The Future of 2D Zelda

We are going to get a remake of Ocarina of Time later this year, while a new 3D Zelda game is presumably in development at Nintendo EPD3. So, the Zelda fans who prefer the big adventures from a 3rd person perspective already have a lot coming on the Nintendo Switch 2. But if you also enjoy following Link's and Zelda's journeys from a top-down or side-scrolling perspective, then you will have to wait and see for now.

To be fair, the latest installment in the series is still Echoes of Wisdom, which isn't even two years old yet. But presuming that GREZZO is not the studio behind the Ocarina of Time remake, it's likely that they are already working on the next 2D Zelda game, whether that's another remake or a new title. So, let's talk about how this could look like... and what may lie beyond.

Remaking The Legend of Zelda

A week ago the original The Legend of Zelda has entered its 40th year of existence, and maybe Nintendo is about to give fans a whole new way of experiencing the classic to celebrate this special anniversary. So, let's take a deeper look of how this could look like.

Of course, a remake always has been a possibility, but one that got dismissed by this blog several times. And there have been good reasons... The NES classics are rather bare-bones and if you start infusing elements from later Zelda games, you will eventually end up with a re-imagining, instead of a remake. And then this may as well become a whole new game of its own.

That's exactly what has happened with Oracle of Seasons. When Capcom was working on Zelda projects for the Game Boy Color, they first had pitched a remake of the first game in the style of Link's Awakening. But before you knew it, you were able to ride on a Dodongo and the project evolved into something else.

Source: VGMaps.com

You can even see where the idea of changing the seasons may have come from, by looking at the game's world. There is this Akkala-like area of autumn trees to the southwest, while the graveyard to its north is surrounded by white trees and rocks, almost like it has been snowing there. And this sudden change of scenery could have been an inspiration for the game's core mechanic.

Anyway, this perspective has changed with the Link's Awakening remake, which is currently leading to whole bubble of potential follow-ups. There are even rumors that GREZZO has been busy with a third game already for a while now, a project called "Bernard", following "Richard" (the Link's Awakening remake) and "Edward" (Echoes of Wisdom). But we have no idea what "Bernard" actually is, where there are a number of possibilities, like a new coop Zelda game or even a dungeon maker.

But on top of the list is certainly a remake of the two Oracle games, which turned 25 years old just yesterday. However, Echoes of Wisdom came out only one and a half years ago and remaking two whole Zelda games since then is rather ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious to make it in time for the 40th Anniversary. And that's why they could have considered something simpler: the original The Legend of Zelda.

Now, remaking the first Zelda in the new Link's Awakening style makes sense for a number of reasons. There is the aforementioned history of how Capcom was trying to achieve the same on the Game Boy Color, where this could be finally be realized. It could even serve as an interim step for remakes of Oracle of Ages & Season, since they could re-use new enemies (like the Bubble) and all of the bosses, where Aquamentus, Gleeok and co. were featured in the Oracle games as well.

It also makes sense in the context of Link's Awakening alone. While the Game Boy classic was originally meant to bring A Link to the Past to the handheld, it also looked back at the NES original to make it happen. You have the same screen-transitioning system, and as a result dungeons were constructed in a pattern of square rooms, which ultimately led to the Color Dungeon in the DX version as a homage and the whole Chamber Dungeon feature in the remake. Certain enemies, like the Pols Voice, Vire or even Gohma, also returned for the first time since the original.

And by re-using the assets of the Link's Awakening remake, as well as Echoes of Wisdom, they could actually cover quite a lot already. Most of the normal enemies would already have models. Items like Bombs, Boomerang and Bow have already been implemented before. And they could even re-use the meat echo for the bait item... The more you think about it, the more it feels like the game is halfway remade already.

Keep in mind, though, that such a remake would mainly be about modernizing the visuals and the combat in the current top-down Zelda style. But this alone would already make it much more accessible and fun. Some enemies, like Darknuts or the Wizzrobes, could become less aggravating, while others may even become more challenging, first and foremost the Lynels.

The world and the dungeons should stay the same, however, as it was intended. The overworld would become seamless, just like with Link's Awakening, and they may add some visual clues as to what trees you can burn and what rock walls can be blown up, because nobody got time for that nonsense today. But there is no reason to fill it with stuff that wasn't there before, unless they want to go down the same route as Oracle of Seasons.

You would also now be able to assign items to both the X and Y buttons, while the letter and potions may even work fully automatically, so you don't have to put them on a button at all. And for the remaining seven items the game could make use of the Breath of the Wild quick select, without it being a pain, since there are only so few.

One of those items could even get a dedicated button, where the best candidate is probably the Candle. You needed it all the time in dungeons to light up the dark rooms and this could get annoying very quickly, because it forced you to swap items every so often. Also, the screen-based usage of the Blue Candle won't make any sense when there are no transitioning screens any longer, so it may simply have a cooldown, which gets shortened by the Red Candle. And it should create a sphere of light around you inside dark rooms when you haven't used its fire yet, so you can still see a little bit.

The Bow could also be overhauled to use actual arrows as ammunition. And the shops that offered you an arrow now simply sell bundles of them for a refill. However, to still offer the classic functionality, the Magic Book now also upgrades the Bow (in addition to the Magical Rod), so that it still uses up Rupees when you're out of arrows. Kind of like how the Magic Armor in various Zelda games lets you deplete your Rupees instead of your health.

On the overworld the Clock power-up would probably freeze all enemies in sight or within a certain radius, like it does in Hyrule Warriors on the Master Quest map. And with the Bait it would be nice if you could carry more than just one at a time, so you're not just keeping it to bribe certain Goriyas.

Finally, the Compass would be another good candidate for a revision, because all it did in the original was showing you the location of the Triforce in a dungeon. It should still do that, of course, but it could also give you a signal in dungeon rooms that have a key, just like in Link's Awakening. Or it may even give a general signal whenever there is a secret related to defeating all enemies in a room.

And that's pretty much it. No fuzz, no nonsense, just the original game modernized. However, to make this a bit more interesting and to offer something new for most fans, this should also come with the maps and dungeons of the first BS-X Zelda game, released in the 90s for the Satellaview peripheral for the Super Nintendo. It was essentially a 16-Bit remake of the original, but it got broadcasted like a TV show with time-based events, where in each episode you were playing two dungeons.

Because of their unusual nature, these games have never been re-released by Nintendo in any way or form, but they still could remake the two maps and their unique dungeons without any of the event stuff. Fans have done it before, so it's entirely possible. In the remake it could look like this:

When you start the game you get a choice between four different quests. The "Classic Quest" is the game as you know it. The "Second Quest" lets you play the devious altered version of the original, without naming yourself "Zelda" or beating the normal game first. And the "Lost Quest", which comes in two variants, would bring you to the maps from the BS-X Zelda.

This could even be seen as difficulty modes. The Classic Quest would be the normal difficult, the 2nd Quest hard, while the Lost Quests would be a lot easier, because their overworlds are only half the size and the dungeons were meant to be cleared within a short time. 

Of course, GREZZO could also add the usual Hero Mode option for those who are looking for a bigger challenge. But this probably should be implemented in the same way as in Echoes of Wisdom, meaning that you can just turn it on and off at any time.

Also like in Echoes of Wisdom, outfits could give Link a different appearance, to add some variety and novelty without altering the gameplay. This is where amiibo could come into the equation. For example, the 8-Bit Link could give you something like the Timeless Tunic from Tri Force Heroes, so that Link appears in a retro voxel style (and the music changes to the classic chiptunes from the NES). Or there could be a variant based on A Link Between Worlds, so he looks more like the classic Link, in case you don't like the toy style.

They should call this remake "The Legend of Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy" to distinguish from the original – at least in the west, since this has been the subtitle of the Famicom Disk game in Japan. It should be available on the Nintendo Switch, but with a free upgrade for the Switch 2. And maybe this could even be something that they will simply shadow-drop at the end of a Nintendo Direct, where they will offer a physical release later on, similar to Metroid Prime Remastered. You know, as a surprise for the 40th Anniversary...

Echoes of Awakening

You may already be playing Echoes of Wisdom, because you were lucky to receive the game early or naughty to play some leaked copy, but I'm a good boy who has ordered from Nintendo directly, who (unlike Amazon and co.) make sure that you will get the game on launch day, and not any earlier. That's fine, because until now I was still busy with replaying the Link's Awakening remake anyway, as a preparation.

At first I was actually playing Link's Awakening DX via Nintendo Switch Online, because you can unlock some icons for doing that. But this didn't feel right, especially with Echoes of Wisdom coming up in the style of the amazing remake.

So, I had started this on Saturday and then played a bit each evening, beating the Nightmares today. It was a very casual playthrough, in Normal Mode, just for fun. No real goal, other than freshly re-experiencing the predecessor to tomorrow's Zelda title. Well, it certainly helps to get used to the frame rate issues...

But aside from that, it's my favorite Zelda title and I can't get enough of it. It's just such a good time with absolute fantastic pacing throughout the entire game, and it looks so pretty. There is something to find in every corner, which hopefully is a quality that will carry over into Grezzo's new game.

However, each time I replay this game I forget about at least one of the new Secret Seashells, this time it was the one under the large skull rock on the Ukuku Prairie. But I finally remembered the one from Christine, so that's progress.

There's also a new nitpick to be me made and that's how the get-item animation of more important things, like Pieces of Heart, is lingering a bit too long for my taste. It tells you what you've obtained and then it still shows Link holding the item for about two good seconds or so, while I already want to move on. A small stain on the otherwise great pacing.

I also had some oddities going on during this playthrough, all concerning the mini-games. The Cheep Cheep became available at the Trendy Game before the Angler's Tunnel for some reason, which was weird, because the figurines normally unlock with beating the next dungeon. And I also got the crane stuck with the Piranha Plant, unable to open at the end, which was funny:

For the first time ever, I managed to grab this figure on my first try and then this happens. But you'll actually still get the figurine in such a case, where it's great that the developers have taken care of such an edge case.

Maybe not the biggest oddity, but I manged to create a Chamber Dungeon where you can actually softlock yourself by entering your last key into the wrong door. It was in the "Sheathed Sword" challenge:

There you have the crossroad room with locked doors all around from the Key Cavern. I entered it with one key and if I had used it to go north, I would have been unable to finish the dungeon, because the remaining treasure chests were all behind the other two locked doors. This isn't a big deal, since you can always restart (unlike with normal dungeons, where this shouldn't happen), but it was still interesting to experience this.

Speaking of the Chamber Dungeon, I left out the twelve golden challenges for now. I also haven't purchased all of the Chamber Stones from the Town Tool Shop, but otherwise I have gotten everything, like all Heart Containers, all Secret Seashells, and so on. So, I have done the twelve basic challenges, but I'll most likely leave it at that, because I probably won't keep this save file and just delete it the next time I want to replay this game.

Well, I had a great time and I'm excited to see if Echoes of Wisdom can hold up to this gem. I will go to sleep now and hopefully awaken to the post delivering me my copy of the game. Read you tomorrow!

My egg path: ← ↑ ↑→ ↑←← ↑

Echoes of Wisdom ~ Fairy Bottles

(screenshot taken from Zeltik's preview)

The remake of Link's Awakening introduced so called "Fairy Bottles" to the series, which are your usual bottles, but they are exclusively used for fairies. Echoes of Wisdom will bring those back, but with a number of differences. This time, they are not set on the X or Y buttons, like an item, instead you will automatically put a fairy inside a bottle when you touch it.

That's actually a quality of life improvement. The following scenario has happened to every Zelda player out there at least once: you want to put a fairy in a bottle, but accidentally touch and use it up. This won't happen any longer in Echoes of Wisdom, so that's great.

Unlike the Link's Awakening remake, the fairies in your bottles now will also function automatically when you run out of hearts. They didn't do this in the previous title, because that's what the Secret Medicine was for, which probably won't return here. But maybe you will still be able to use fairies from the menu.

(screenshot taken from Zeltik's preview)

Speaking of, going by the key items menu, there will be a total of four Fairy Bottles in the game, which is one more than in the Link's Awakening remake.

There are also many other open slots in there. One will probably be for the Mysterious Sword. And the three round dots might be for the orbs from the early game bosses, like the Seismic Talus or Volvagia.

Echoes of Wisdom ~ amiibo Ideas

According to the official Japanese website, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will support amiibo. That's not really surprising, since every Zelda game has done so on the Nintendo Switch: Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, Skyward Sword HD, and Tears of the Kingdom.

Well, Skyward Sword HD only really supports the Loftwing amiibo to give you a teleport function, which should have been a free quality of life update, but otherwise the new Zelda games tried to make use of the different Zelda amiibo somehow. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are the best examples here, where scanning the amiibo can give you daily loot and some exclusive items based on the individual amiibo, like weapons, armor pieces, and Paraglider fabrics.

In Link's Awakening, however, only its amiibo of Link gives you something unique: the Shadow Link +effect for the Chamber Dungeon. Otherwise you can unlock five special chambers, but those aren't tied to any specific amiibo. Instead, any Zelda amiibo will do the trick, but you will need five different ones. The advantage here is that you don't need to own all the different amiibo to unlock everything, but it was still quite odd and having rewards based on the respective amiibo at least creates the illusion that such unlocks are justified to begin with.

As for Echoes of Wisdom, it's safe to assume that the game will launch next to an amiibo of Princess Zelda in the same style as the one for Link's Awakening, probably with the Hylian Hood and the Tri Rod. It simply makes too much sense and the two will look adorable right next to each other. Such an amiibo wasn't announced yet, but this will certainly happen at a later point.

(It would be awesome if such an amiibo were to get support in Tears of the Kingdom for a Paraglider fabric, based on the new Hylian Hood. They could even offer a new variant of the Hylian Hood with that design, but then you should also be able to find it somewhere in the Depths.)

You also don't have to think too hard about how the new game might utilize amiibo: the echoes created by the Tri Rod immediately come to mind here, where maybe amiibo can spawn special objects and enemies that let you learn their echoes. These could be reskins of existing things or new things entirely.

As an example, Zelda can spawn a Peahat to fly. There also seem to be birds, which she can use in the same way. So, why not have a Loftwing from the respective amiibo? And the Link from Ocarina of Time could spawn a Time Block, which works like normal blocks, but looks more fancy. Naturally, Wolf Link could finally return. Or Link's amiibo from Tears of the Kingdom could spawn a Construct as an enemy that you can't find otherwise.

There are a lot of possibilities with this, but they would need to make sure that this isn't game-breaking in any way, where this let's you learn objects that you're not supposed to have yet. In the very least, with special allies and enemies they can make them cost more of Tri's stamina, where a Wolf Link may use up four triangles or so.

Nintendo might also just go with something simpler, e.g. different hoods for Zelda, which would be similar to the Paraglider fabrics from Tears of the Kingdom. But at this scale this probably wouldn't have the same value, because you would barely notice the designs. Or maybe the game will have another feature, where amiibo could be used, something that we haven't seen yet.

Echoes of Wisdom Announced

Let's start with the most important topic for this blog, which will certainly keep me busy for the rest of the year 2024. Nintendo has announced a completely new Zelda game today, called The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It launches September 26th, uses the same engine and style as the remake of Link's Awakening, takes place in Hyrule, but lets you play as Zelda for the first time ever in the series.

Zelda will meet the fairy Tri and obtain the "Tri Rod", which lets her copy a lot of things from the world and spawn them on demand, including enemies that will fight for her. So, this creates a rather unique playstyle for a Zelda game to a point where it almost feels like a spin-off. But it's fully part of the main series and storyline, even if it's quite different, like Four Swords or Tri Force Heroes before it.

It might leave a similar taste in your mouth as those games, however, because it's not exactly your classic Zelda title. I've seen very different reactions, from the joy of playing as Zelda in a Zelda game, which should finally shut the media up about this for good, to concerns about the echo mechanic. I share both of this, personally.

Overall this game looks very cute. I've always been a fan of the artstyle from the Link's Awakening remake and it's great to see that this was put to good use again. It's also fantastic that the Nintendo Switch got its own new top-down Zelda game after all, where I wouldn't have expected that.

But this was mainly, because there always has been the potential of a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons, which simply made sense as a follow-up. Imagine they remake Ocarina of Time (again) and instead of giving Majora's Mask the same treatment, they decide to make a new 3D Zelda game in the old N64 style afterwards, where you play as Zelda and summon Cuccos.

That would get a lot of people excited, for sure, but it also sucks a bit for Majora's Mask. If we already had a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons, then I would be a lot more hyped about this, because then this wouldn't get made at the cost of an improved classic. It's a silly position, I know, because a new game is generally more interesting than a remake of an old one. But the older Zelda games still profit a lot from such remakes and remasters, where there's a lot of potential with the Oracle games...

Maybe they will still make them afterwards. And if GREZZO has been developing Echoes of Wisdom, then they truly have earned this. After working on two multiplayer Zelda games and three Zelda remakes, it's their turn to truly contribute to the series with a new singleplayer entry. So, I don't want to sound ungrateful, since this is effectively the Zelda equivalent to Super Mario Bros. Wonder from last year and much more than what I had asked for.

As for the Tri Rod, this feels a lot like an answer to the Ultrahand from Tears of the Kingdom, just as something that works well in a 2D space. With the enemy summoning it also feels similar to Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey. So, there is a lot of utility here, while at the same time it's actually very simple.

It makes the gameplay a lot more passive, however. Instead of hitting enemies with your sword, you will have to find alternatives or summon monsters to do the job for you. I'm not sure how satisfying this ultimately will be.

The list of entities will potentially also grow quite large. This is already a big problem with all the materials in Tears of the Kingdom, where the quick selection didn't have enough sorting options and comfort, if you ask me. At least there you barely even need a tenth of everything regularly, so that the "most used" sorting is somewhat helpful. With Echoes of Wisdom it already looks painful to find whatever you need... And it looks like you only get the Y button for it, which means you will have to switch between entities A LOT.

But in the past I've dreamed of being able to alter the island of Koholint in any way I see fit, where the Tri Rod does go in this direction. It probably won't become a top-down Minecraft, however, because I don't think your spawns will be permanent. But if it's only temporary, then crossing certain obstacles in the environment will get annoying after a while. They will have to find a good solution here.

Then there's the fact that Link isn't the playable main character this time, which is probably the biggest novelty here, unless you count the Philips CD-i games (which you really shouldn't) or the actual spin-offs, like Hyrule Warriors and Cadence of Hyrule. I really like how this title begins where most of the classic 2D Zelda games have ended: you fight Ganon as Link and free Zelda, before you're doomed into what's probably the Dark World. And then it's Zelda's turn to shine.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if the game still let's you play as Link further down the road. It was noteworthy how Link didn't have the Master Sword, but something that looked more similar to the Lokomo Sword in color. Could be the Magical Sword, for example, or the White Sword. He also has a bow in the same color and style, which looks a bit like the Bow of Light from Spirit Tracks in shape. (Not saying that these games are connected.) My point is... If he simply disappears until the end of the game, why not just give him the Master Sword right away?

But you also don't want Link to steal Zelda's showtime here, which will certainly happen if Zelda's gameplay is less direct and all revolves around summoning. Maybe it's that fun and addictive that you don't want to play as basic Link anymore with his Roc's Feather and Spin Attacks. But it doesn't look like it from the footage so far...

Well, there is a lot more to discuss with this trailer and I will go into more detail later this week, after I have talked about all the other news from the Nintendo Direct...

U-King-O and Edward

There were some interesting rumors from last month that I have yet to discuss and those revolve around recent codenames of Nintendo projects. Nintendo uses internal codenames for all their games and hardware, where in case of Zelda this has looked like the following on Nintendo 3DS and Switch:

• Knife: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
  
• Queen: Ocarina of Time 3D
• Joker: Majora's Mask 3D
• Jack: A Link Between Worlds
  
• Alice: Tri Force Heroes
  
• U-King: Breath of the Wild
• EX-King: Tears of the Kingdom
• Richard: Link's Awakening
• Shoebill: Skyward Sword HD
  

Source: The Cutting Room Floor

Yes, the codename of Tears of the Kingdom very blatantly labels the project as an expansion for Breath of the Wild, but that's not the point here. A leaker named Midori has recently shared some more project names from Nintendo and this is where it gets interesting. There is a bit of drama around this account right now, but overall it seems to be credible.

Anyway, the two codenames that I'm interested in are U-King-O and Edward. Project names with an additional letter at the end are often for remasters and ports, where the first one is seemingly a remaster of Breath of the Wild for the upcoming Nintendo Switch successor, codenamed "Ounce".

Apparently, Nintendo has demoed an enhanced version of Breath of the Wild at last year's Gamescom for select developers to show off the capabilities of their next system (source). This would be a similar story to Ocarina of Time 3D, which started as a tech demo for the Nintendo 3DS as well, before it became a dedicated project.

Since the next Nintendo system will likely be backwards compatible, I personally didn't expect to see a remaster of Breath of the Wild so soon, but after playing Tears of the Kingdom the game already feels a bit antiquated, because the "EX-King" came with so many improvements that all would be nice to have in the original game as well (more on that later).

As for "Edward", this could be a follow-up to Richard, where I'm really hoping to see a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons as well, maybe already in the upcoming June Nintendo Direct. Of course this doesn't necessarily have to be, but Richard and Edward seem to be somewhat related. Well, Richard is also a character from Link's Awakening and The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls, while there is no Edward in the Zelda series, but it's more likely that these are just supposed to be the names of British kings.

In the past most Zelda games were just codenamed as "king" in some form, e.g. DSking and wiiKing2 for Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword, which is even still true for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. But otherwise this seems to have evolved somewhat.

The most common suggestion I keep seeing is either The Wind Waker HD or Twilight Princess HD, mainly the latter, but if we still were to get them now for Nintendo Switch, they would be released as ports and their codenames would probably reflect this, e.g. "ckingS" for The Wind Waker HD on Switch. They could also go for both games in one, but I would expect this to be named "S-kings" or so. Of course there is no real science here and Nintendo will pick whatever they feel like, so I'm not claiming that "Edward" can't be Twilight Princess for Switch. I just don't think it's likely.

Alternatively, it could also be the codename of a brandnew top-down Zelda game, but I wouldn't expect this to be released on the Nintendo Switch still. I am currently predicting such a title for the upcoming Nintendo system, however, for reasons explained in January, and "Edward" could also be that game's codename. I would be quite sad if they completely skipped over the Oracle games, however...

Update: It's very likely that "Edward" is Echoes of Wisdom, the newly announced Zelda game in the style of Link's Awakening.

My Games of the Year 2018 - 2023

With the Game Awards out of the way and looking at back at a year that brought us the next huge Zelda experience, I thought that it was the perfect time to update my games of the year list from six years ago, back when Breath of the Wild blew everyone's mind and scored all the awards. What games have really made my years since then? See for yourself:

• 2018: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• 2019: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
• 2020: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
• 2021: Metroid Dread
• 2022: Death's Door
• 2023: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
  

If you have followed this blog or just browse through the posts during the respective years, then there shouldn't be many surprises here. There's probably only one title that I need to explain, but let's briefly go through this list...

After Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U failed to captivate me in 2014, losing big time against Hyrule Warriors, my love for Nintendo's crossover fighting game was instantly reignited with the "Everyone is here!" trailer at E3 2018. And Super Smash Bros. Ultimate then kept me on my toes for the next three years with its character additions, where I still play the game (ir)regularly today.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening was my first Zelda game and my first big love in video games, where it will always have a special place in my heart. And the remake from 2019 did so many things right that I consider it to be among the best what the Zelda series has to offer, right next to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. It's also something that I can play again and again.

Curiously, while both my favorite games of 2018 and 2019 were Nintendo Switch titles, I didn't have my own Nintendo Switch in these years yet, because I was still waiting for that inevitable Zelda edition at the time, which didn't arrive until this year. The game that finally made me buy a Nintendo Switch despite this was Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in late 2020, which came as a big surprise and combined some of my previous games of the year into one epic package, where the addicting action of Hyrule Warriors makes fantastic use of the world of Breath of the World.

2021 then marks the first Metroid title on my list. Since I hadn't discovered the series before 2008, the only real contenders so far have been Metroid: Other M and Metroid: Samus Returns, where the former wasn't exactly the best choice, even though I liked the game quite a bit, and the latter had no chance against Breath of the Wild in the same year. Metroid Dread on the other hand didn't have much competition and also became my favorite title in the series to play, where it's just a blast.

Well, it's not entirely true that Metroid Dread didn't have any competition, because there was also Death's Door. But I did play this at the very end of the year, where it really bleeds into 2022 for me and I've decided to make it that year's entry, because I didn't actually play any new games otherwise. I was mainly busy with Hollow Knight, which technically was my big game of the year 2022 when it comes to pure play time, but it's in a weird spot as a 2017/2018 title. While there is some leeway with this list, this is stretching things.

And Death's Door really was the game that has brought me into the realm of smaller indie titles to begin with, which then led me to explore Hollow Knight. I've also already played through the game three times in total by now, where for me it has a similar level of replayability to Link's Awakening, which is a high praise. I have a feeling that Death's Door really will stay with me and therefore deserves the spot on the list.

Another contender for 2022 was Quake Champions, which I have been playing a lot for the last three years and which went out of "early access" last year. But the content updates during 2022 weren't that great and I don't think I want any service game in this list, because all the other entries are something that I could still enjoy today to some degree. It's more something for the category of "best ongoing game".

Anyway, this brings us to this year, 2023, which was dominated by Tears of the Kingdom and should be smallest surprise here. At least there wasn't a new Metroid game under its shadow or anything similar, where luckily Hollow Knight: Silksong still escapes us and therefore could become a contender for one of the next years, maybe already in 2024.

It's also of note how the Zelda series is now clearly in a six-years-cycle with its 3D installments. My graph makes this quite visible with three main titles in one column. Skyward Sword came out in 2011, Breath of the Wild in 2017, and now Tears of the Kingdom in 2023. At this rate we shouldn't expect the next big Zelda before 2029...

Manbo's Mambo in Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Today I've been playing the fifth world of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the Fungi Mines, where you can turn into a "Wubba", a slime-like creature that can stick to walls and ceilings, via the Wonder Flowers. And the music that plays during this part (and some other wonder transformations) felt strangely familiar...

I first thought that it might be a reference to some melody in Super Mario Land 2, since the goo in these levels behaves quite similar to the sap found in the second level of the Tree Zone. That wasn't it, but I wasn't too far off when thinking about Game Boy classics...

It's actually a part of Manbo's Mambo. It doesn't have the "Manbo Manbo" bit and it's extended, but the main melody is the same. You can listen to it here for comparisons. I'm not imagining this, right?

There are many things from the Super Mario games present in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, so it was about time that a Super Mario game referenced what's one of my absolute favorite Zelda games for a change. Of course it might also be that Manbo's Mambo was originally something from Super Mario as well, but not that I'm aware of... In any case, this tune really has me going!

Ryo Nagamatsu has left Nintendo

The bad news continue... Today composer Ryo Nagamatsu has announced on Twitter that he has left Nintendo as of April 30th. This is what he has to say:

I have made a decision to leave the company of April 30, 2023. I will work a little wider and more directly to help those who need my help and to help the industry. Thank you all for your kind support! I look forward to serve you in the future!

He is the guy who has made the music for all the recent top-down Zelda games: A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, and the Link's Awakening remake, where his Zelda career actually started with The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, the mini-game in Nintendo Land. He really did some great work on the series and certainly left a mark, where this will be a loss, but let's wish him all the best!

Via Nintendo Life

Link's Many Awakenings

Do you have this special feel-good title, where you keep going back to it every once in a while? Maybe a game from your childhood where you just enjoy bathing in the nostalgia that it brings? Well, for me this is The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, as you may be able to tell from the recent posts on this blog and from various posts before.

I've played through this particular game so many times that I can't even say for sure how often it was. The only other Zelda game where this is the case is Ocarina of Time, but that's mainly because it's been so long since the N64 days and not because I've played through it that often. For the rest I can give a clear count and even covered many of my repeat playthroughs on this blog (see here).

As for Link's Awakening, I've completed the Nintendo Switch remake four times in total since it came out, twice in Normal Mode and twice in Hero Mode. I've also beaten the Game & Watch version last year once and I've completed Link's Awakening DX twice on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. So, that's a total of seven times on the more recent Nintendo systems.

Before that I've beaten the GameBoy classic on emulator two times and the GameBoy Color version once, so that I could make a collection of screenshots for this blog. I also own the original games on the original hardware, of course, and here is where things get nebulous and I can't really say for sure. But it must have been over ten times in total at least, because I didn't have many games as a kid, so I made good use of the ones that I have by playing them over and over. I still remember how my death count was above 70 when I've first beaten the game and how proud I was when I finally did it with "000" to get the good ending. That alone took me multiple attempts and then later came the DX version, which I've also kept playing.

And as I said many times before, it was a bit of a Christmas tradition to replay Link's Awakening, because it was my first Zelda game, which I got for Christmas 1997, 25 years ago. It may have been up to 30 times that I've beaten the game over the years, but I also tend to overestimate things... 

Anyway, what am I getting at? Well, I've already experienced some fatigue in the years before the remake came out, where I couldn't bring myself to uphold that Christmas tradition in 2017 and 2018. The remake then rekindled my passion with its charming style, the quality of life improvements, but also with its many new Pieces of Hearts and Secret Seashells. This excitement of having something to find in every corner just never gets old, it all just made the game so much enjoyable and fun for me.

And I'm sure that I will return to it eventually because of this feeling. The Chamber Dungeon made it a bit of a commitment, however, where in my latest run I've completely exhausted this feature. Since I love collecting all the Pieces of Hearts, Secret Seashells, and so on, I tend to go for completion whenever I play through a Zelda game. And this makes certain games less enjoyable to replay than others. The Minish Cap for example is a lovely Zelda game overall, but the Gacha figurine collection is just very dull. And don't let me get started on collecting all the Ship Parts and Train Cars in the Nintendo DS Zelda games.

The Chamber Dungeon is still more enjoyable than any of this, but it's a bit much, while at the same time also hard to ignore for me. I guess a compromise for future playthroughs would be doing the basic challenges, while skipping the golden challenges that come after. But if you want to get all Chamber Stones, earning the Rupees from these challenges helps a lot, so I will probably do it anyway.

And I'm not really complaining, since I've played the remake over 100 hours by now, so I certainly got my money's worth. And I think that it's fantastic overall, where I can't wait for remakes of the Oracle games. It's just that I will probably miss having this short feel-good experience of replaying a Zelda game, where you know exactly on every step what you can get and find. And I'm afraid that Nintendo may not ever make such a Zelda game again, because they tend to add these more intricate features, like the StreetPass battles in A Link Between Worlds, so that the game has more to offer than your basic GameBoy adventure. A completionist's issue, for sure.

Now, I may have found another game, which doesn't have "Legend of Zelda" in its title, but which has the qualities that I'm currently looking for. More on that soon... With this post I just want to express my passion and love for Link's Awakening, which has made me a Zelda fan for life. It will hit its 30th Anniversary later this year, but then I will be too busy with playing Tears of the Kingdom, so it's probably best that I'm giving this game my accolades in advance, at the beginning of this eventful year for Zelda.

Koholint is like a second home to me, but it's also a dream you always have to wake up from. Just to return to it one day eventually, starting it all over again from Marin and Tarin's house...

Nightmare Chamber Dungeons

This special project was an idea that I've been having for quite some time, but didn't want to realize this until I had a completed Hero Mode save file of Link's Awakening on my own Nintendo Switch at the ready. Well, this is now the case. And it's no secret that I was having quite a lot of fun with the Chamber Dungeon on all my playthroughs of the remake, where I've spent a lot of time with it.

Other than completing the challenges in different ways, I've also made my own creations in the past with a small variety of different concepts. The Chamber Dungeon is very limited when it comes to creating dungeons, however, and is best enjoyed as a puzzle, where you try to fit the rooms together, while fulfilling multiple criteria.

Now, what I had in mind for this project was creating "nightmare versions" of all the dungeon from Link's Awakening by following a set of rules. Of course there are clear limitations of how difficult you can make things, but I was trying my best to make them as challenging as possible.

With the exception of the Color Dungeon, none of the dungeons can be fully recreated within the Chamber Dungeon, only parts of them. But these chambers should be in place where they used to be originally, whenever possible. I've used my chamber check from three years ago as a basis for this whole thing.

The rest of the chambers needed to be substituted, which is were the puzzle aspect comes in. The extra chambers for the respective dungeon were given priority, but because of this you will always have the boss twice within the dungeon, where I've usually made the one of the end "harder" by adding the +Bombs effect. As for the rest, I try to go with chambers that have something in common, like an enemy or an element, but what was most important was that the overall path of the dungeon stays in tact. Also, treasure chests should be around the same locations, but this was not a necessity.

And once everything was put in place, I've used +Effects on almost every chamber, where all of them have to be used at least once per dungeon, so there will always be a Wallmaster and a Shadow Link causing trouble. The Shadow Link isn't actually very difficult on his own, because all you have to do is hold R until he has unleashed a Spin Attack, where this is the time to strike. Rinse and repeat. It's most effective when combined with mini-bosses, where he will still attack you, unlike with the nine main bosses, where he just disappears for the moment.

The Wallmaster will leave you be with any sort of boss, even while fighting Shadow Link, but it will otherwise be constantly annoying you once he got summoned and even after it got defeated. Just leaving the current chamber will revive it and he will also revive after a short while in the same chamber... With some dungeons I've made it so that the Wallmaster can be avoided or postponed, with others you will have it on your toes right from the beginning. But it's interesting what you can actually do with one, once you're forced to deal with it, e.g. destroy cracked blocks or defeat enemies.

Now, let's take a look at each nightmare dungeon individually:

The Color Dungeon was my first creation, which I made when I've first replayed Link's Awakening back in 2021. It's where this entire idea started. At first, I simply enjoyed recreating the Color Dungeon inside the Chamber Dungeon, because it's possible from start to finish. It's the only dungeon where every single room got turned into a chamber. But then I wanted to mix things up by making it as difficult as possible by adding +Effects everywhere.

You will run into the Wallmaster right at the first room with the color crystals, so that even going into the Rupee room may give you some trouble. It's where I've put the +Rupees effect, because otherwise it wouldn't be worth the detour.

It's raining bombs pretty much everywhere in this dungeon, which can screw you up quite badly with all the color puzzles. The worst is certainly the room with the nine color switches. If you don't solve this quickly, then one of the raining bombs will mess things up. The bombs will stop eventually, but the Wallmaster keeps coming back and he can also hit the switches, so this can turn a true puzzle nightmare. The bombs can cause such a mess here that this nightmare dungeon still feels like the worst of them, despite being much smaller than the rest.

I've always hated the Giant Buzz Blob and naturally I had to make it worse by adding the Shadow Link there. Originally, I had the Shadow Link in the room with the nine color switches, but then you could just easily avoid him by rushing straight to the boss.

Speaking of the boss, I could have gone for an extended versions with the second Hardhit Beetle and the Great Fairy's Chamber, but fighting the same boss twice in a row seemed a bit lame. Also, then I would have needed to include a chamber from another dungeon, but I wanted to keep things clean in this case, because it was possible.

Since you only get eight free slots for arranging dungeons, I had to copy this over into Hero Mode via amiibo. But that's fine, because the Color Dungeon always was supposed to be an extra dungeon anyway.

The Tail Cave is the perfect example of a dungeon where you have an uneven number of stairs. In this case the stair case before the boss actually went down into the Moldorm pit, but dropping down from the Moldorm boss chamber won't get you there (this would have been an amazing detail, though).

I then came up with an extended version of the dungeon, which has a longer tail. This was to include the second extra chamber with the Blade Traps and Keese, which was based on the chamber with the staircase to the Moldorm pit right below. It has its exits to the south and east, which was otherwise a bad fit. But with the longer tail the dungeon map looks better, too:

Since this is the first dungeon, it's not supposed to be too difficult. I've put the Wallmaster into the room with the Secret Seashell, so you can decide whether you want to face it early or postpone it as long as possible. Right next door Shadow Link is fought together with a Vire, which isn't too tricky as long as you're shielding. You can even reflect Vire's projectiles to hurt the Shadow Link. Or you can avoid fighting them together by standing still in the beginning. The Shadow Link won't spawn until you've moved a bit.

Originally I thought that you may be able to avoid the Wallmaster altogether by letting the Shadow Link follow you into the room with the treasure chest. But the game will still remember that you've entered the Wallmaster chamber and summon it once the Shadow Link got defeated.

With the Bottle Grotto putting things together got already more tricky and I was doubting at first that it was even possible, because of how the staircases connect. You have no control over it and it uses the nearest neighbor principle, so the staircases around the Hinox are getting connected and essentially create a dead end there.

In order to make things work I had to sneak in another staircase where the Conch Horn normally would be. Otherwise the entire upper part of the dungeon would have been cut off and the whole thing wouldn't have been playable... So, you need some leeway here and there. But this also creates a completely different route through the dungeon, where you may end up finding the Nightmare Key where the Power Bracelet or the Map used to be.

With Level 2 I always associate the uneasy feeling of entering the second half of the dungeon, where you have to face the Hinox after the underground tunnel. It's the one point in the game where I still might screw up and die, even after all these years. But of course the Hinox is no threat in the late game, plus he's not even there at the end of the tunnel.

Which is why I've added Shadow Link right there into the Moblin Chief's Chamber... Having this here as a mini-boss felt like a good fit, because you have to battle the Moblin Chief before Level 2. And combining him with Shadow Link makes for an interesting battle, where you have to be on the defense quite heavily. Usually the best strategy is to defeat the mini-boss as quickly as possible and then chill with the Shadow Link, but that's not possible here, because the Moblin Chief can only be hurt after he slammed into the wall.

The Wallmaster also  appears right before the first tunnel, just to give you this threat of being put back to the beginning for the entire rest of the dungeon. Since the Hinox is entirely optional in this design, I've added the +Rupees effect to his chamber, so you have some incentive to go there.

The Key Cavern was a trickier composition, mainly because you don't have any real floors inside the Chamber Dungeon and the stairs needed to be connected just in the right way. There also aren't that many chambers from Level 3 and some of them don't have their stairs anymore, so I had to improvise quite a bit. The small key now looks more like a lock pick, but I had to add the hallways with stairs there to make the necessary connections.

You first play through the big key, where the entire 4x3 part at the top had to be substituted, which is a shame. At least I could use the two extra chambers based on Level 3 in this area. I've also put the Dodongo Snakes room from Level 8 there into the middle, which isn't entirely truthful to the original dungeon in terms of doorways, but sacrifices had to be made.

The Shadow Link also waits for you here in the Ball and Chain Trooper's Chamber, which isn't a big deal, because you can just defeat the trooper very quickly. But it's the same idea as with the Moblin Chief in the "Nightmare Bottle Grotto".

The Angler's Tunnel was a lot more satisfying to craft, despite the fact that it even has less chambers available than Level 3. But the map looks identical to the original and I could make good use of the extra chambers with the bosses to fill some space.

After half of the dungeon you can make a choice between two different Cue Ball fights. The original square has +Bombs, the other to the south has the Shadow Link inside. I never even tried the latter, where I thought it was okay to have at least one dungeon where you can avoid the Shadow Link entirely.

You will have the Wallmaster stalking you the entire time, though, but I liked how he interacted with some elements of the dungeon here, like smashing crystals and cracked blocks.

The Catfish's Maw is the first in the "Labyrinth" tier (all the others before have been "Mazes") and its map shape could also be recreated quite faithfully. You get more than half of the original rooms to work with, which is great.

As a gimmick I wanted to have each of the Master Stalfos chambers to have a different +Effect, where the two dead ends have +Hearts and +Rupees to give you an incentive to enter them... The ones that have to be passed of course throw bombs and the Shadow Link at you, just because. You can skip the former (and easier) battle, however, by using the connected stairs.

Where you normally would find the Hookshot may also your final stop for the nightmare key. Well, technically it's the room right before, but you may decide to still fight the Master Stalfos for some Rupees (not that I still needed any at this point). So, you still get the same order with the Master Stalfos rooms, given that you're doing things efficiently.

The Wallmaster here will only become a threat later on and can also be postponed, because it was getting a bit much at this point...

The Face Shrines looks much bulkier with this extended design, but this is the result of the one chamber above the Smasher, which normally loops you back three rooms into the south. Of course this is not possible with the Chamber Dungeon, so gaps had to be filled and this was the best spot to include the extra chamber with the flying tiles, which you can get from the Town Tool Shop.

Unlike the original dungeon, here you start by clearing the east half of the dungeon. Well, you don't have to, but it's more efficient, because the final boss room is now connected to the west half. This is even true to the original dungeon map, it's just the insides of the rooms of Level 6 were partitioned.

The Smasher can be avoided entirely by using the stairs, but there are the bosses from Level 4 to make up for it in the area with the water trench. You can basically make a choice here between fighting the Smasher or the Cue Ball. Or both, if you want to be thorough.

At first I was going to partner the Smasher with the Shadow Link, but then I included the Armos Knight's Chamber in the upper west wing to make the dungeon symmetrical again. And having the Shadow Link there felt like a more meaningful challenge, while it stays true to same idea from Levels 2 and 3 with the Moblin Chief and the Ball & Chain Trooper. The Armors Knight is the mini-boss who has to be fought before Level 6 (well, you can do it earlier, but this is the latest point), so it's the same pattern as before.

Sadly, there is no chamber for the Lanmola from the Yarna Desert, which would have been great for Level 4.

The Eagle's Tower has always been my favorite dungeon in the base game, but here it's among my least favorite compositions, next to Level 3. There are just so many rooms missing and I didn't even bother with keeping all of the existing chambers in the right spot.

The Grim Creeper now sits down at the first floor, where he can be ignored. There is nothing to change this, because the whole chamber is pointless. I could have added the +Rupees in there, but I was saving this for the next floor..

There you have two Smashers, which are there to represent the pillars that are getting smashed with the iron ball. Pretty clever, huh? They can be entirely avoided, however, and so can the Wallmaster. I had one dungeon where you can fully avoid the Shadow Link (Level 4), so I wanted one where this is true for the Wallmaster as well and here we go. It's also interesting how you basically want to go around the center of 2F, while it's the most important part of the original dungeon with the four pillars.

Anyway, the Shadow Link gets partnered with a Rolling Bones. I already could have done this in the first dungeon, but I didn't, so here is to make up for it, but of course this is one of the easier combos, if not the easiest. He would have made a great combo with the Grim Creeper if there were a chamber with him that you actually need to pass through...

Last but not least, we have Turtle Rock, which got a bit chubbier at the top, but there is a good reason for that. It otherwise would have been tricky to include the extra chambers for the dungeon, where there are five in total and this solution features all of them.

Overall the dungeon has the most chambers to offer with a total of 30, not counting the additional ones. You can recreate two thirds of the entire dungeon, where this was the most fun to make after the Color Dungeon..

The chambers for the Dodongo Snakes both don't fit the original flow, however, so I've put the extra version (also available in the Town Tool Shop) with an exit to the south one space north of where they originally were. It's also connected to the second Hot Head, where here you need to fight it in order to get to the first Blaino, where originally you would obtain the Magic Rod.

On the other side of this expansion you have the extra chamber with the cracked floors and the second Blaino, where the latter simply had to be friends with Shadow Link. This is one of the tougher situations, but as always the key is to take out the mini-boss as quickly as possible. And it's a good finale for the dungeon, where this potentially is the room with the Nightmare Key.

The original Turtle Rock toys with the idea of throwing you back to the entrance, not just with Blaino, but also with the "Vacuum Mouth" in the southwest corner room. So, it seemed like a good fit to expand this with a Wallmaster, who follows you right from the beginning. After you could avoid it entirely in Level 7, I had to just go with the worst for the final dungeon.

I've been iterating most of these dungeons multiple times to make them more difficult, but for the most part this just resulted in placing the Wallmaster and the Shadow Link in tougher positions. There is only so much you can do here and a veteran player (like myself) won't have much trouble with any of these, even in Hero Mode.

And during this project there were three flaws with the Chamber Dungeon that really became apparent once more and made things less enjoyable:

• There are simply too many omissions, mainly chambers from the Levels 3 and 7. With that there are also some enemies that never appear in the Chamber Dungeon, like the Bombites, Like Likes, and Anti-Kirby. It's just disappointing.
  
  
• The chosen tunnels are just random. If you want a specific tunnel somewhere, you will have to remove the chamber with the staircase, place it again, and hope for the best. Of course you won't know what tunnel goes there until you've played the dungeon again...
  
  
• There is always the same music. Even though it has four different renditions based on the size of the dungeon, it just gets very repetitive after going through the 24 challenges and then eight more dungeons. An option to choose from any of the original dungeon tracks would have been really awesome for this project and could have set a much better mood.
  

Still, this is something I wanted to do and something that feels like a great conclusion to my long journey with the Chamber Dungeon. If Nintendo ever were to give us a proper dungeon maker for Zelda, I would probably make good use of it.