Golden Wiimote Bundle Announced

Skyward Sword will be bundled with a golden WiimotePlus under the 25th Anniversary label. Quite some people predicted this, including myself. I'll definitely get one, luckily I would even need a fourth Wiimote and I don't have one of theses Wiimote Plus remotes yet, only WiiMotion Plus addons.



However, I would still like to see a golden 3DS bundle. Along with Ocarina of Time 3D and preinstalled copies of Link's Awakening DX and Four Swords (and whatever other Zelda stuff there might be available in the eShop). I'm still waiting for this. You know, if I buy a 3DS now, there's always the fear that Nintendo will announce such a bundle later...

Source of image: Zelda Dungeon

Four Swords For Free

This is probably the biggest news for me personally from the Nintendo press conference. As part of the 25th Anniversary celebration they will release Four Swords FOR FREE as DSiWare. They wanted to have a new Zelda release for each platform and that's why they're doing this.

However, there was no further information about this. Is it a new game or a re-release of one of the previous Four Swords games? Since it's for free, I guess it's a simple re-release. And since the DSi doesn't have the power to display GameCube games, I guess it's the GBA version.

Also, the logo suggests, that it definitely isn't Four Swords Adventures, because then they wouldn't have removed the "Four Swords Adventures" lettering from the logo. And the original Four Swords didn't really have it's own logo (except ingame), there was the A Link to the Past logo on the package and Four Swords was just an addition to it. And I doubt that they will give you A Link to the Past for free as well, this time the game will be a standalone game. Which is why they used a improvised logo for now.

But then what's with the connection to A Link to the Past? Originally beating Four Swords and collecting 10 medals of courage would unlock a new dungeon and a new sidequest in the GBA version of A Link to the Past. And on the other hand new sword techniques like the Sword Beam or the Great Spin Attack would be available in Four Swords. But I guess they can just give you those techniques from the start or make them unlockable in other means. Like beating the game once gives you the Sword Beam and collecting ten Medals of Courage gives you the Great Spin Attack. These were the original achievements required to unlock content in A Link to the Past, so this would be a natural choice. Also, that way the medals would still serve a purpose. Well, it's not a Virtual Console game, which means it's not a simple ROM dump and they can change things.

But another idea would be a connection with a later release of A Link to the Past as part of the 3D Classics. Miyamoto already stated he wanted to see this game getting the 3D effect treatment. And if you got Four Swords, both games will be connected. But I guess the other solution works best, especially since such a revision of ALttP might take a while. And even there they could just simply give you the additional content (the Four Swords Palace and the Riddle Quest) without Four Swords.



And the most important question is: Will it be online? If yes, all my prayers about Four Swords are finally heard!!!! But since the game is for free, I'm not expecting much. But if it would be playable online, then this is a second coming of the game. It's the least played Zelda game and the only Zelda game, which I haven't beaten yet due to the lack of a second player. Online playability would change everything. But even without online, it will be much easier to play the game. To play the game right now, you would need to find someone, who still has a GameBoy Advance and a copy of A Link to the Past / Four Swords. And you would need a cable. But as a downloadable free game for the Nintendo DSi/3DS this game will become much more accessable. Lots of people will download and show interest in it, since it's entirely free. It's a good move to give the least played Zelda game ever some more attention. So, I hope there will be more information soon, I'm really hyped about this. My hyped than about all the other news.

And thanks, Nintendo! This is truly a nice gift. It will be available in September and hopefully also downloadable in the 3DS eShop.

Link's Awakening DX Released on 3DS Virtual Console

Yesterday the eShop opened and surprisingly Link's Awakening DX was not part of the launch titles. But it turns out Nintendo just wanted to wait one day to release it as part of the 25th Anniversary celebration at E3 2011. I already told you that can label pretty much any Zelda release this year under the 25th Anniversary banner, may it be something new or not.

But this is definitely exciting, it's the first GameBoy Color game to appear on the eShop and I already told you in my Magic of Link's Awakening article and while replaying the game yet another time, how great Link's Awakening really is. It's a milestone, that this game finally sees the light of day again on a current Nintendo system after such a long time and that many people will experience it now for the first time. Everyone with a Nintendo 3DS should be downloading this game.

25th Anniversary Concerts and CDs

Each year I'm getting hyped for the Nintendo Press Conference, like it's the year's most exciting event in gaming. And this time they opened the show with a big blast. A Zelda live orchestra to celebrate the 25th Anniversary while playing footage of most console Zeldas in the background. I got goosebumps during the thing, epic. They also showed some new Skyward Sword footage, which showed some sky stuff like riding on little Valoos...



However, they seem to really make a big deal out of the orchestrated music for Zelda. Ocarina of Time 3D will get an orchestrated song for the credits and Skyward Sword will be the first Zelda game to get a fully orchestrated soundtrack. Fans wanted this since pretty much ever and now they get it. And Nintendo makes it big. There will also be a tour of the orchestra, concerts all around the world. I hope they come to Berlin here in Germany, then I will definitely go there. And there will be a CD, gotta get this one.

There will also be an Ocarina of Time soundtrack, which the first people, who register Ocarina of Time 3D, will receive.

eShop Zelda Prepaid Cards

This looks nice. I like how they used artwork from classic Zelda games including Link's Awakening (or A Link to the Past, but it was used for Link's Awakening as well), which will return on the 3DS Virtual Console. Sadly not as a launch title, but probably soon enough. But I would definitely get one of these cards to buy my downloadable games.

Source

Replaying Link's Awakening

My super awesome The Magic of Link's Awakening article just totally motivated me to replay Link's Awakening yet another time. I actually wanted to wait until I get myself a Nintendo 3DS to play the Virtual Console copy, but I just couldn't resist anymore. But I played the original monochrome version to have some difference and I also made tons of screenshots during my replay, so it wasn't for nothing. Like already stated in the article, the game is quite short. It took my only about four hours to fully complete it (100%ed), I did it in one run without any pauses. Just one evening. This wouldn't be possible with any other Zelda game, most of them take their time, especially if you want to finish all sidequests as well. The NES classics might be also short, but Hyrule Fantasy got its 2nd Quest, which will keep you busy, and Zelda II is just plain hard, you won't blast through as easily here. However, especially because Link's Awakening is so short but luscious, it's the Zelda game with highest replay value in my eyes. This game is always worth another replay. And such a game is perfectly suited for a handheld system, unlike the slow, boring and articially stretched Spirit Tracks for example. I was always rooting that Zelda gets more intense again, really challenging on your first playthrough and fun to replay. But Zelda games got more and more bloated. I thought the WiiWare service would be perfect for another Link's Awakening style Zelda game, but Nintendo never really used WiiWare as a potential platform.

Since I already talked about all the great things in this game in my article, I can save you the big talk and focus on some details.

One detail would be the censorship. The US version of the game actually got censored. In Germany you cleary notice this, because the original version was based on the uncut Japanese version. And our DX version was based on the US one. So, being confronted with those changes felt a little weird. One thing would be the hippo lady inside the house of the crocodile painter. She is posing nude and in the original version she got tits... in the other version she doesn't. No big deal, but they also changed the Mermaid part of the trading sequence. In original she lost her bikini and if you dive in front of her she gets totally upset, because Link is a perv and all. This got replaced by losing her necklace and if you dive she just says "I looked there before".

This game has so many interesting stuff, other Zelda games don't have. Especially in the dungeons. What I love are the key sounds, when you got the Compass and you enter a room with a key hidden inside. Just cool. Okay, the Oracle games got this as well, but I really miss this in other games. And what absolutely no other game has are those revolving doors, which you can only enter from one side. Kind of silly, but also a neat idea. It's some sort of one way passage. Or there are those card symbol enemies and you have to hit them in the right time, so all three of them show the same symbol. Or those stupid Knight chess figures, which you have to toss until both are upright. Talking about that, there's this one nasty room at the end of Level 7 which I totally hate. This one:



Since you have to toss the Knight figures around, defending yourself from the Beamos is difficult. Additionally the conveyor makes the Beamos extra nasty, he shoots you three times in a row. I lost a potion in this room! In the DX version you would get a new potion from the treasure chest, but the classic version only gives you 100 rupees. This money is not worth nearly dying.

Did I ever mention the puzzle, which took me ten years to solve? No kidding. It's about one hidden room in the mountains on your way to Level 7. There are five treasure chests, but if you leave the room, they all will be gone. This is how the room looks like:



You normally enter the room from the upper entrance. My goal always was to open all five, but I never could do it. I even tried plunging from the bridge above the cave (like the photo mouse guy in the DX version), so I could enter the room from the south side, where opening all chests would easily be possible. The solution actually is totally simple. If you don't touch any of the chests, they stay closed. So, you just leave the room through the south door and come back in (like pictured above). For some reason I always assumed that all treasure chests will be gone, if I leave the room, no matter what. Probably some disbelief I got as a kid, it's hard to get rid of something like that. However, in a replay four years ago, ten years after I originally played the game I finally had figured it out... that's one hell of a puzzle. (Though it doesn't really matter, if you screw it up. The chests just contain rupees.)

In my article I showed you a sketch for a solution of Turtle Rock, where you skip about 50% of the rooms. Naturally I tried this during my replay, to see if this really works and that I wasn't just talking bullshit. But here's the proof:



I got the map after I've beaten the dungeon. You can clearly see that the boss is gone and you can see all the rooms, which I haven't visited. I skipped 54% of the entire dungeon, 25 of 46 rooms. Not bad, eh?

So, replaying Link's Awakening was short, but tons of fun like always. I love this game and there isn't any other game, which I know as well as this one. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up, if you haven't yet.

Something about Zelda II

I'm running this blog for three years now and I've pretty much talked about every single Zelda game (and even spinoffs) so far. All except one: Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. I didn't even avoid this game on purpose. It's not like I don't like this game, though it fairly is the black sheep of the series. It just never happened to pop up. Usually when I talk about some new developments I can use older Zelda games as a reference. For example the new item menu in Ocarina of Time 3D was inspired by Link's Awakening. But Zelda II is just so different from everything else in the series, that I can hardly use it as an example. So, I want to change the impression that I'm avoiding this game by talking about it a little bit. So, let's talk about Zelda II.



Calling this game the "black sheep" is actually quite unfair. Because back in its time, when the game was released, it certainly wasn't the black sheep. The Legend of Zelda basically established the Action Adventure genre, it was the first game to combine elements like free exploration, mazes, leveling up without experience points, adventure style inventory and fighting enemies. And Zelda II tried to establish a new formula as well by combining RPG-elements with platforming and more advanced sword fighting. And it was a popular game back then. It only became the "black sheep", because starting with A Link to the Past all the later Zelda games would follow the formula of the first Zelda game and not the one from Zelda II. The later games made Zelda II the black sheep.

Actually this was my second Zelda game. I started with Link's Awakening in 1997 and in 1999 I was about to get a Nintendo 64 together with Ocarina of Time for Christmas. To prepare for this big event I wanted to play the older three Zelda games. I couldn't get a Super Nintendo, but one schoolmate got a NES and a copy of Zelda II, so I borrowed both from him (another schoolmate also got a copy of The Legend of Zelda and I played this game afterwards). With Ocarina of Time on the horizon and because Link's Awakening quickly became my favorite game I was hugely motivated to play and beat every other game in the Zelda series. Including Zelda II. And I'm still absolutely impressed that I managed to somehow beat this game as a kid. The only other time I've beaten this game was on emulator using cheats. :D And I tried to replay this game many times, because I got so many copies of it. I got my first own copy for GameBoy Advance, as part of the NES Classics series. Then I got the game via the Collector's Edition for the GameCube. And I also downloaded it for the Virtual Console on my Wii. I started to play each of those copies, but I lost motivation shortly... usually at Death Mountain.

The game is really hard and gets frustrating easily. The game is so hard, you even get to have lives. It's the only Zelda game to do that. You start with three lives and if you die, you start in the room where you died. You lose all lives, you start at Northern Palace and you have to backtrack all the way to where you died. Ugghh... well, the most important milestone for me is getting the Hammer at Death Mountain. That's the point where I usually couldn't get past in my failed attempts. As soon as you get the Hammer, there are many shortcuts and the game gets much more enjoyable. But those evil, axe throwing Daira enemies at Death Mountain can be such assholes! I know, I'm such a hypocrite... I usually complain about the lack of difficulty in modern Zelda games, but then I turn tail when it gets too hard. But for me a good difficulty level should always be challenging, but never frustrating. And Zelda II fails hard in terms of being not frustrating. Also, a Zelda game needs a good mix of combat, puzzles, hidden secrets and exploration. Zelda II is only strong on the combat side, but lacks all other factors.

Okay, all of this still really sounds like I totally don't like this game, avoiding it all the time. So, let's mention some good things. Like that it introduced some neat concepts to the series. Like magic spells or villages. And it's even still the Zelda game with the most magic spells and villages, both eight in total. And do I have to bring up the GTA reference, where Link hooks up with women to refill his health? (Or grannies to refill his magic.) What I also like about the game is the unique music, which wasn't composed by Koji Kondo, but by Akito Nakatsuka (at least according to my Winamp playlist). It got quite some different themes, but they still fit Zelda very well and produce a nice atmosphere fitting the game perfectly. Probably the best known track is the Temple theme, which got used in the Super Smash Bros. series.

So, I talked a little bit about Zelda II. I guess, this counts.