Nintendo Switch Online on Nintendo Switch 2: Potential Systems

With Nintendo Switch Online we got access to a number of classic game libraries, as the successor to the Virtual Console. The emulated systems are currently the NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and also the SEGA Mega Drive. But the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 opens the door for more, because its hardware allows the emulation of consoles that previously weren't possible, one way or another, where the first new library is going to be the Nintendo GameCube. So, what else could be added down the line? And what Zelda games would make this playable?

Nintendo DS

Let's start with Nintendo's first dual screen handheld system (not counting the Game & Watch devices). It was already part of the Wii U Virtual Console, where the GamePad made it possible with its touchscreen and microphone. The Nintendo Switch 2 will have a built-in microphone, so that already covers that part, though ideally there will also be something like a "make noise" button. The noise cancellation in modern microphones made it quite difficult to properly play Spirit Tracks on later systems, including the Wii U, where there needs to be an alternative for blowing into the mic. And being able to play the Spirit Flute or shoot the Whirlwind with the press of a button would certainly be more comfortable for some.

The touchscreen isn't as trivial, however, even though the Nintendo Switch already has one. But you can only use it in handheld mode and it isn't very comfortable to hold the system with only one hand (especially now that the Switch 2 will be even larger). It may have worked for Brain Training on the Switch, but this isn't a general solution for all Nintendo DS games that utilize both button and touchscreen inputs.

This is where the new mouse functionality of the Joy-Cons comes in, because it could be used to control a cursor for a virtual touchscreen. As seen in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, it's also possible to seamlessly switch between the modes, which would perfectly emulate the behavior of taking your hand off the buttons to use the touchscreen. It would do absolute wonders on something like Metroid Prime Hunters.

However, some games have utilized the touchscreen to give you soft buttons for quick access to items or other features, where they would not be so easy to use anymore. In these cases you really might want to play in handheld mode and have the touchscreen contents displayed on the right half of the screen. Ultimately, there won't be an ideal solution that for works for all, where it's important to have options and to save these options on a per-game basis.

In any case, this should be part of the basic subscription, not the Expansion Pack. There needs to be something for the people who are not willing to spend double (or even more) for these online services. And the Nintendo DS is really the more basic version of what comes next...

 

Nintendo 3DS

If we can have GameCube and Nintendo DS games, then there won't be anything stopping Nintendo from adding the Nintendo 3DS as well... Except for maybe the eponymous 3D. Luckily, there are only very few games, like Super Mario 3D Land, that really required you to have the stereoscopic 3D activated in certain sections to make sense of things. Also, the Nintendo 2DS exists and has sold quite well without the 3D, where many of the later Nintendo 3DS titles didn't really put much emphasis on this gimmick. Some did not even support it at all. So, the lack of 3D shouldn't be much of a hindrance.

Another question is StreetPass, but this would be the perfect incentive to make even more out of the offline-to-online multiplayer environment. How many people had trouble actually finding others with a Nintendo 3DS in public outside of Japan and wished that this functionality would have been taken online? Quite a few, I would suspect... And that's now a selling point, because this could give you access to features that some people never got to experience.

If you add suspend points on top, then I will finally go for the true 100% in A Link Between Worlds and beat that dreaded Endless Cucco Rush. The Nintendo Switch 2 could make it possible to achieve, given that you're not one of the five people who have already beaten the challenge on original hardware.

 

 

Wii

Well, it was already possible to emulate both GameCube and Wii games on the old Tegra chip of the Nintendo Switch, where this was used for the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. And with GameCube games ready for features like online play or restore points, the Wii will certainly follow at some point. You could use both the gyro or the mouse modes of your right Joy-Con to emulate the pointer. And Wii MotionPlus is already covered by the gyro. So, we're good to go for games like Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Skyward Sword, and even Link's Crossbow Training.

In case of Metroid Prime 3 you had the bumper stickers for your space ship, where it would be awesome if this behaved in a similar way. If you have played the games in question on the service, then you will be granted the sticker. The necessary Friend Credits should also be possible to obtain via the online service.

It will generally be interesting to see how they will handle multiplayer with systems that had both local and online multiplayer, which already starts with the Nintendo DS. So far the Nintendo Switch Online services allowed to play local multiplayer modes online together with friends only. This should stay the same, of course... But could this also bring back actual online lobbies with random players, like you had them in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7? That would certainly be a worthwhile addition if it came to it.

Wii U

Emulating Wii U games would probably be out of scope for the Nintendo Switch 2. Well, I'm no expert on the matter of emulation, so maybe it's technically possible, but it wouldn't be necessary in any case. 90% of Nintendo's own Wii U library already got ported over to the Nintendo Switch, where having these games as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service would be heavily redundant and also a slap in the face of all the people who have invested lots of money in their Nintendo Switch counterparts. Well, many of these ports got enhanced in various ways, like additional contents, but this makes having the Wii U versions even less desirable. Who wants to play the original Mario Kart 8 or Hyrule Warriors at this point?

Instead, it's more likely that Nintendo will eventually port over some of remaining Wii U titles, like Kirby and the Rainbow Course, Yoshi's Woolly World or Star Fox Zero. And yes, even the Zelda HD remasters, so we'd have all three versions of Twilight Princess on the Nintendo Switch 2 eventually...

 

All the Legends

If Nintendo really were to add Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Wii, then this would be tremendous, because for the first time ever you would have access to (almost) all of Nintendo's history on a single system. It wouldn't cover curiosities like the BS-X, the Virtual Boy or the Game & Watch devices and it won't ever have all the games, but it would be quite the milestone nevertheless.

The Nintendo Switch 2 might even offer the entire Zelda series at some point (save for the BS-X games). So far this has only happened once and this was on the GameCube, thanks to the Game Boy Player peripheral. In detail, the following Zelda games and spin-offs could all make it onto the Nintendo Switch 2 via Nintendo Switch Online:

• Four Swords Adventures (GCN)
• Twilight Princess (GCN)
• Twilight Princess (Wii)
• Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)
• Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (NDS)
  
• Phantom Hourglass (NDS)
• Spirit Tracks (NDS)
• Skyward Sword (Wii)
• Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
• Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)
  
• A Link Between Worlds (3DS)
• Tri Force Heroes (3DS)

Together with The Wind Waker, this would add the seven Zelda titles that you currently aren't able to play on a Nintendo Switch. And on top of that you would get some alternate variants of games (like how we currently have both versions of A Link to the Past), as well as some other spin-offs.

They could even give us access to some that were exclusive to Japan so far. Tingle's Balloon Fight, for example, doesn't really have much text, where you can understand it just fine without translations. And I'd love to finally give Navi Trackers a try.

 

3rd Parties

While it's the easiest and cheapest to go for their own gaming systems, Nintendo isn't limited to them. In fact, the SEGA Mega Drive is already part of the current offering. The Virtual Console in the past also featured the Neo Geo, Turbo Grafx or the SEGA Master System, but there is no reason not to have these on the Nintendo Switch already, should these ever return. The SEGA Dreamcast on the other hand is more on the line of something that could require the Nintendo Switch 2, though it's probably somewhere right in the middle. But even if it were possible to have it on the Switch, then Nintendo would probably make it exclusive to the successor nevertheless, since the Dreamcast is a bit of a fan favorite.

In other news, Phil Spencer has recently reassured that Microsoft will keep supporting Nintendo on their upcoming console with their games (see Variety). And while he probably means newer titles, like DOOM: The Dark Ages, there is a chance that they might extend their cooperation to the classic Xbox library, so that Nintendo can offer them as part of Nintendo Switch Online. This would be huge and I'd personally love to have this for one of my absolute favorite console shooters ever. No, not Halo...

I'm talking about Unreal Championship 2 - The Liandri Conflict. I'm still a big fan of the Unreal series and this mix of 3rd person melee combat with traditional Arena Shooter gunplay and unique characters was ahead of its time. This is the game I still keep my old Xbox around for, but it already has all started to deteriorate... Well, it's still in the list of backwards compatible games on Xbox Series X/S, so I could get that, but I'd love to have it on a Nintendo system instead. I doubt that this day will ever come, but it would make me very happy if it did.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Announced

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

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

The Switch Swan Song

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Pile of Shame

This week Nintendo has announced that they will close the eShop for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in March 2023 (see here). They are also offering a page for your Nintendo 3DS and Wii U memories, where you can take a look at your play history, though with some bugs and issues (for me it shows 700 more hours in StreetPass Mii Plaza than I actually have).

Anyway, this was another painful reminder of all the games that I have yet to play or beat on these systems, despite owning them. My backlog includes Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Luigi's Mansion, Luigi's Mansion 2, Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, and more...

I wanted most of these simply for my collection, but it's still irking me from time to time. Meanwhile my Nintendo Switch collection kept growing and looks very similar by now, where the situation won't be resolved any time soon, or ever, because the new system has my primary attention. So, if I'm starting to clear house, it will be on Nintendo Switch, where games like Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and even Cadence of Hyrule are still waiting to get said attention. The last Nintendo Direct was another reminder of this, where most of these games are getting a sequel in 2022.

It also doesn't help that I've re-purchased some of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games that I actually had beaten / completed, like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Hyrule Warriors, again for the Nintendo Switch, because I liked them so much that I may want to play them again on the new system. Or that Nintendo decided to add content to the games that I already had completed, like Metroid Dread or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It just never ends...

Let's not start talking about digital libraries, though I'm mostly a physical collector when it comes to Nintendo, but I have some Steam sale skeletons in the closet as well, where the biggest ones are DOOM (2016) and Skyrim. Yes, I have never played Skyrim. Shame on me.

And most people who are interested in gaming have this problem: the so called "pile of shame" (commonly known as "backlog"). Whether you got the games because you are a collector or because they were cheap, it doesn't really matter, you've purchased a whole stack of products that you will likely never consume. And this often includes games that are generally regarded to be good, where many will advise you to finally play them.

But why haven't you? And should you really be ashamed that you haven't played these games yet? Or is it actually the other way around? Should maybe these games be ashamed that you couldn't be bothered to play them, despite all their accolades? Or is it just so that you haven't found the time yet?

Here is the thing: if you really want to play a game, you will make time to play it. Of course this isn't always easy, because life has so many more priorities, but when a game truly appeals to you, you won't be procrastinating it for months or even years. You will eventually find the time to play it, because it gives you the kind of enjoyment that you seek in your free time.

That's not to say that those virgin games are terrible, but they simply might not be for you, at least in the moment. In my case I really have to be in the mood to play the very slow-paced Fire Emblem games for example, which I rarely ever am. But this may change in the future.

And this is also a good point. It can't hurt to have these games ready for when you're finally ready for them, even when this may never happen. In the past, with all my video game systems prior to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, I only ever purchased the games that I truly wanted to play at the time. This was a very good consumer behavior and also helps with avoiding such a pile of shame in the first place. But then I got interested in some other games years later, only to realize that they were now hard to find in a good shape, because they weren't officially sold any longer. So, I found it more regretful to not own an interesting game that I could have bought back in the day than owning a game that I didn't play in the end. The latter can always be sold if I really don't want it any longer.

So, these are two sides of the same coin. And it certainly helps to view your unplayed games not as a "pile of shame", but as a box of toys, as a collection for your future entertainment whenever you want it. The more you feel an obligation to play all your games in possession, the more you're likely to be demotivated right away. But the best games are timeless anyway, so there is no need to hurry. Or... maybe I'm simply here to justify why I haven't played Three Houses yet. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, as it always is...

Where is the Nintendo Switch Zelda Edition?

In less than two weeks the wonderful remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is hitting the shelves. It's getting released the same day as the new Nintendo Switch Lite handheld, but there won't be a Special Edition bundle available right now. And there hasn't been a Special Edition Nintendo Switch for Breath of the Wild either, despite the game's massive success or maybe even because of it...

And as a Zelda fan, who hasn't purchased a Nintendo Switch yet and who is still waiting for such a Special Edition, I'm slightly growing worried and impatient. I even have a neat collection of Nintendo Switch games by now (mostly because of Limited Editions), which I can't play, unless I borrow a Nintendo Switch from someone...

Why not give in and just buy a normal Nintendo Switch now? Well, here is why...

Eight years ago, back in summer 2011, some Zelda fans including myself couldn't wait to get their hands on a Nintendo 3DS to play both Ocarina of Time 3D and the Four Swords Anniversary Edition only to be greeted with the following Nintendo 3DS system for the Christmas business:

The "25th Anniversary Edition", bundled together with Ocarina of Time 3D. Well, this sucked for every Zelda fan who already had purchased a Nintendo 3DS (and the game) and this was a valuable lesson to be learned. At least things went a lot better on the Wii U, where for the release of The Wind Waker HD Nintendo gave us this:

You got a Zelda Special Edition right for the first game and it was the only Zelda Special Edition in the Wii U's entire life cycle, so when you purchased this as a Zelda fan this was the perfect choice and you stayed happy with it.

On the Nintendo 3DS on the other hand things got completely out of hand... When A Link Between Worlds arrived, the game also got a bundle with the following Nintendo 3DS XL system:

Then Majora's Mask 3D happened and came out the same day as the New Nintendo 3DS XL with the following shiny system:

I still use that one today. But if that wasn't enough for you, around the time Tri Force Heroes and Hyrule Warriors - Legends were a thing, Nintendo released the "Hyrule Edition" of the New Nintendo 3DS XL:

And the Nintendo 2DS family line got special bundles for Ocarina of Time 3D and A Link Between Worlds as well, including the following "Hylian Shield Edition" of the New Nintendo 2DS XL:

Even I, as a Zelda collector, didn't get all of these Nintendo 3DS systems... But I was happy with the options, which is something I don't have with the Nintendo Switch right now. It's either buy a normal Nintendo Switch and regret it later or wait.

And I don't really get, why Nintendo isn't releasing such a Special Edition after the excess of Zelda Editions for the Nintendo 3DS family... They must know that these things sell like hot cakes and they are doing it for many other games. Pokémon even got two different Nintendo Switch systems already, while Zelda got none.

Maybe they are hoping that many Zelda fans are simply buying a normal Nintendo Switch now or have already bought one and then will double-dip later, once a Special Edition becomes available. But the best way to get them to double-dip would have been releasing a bundle for Breath of the Wild and now one for Link's Awakening. I would have bought both of them... but the way it is now I refuse to buy a Switch, because I'm too afraid that my history with the Nintendo 3DS will repeat itself.

It's even possible that a bundle for Link's Awakening or a separate Zelda edition will still happen for the Christmas business this year, just like with the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Nintendo 3DS back in 2011. Or Skyward Sword HD will really become a thing soon (like early 2020) and then gets a bundle with golden Joy-cons, matching the golden Wiimote from 2011... Of course they wouldn't announce any of this right now, because they want the Zelda fans to buy a Switch and Link's Awakening this month and not later.

Or... we won't be getting a Zelda-themed Nintendo Switch until Breath of the Wild 2 hits the stores... or ever. But one thing is for sure, at the moment Nintendo really isn't making it easy for the Zelda fans who don't already have a Switch yet. And I don't like that.

Nintendo Switch – The Port Machine

Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!

It's no secret. The Wii U was a commercial failure with only 13.56 million units sold in the five years of its sad existence. The Nintendo Switch on the other hand seems to be a big success, where it already sold over 10 million units in less than a year and set records in various countries. The consequence? Nintendo's going to port all the good Wii U games over to the Switch. And here's a list of what this already covers, Nintendo published games only:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Mario Kart 8 DX
• Pokkén Tournament DX
• Bayonetta
• Bayonetta 2
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
• Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition

Out of these games I own Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U. So, all of them except for Pokkén Tournament. And with that a good chunk of my Wii U library already exists on the Switch as well, some of them as superior versions.

All these ports are certainly nice for those who didn't own a Wii U before. And to be frank, it seems like the Switch's target market are people who haven't invested in any video games in the last five years, because it's just re-rolling everything from the last generation. For those who did invest in a Wii U, however, this might leave a bitter taste, because it seems like skipping the Wii U was quite lucrative. Nintendo is teaching the people that no one should have bought a Wii U in the first place.

I suppose, it's not a big deal with straight ports like Breath of the Wild, Bayonetta, or even Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, where I wouldn't classify the Funky Mode as a meaningful addition for someone who has owned and completed the original game. This clearly caters to people who didn't buy the game before, while I'm perfectly happy with my Wii U version. But in case of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe there's the excellent Battle Mode that everyone already wanted on the Wii U back in 2014. They could have added this via DLC, but they didn't. Nintendo purposefully left this as an incentive to buy the new Deluxe version on the Switch, while the Wii U version was simply left as inferior. And it's similar with Pokémon Tekken.

In case of Hyrule Warriors there already has been the Nintendo 3DS version with Hyrule Warriors: Legends, which had many new (DLC) contents that didn't make it to the Wii U. At least the Wii U version still had the coop mode and the better graphics, but now even that became obsolete with the Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch. This one basically becomes a "best of both worlds" with combining all features and merits of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions.

It's also likely that there's going to be Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch, which combines Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS in a similar fashion. It would come with all the DLC, all stages of both versions and probably also a shiny new Adventure Mode and some new characters.

And this is really an answer to the phenomenon, where the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U were cannibalizing each other. The systems had similar interfaces and lots of similar games, where there were even games with different versions on both systems like Hyrule Warriors or Super Smash Bros. 4. The Nintendo Switch now aims to combine handheld and home console and with that some dual version games get combined into one as well... At least future games on the Nintendo Switch should be relatively safe from triple releases, if Nintendo keeps focusing on one system from now on.

Third party support so far also seems to be ports mostly: Minecraft, Rocket League, Stardew Valley, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Doom, Wolfenstein II - The New Colossus... to name few. At least Bethesda on Twitter is taking it with humor:

Priceless!

Well, the strong exclusives on Nintendo systems often came from Nintendo themselves, while it's certainly nice to have all these games on the Switch available and to see so much 3rd party support for a change. And the list of Switch games is getting longer and longer.

Anyway, one interesting question remains: will Nintendo port even more games? Super Smash Bros. 4 seems to be a candidate, but what else could make it to the Switch? What games might even remain as Wii U exclusives?

Super Mario seems to be doing quite well with staying exclusive so far. Super Mario Odyssey is already out and a new 2D Mario for Switch might be in the works as well, while New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World will most likely remain as Wii U exclusives. The same probably goes for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which heavily used the Wii U GamePad. Only with Super Mario Maker Nintendo might not be able to resist, after all this got ported to the Nintendo 3DS already.

Following Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2, another candidate might be The Wonderful 101 by Platinum Games. There already had been rumors about it and I wouldn't expect much from such a port, however.

An often request seem to be the Zelda HD remasters: The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD. You know that Nintendo has arrived in easy money heaven when fans are asking for ports of ports. However, those two will likely remain as Wii U exclusives and not just because the Wii U has to keep something. Both titles focused quite a lot on utilizing the Wii U GamePad for their interfaces, though you can play both games just with the Pro Controller. But they also added new features based on Miiverse, where the Wind Waker HD had the Tingle Bottles for ingame Miiverse communication and Twilight Princess HD featured a collection of Miiverse Stamps. All of this would have to be cut from the ports, unless Nintendo finds some replacement usages for the bottles and the stamps.

Instead, it's more likely that Nintendo will deliver a new Zelda HD remaster for the Switch: Skyward Sword HD. The Joycons are predestined to bring this game back with improved graphics and maybe some new features. Talking about Wii games, there could also be a remastered HD version of the Metroid Prime Trilogy to accompany Metroid Prime 4. But of course such remasters would take more time and money in development, so we shouldn't expect as much here as with all the Wii U ports.

Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!

Replaying Majora's Mask on the Wii U

If I ever rank all the Zelda games, I will have to put Majora's Mask above Ocarina of Time for sure. As with the Nintendo 3DS remasterakes last year, I felt that Majora's Mask gave me the better replay value, because there is just so much to do all at once in the world of Termina with it's many sidequests. The world is also quite dense when compared to other 3D Zelda games and there's something to discover / to find / to do in every nook. It's just really well designed and there are no dull moments in this game, unlike in Ocarina of Time, where you keep going through the Field of Nothingness.

Similar to last time on the Nintendo 3DS I tried to do as much in one cycle as possible for my 100% run on the Wii U. Since the Song of Inverted Time essentially triples the available time, I was effortlessly able to clear one entire area per cycle:

• Cycle 1: Deku Minigame, Lottery
• Cycle 2: Clocktown sidequests, Southern Swamp, Swamp Spider House, Woodfall Temple, Romani Ranch (3rd Day)
• Cycle 3: Anju & Kafei Quest (partly), Snowhead, Snowhead Temple, Gilded Sword
• Cycle 4: Romani Ranch, Ikana Graveyard
• Cycle 5: Great Bay, Oceanside Spider House, Great Bay Temple, Frog Choir, Deku Tile Trade
• Cycle 6: Anju & Kafei Quest (complete), Anju's Grandmother's stories
• Cycle 6: Ikana, Stone Tower, Moon

On the third cycle I was mostly playing without a sword, where I had to realize (again) that you can actually activate Owl Statues with a Deku Stick. It doesn't work with any other weapons around the time, you can't use the Goron First or the Deku and it tells you to use your sword, but a Deku Stick does the trick as well.

Again, this run was nothing impressive, but beating the game in this way felt pretty good. What didn't feel good was the analog stick aiming, however. Gyro aiming was pretty much one of the best additions to the 3D series, where we can only hope that this will stay from now on, because going back to aiming with analog sticks is just frustrating. In Majora's Mask 3D I could easily score a "Perfect" in both Shooting Galleries on my first try. Back to Majora's Mask on Virtual Console I have to keep trying, trying and trying to get it done eventually...

Curiously enough, I found the Town Shooting Gallery somewhat easier than the one in Swamp, mostly because you only have to aim horizontally, while in the Swamp Shooting Gallery you have to shoot things all over the place. The Swamp Shooting Gallery is still the easier one, however, because the one in Clock Town just doesn't leave any room for error. You can't hit any blue Octoroks and the Octoroks will be gone quickly, where there's no second chances. A "Perfect" really is perfect play here.

I also had an issue with the 10-seconds-minigame at the Post Office, because there is some slight input lag, where I wasn't able to hit the 10 second mark accurately. The Wii U version also has the same downside as the Nintendo 3DS version with the Goron Labyrinth, where going straight is not so easy thanks to the completely rounded analog stick.

Otherwise the Virtual Console version was pretty good. I didn't mind the lower framerate as much as with Ocarina of Time, though this could be because I finally got used to it again, but the graphics are also somewhat nicer thanks to the Expansion Pack dependency of the original game. And of course it's nice to use Zora Link more freely again or use Ice Arrows wherever you want, though I didn't really play with the latter. But overall the Nintendo 3DS version made same changes to the worse, where the original version of the game still has some ground, unlike with Ocarina of Time, where there's no real reason to go back.

But there are also some changes and features from the Nintendo 3DS remasterake, that I missed. A smaller example would be planting the Deku Bean at the wall near Deku Palace. You can really get used to the shortcut and I forgot to bring some fresh Spring Water with me, where there's no pond around in the Nintendo 64 version. I would have had to go back, if it wasn't for the rain, which came with the start of the 2nd Day.

And the fishing in Majora's Mask 3D really grew on me, so that I kind of was missing it somewhat here, but since I don't have too much time left for the 3D Zelda games, before Breath of the Wild gets released, it's a good thing that I don't spent the additional hours with the game. I kind of have to rush things, while still going for the 100%.

Anyway, here are some fun RNG facts of my latest playthrough:

• Bomber Code: 45321
• Lottery Numbers: 251, 201 and 443

Another big advantage of the Wii U Virtual Console version are certainly Restore Points, which I mostly used for some of the minigames. In the already mentioned Clock Town Shooting for example, I could skip the early parts after mastering them. Or with the Zora Swimming you can set a Restore Point after the first race, so you don't have to do it again.

There isn't much else to do with Restore Points, though. Of course you can now leave the game at any time without the need of saving ingame thanks to Return Points, but this already worked on the Wii. There is Sakon's Hideout as an ideal point for saving and I also used it for the Heart Piece at Ikana Castle, where I really struggled to get this one on the Nintendo 3DS last time. Turns out that this isn't a problem at all in the Nintendo 64 / Virtual Console version.

Restore Points also now allow you to finally create a "perfect" savegame at the end, where you even might want to max out all items:

Why do we need to carry a total of 20 Magic Beans? 10 would have been enough (and make sense, since there were only 10 in Ocarina of Time).

But otherwise I was in a rush and despite the ongoing "time limit" in the game, Majora's Mask isn't a game that ought to be rushed. I didn't have many Nintendo 64 days as a kid, but this game alone could keep me entertained for a very long time, because it offers the "Adventure Sand Box" feel that Zelda should have. There's so much to discover and to try in every corner and thanks to the three-day-cycle you can do it all all over again and try different things at any time. With the masks alone there are so many hidden secrets, for example you can use the Captain's Hat and the Bremen Mask for some hilarious reactions during the Igos du Ikana Battle. It's these kind of details that drive the overall replay value of the game.

Replaying Ocarina of Time on the Wii U

Feels like having the same thing twice...

Until the end of the 30th Anniversary on February 28th and until Breath of the Wild gets released on March 3rd, I want to replay all 3D Zelda games on my Wii U again. The Nintendo 64 Zelda games break the first ground, where today I've finished my usual 100% playthrough of Ocarina of Time.

Last Summer I've already replayed the Nintendo 3DS remakes, which included both Ocarina of Time 3D and Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest, so I've had quite enough Ocarina of Time goodness lately. Part of the reason, why I also wanted to play through the Virtual Console releases again, was to see, how well the original games hold up, when compared to their remakes... In case of Ocarina of Time not very well.

In fact my motivation was so low that it took me over two weeks to get through this, which was certainly too long for my plans. But if you have Ocarina of Time 3D, there is no real reason to ever go back. The 20fps are simply bad. I don't mind the graphics as much - of course the 3DS version looks much better without losing any of the original charms, but the original is still fine. However, the frame rate really takes you out of it. And the text boxes. They are either too fast to be readable after pressing B or they are super slow...

But the worst is probably the aiming with the analog stick. Gyro aiming is one of the best things that happened to the series, it's just so much faster and more precise, so that going back to analog stick controls is pure pain. With the N64 games on the Virtual Console it has this annoying threshold, where you either aim very slowly or super fast... It's essentially like the text boxes, there's no good middle here, and everything with aiming just ends up in frustration. Luckily there is the 3DS version, where all these problems don't exist.

I tried to make use of the Virtual Console features to get some value over the Nintendo 3DS version, but this seemed negligible in the end. I was actually exited that for the first time ever I can play the game with the rumble feature on. I didn't have a Rumble Pack for the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube versions suffered from slight lag with the rumble, while the Wii Virtual Console version and the 3DS remake didn't have any rumble effect. So, for the first time I could really try out the rumble effects and how it feels to use the Stone of Agony after all these years... It was also quite helpful with the fishing, thanks to the rumble effect I could tell much better in what direction to hold the analog stick. However, riding with Epona is utterly annoying with the rumble, it feels like Epona keeps stomping on your GamePad, so I turned it off in the end...

Also, Restore Points didn't seem all that helpful. I was mostly using them early on, getting the Heart Pieces at the Zora River by using Cuccos is a good example, because it can be frustrating, if you mess it up. With the minigames I also used it for the Bombchu Bowling and the Horse Race (after the first lap). But later on I never really used Restore Points again except for having one exactly at the Ganon fight, which is a nice bonus, if you ever want to quickly replay this fight (should have been part of the Boss Challenge mode anyways).

That you can change your input was also useful for the Frog minigame at the Zora River, because playing this with the analog stick can be quite difficult, so I temporarily mapped the C buttons to A, B, X and Y, while the "+"-button served as "A".

So much for the Virtual Console version. In general I have to say that while Ocarina of Time is still one of my favorite Zelda games, if I put nostalgia aside, there are quite some issues noticeable with the game. It all feels kind of slow and boring, especially traveling through Hyrule Field. Yeah, there are the Peahats around, but they are something that you tend to avoid, because they can be quite lethal - they are basically like the Guardians in Breath of the Wild on a small level. But otherwise you only get some Stalchilds at night and they are not really that entertaining. Other enemies on the overworld then tend to be more annoying, like the Tektites, the Guays, the Octoroks or the Leevers.

Also, the gameplay itself can be quite slow thanks to the Ocarina and other slow actions. Often you have to play a song to get stuff done, even if it's just moving a block. At the time the Ocarina felt like a great feature, but today it just feels slow, where some quicker mechanic would be welcome.

Thankfully Breath of the Wild takes this all into account. The Sheikah Slate as the main item seems to be fast and dynamic, while there are lots of Bokoblin-like enemies to play around with. But going back from Breath of the Wild to Ocarina of Time will most likely make the N64 classic feel even slower and less interesting.

So, in the future I will probably need some real replay incentives to ever return to this game again after Breath of the Wild. This time I just did a silly thing, where I completed the game without ever seeing the Lake Hylia intro sequence once:

This can be achieved by always taking the routes over Gerudo Valley or Zora's Realm. As a kid I usually do this anyway, because you want to fly through Gerudo Valley at least twice to get everything there. This is even how I got the idea in the first place - I wondered, if it's possible to beat and complete the game without seeing this little sequence. You only have to remember this as an adult, when you deliver the Eyeball Frog to the Lakeside Laboratory. Going over Gerudo Valley in that case can be quite close, but it's still possible. Otherwise you can just teleport there and skip the sequence that way. And if you did all that, you can have the joy getting introduced to Lake Hylia after beating Ganon...

I've also did the dungeons as an adult quite out of order to mix things up yet again, though it's possible that I've tried a similar route in the past:

• Gerudo Fortress
• Ice Cavern
• Fire Temple
• Water Temple (Longshot)
• Forest Temple
• Bottom of the Well
• Spirit Temple
• Water Temple (2nd half)
• Shadow Temple

I like playing the Forest Temple with the Longshot, because it gives you more options how to navigate the dungeon. Going all the vines up with a single shot can also be quite satisfying, so it's worth to play the Water Temple first. Sadly, you can't complete the Water Temple without the Fairy Bow, but I've complained about this several times in the past already...

By the way, I also tried for the first time, what happens, if you go to the Gerudo Fortress without the Hookshot. In that case they will simply drop you off by the tent in Gerudo Valley, instead of putting you in the cell.

I guess, in the future I could try things like Minimal / 3 Heart Runs for some fresher experiences, but I usually just have too much fun collecting everything and trying to get everything early as possible. For example I won't become an adult, before I haven't done everything possible as a child. This is important anyway, if you don't want to miss the one Deku Nut upgrade at the Forest Stage, but this also includes planting eight possible Magic Beans, getting 44 Gold Skulltulas and 20 Heart Pieces (21 is possible, if you try your luck at the Treasure Chest Game). Thing is that you can't teleport yet, so you have to make good use of the gateways and the owl to avoid crossing Hyrule Field all the time. Like getting from the Forest to Hyrule Castle feels actually faster, if you use the gateways to Lake Hylia and then fly with the owl to the town entrance...

And as soon as I became an adult, I usually do everything possible before the temples: get Epona, get the Hookshot, get the Goron Armor, clear Gerudo Fortress, beat the Ice Cavern, get Iron Boots and Zora Armor, half of the teleporting songs, etc.

That's it for now. Next will be Majora's Mask on the Virtual Console, but this should be somewhat more interesting thanks to the downgrades the game has seen with its 3DS version and a lot more potential to use Restore Points.

Replaying The Minish Cap on the Wii U

Another chapter in my quest of replaying the Zelda games during the 30th Anniversary has completed. I'm continuing to browse through the Wii U Virtual Console library and there gave The Minish Cap another go, after already completing it back when it released for the service in May/June 2014. This was the eight time that I've beaten (and completed) the game. I've did so four times on the GameBoy Advance SP, twice on emulator playing the improved US version, and now twice on Wii U Virtual Console.

And each single time was sweet. Sure, the game isn't perfect and I wouldn't rank it among my all-time favorite Zelda games. It's quite linear and way too easy, has some glaring issues for completionists like me, but it still offers a very nice experience. It's really Capcom's love letter to the series, where all their efforts from the Oracle games and Four Swords were coming to together for one final (normal) Zelda game.

The Virtual Console version is also pretty nice. It looks and plays great, where the Wii U GamePad feels like a big GameBoy Advance. It has all the good Virtual Console features, though I didn't find any good usages for Restore Points other than the figurine drawings, and even lets you view the original manual. The only downside is there for Europeans with the fact that it employs the inferior European version of the game. How is it inferior? Let's see...

• You can't buy the 3rd Bomb Bag Upgrade from the shop.
• There is a glitch with not correctly fusing with Eeenie, where you can't complete the Goron sidequest and this miss an Empty Bottle and the Mirror Shield.
• Kinstone portals and helpings stay permanently on the Map and don't disappear, once you've visited these places / got the treasures.
• You can't warp on top of the Wind Tribe's tower.

It's mostly the missing Bomb Bag Upgrade that's nagging me, but overall the other points are good reasons as well. It would be nice to have them release the U.S. version of the game on the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console like they did with A Link to the Past.

Anyway, my main motivation to replay the game other than the 30th Anniversary of EVERYTHING was to fill the Oracle houses with other occupants this time. In my first Wii U savegame I went for the classic Nayru in blue house and Din in red house combination. This time I had Din in the blue house and Farore in the red house. And if I ever decide to play it on Wii U again, Farore will go in the blue house and Nayru in the red house, so that every Oracle got placed in each house at least once. Let's all be salty that there never has been a third Oracle game, because if there was, we probably wouldn't have to make this choice.

Overall it's always surprising how chock-full this game is with sidequests. With a town in the center of its world, it almost reminds you of Majora's Mask, just as a rainbow-happy-shiny 2D version. There are also quite some main quests that really feel like sidequests, e.g. when getting the Pegasus Boots or the Flippers, because both have you explore nooks around the town and collect contextual items. Or some quests even have you fuse Kinstones.

Apropos, that's easily the best feature of the game. Kinstone fusions! It just always feels so rewarding, even if you're just getting "rarer" Kinstones or some Rupees out of it... But how it spawns a treasure chest in the environment or opens a new passage way, is always exciting. Such a great feature! I still remember the E3 2004 demo (playable at the Games Convention in Leipzig), where one demo level let you explore South Hyrule Field and do a lot of Kinstone Fusions. It was very different from the final product, even Malon and Epona were there. But this already had me sold on the final game!

What drags the whole sidequest sections down is the Minitendo figurine collecting, because it essentially has you pause the action for a while to play a boring lottery. It's necessary to do this ever so often, because you don't to waste any of the bigger Mysterious Shell caches after hitting the 999 shell maximum. So, you have to keep spending, if you don't want to lose in the end and do a lot of grinding. In the past I would go for the extremes, either spend only one shell (which makes a lot of sense early on, as long as you stay above 50%) or maximum. This time I usually tried to stay between 20% and 25% for very good results. I only had to do little grinding in the end, so little that I "completed" the collection and got the final Heart Piece for the first time before beating Vaati. Herb, the figurine enthusiast, only checks if you have the 130 original figurines without the six extra ones, so he lets you in his house already at this point. He then even does mention the Carlov Medal despite you not having the thing already, which is a little oversight by the developers.

What also annoyed me a lot this time was Ezlo. People say that Navi is annoying, but he can be a real deal breaker. The problem with him is that he disrupts you in your actions. For example there is a puzzle that requires the power of the Four Sword, so I start loading it, but then he pops up to tell me the solution and I have to start all over again. Ugh!!! He already has the entire SELECT button dedicated exclusively to his unnecessary guidance, which means there's no reason for him to pop up at all, unless it's story-related... Easily the worst sidekick after Fi.

I also usually enjoy replaying the dungeons, despite them being quite linear. The only real exception here is the Fortress of Winds, but that's probably my least favorite dungeon in this game. The others all have a nice flow to them and I especially like, how they tried to mix things up with the sequence of the dungeon items later on:

• Deepwood Shrine: Map, Compass, Item, Big Key
• Cave of Flames: Compass, Map, Item, Big Krey
• Fortress of Winds: Compass / Map, Item, Big Key
• Temple of Droplets: Big Key, Map, Compass, Item
• Palace of Winds: Item, Big Key, Compass, Map
• Dark Hyrule Castle: Map, Compass, Big Key

Getting the Big Key first in the Temple of Droplets or starting with the item in the Palace of Winds felt like quite fresh ideas. It's something that Zelda dungeons usually don't do, so this is definitely noteworthy.

That's it for my thoughts while replaying this game. If you want to read more, you can check out a similar post, where I've replayed the game for the 25th Anniversary, five years ago.

"Thus did Touri's quest come to an end.
But surely this is not the end of Zelda and Touri's adventures in Hyrule.
The legend will continue as long as the power of the light force echoes throughout the ages."

Replaying A Link to the Past on the Wii U

999

After skipping over Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, which I just beat in August, my journey through the Wii U Virtual Console continued with A Link to the Past. I've already beaten the game on Nintendo 3DS earlier this year and directly compared it to A Link Between Worlds, so you should read that instead, because the playthrough was a little bit more interesting.

This time it felt more like a chore to be honest. I'm going through my backlog of Wii U games now and the redundancy towards the 3DS library really shows here, where the motivation for some of the stuff is quite low. At least with the NES and N64 Classics I have certain goals for my replay sessions, but A Link to the Past was just there, waiting to be completed yet another time.

I don't feel as strongly about A Link to the Past as the other classic Zelda games, most likely because I never owned a Super Nintendo as a kid and I wasn't able to play it before the GameBoy Advance times. I still see it as a great game, it has one of the best overworlds in the series, which Nintendo has reused twice over the years (in Ancient Stone Tablets and A Link Between Worlds), the visuals are nice, the music is great and it invented so many things for the Zelda series. Treasure chests, cutting grass, dashing into trees, lighting torches, Cucco Revenge Squads and so much more... A Link to the Past certainly defined the series.

But after a strong beginning, the second half of the game really is just dungeon crawling and most of the Dark World dungeons aren't as enjoyable. Of course they aren't supposed to be nice places, but they also didn't have to be as annoying, especially with letting you run in circles.

This time I played Misery Mire early (after Thieves' Town and the Swamp Palace), so that I wouldn't have to take to do the complicated backtracking in the Ice Palace. However, when I reached the end, where I could have just placed the block, I realized that I missed a key and since I always do 100% runs with the dungeons fully explored and cleared, I had to go through the entire Ice Palace again looking for said key. I also tend to always miss a key somewhere in Misery Mire, but it's not as terrible there.

Another troll moment is in Ganon's Tower, where you defeat the Armos after that long and complicated room with the invisible bridge. You now have the choice to go either up or left. The way up brings you to the Big Key, while the way left locks you out and then you have to do it all over again, both the puzzle and the Armos fight. Not nice, Nintendo!

At least I've learned something new this time. You can actually turn the "Rabbit Beams" (the rotating stars that follow you around and turn you into a rabbit) into a fairy by sprinkling Magic Powder on them, exactly like with a Anti Fairy. That was news to me and sadly I only learned this in Ganon's Tower. I'll try to use this to my advantage the next time, whenever I decide to play A Link to the Past again, probably on the Switch.

Replaying The Legend of Zelda on the Wii U

Someone get a vacuum cleaner.

The NES Mini was released one week ago and I was able to try out the device at a retro gaming party, which was fun. But it also made me want to play the NES Zelda Classics yet again, which is why I decided to go at The Legend of Zelda on my Wii U Virtual Console.

I've already replayed The Legend of Zelda on my 3DS earlier this year around the 30th Anniversary, which I personally liked more, because the game looks much sharper on the 3DS screen and the D-Pad of the Wii U GamePad is too stiff. But I want to play all my Virtual Console games on the Wii U next to reduce my backlog. Anyway, since my last playthrough wasn't many years ago, this wasn't a playthrough to refresh my memories of the game. It was more an attempt to harden my memories, because this time I had decided to play completely without the help of any solution maps and without planning ahead. I was still using Save Points for a deathless run, but otherwise I wanted it to be the pure exploration experience of the original, where you have to deal with all the hidden secrets and maze-like dungeons fully on your own.

I first played this game back in the late 90s, where I only had some maps of the Level 1 and 5 dungeons from the infamous Club Nintendo magazine and no internet to help me out, so the rest I had to figure out on my own. Burn all the trees! Bomb all the walls! Find your way through the dungeons! I wanted to replicate this experience, but of course after beating this game several times (including one half a year ago), I was bound to remember some stuff. It's not like I had magically forgotten everything about the game.

For example, I had a rough idea where the three truly hidden Heart Containers on the overworld are. The two Heart Containers that need the Raft and the Ladder are easy to find, but the others are well hidden and you can get them right at the start of the game (at least in the 1st Quest), which is invaluable.

Some of this stuff is hard to remember, because there are so many different versions of the same world. You have the 2nd Quest, but also the BS The Legend of Zelda game, where most things are in different locations as well, e.g. the Level 2 dungeon is located at a place where you'd normally find a Heart Container in the 1st Quest of the NES game... So, things can be a little confusing.

There's some additional trial and error with finding all the cave / dungeon entrances on the overworld if you don't know the exact wall to bomb or the exact tree to burn. Sometimes you have just long rock walls or tree lines over the entire screen and you have to find the one square that holds a secret. You can only use your HUD as an orientation, really, and during that I noticed that the caves at the southeast beach are right below the "x" of the Bomb counter. So, X does mark the spots here, which is a nice little trick if you want to impress others watching you play.

Since I had a rough idea where everything is located, it wasn't all that ridiculous. Only in the 2nd Quest there were to things that gave me trouble, where I couldn't help it and looked them up eventually. One was a Heart Container, which is found at the graveyard. In itself it's not too hard to find, because you just have to push the right grave, but trying to move every single tombstone is a deadly endeavor, because they all keep spawning Ghinis, which keeps hurting you. Unless you really like dying, it's best to ingrain the spot with the Heart Container into your soul.

The other lost item was the Magic Book, which is randomly found in a room with "weaker" enemies in Level 4 when you push the right block. If you have an idea where moving blocks could open a stairway, you automatically start testing and it's often blocks in similar positions. But in that case it didn't even occur to me that the room could hold a secret like that, especially since it's quite early in the dungeon.

Even if you remember the exact locations of all the items, memorizing the dungeons is a different topic. It's not like in later Zelda games, where every room is unique and recognizable. It all very much looks the same and fighting through the hordes of annoying Darknuts, Wizzrobes, Like Likes and Bubbles doesn't really encourage exploration. At least you don't have to test every part of the walls, because if there's a hidden pathway, then it's always right in the center. But the aforementioned blocks are a different topic and there will be still many walls to test, where studying the maps is more important than ever here. Bombs became the rarest and most valuable good in the game, because you also might need them for fighting (especially with the many Triple Dodongos in the 2nd Quest) and you're limited to a maximum of 16 of them. This completely changed with A Link to the Past, where you can carry many more and where bombable walls are usually cracked. And even if they aren't, you can use your sword to test them, instead of wildly placing bombs everywhere.

If you use solution maps, you know where all the destructible (and go-through) walls are and you can also plan the most efficient routes through the dungeons, instead of aimlessly wandering through the mazes. This makes the game quite easier and does take away an essential part of the challenge, which is why I didn't want to resort to maps this time. And with the 1st Quest things aren't too bad at first, it's really the Level 9 dungeon that gave me the most trouble. You have to learn this maze part by part and there's no quick way out of it in case you need to recover (and you will need to recover thanks to the constant Wizzrobe spam). But it's arguably the toughest dungeon in the game, not even the Level 9 of the 2nd Quest comes close to it – in fact it's much nicer, because it focuses on a long series of T-junction rooms with a block in the center, where you don't have any enemies. And you can quickly find your way out of the whole thing, in case you want to stock up on potions and/or bombs.

And all that stocking up made me realize how grind heavy The Legend of Zelda actually can be. You need lots of Rupees for the good items early on and always more for Potions later in the game. You also need to refill your Bombs, which aren't dropped by every enemy. I basically follow a circle route along the woods in the east, the shore and the fairy fountain near Level 1. The Blue Tektites and the Leevers at the beach give lots of Rupees, while Moblins and Blue Octoroks potentially leave Bombs behind.

I kept going through that grinding cycle a lot and these guys are mainly at fault:

Blue Wizzrobes and Blue Darknuts. They eat your health away swiftly and even with the Magical Sword they still need multiple hits to be defeated (three for the Blue Wizzrobes and two for the Darknuts). Their movements are erratic and even with the Blue Ring every touch costs you a heart. It's lucky that they never appear alongside each other, the dungeons either feature Darknuts or Wizzrobes, but never both.

Other than the enemies, what annoyed me the most during my latest playthrough were dark rooms. They don't add anything to the gameplay, unless you really have no Candle and have to find your way through the dark. But otherwise it's just the same procedure of going into the menu to equip the candle and use it. All this does is disrupting your game flow and later on I sighed at every dark room that I encountered, because you never really have the Candle equipped already. It's less of an issue when you have the Magic Rod and Book and like using it, but as I said earlier, I was unable to find the Book at first.

Still, it was overall a fun experience. I'm always amazed how well this game holds up for something from the NES era. And if you've never played it before, I can only advise to pick it up on the Virtual Console or via the NES Mini console and to avoid all maps or other guides that you can find on the internet. Try to discover all the secrets of this game on your own for the true experience!

Skyward Sword on the Wii U eShop

This has been released yesterday after the Nintendo Direct. Nothing special, but it should confirm that we're not seeing Skyward Sword HD any time soon. Not that anyone would expect this right now. I wonder, how this game will get ported to future systems, but maybe the rumored attachable controller parts of the NX also support motion controls. We'll see. A Skyward Sword HD will be easy to make concerning the graphics, you just have to scale them up and it will look great, but the controls might be a real obstacle.

Earlier I speculated about a potential Skyward Sword Month, where we get both the game on eShop and a Skyward Sword Picross at the same time, but that's probably off the table as well. If we're really getting a Skyward Sword Picross (or another Zelda Picross in general), the it probably will happen after the Twilight Princess Picross goes away on October 1st.

The latest Nintendo Direct was rather disappointing overall, by the way. And I'm not only talking about the "30th Anniversary" of The Legend of Zelda, but Nintendo's current direction in general. I've already talked about this problem, but Nintendo is only furthering it.

Just because the Wii U wasn't successful, Nintendo is porting nearly every game to the Nintendo 3DS with its bigger install base. Yoshi's Woolly World 3DS? Super Mario Maker 3DS? They are killing all the exclusive Wii U titles and in the end, everybody with a Nintendo 3DS could have skipped the Wii U. I was even expecting Splatoon 3DS at some point in the Direct, but they are probably saving the port for NX...

This is what happens if you ever invest in a Nintendo system that's not performing well. It makes you feel like you shouldn't have. But that only makes things worse in the end....

"Wii U? What's that?"

Majora's Mask on Wii U Virtual Console

Majora's Mask gets released today on the European Virtual Console for Wii U and next week in Japan. I was actually anticipating this for a while and here it is. The only thing left for them to release on Wii U eShop would be Skyward Sword, but I'm not interested in downloading Wii games. In case of Majora's Mask I already own the Wii Virtual Console copy, but I can just upgrade it for 2€.

This will give me options for my 30th Anniversary Replay Plans. I've replayed most of the topdown Zelda games already and before Breath of the Wild gets released, I want to play through all 3rd Person 3D Zelda games again in order. And now I can do it all on my Wii U. Replaying the Virtual Console versions of the N64 Zeldas will also be quicker (since there is no Master Quest or fishing), while the Restore Points should give you a lot of comfort with Majora's Mask. It's not only helpful with stuff like Sakon's Hideout, it can also be abused for certain minigames.

Still, I also want to replay the 3DS remakes at some point and I might just play them this summer, nice and slow, because right now I prefer playing on my New Nintendo 3DS XL. And in Winter I will probably play Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker HD (2nd Quest), Twilight Princess HD (Hero Mode) and Skyward Sword (Hero Mode) on my Wii U in that order. Ideally I will be done with Skyward Sword around the time, where the 30th Anniversary ends (February 20th) or in the latest right before Breath of the Wild gets released (where they kept dodging the March 2017 release date at E3, so it might as well come out Christmas 2017 for all we know).

The Wii U's Biggest Issue

Not the name. Not the bulky GamePad. The Nintendo 3DS!

I've already discussed this in February in my post about Zelda U on NX, but I recently found (and modified) a nice picture on Emily Roger's blog that illustrates the problem very effectively:

The Wii U and Nintendo 3DS have a huge redundancy issue to a point, where the systems are cannibalizing each other. By now both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U share the same input configuration, they both have a touchscreen in addition to the main screen and in case of the New Nintendo 3DS even the exact same button layout. They also deal with 3D graphics most of the time. And both systems have a big handheld mentality, where the Wii U lets you play without a TV at any time. Handheld and console came very close to each other in this generation.

The result were many similar games for both systems. New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Legends... This list goes on and on and you can see the bigger scope very clearly in the above picture.

However, the Nintendo 3DS and especially the Nintendo 2DS are much cheaper and practical than the Wii U. Kids getting Nintendo systems from their parents is still an important income for Nintendo, but why should the parents buy their kids a Wii U, when a Nintendo 2DS does the same job just fine for a much smaller price? Just because the games look prettier and may offer different levels? There are only very few exclusive titles like Splatoon or Super Mario Maker on the Wii U, which aren't available in some form on 3DS, while the 3DS has a much stronger library including Pokémon and even exclusive Zelda games (something the Wii U won't offer until its demise).

At the same time Nintendo is essentially splitting their resources in half to make similar games for two different systems, while one systems eats away the other...

This is why I believe the rumors about the NX combining handheld and console in one system will be true. That somehow NX games will also be playable on the go with some external device. Games will be developed for "NX" and then simply be available for both home console and handheld devices. It would solve many issues with the current Nintendo.

Another approach would doing something very different on the handheld section, something simpler, more back to the roots, where the handheld is truly its own experience. We certainly didn't have such problems with the GameBoy. But I would suspect that Nintendo will try more on the Smartphone market instead.

Now, for The Legend of Zelda the division between handheld and console still has been going strong. Remakes and ports aside, classic topdown Zelda games appeared on the handheld and the big new 3rd Person Zelda games appear on the console. This way you get very unique experiences with Zelda on both systems. I always liked this approach and while I think it will be best for Nintendo to "merge" everything with the NX, I truly hope that this won't be the end of topdown Zelda.

Wii U Discontinued in 2016?

Naturally Nintendo is denying the current rumors, because they have no other choice. It's ultimately the same as when they say that the NX will be a third system and not a replacement for either Nintendo 3DS or Wii U. They said the same with the Nintendo DS and those are lies to protect their current systems from losing sales. But with all the rumors it really seems like Nintendo will be pushing a new console in 2016 and that The Legend of Zelda U will be one of its start titles.

Last month I already made a post about this, where it seemed like a mistake to me, because if it wasn't for Hyrule Warriors, it felt like the system ultimately wasn't worth it. That's a crazy and spoiled notion, if you think about it, but I've been saying that as a fan of Zelda and Metroid, where I expected to have a new Zelda game and Metroid Prime 4 already.

Otherwise the Wii U actually became the game system with my largest library with a total of 24 games. There are even quite some games, which I've only started playing like New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario Maker, Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2 and Splatoon. So, there's still enough entertainment for me to squeeze out of the system until Zelda and the new console arrive. It's simply that except for Hyrule Warriors and maybe Mario Kart 8 I wasn't really excited about any of the games... I had far less games on GameCube and Nintendo 64, but those were strong games like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Metroid Prime, which stuck with me. Or I really enjoyed the Super Mario Galaxy games on Wii, while Super Mario 3D World seemed "okay", but it didn't really excite me as much. Overall the Wii U always gave me the feeling that Nintendo could have done more with it and The Legend of Zelda certainly arrives way too late.

But I'm making my peace with the fact that the Wii U will be said and done with Zelda and there's even a bright side to this. As for the new Zelda game it certainly will be a good thing, if it becomes a launch title for the new system as well, because this will heavily increase the sales over a just having a Wii U release now. Zelda needs this, because if this massive game doesn't sale, it will hurt the series.

And as a collector I won't have to worry about a golden Wii U Zelda Limited Edition release. If Nintendo stops producing the Wii U and start producing a new console this year, I really doubt that we would see something like a golden Wii U. In fact Nintendo already could have released a bundle for Twilight Princess HD, but they didn't. And this way the Wind Waker Edition certainly was the right choice for any Zelda fan:

I did not regret buying this edition and it would be nice if this remains to be the one and only version of the Wii U for Zelda fans. And this will be the console that I'm playing The Legend of Zelda U on. If Nintendo is making a new Zelda console bundle, it will be for NX, which might be too early on launch, but you can never know with Nintendo... But if those pictures about the new screen controller are true, it wouldn't really be a thing for a special edition anyway, because it doesn't have any front for decorations, it's all screen.