sounds good, right?

Especially in the higher percentages this should work like a charm, but to my surprise it didn't. No matter how many times I went back, I kept getting the same figurine. So, I did some experimentation and noticed that three things are predetermined right after your previous pull or when you enter the room:

• What duplicate figurine you will get on a failure.
  
• What new figurine you will get on a success.
• The minimum percentage required for a success.
  

At the time you're placing your bet all of this is already set. So, either you pay the right amount to get the new figurine or you don't. You could compare this to the bargaining system in Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, where you have to guess how many Rupees someone might want, but the difference here is that the required amount changes after each bet.

As an example, in one case the game wanted me to reach 75% in order to obtain Nayru and anything below would score me Din, who I already had. In this scenario, no matter how many times I rewind, unless I pay enough shells for the 75%, I will always get Din. The only way to reset this is to rewind back before you start making the trade and then leave the room. You can also just take the loss and bet a single shell, which earns you five Rupees.

There also seem to be these wildcard moments every so often, where the required minimum is at 0% and you will get a new figurine from a single shell, no matter how low this places your bet. That's why you can still commonly get new figurines even with only 1% at the end.

So, what's the best strategy knowing all this? Actually... nothing much changes. The best strategy always has been to only ever bet a single Mysterious Shell until you drop to the lower percentages (below 15% or so), where you want to start to bet a few more.

But what the rewind feature and Suspend Points allow you here is testing for the required amount, at least approximately. First you should test if a single shell is enough, in which case you don't have to rewind at all. If it's not enough, next you should test for the highest amount you want to spend on a new figurine, e.g. 50 shells. If it costs more than that, then you want to reset (or trade a single shell for five Rupees).

If it's below your maximum, you can still check for lower amounts to see what's possible. You don't have to find the exact minimum, but you also don't want to be too wasteful. This way you can optimize your spendings and get the most out of the shells that you have.

In fact, for the first time ever (on official hardware at least) I was able to obtain all figurines without the need to grind for Mysterious Shells. What you get from treasure chests was enough for the 130 figurines. I even have so many shells left that I can go with full 100% for each of the six post-game figurines and then still have leftovers. It's completely different from my experiences in the past, where I always ran out of shells to burn eventually.

The rewind feature also helps with treasure chests full of Mysterious Shells. If you don't need them yet and the chest is found at an accessible location (ideally marked after a Kinstone fusion), you can simply rewind and leave the chest for later, so you don't hit that 999 shell limit just yet. That's especially a good idea whenever you get 200 shells at once. (However, those will be replaced with 50 Rupees, should you already have the Carlov Medal, so you also don't want to let them rot.)

The Future of Four Swords Adventures

After finishing Four Swords in a group of four players via Nintendo Switch Online (see here), the question came up if we could continue this in Four Swords Adventures. Some of us had played the game together before, in 2018 on a Zelda gathering, but we were never able to finish it, because it's simply too inconvenient to make this happen again with all the required hardware. Of course, you could always use unofficial emulation, but that might not run so well and for the sake of comfort we probably will stick to Nintendo's offerings, like you now can with Four Swords.

However, it's unlikely that Nintendo will ever want to remake or remaster Four Swords Adventures. The multiplayer Zelda games are generally not as popular and they are better off putting such resources into remakes of the singleplayer titles, e.g The Minish Cap, or into making a new multiplayer game altogether. There is also the problem that Four Swords Adventures required an exotic setup, where each player gets their own screen in the form of a Game Boy Advance, in addition to the TV screen. That's not something that you will be able to replicate with the Nintendo Switch right now.

Still, the best chance of this game ever making a re-appearance is actually via Nintendo Switch Online... given that Nintendo offers a library of GameCube games one day. But that's probably not going to happen on the current Nintendo Switch, because it might be too weak for that. Well, the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection already runs both Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy on emulators, so it's technically possible to have GameCube and Wii games on the Switch. But this was without being embedded into the online environment...

screenshots by u/EruditeWho

In any case, you could display the main screen of the game (which is in 4:3 format) right next to your GBA screen, as shown in the above mockup. It's not ideal, but this would be good enough for such a re-release and perfectly emulate the original setup, where each player had a screen of their own next to the shared TV screen. You're not supposed to see what the other players have on their screens, though there could be an option to allow this as well.

Alternatively, they could also assign a button for turning the GBA screen on and off as a layer above the main screen. That would be similar to how it's done in the singleplayer mode of Four Swords Adventures, so it should work fine in theory. And this way you don't have to compromise with the screen sizes.

So, it's entirely possible that we will see a return of Four Swords Adventures one day, which is one of the few mainline Zelda games that never have been re-released in any form, the others being A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes from the Nintendo 3DS. And this would already be a lot more comfortable than playing the original, because all you need is a Nintendo Switch per player.

The downside here would be that only the host gets to make progress. This is unlike Four Swords on the Game Boy Advance, where each player makes their individual progress in the form of the different keys. That's because everyone has their own copy of the game and with it their own save data. But this difference was already true for the original versions, since you can only play this on one GameCube at a time.

And unlike Four Swords, you're also not dependent on other players, because this was built with a singleplayer mode in mind. So, you can play this with others online, but you don't have to. Only the Tingle Tower levels and the Shadow Battles mode are exclusive to multiplayer, but that's because they focus on competition.

The Navi Trackers mode was originally exclusive to the Japanese and Korean versions, where this will likely remain that way. But maybe Nintendo will make those versions easily accessible to the other regions as well, as long as you don't mind playing in some foreign language.

Four Swords Online, Round 5

Today was our final stream of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords via Nintendo Switch Online, where we had to get the last Hero's Key from Death Mountain and then finish Vaati's Palace in its 12 floor variant, which is big as all stages from the basic games combined. One last time of cooperating while screwing each other over.

This stream was already planned to happen a week ago, but the blue Link had no internet at the time (it should be no secret to the rest of the world by now that nothing is really working in Germany), so we had to reschedule. Today the timing wasn't the best for me, however, and I just wanted to be done with it, so if I sound more annoyed than usual, then that's why.

It also didn't help that blue Link's connection was lost in the middle of a stage and we had to start over. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a big deal, because the stages are rather short and replayable. But we were right in the middle of the Vaati's Palace marathon, the final stage, so this was a huge setback. Here it's not really the best how Nintendo just kicks you out of the game, instead of suspending it and giving the players a choice of what to do. The connection was only lost for a brief moment, where we could have waited...

What also annoyed me today is losing all your seed upgrades after a death. You already have the Rupee loss, but they also reset all your stats back to 0, which feels very punishing. Well, this gives you an extra incentive not to die, that's for sure. And if you die, then collecting the seeds will have value again. But depending on the level it might not be so easy to max out everything in the first place...

Anyway, first we had to conquer Death Mountain with 5000 Rupees, which is the most difficult of the Hero's Keys to obtain, because the fire levels can get very punishing. You really need to make good use of Rupee Fever, but if you're constantly hit by something, then that's not a given. We failed the first time, but we did it on our second try, so this went actually quite well nevertheless.

Since I already had 10 Medals of Courage and cooperation was key, I stepped back during Death Mountain, even let others have the treasure chests, but I still managed to snatch a medal after the second run for some reason. Maybe I subconsciously was still acting greedily... I mean, none of the other players were interested in the A Link to the Past connectivity, so the medals never mattered to them at any point. It was really only about getting more Rupees than others and scoring first place.

And the fight was on for the last stage! Here we didn't have to worry about Rupees any longer and you get more than you need anyway, so we were free to compete again. Still, we couldn't shake the mindset of "we need to maintain Rupee Fever" for some reason. I guess that it became a (good) habit after the Hero's Keys.

We also got sidetracked by the one floor of the sky palace where you have this platform that goes around the main room in a circle and you have to shoot eye switches to make chests appear. But there are a lot of blocks in the way, which can and will push you off, especially when there's lag to deal with.

I got stuck there for a moment, because there is a "safe zone" in the northeast corner of that parkour, a little past the halfway point. So, when you fall off, the game will put you there. Sounds nice in theory, but in practice there is no way of getting back to the beginning, unless you are able to beat the obstacle course, which took me a number of tries...

But ultimately we even got all treasure chests, because the blue Link ended up in the same situation and managed to shoot one last switch that I had missed. Teamwork! However, this was right before the connection loss, so this was all for nothing... And afterwards we've decided to rush things, because there was no need to go out of your way for Rupees.

We still finished with almost 25,000 Rupees, but collecting Rupees in this game is just so addicting. Well, I was torn a bit between "I don't really need them any longer" and "this is the finale, so I want to win this". And in the end the red Link (which was me) established his role in Hyrule's history as the one true Link:

I always liked the red tunic best, so this fits. And I would have gotten enough Medals of Courage for the Riddle Quest from this playthrough after all, but I really enjoyed having the Hurricane Spin Attack during this last round. It's just the best tool for annoying the other players and it was worth it for the "why do you have this?!!" reactions alone.

So, now I'm 100% done with Four Swords, for the very first time experiencing it as you should – by playing this game with three other people and in parallel to A Link to the Past, where one achievement leads to another. And I'm very happy about that.

Should you ever want to do the same, keep in mind that the Suspend Points store both the RAM of the game and the battery save data for some reason, unlike save states on conventional emulators. That's a huge pitfall here and the first thing I did after our session today was overwriting all existing Suspend Points, just to be safe.

In case of multiplayer you can't use Suspend Points, so you have to rely on the traditional battery save data. But now, if I were to load a Suspend Point from A Link to the Past, then all of my Four Swords progress today would have been lost... with no means to restore it (unless it's still there as your latest cloud save). So, keep that in mind!