Your Last Chance to Write Some Idiotic Zelda Wii Rumors

E3 starts in three weeks and the newest Zelda game will probably be shown there. So, this is your last chance to pretend that you have some insightful inside information from Nintendo about the game. Because you're the champ. And whoever posted the rumors from Januar at 2ch came up with some new stuff:

• Link will be replacing the bow and arrow with a crossbow.
• Game is all but finished. Putting on final touches.
• There will be a playable demo at E3.
• Time travel does occur and it happens through the use of a new blade. (not the master sword)
• Link's hometown is much bigger than in previous titles.
• There will be several "Majora's Mask" esque sidequests.
• Character interaction will be more involving than in any previous title.
• The dungeon field dungeon method is changed, and one of the changes confirms straight dungeon to dungeon portion of the game.
• The current name of the girl in the picture is Adelle.
• Combat is extremely fluent and innovative. No previous Wii title can give you a good example of it's unique style.
• The game relies heavily on sword combat versus other items.
• There will be less items, but they will be used more frequently.
• There will be another main weapon added for an alternative combat style.
• The game will feature significant portions of flight.

Source: ZeldaInformer

Of course, of course... this MUST be real, since it sounds so authentic. But like I said before, everyone can come up with that. The crossbow idea probably comes from the fact, that Wii Sports Resort esque archery would require to switch Nunchuk and Wiimote during the game and that of course would suck (unless you simply hold the bow with your right hand). That the numbers of items is less, but every item is more frequently used, is a trend in the Nintendo DS Zelda games. If Nintendo focuses on items, that utilize MotionPlus (much like items that utilize the touchscreen in the DS Zeldas), then this might be likely. So, this idea also doesn't come out of nowhere. Another main weapon is mentioned, but why not just say what kind weapon? Is it a spear or something? If he knows that much, why not spill it? This is where the rub is, all this unspecific information. If you want to do write some good and believable fake rumors, always be specific, never say stuff like the above.

The easiest thing you can do in order to increase your credibility is just mentioning some known facts, like that the game uses MotionPlus, that Aonuma's son would like to see Link fly and that the dungeon and field formula will somehow change. Of course you don't say anything speficic, just add a dumb example like the dungeon to dungeon idea (seriously...?). And then add some stuff the fanboys would love to hear, mention "Majora's Mask" and "sidequest" in the same sentence and talk about bigger environments with more interaction. And how epic the game will be. The final boss will be Vaati and Ganondorf, both wearing Majora's Mask!! W00T!!! And of course there's absolutely NO chance at all, that this massive game comes out this year, 2012 at the earliest, as a Wii HD title! Because it's common knowledge that Nintendo will announce the Wii HD this year at E3. For some reasons they didn't do this last year or 2008, but better late than never. (For everyone, who didn't get it, that was sarcasm, there won't be a Wii HD and you can expect Zelda Wii for the end of 2010. ^^)

Seriously, why even bother with these rumors now? In three weeks we will all know, what the real deal looks and plays like.

The Link Con

A couple of days ago the long anticipated LOST finale aired. Though it was somehow disappointing for many people including me, it's good to know, that the main characters have something to do after their story on LOST is over. As a pre-E3 reveal, Sawyer will star as Link in the upcoming Zelda game for Wii:



Son of a bitch! I guess they have to replace Zelda with Juliet, if they want him to do anything heroic. Well, check out the source for more LOST characters in the role of video game characters (I like the Hurley & Ben one).

Source: Examiner.com

Judas

Should have seen that coming...

The Wind Waker and New Play Control!

While crawling through the content of Nintendo of Europe's website I found materials that indicate a new "New Play Control!" series. There were even rumors lately that Nintendo plans to revive some more GameCube classics. And there's quite a big surprise here, because next to Luigi's Mansion and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour our beloved The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is going to be ported to the GameCube. I found the cover of the game on Nintendo's server and this is how it looks like:



I don't know any details about the port. Like for example how the motion controls will work or if there's any extra content. Since the cover only shows a normal Wiimote and not MotionPlus (unlike the cover of Mario Golf, which does), you can guess that the game uses similar controls to the Wii version of Twilight Princess. Which means the controls will be rather gimmicky and won't be based on whatever they have in store for Zelda Wii. It does make sense though, real 1:1 MotionPlus controls would require lots of new animations and a lot of changes in the gameplay. But at least I hope, that Nintendo didn't mirror the entire game again just to make Link right-handed. Because that was totally lazy. And if the Wind Waker itself gets motion controlled, you will probably have to point the Wiimote towards the screen and Sensor Bar, so that it will work properly without MotionPlus. But it could work. I wonder how they will deal with the Tingle Tuner, but it could use the Nintendo DS link up feature.

For more information we have to wait until Nintendo does the official announcement.

The games will be probably released this summer or fall. If you haven't played The Wind Waker yet, be sure to pick this up.

Edit: Little April Fools prank here. I wanted to discuss the possibility of The Wind Waker being part of the New Play Control! series and that it probably wouldn't work too well, because it would be similar to the gimmicky Twilight Princess controls. I also did the above fake cover art for the article and since it looked so convincing I thought I could use for April 1st. Not too funny, I know, but at least I'm proud of the cover. :D

Other M Gameplay Video

This looks better than I thought it would. It actually looks like a cool mix between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, Other M could turn out to be the "Best of Metroid"-game. Or it could be total junk, I will only know for sure when I play it myself.

I was actually surprised by the open jungle area. I thought the game would take entirely place on this spaceship and that all the "2D" sequences would be like on rails, but I guess I was mistaken. Even better then. And it seems like there's auto aim in the classic gameplay, because hitting those flying insects so smoothly while running would be impossible with the D-Pad alone.

Voice acting could screw things up if done badly. Samus calling Mother Brain actually "Mother" is quite lame...

Nintendo 3DS Announced

Source: Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Minami-ward of Kyoto-city, President Satoru Iwata) will launch "Nintendo 3DS"(temp) during the fiscal year ending March 2011, on which games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.

"Nintendo 3DS"(temp) is going to be the new portable game machine to succeed "Nintendo DS series", whose cumulative consolidated sales from Nintendo amounted to 125million units as of the end of December 2009, and will include backward compatibility so that the software for Nintendo DS series, including the ones for Nintendo DSi, can also be enjoyed.

We are planning to announce additional details at E3 show, which is scheduled to be held from June 15, 2010 at Los Angeles in the U.S.

Okay, this is not also a big surprise coming out of nowhere, it's also quite strange for Nintendo. They care about new ways of playing games, new input methods. Advancing the output alone never concerned them. So, this seems to be quite the opposite of what they've done in the last few years, especially because 3D without 3D glasses sounds very advanced on first glance. BUT looking at this video of a Nintendo DSi game using similar techniques you can see how this could work. It uses the camera to know how it has to change the output. In January Iwata also said something about motion sensoring, which could also be used to generate the 3D view. And this doesn't simply change the output, it could lead to a whole new way of playing Nintendo DS games. That's the beautiful thing about Nintendo. If Sony would use 3D for their console, it would be just for the sake of using 3D technology. But if Nintendo uses 3D, it's because they want to deliver new ways of playing and experiencing games.

The question right now is more or less, since it seems to be already possible on the DSi, why making a new handheld system for this? There must be a good explanation for that. But I guess it doesn't work too well on the DSi and they want to optimize the system for the 3D gameplay. Of course better hardware for the graphics and maybe using two touchscreens instead of just one. And the mentioned motion sensoring could also help to determine the position for the view of 3D images as a support when the camera fails to do it correctly. But let's wait until E3 for more information.

What does that mean for Zelda? It could mean the first portable fully 3D Zelda game, of course. But I would say, they will continue the hybrid gameplay style, which means there will still be the bird's eye view involved or at least a limited viewpoint. But you'll have to play with the perspective to see certain things like in the above video. 3D puzzles. Could be great.

And I guess, I won't buy a Nintendo DSi then. :D And the "Virtual Handheld" with all Zelda GameBoy classics on it will probably be part of the new system.

Zelda Wii and Vitality Sensor

lol...

In an interview with games™ issue 95 Miyamoto said the following about the Wii Vitality Sensor:

"So maybe you might like to ask me to incorporate the Vitality Sensor into Zelda so that as you become more scared, the enemies become even tougher."

Of course this is just an example for how to use the Vitality Sensor, so don't be afraid that they will actually do this. The big flaw here is, that you will probably need the Nunchuk to play the game, but it doesn't look like you can use a Nunchuk and a Vitality Sensor at the same time, since both has to be plugged into the Wiimote. So, unless you use a second Wiimote, it's not possible. And even then it would be very uncomfortable to play this game. It's probably very hard to use a Nunchuk with this thing plugged to your forefinger.



But I guess it's a nice example for the possibilities of the Vitality Sensor. Nintendo hasn't shown any software for it yet, so all we can do right now is laughing about this periphal. But in a game like Silent Hill this would probably be awesome, but still you'd have the Nunchuk problem there.

Source: Nowgamer.com