Zelda Wii not radically different?

Miyamoto said to the latest issue of the Nintendo Power magazine about Zelda Wii in comparison to other Zelda games:

I don't think it's going to be that radically different.

People like to take Miyamoto's quotes for gold and recite them over and over again. Like the quote, that Twilight Princess was going to be the last Zelda game of its kind. A lot of people now expected a huge revolution in the Zelda series, totally ignoring Phantom Hourglass, which came after Twilight Princess, and the thought, that his quote probably referred to the controls, since Nintendo was all about advancing controls back in these days and is still today with MotionPlus. Now you will probably see the above quote a lot in the near future and you will see Zelda fans in fear of getting a second Twilight Princess. But what does "not that radically" mean here? It says, that Zelda Wii is going to change, but not in a way, where it breaks the Zelda formula and you won't recognize it as a Zelda game at first glance.

However, it probably means that first person gameplay is out of the equation. It was discussed a lot and Nintendo definitely has tried it out. There was a first person demo of Twilight Princess at the GDC 2007 and Link's Crossbow Training was supposed to be a bridge game in Japan for more first person action. But probably Nintendo screwed the idea, because a first person Zelda doesn't work too well, maybe because there's a lot of action, that requires a 3rd person perspective like horse riding. And "not that radically" of course means, that Link will not turn into a girl and that the game doesn't take place in the year 2342 on a distant planet, but you could tell this already from the artwork:



So far this quote doesn't really give anything away, except maybe that you don't have to become friends with first person gameplay.

But what I still consider to be very important and the key of the game is MotionPlus. I would be very disappointed, if they won't use MotionPlus or just make it an extra feature. This Zelda game should be built from the ground up with MotionPlus in Nintendo's mind. Take Wii Sports Resort with its sword combat, archery and canoeing. That's the least I would expect from Zelda Wii and you can do so much more. Zelda is a game, that wants to drag the player into its world. We already have nice graphics and atmosphere, now its time to step the controller interface up. The Wiimote should become your sword. Twilight Princess failed doing so, because it was developed for the GameCube without motion controls in mind and the Wii controls of the port were too gimmicky. Of course that's not all what was wrong with Twilight Princess and they have to address a lot of things, but none of them would fall into the "radically different" category right now.

Right now, I expect Zelda Wii to utilize MotionPlus and to have a different tone from the other Zelda games.


A source: NintendoLife

The Future of Zelda: Four Swords Wii

Time for some new speculation about the future of our beloved video game franchise The Legend of Zelda. This will come in two parts, the second dealing with difficulty issues of a modern Zelda game.

If you've read my previous articles, you know, that I've discussed the possibility of a WiiWare Zelda game. But the more I speculated about this topic, the less I thought it will become a reality. WiiWare is a platform for new developers to set foot on the market and for Nintendo to perform market tests. It's not a platform for new 2D Mario and Zelda games, though it would be cool. And now New Super Mario Bros. Wii came into the picture. The first real console 2D Mario game since the Super Nintendo days, not as a WiiWare game, but as a full retail game. And this time with focus on local multiplayer. I predict this is going to be a huge hit, it probably will sell out both Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 together. I even probably will get a copy myself, since the Wii became THE platform for local multiplayer for me and this looks really fun.

So, why not try this with Zelda, too? Both Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures tried to create a Zelda multiplayer experience, but both were ahead of their time and suffered from a heavy connectivity problem. How many Zelda gamers out there weren't able to play Four Swords, because they couldn't find another player? How many people, who owned Four Swords Adventures, thought that a GameBoy Advance and a connection cable for every player isn't effortable and then just played the game alone? If you want to label any Zelda game as failures, it would be those two. Four Swords Adventures is the only Zelda game, that couldn't sell over one million copies. Even Link's Crossbow Training managed to sell 2.75 million copies and funnily enough still scores higher than Four Swords on the Game Boy Advance, though this one was bundled with A LINK TO THE PAST! This could mean, that Nintendo probably will give up on the Four Swords idea completely and continues to focus on small multiplayer modes as extras for the NDS Zelda games, but it definitely means, that there was something wrong with Four Swords. Well, what's wrong with a game, that heavily focuses on local multiplayer, while it's very hard to set up a local multiplayer session for it? Hmmm...

On the Wii and the DS things are different. I easily can play Phantom Hourglass online and you sure can play online on the Wii, too. But of course online only isn't a satisfying solution, the real fun always lies in local multiplayer. It goes nothing over playing with your buddies, drinking a beer while doing so and laughing a lot. You don't get this experience with online gaming. Online gaming exists, because it was not possible to play with mutliple players on the same PC. But since the start of online gaming it tries to emulate the experience of local multiplayer gaming, may it be through voice chats and even webcams. But still it's not the same thing, why online gaming started to focus on its advantage in the possibility of "massively multiplayer online gaming", which is something, you can't get in local multiplayer. But a MMORPG Zelda game is a definite "meh", though I know fans, who would like this, but ... meh. So, in the end, it would be nice to have a local multiplayer Zelda game that joins the line of excellent local multiplayer Wii games next to Wii Sports (Resort), Super Smash Bros. Brawl, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Mario Kart Wii.



But how should it work? This is the question. If every player would need a Nintendo DS system again, this game would be as worthless as its predecessor. But every player needs to see, where he/she is going when entering a house or a cave on the screen. Splitscreen maybe? Nah, this sucks, especially if you have a small TV. Or they do it like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, so when one player enters a house or exits the current screen, he has to wait for the other players to join him (of course he could come back to the screen, so he doesn't get stuck, in case no one wants to join him). But this would limit the freedom in the game a lot. One of the coolest things of the original Four Swords on the GameBoy Advance was the unique mix of cooperation and backstabbing (I'm repeating myself). Unless you had to cooperate to solve a puzzle or to beat an enemy, you pretty much could do whatever you wanted. The player getting the most rupees in a level, could win a "Medal of Courage", which were useful in A Link to the Past, so everyone wanted to win and thus were competing against each other. Every man for himself, while the live together, die alone rule applies. While this concept was great, it was screwed by Nintendo in Four Swords Adventures, but the game didn't came up with any new appealing concepts. Sean Malstrom meant to me on his blog, that he would like to see a Four Swords game more in the style of Gauntlet, where every player would be unique and the game focuses a lot more on endless free roaming. I think, this could work. It doesn't even have to be about the Four Sword, where Link splits in four equal parts, it could be four totally different characters. One could be the fat armored Phantom Knight with the big guns, and one could be a girl primarily using magic weapons and spells. And of course they should still keep the gameplay simple. Definitely 2D gameplay, a 3D multiplayer Zelda game would be a huge disaster. I want to get my friends to play Zelda with me, but if it's going to be too complicated, they will refuse. It has to look simple and fun.

However, it's not my matter of concern here to create game concepts, this is Nintendo's job. And if they want to link to the potential success of New Super Mario Bros. Wii (it will be a hit, trust me), a Zelda multiplayer game might be the chance. The smaller Zelda team, the one who created Four Swords Adventures, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks in the past few years, will be finished with their current project this year. So, they could join the bigger Zelda team to help with Zelda Wii or they could focus on a new multiplayer Zelda concept instead (or something completely different). Since they created Four Swords Adventures and two more multiplayer Zelda modes on the DS, they are the best for this job anyway.

Too Good to Be True: Tingle Pack

This collection of DSiWare fun applications starring Tingle was released yesterday for the Japanese DSiWare system. It contains five different "minigames":

• Fortune Telling
• Tingle Timer
• Tingle Calculator
• Tingle Marionette
• Tingle Coin Tosser

The pack will cost 500 Nintendo points. Considering that a single application like the Animal Crossing clock or the Mario calculator normally costs 200 points, this is isn't actually too expensive. But if this is worth getting, definitely depends on if you can stand Tingle or not and if you like those silly DSiWare applications. The calculator seems to focus on currency translation, based on Tingle's love for rupees. How many rupees are hundred dollars, hm? The marionette game uses your photographs from the DSi camera as a background, but seems to be pretty useless besides that. The only fun thing might be the fortune telling with the tarot cards and Chiko's mum.

However, we got Animal Crossing and Mario clocks and calcalutors and I'm still waiting for a Zelda version, but isn't the DSiWare system capable of more? Of course for Nintendo it's an experimental platform for marketing tests and all those applications are probably a defensive move against the iPhone, but an actual game from time to time won't hurt, or does it? Tingle's Balloon Fight on DSiWare for example would have been nice, since it's probably one of the rarest Nintendo DS games out there. That's something worth spending Nintendo Points on. But I'm not even remotely sure, if the Tingle Pack will make it to Europe. If it does, I probably just get it, because they had the courage of releasing this here (if I got a Nintendo DSi in the meantime, of course). The US won't see this anyway, because they voted for Tingle hate. It's not really a loss, but the new Tingle game Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love might be.

Screenshots:

Links:
Official Site
Famitsu.com

Double Tingle: Balloon Trip of Love and Tingle Pack

Next to the basically most amazing artwork for a game of all times those Famitsu scans show actually two games and not only one. The big game is a sequel to Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and instead of money it will focus on getting women. Awesome. It looks like they got rid of my major complaint of the first game: the bargaining, which is a good thing. Instead of gambling you will hit on women, which seems to work pretty similar to hiring bodyguards in the first game, but with some love cards instead of rupees. No sign of fighting enemies or dungeons, too, maybe the game will be a sole Adventure. But this is all speculation based on the few screenshots.

The second game looks like a minigame collection starring Tingle for DSiWare. It contains a fortune telling minigame, a calculator, a clock, a coin tosser and something where Tingle dances and it will cost 500 Nintendo Points. It was released yesterday in Japan, so we should get more infos soon. But looks like it's finally something worth getting a DSi for. Just kidding, it looks like crab and Nintendo is really overdoing it with those clocks and calculators. Anyway, the Tingle Pack seems to be the best deal, since you get five applications for 500 points, while normally a single application costs 200. If you like Tingle, of course. I'm still waiting for the official Zelda clock and calculator, but Nintendo should start coming up with some new concepts for their DSiWare service.

The titles of the games translate as the following (thanks to our Japanese translators at the Pirateboard):

"Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love"
"Too Good to Be True: Tingle Pack"

Source: Gonintendo.com

Tingle Teaser online

There is a teaser site for the new Tingle DS game online and it confirms, that the new Tingle game will be a sequel to Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. It features music from the game (just listening to it makes me wanna play it right now) and one of the characters (Chiko's mum) as a fortune teller. Besides that it just tells you to stay tuned for more updates. I will do that and I'm officially excited. If the game doesn't make the same mistakes as the first one (please remove or at least improve the bargaining, pleeeaaase), then it's going to be fun and I will definitely get it.

The site, however, uses fortune telling and tarot cards as an important element. I can see, that this will end up as an important element in the game as well, mixing and picking the cards with your stylus. But what functions this fortune telling system is yet unknown, maybe it even helps you with the bargaining problem.


Link: Teaser Site

Tingle Returns

There were rumors for a while now, that Vanpool is working on a sequel to Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, but no one could be for sure. If you have read my review for Rupeeland, you may have noticed, that I actually liked it. It wasn't a great game and I wouldn't want to compare it with A Link to the Past and alike, but it was definitely something fresh, funny and enjoyable. So, what's the news? Apparently another Tingle game is coming to the Nintendo DS system. The advertising simply shows Tingle flying with a balloon and with something in his hands, I can't really identify (probably a bomb). The text asks "Fairy?". No, that's definitely not a fairy, but it's definitely going to be some fun.

The question is, is this really a sequel to Rupeeland developed by Vanpool or a new Balloon Fight with Tingle as the main character again (like for example as a small application on DSiWare)? The former would have something to do with Zelda, the latter not really. I don't consider Tingle's Balloon Fight to be a real spin-off of the Zelda series. It's the newest installment of the Balloon Fight series featuring characters from the Zelda series. Like Super Smash Bros. does feature characters from Zelda, but still is not considered to be a Zelda spin-off. Okay, this comparison is obviously lacking, but the point is, Balloon Fight is Balloon Fight and not Zelda in any way. Rupeeland did feature the typical Action Adventure mechanics, which a Zelda game should have and which made this game interesting for Zelda fans. If they get rid of the stupid bargaining system the game has at least the chance to be a small light in the shadow of Spirit Tracks.

Source: NintendoLife

Super Smash Bros. on European VC this Friday

Thank you, Nintendo of Europe! After The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask we get yet another great game on the Virtual Console before the US. I guess, if we can't get the big new games released early here, then at least the big old ones.

Source: Official UK Nintendo Magazine