Go Cucco Yourself, Nintendo!!

I'm seriously mad right now about this stupid Cucco minigame. I've played it for more than 200 times now and I don't seem to get any better at it. I never made it past the 200s mark, I can rarely survive the 100s. The hitboxes are ridiculous and you really need to stay focused for a long time here. I regularily lose the game by just scratching the Cucco's shadow... come on!

Why did there have to be an unlockable? Why? If there wasn't any, I could just ignore this alltogether. And if you want to show off that you can beat the full 999 seconds, you always can simply show the record. Nintendo has a serious issue with maximizing all digits to 9s, because this wouldn't be the first time they rewarded something like this...

I was seriously was considering that A Link Between Worlds could become my new favorite Zelda game, but this is a big flaw. I'm not kidding about this. A good Zelda game doesn't have any bullsh*t like this. I always go for the 100% completion rate in video games and I like Zelda games, because usually they don't have ridiculous requirements for completion, but there's still enough to it. And when I replay a Zelda game, I always try to get the 100% again. But now A Link Between Worlds sunk from "best replay value in the Zelda series" to "prepare to play HOURS of Cucco Run"... no thanks.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to demand surviving this ridiculously unfun minigame for about 17 minutes needs to be fired from Nintendo. And this needs to be PATCHED. Add three lives to the minigame or unlock the chicken at 100s. I don't care, but this is a serious flaw with the game.

I seriously hope that Nintendo NEVER EVER adds anything like this to their Zelda games again. It just ruins the replay value for completionists.

/rant

Yes, this whole post is very unreasonable and it's just some stupid chicken, so I probably shouldn't get so angry. I still am though and needed to channel my anger somewhere, sorry...

Also, please understand that I'm not complaining about the challenge, but the fact that it was put into a questionable minigame and that it hurts the replay value for 100% runs. I'm determined to beat this sooner or later and I will keep practicing. But it's definitely not something I want to do over and over again with each new playthrough. Also, if Nintendo wants to add a challenge to Zelda, they should consider a boss rush mode and not a minigame, where you have to dodge chickes for 17 minutes straight. I would love to spent my time practicing all the boss fights, but instead I'm dodging chickens. And I'm not happy about that.

Call Me Rollgoal Master (Twilight Princess)

Remember Rollgoal? No? Well, that's the marble slalom minigame found at the fishing pond in Twilight Princess:

If you've never played it, it's probably one of the worst minigams ever in the Zelda series. It has every criteria in the book of a bad minigame. It's more something that belongs into Wii Play, but not into Zelda. It's not much fun because of the frustrating controls and you have to complete it staggering 64 times in order to get everything.

Well, I only ever beat the first eight levels to get the frog lure and then ignored the game. All it does is repeating it's eight levels over and over again with a stricter time limit. However, if you beat all 64 levels, you get a nice level select. And for a true 100% completion this counts (since there's something unlocked here).

Because I'm trying to truly complete all Zelda games (not just all items, but basically every small unlockable like with the 999 hits in sword training or the 999 seconds in Cucco Run) and this was part of it.

And actually it wasn't that bad. I always hated that game, but I guess you can grow to like every minigame in Zelda, if you play it long and often enough. As soon as you get better at it, it's starting to be "fun".

Well, at first I did the GameCube version about two weeks ago. The controls are more precise, so it was more a matter of getting the right timing for the slopes. It didn't even take on hour to complete all 64 levels, so I even completed it a second time on another savegame.

Today I decided to complete the Wii version as well. I feared, it would be absolutely terrible because of the controls, but then I found a nice trick. Actually I used the same trick, when I completed the game for the first time on the Wii. Don't hold the Wiimote in your hands. Place it on a flat surface and only tilt it to the sides. Use the analogstick to change the camera and with it your directions. Basically what I did was just holding the Wiimote to the right and steer with the analog stick.

The trouble with the Wiimote controls is always tilting it forward and backward. That's a lot more imprecise and can cause the ball to roll off many times. You might even accidently change the stance and screw up. Tilting the Wiimote only to the sides is a lot more precise. I even found it easier to control than the GameCube version! And with the Wiimote laying flat, it can't accidently cause your ball to roll off. And you even get an higher time limit on the Wii. On the GameCube you have to beat the levels 8-1 to 8-8 in 30 seconds. On the Wii that's 40 seconds, which is enough to beat the levels with my method. So, I can only recommend this playstyle. I did the whole 64 levels without any trouble. It went so smooth that I even beat level 8-8 on my first try! And now finally after seven years I fully completed both the GameCube and the Wii version of Twilight Princess! Yay.

So, the only things left for me to do in Zelda are the 2nd Quest in The Wind Waker HD (I'm going to save this for next year) and the Cucco Run 999 seconds record in A Link Between Worlds... I'm not sure what of these two things will happen first.... :D So far I was able to find nice tricks to overcome these ridiculous minigames, but with Cucco Run this is going to require lots of practice (and abusing the Start button).

2014 Zelda Calendar

Okay, this should end my Zelda shopping spree for this year. It's the 2014 Zelda calendar:

Or actually it seems to be the Ocarina of Time 3D calendar, because eight months are covered by that game...! What the fairy...? I liked the 2013 calendar more, it had more variety to it. For example this one doesn't even include Spirit Tracks. And it looked richer, this one just seems to be simple character arts with nothing much to it.

Also, while I can understand that Nintendo only wants their latest titles, they do have the Virtual Console and adding those games could be a good idea as well. So, why not add some motives for Link's Awakening or the Oracle games? And it seems that these calendars get produced way too early. They weren't even able to add The Wind Waker HD? For the 2014 calendar you'd want the latest games from 2013. I want HD Toon Link! I want awesome Ravio!

Well, hopefully the 2015 calendar will have all that. Because I wouldn't want another year filled with Ocarina of Time 3D and Skyward Sword.

Edit:
Amazon is ridiculous. This 10€ calendar they sent me in a HUGE box (I was thinking I'm getting a new computer or something) padded from all sides... lol. But when I order a 220€ highly limited collectible, they put it in a paper bag. What's wrong with their brains?

Majora's Mask References in A Link Between Worlds

Aonuma teased at Comic Con that playing A Link Between Worlds actually would show us that they haven't forgotten about Majora's Mask. And they sure haven't. There are plenty of references to the game to find.

The most obvious one is probably Majora's Mask hanging inside Link's house. If you merge with the wall behind it, you can make it look like Link's actually wearing the mask, which is pretty cool. Also, this leaves lots of room for speculation. Like how did he get the mask?

The second reference would be the return of the Milk Bar with Talon being the owner. Though Phantom Hourglass did have a Milk Bar as well, so this doesn't necessarily have to be a direct Majora's Mask reference.

The big thing for me were the people in Lorule. Not only were they all counterparts to the people of Hyrule, they also started to wear masks. So, I actually believed that Lorule would be revealed to be Termina at some point of the game. Termina even had the hidden Triforce symbols in the Stone Tower Temple, which lead to a theory, which actually fits the story of Lorule quite nicely. But while this has never been confirmed ingame, it's still entirely possibly that Lorule and Termina are actually the same. The state of Lorule with all the giant chasms splitting the country could have been caused by the moon crashing on the lands...

The last reference happens in Hero Mode, it's the secret that you can find. I was asked in the comments, what it would be, but it's better to post this in a spoiler box just to be sure:

If you play in Hero Mode, you can find Ravio's diary in the empty house (where Link's house would be). It contains a three day countdown.

So... after all these teasers I'm ready for Majora's Mask 3D, Nintendo! Actually a MM3D release next year would be perfect. Something to do before Zelda Wii U comes out. Since it most likely would be done by Grezzo (a separate team), this is not unlikely, since MM3D could be developed independently from A Link Between Worlds and Zelda U.

A Link Between Worlds – StreetPass Review

This review was originally published on ZeldaChronicles (formerly known as ZeldaEurope) and got translated for this blog in 2021 by the same author.

Last week's review of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds didn't cover a big, new feature of the game: the StreetPass battles. Now, that there was the opportunity to dive more into this, it's time to share some impressions. Let the Shadow Link battles begin!

 

The Basics

With the game's StreetPass system you can receive Shadow Links from other players, which you might meet on the go, while your system is in Sleep Mode. You can also create your own Shadow Link based on your current gear, where you can select two of the X and Y items, which he will take in battle.

The Shadow Link then will have a bounty based on the equipment, which ranges from 50 to 999 Rupees. If you meet a Shadow Link in your game, you'll see the name of its player and the bounty, where you now can decide whether to take him on or not. If you win, you'll receive the bounty.

And if you lose... well, there is nothing really to lose here. Lost games aren't counted and your hearts will be refilled after the battle. If you use Potions, other things in bottles or the Foul Fruit, then those will be regained after the battle as well. And if you are defeated, this won't count for the total times defeated at the end of the game either. So, you can just take on the Shadow Links without having to worry about anything.

You'll meet the Shadow Links all over Hyrule and Lorule, but the starting point is the "StreetPass Meadow" in Kakariko, where a mysterious old man, who is just called "Gramps", does the setup for you. There are signs for every Shadow Link available, which tell your their bounties and where to find them. Up to 20 Shadow Links and their signs can appear at the same time, but if you happen to meet more people, then don't worry, they'll get queued up and simply appear, once you've defeated some Shadow Links to make space.

That is, if you're able to even meet that many people with a Nintendo 3DS... And that's probably the main issue with all of this. Unless you live in a big city or happen to have a second Nintendo 3DS around, it's actually super tedious to get into this.

The game will generate some Shadow Links for you, where you can recognize them by the name "Shade" (or "Kage" in certain languages, based on the Japanese word for "shadow"). But these are extremely rare, where you'll only get one after playing the game for five hours. And considering that it might only take you between 10 and 20 hours to beat this game, that's way too long.

Ideally, you would be able to spend your Nintendo 3DS Play Coins at the StreetPass Meadow to make them appear, because after all this is exactly what those Play Coins are normally used for in other games... To give you access to StreetPass content. But for some reason Nintendo decided to use the Play Coins for the Hint Ghosts instead.

 

The Battles

As for battling the Shadow Links themselves, there are two things of note. One would be the fantastic music, which is a remix of the Temple theme from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, which is also quite prominent in the Super Smash Bros. series. There is truly no better track to inspire the fighting spirit of Zelda fans.

The other thing is that the CPU enemy is actually quite good, at least when compared to other enemies in the game. It's a whole other level. The Shadow Link parries, blocks, dodges and circles around you, while he also makes good use of the items (except for the Net) to put you under pressure. The CPU has its issues with certain environments, however, where this happens mainly in the ice arena, where the Shadow Link keeps falling through the crumbling ice floors. But overall this is the most versatile and toughest enemy in the entire game.

Speaking of arenas, there are only five of them. There is the default arena, which is just a platform in the sky without anything on it (see the screenshot above). There is a forest area with an apple tree at the center and some water puddles. One arena takes place on a grate above lava, where some fire pillars are shooting up, while another takes place on sand. And finally, there is the aforementioned ice arena with crumbling floors and bumpers. Each of them have their own unique elements, which keeps things interesting, but overall there could have been more of them for the sake of variety.

No matter the arena, the battles can be rather unbalanced, depending on the bounty and your own progress, especially in the early in game. If you meet a Shadow Link there with a higher bounty, then it will be incredibly difficult to win this fight. And if you happen to run into an early Shadow Link in the late game, you might defeat him with single strike. (This does have its use, however.)

But if your equipment is on the same level, the fights are perfectly balanced and can be a lot of fun, especially if you take on those Shadow Links with bounties above 900 Rupees in the late game. And this is when you'll notice that the combat is actually rather good.

That's mainly due to the different items – even those that you may haven't used much throughout the game, thanks to the way of how the items interact with each. A great example is fighting the Fire Rod with a Hookshot. You'd normally expect that the enemy shooting giant flame pillars has the advantage here, but you can use the Hookshot to pull yourself right through the fire to your enemy as a counter move. The Hookshot will even shortly stun the Shadow Link for a guaranteed hit afterwards.

It's quite ingenious, where this lets you use the items in ways you would have never imagined during the main game. And you can't just mindlessly spam them either, where this has actually quite some depth to it, especially since you can bring two items into the battle. It's nowhere near any Beat 'Em Up, but certainly quite good for a Zelda game.

And this raises the question why Nintendo didn't turn this into a real multiplayer mode, where you fight against other people locally or online. The battles are really fun, but fighting against the CPU gets old fast, where you might wish that you could test your skills against other players. With online multiplayer this could have connected Zelda fans all around the world... But sadly, this isn't the case. Maybe in the next game?

The Challenges

Rupees alone aren't exactly the biggest incentive to keep fighting Shadow Links over and over again, which is why there are also 50 medals to collect, which act as Challenges for this mode. Those can be simple things, like "Win 5 times!" or "Use the Fire Rod to deal the final blow!", but also more tricky tasks, like "Win without taking a single step!" ...

Every item in the game gets some love here, where you get motivated to try everything at least once, instead of just using your favorite items all the item. You also don't have to worry about missing anything here, where doing a Challenge for an upgraded item will also score you the same Challenge for the normal variant. So, if you use the nice hammer to defeat an enemy, it will also count for the hammer. Everything can still be achieved at the end of A Link Between Worlds, where you can just beat the game without worrying about StreetPass at first.

And this is even some really good post-game content, where you might return to the game, even long after you've already beaten it in normal and Hero Mode. (The Shadow Links also do quadruple damage in Hero Mode, by the way, which can be really tough.)

There is also a nice reward for clearing all Challenges, where this lets you battle against a CPU with the highest bounty at any time, without the need for finding Shadow Links.

 

The Conclusion

StreetPass in A Link Between Worlds is a really good extension for the game, where the battles against Shadow Links can be a lot of fun and the Challenges will engage you for a while, even after having beaten the game.

The major downside is that you can't summon Shadow Links using Play Coins, which would have been very helpful. And overall this feels more like something that would have been a lot better as a battle mode against other players...

 

The Good:

• Fun battles with some depth against a decent CPU
• Zelda II music
• 50 Challenges to complete (without missables)
• Makes good use of items
• No penalties for losing

 

The Bad:

• No use of Play Coins to summon Shadow Links
• Only five arenas
• It's no Battle Mode
  

A Link Between Worlds Collector's Guide

Got this today:

This won't be part of the Zelda Box (which also got released now), so if you want the 7th book, you need to buy it separately. It's weird that they didn't include this one as well, but whatever...

Naturally there's a nice extra, but this is the first time, where they didn't add a map of some sorts. This time you get a framed litograph, which looks absolutely gorgeous. Other people have pictures of their family on their desk, I have the Master Sword... :D

The guide itself is 320 pages thick, about the same size as the Spirit Tracks guide. It follows my principle of doing all sidequests first, so they basically clear all areas before they head into the dungeons. I did the exact same thing on my 2nd playthrough, so I approve. Except for some differences in the renting prices I didn't notice any mistakes on my first look. Usually I'm able to spot a bunge of things, but it looks like they did a good job overall. And it was interesting for me to learn the names of the new bosses... here they are:

Margomill (the eye on a pillar)
Stalblind
Zaganaga (the desert boss)
Knucklemaster (the Wallmaster boss)
Gemasaur King
Grinexx
Dharkstare

I love the names. Nice mix ups of the original boss names. Argghus and Moldorm only returned in their original form and name.

What the guide is missing is any info about StreetPass. They tell you how to set it up, but that's it. Nothing about the Shadow Link Battles, nothing about the challenges, nothing about the arenas. For example the Phantom Hourglass guide actually had an entire section just about the multiplayer arenas, which was cool. Maybe they only had one copy of the game and couldn't really test it? Luckily I did their job in my StreetPass Guide, so check it out, if you need any help with that!


I also got the Zelda Box today, however, it was delivered to my home address. So, I will have to wait until Christmas to check it out... should be a nice Christmas present though. :D

StreetPass Guide FAQ

 

My StreetPass Guide on GameFAQs just got released! Check it out. It contains all info about clearing all StreetPass challenges, battling Shadow Links, etc.

Actually I made guides for absolutely everything in German for ZeldaEurope: Heart Pieces, Maiamais, bottles, items, Master Ore, minidungeons, minigames, Hero Mode ... I've written many guides for ZeldaEurope already.

Sometimes I also release guides in English, but then it has to be something special. Something not everyone can do like my 64 Ring Guide for Oracles or the TotoK Speed Guide for Phantom Hourglass. I felt like the StreetPass functionality was special enough to make fledged out guide for it. It's funny how it's the first guide there, even before Pieces of Hearts or Maiamais... but I let someone else have "fun" with those.