One Million Rupees

So, I've finished this game recently:

New Super Mario Bros. 2 - a big pile of recycled content covered with a coin collecting gimmick. It's definitely not the first time that Nintendo recycled the content of one game to make another. But it's the first time that such a follow-up lacks any ambition. For Majora's Mask they reused pretty much everything from Ocarina of Time, even the characters. But the game was so full with great new ideas, interesting gameplay mechanics, dense atmosphere and amazing new worlds that only few people cared about the recycling. In case of New SMB2 it all just feels like an expansion pack for New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

They tried to hide this with the new main gimmick of collecting as many coins as possible. While this gives you tons of lives, it doesn't add anything else. There's a main counter for coins, but nothing to unlock except for a new title screens that gets unlocked by collecting one million coins. Nintendo actually advertises the game by challenging you to collect one million coins...

So, I've fully completed the whole game (five sparkling stars) and guess how many coins I've collected... probably close to the million, huh? ... Actually it's just around 50.000 - 1/20 of the main goal. What teh eff, Nintendo?

Well, I could start playing Coin Rush mode and grinding coins everywhere, but for what really? So, that the title screen changes? But even if I would go through the effort, there's actually another one for 10 million. That's just too much and collecting coins is not much fun at all.

How could Nintendo screw this up so badly? This is weird, because they made a game with similar mechanics, which got the coin collecting concept entirely right - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition. This little free gem was all about collecting as many Rupees as possible. There's also a main counter for Rupees and you unlock harder levels by collecting more Rupees. You need 5.000 Rupees in a normal stage to get the best key and you need to collect 30.000 Rupees alltogether to unlock the Hero's Trial.

30.000 Rupees are not hard to get, you might even get them at once in the 12 floor version of Vaati's Palace. Still you might continue to play, because collecting Rupees in this game is fun and there are many different random levels. You will turn every rock, cut every piece of grass and fight with your buddies over all the treasure chests just to get those precious Rupees!

Right now I have collected a total of 410.000 Rupees. It's the entire opposite of New Super Mario Bros. 2! And instead of collecting one million coins in New SMB2 I'll challenge Zelda fans to collect one million Rupees in Four Swords instead. Probably the better waste of time.


UPDATE:
To encourage you to actually reach the million coins Nintendo of Europe gives away prizes. So, I thought, I'd give it a try. A Mario fan package is definitely more interesting than just a different title screen. Reaching the million by just playing is of course nearly impossible or you'd have to waste tons of time. So, you have to use some tricky farming methods to win as many coins as fast as possible. I started with the dual Goomba pipes in 2-4, but check this out. Extremely easy way to reach the 30.000 cap in Coin Rush mode. Got the million within two hours...

Hyrule Historia NA Release

I'm SO getting this!

Source: NintendoEverything

Signpost Maze

Another one of my infamous solution graphics, this time the Signpost Maze from Link's Awakening and Link's Awakening DX. Again those were made for ZeldaEurope.

PS: In case you wonder what the point of this post and the one before is, this is my unique way of telling you that I'm very busy with working on guides for ZeldaEurope. Doing that is already more than enough Zelda stuff in my free time, which is why this blog gets neglected at the moment. However, the new ZeldaEurope site will launch soon and then I'll return here to rant about Zelda. Already got some ideas, so stay tuned.

Pothole Maze

Two solution graphics of the Pothole Maze in Link's Awakening I've just made for ZeldaEurope's guides:

Did you know, that this kind of puzzle made its way into some of Four Sword's levels?

Signpost Maze will be next.

A Perfect Start

For the near future, until we know more about Zelda on the 3DS and Wii U, this blog will focus on what's wrong with modern Zelda and how to improve it. Nintendo's goal is to make Zelda more popular again and they can't do that with the current Aonuma Zelda formula, because it's this formula, which is the problem. A lot has to change.

Check out this Kotaku article. It deals with a very important point: in the classic Nintendo games you jump right into the fun. There are no tutorial phases in Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda. You get the sword right away and you start exploring. The essence of the game is there from minute one.



Modern Zelda completely lost track of this. There are lenghty tutorials for all the newly introduced gimmicks and there are many cut scenes you have to endure, before the real funs starts. Skyward Sword is a perfect example for this. They don't just let you go explore the world below, first you have to find your bird, learn how to fly in some ceremony, watch many cutscenes and so on.

When I observe my gaming behavior I usually prefer games, where I can jump right into the action. For example on the PC I like playing Unreal Tournament or Minecraft. The latter is a nice example, because its Survival Mode shares some similarities with the traditional Zelda gameplay. You get dropped right into the world, you start collecting stuff (to built better items) and you can go, whereever you want. You are free to explore the world like in the first Zelda game. The only restrictions are your own powers. As you become stronger, you can go explore the dark undergrounds. Zelda used to be like that, but it turned more and more into a guided and linear experience. And by now it takes you an hour to get into the real action.

It is very good that Nintendo is looking into this phenomenom. However, Miyamoto sees two major problems with this: one is the game elements that require teaching and the other one is story telling. I think the real problem are actually the teaching and the story telling. Both have to go.

Learning by doing. Actually Skyward Sword's controls were so natural and intuitive that they didn't require any tutorials, you just could learn them on the fly. And in fact there weren't many tutorials, for example you could skip the sword tutorial entirely. Which is the right way. Let the people learn the new stuff by theirselves and only include some optional help for those who really need it. For example Ocarina of Time introduced the 3D targeting controls, but they didn't force any tutorials on you. Beginners would talk to the Kokiki or read the signs at the training center. Experienced players just skip right to the Deku Tree. And that's the way how it should be. It also adds to the replay value. If you already played the game, you certainly don't want to endure any tutorials. Tutorials always should be optional.

Only the flying got its own forced tutorial sequence in Skyward Sword, because this was the new gimmick. But do we really need flying in a Zelda game? Or trains? Or becoming a wolf? Modern Zelda revolves around gimmicks, each new Zelda game gets its own share of new gimmicks. And usually those gimmicks don't have anything to do with traditional Zelda, which is why they get tutorials. For the next Zelda game Nintendo should not think about what amazing and creative new ideas they could stuff into Zelda, but they should focus on the core elements. Exploring, fighting, discovering secrets, collecting items.

And story telling shouldn't be in the way of the gaming experience. Never. I entirely dislike any movie-like games. If I want to watch a movie, I watch a movie. Games are about interaction. Games are about choices. Cutscenes are crap, because they don't offer any interaction or choices (at least not in Zelda, cut those silly multiple choice options with no effects). A video game has many more interesting possiblities of HOW to tell a story. Video games are the only media that allow non-linear story telling. You should explore the story by yourself while exploring Hyrule. By talking to people, reading old books or writings on a wall. Zelda offers many interesting ways to explore a story instead of just showing you cutscenes.

Majora's Mask does it right. You get dropped in Clocktown, where you EXPLORE the story all by yourself. You talk to people and you learn more about the town, the carnival and the Skull Kid. You listen to granny's old stories and get to know more about the backgrounds. It's an amazingly satisfying experience. Zelda doesn't need any lenghty cutscenes. Zelda doesn't need linear story telling. Zelda doesn't need an intro phase filled with cutscenes.

The goal for the next Zelda game should be the following: give you a sword as soon as possible and drop you into the open world as soon as possible. Don't force anything, let the player explore the magic of Hyrule all by himself. For a perfect start into a good game.

No Retro Zelda For You

So, when Miyamoto talked with Wired about how smooth the collaboration with Retro Studios went while making Mario Kart 7, he hinted that Zelda might be next.

Of course this caused massive hype among Zelda fans including myself. Retro understood perfectly what made the classic games great and they knew how to infuse this into a modern game. The Metroid Prime Trilogy is simply one of the finest Nintendo products of the last ten years and Donkey Kong Country Returns was a fun platformer. Zelda fans want Retro to work on Zelda, because those guys could bring Zelda back to glory.



But now Miyamoto denies in an interview with IGN that Retro is working together with Nintendo on the next Zelda, because the collaboration suddenly would be too difficult. Seriously...?

Okay, I understand that in Mario Kart 7 the labor division was probably a lot easier, since Retro was working on their own tracks. But you could still split the work of a Zelda game. Retro could make the dungeons for example. I trust in (old) Retro that they would return to the non-linear, maze-like dungeon design of the classics. So, at least the dungeons would be awesome.

But the problem seems to be a lot deeper than just issues in collaborating. According to these reports (as seen on ZI) Retro Studios is falling apart, most of the core employees have left the company over the past few years. Retro is not the same company anymore, who made the Prime Trilogy. So, Retro has to prove yet again that they're the right guys to work on projects like Zelda. Let them revive another classic franchise, let's say Starfox or F-Zero, so they can show what the new Retro can do.

I'm sad about what's happening at Retro, because I saw a chance for Zelda in this studio. But now this chance seems to be gone.

Zelda Wii U still in Experimental Stage

Miyamoto in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

What we continue to ask ourselves as we have over the years is, “What is the most important element of Zelda if we were to try to make a Zelda game that a lot of people can play?” So we have a number of different experiments going on, and [when] we decide that we’ve found the right one of those to really help bring Zelda to a very big audience, then we’ll be happy to announce it.

With the last game, Skyward Sword, that was a game where you had motion control to use your weapons and a lot of different items, and I thought that was a lot of fun, but there were some people who weren’t able to do that or didn’t like it as much and stopped playing partway through it. So we’re in the phase where we’re looking back at what’s worked very well and what has been missing and how can we evolve it further.

With Skyward Sword we had a long experimental stage. It took five years to make the game, mostly because they experimented for a long time. There was even a phase, where they experimented with a first person perspective, which spawned Link's Crossbow Training. It took them five years to make a streamlined Zelda game with spot on intuitive controls. When the game was released half a year ago, Nintendo acted like the controls were the perfect way of playing Zelda. Aonuma even told the ONM, that they can't go back to button controls. But now it seems like anything is possible. The Wii U is a game system with multiple control layouts. You can use the Wiimote and Nunchuk, the new pad or a typical dual analog gamepad. But in case of Zelda I'd say stay with the Wiimote controls.

The problem with Skyward Sword were not the controls. But how the fighting felt unnatural. Suddenly all fights revolved around "swing in the right angle" puzzles, which wasn't much fun. Stalfos were holding their swords in weird ways just to offer an obvious week point. I think the controls were great, but the fighting and all the motion control puzzles sucked ballz. It would have been much more fun and satisfying to use the new controls in more natural fights. However, I fear that Nintendo doesn't see the flaws in the ways how modern Zelda games tend to work and just keeps throwing new input methods at us, which won't change anything.

Nintendo shouldn't focus on the controls for once, but on the game. They lost track of what a good Zelda game has to look like. Their experiments hopefully will focus on what made the classic Zelda games great. The ones on the NES, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. One might blame me for being blinded by nostalgia, but there are reasons why many people favor the classic Zelda games over games like Skyward Sword or Spirit Tricks. Those games were about exploring and discovering secrets. The fights were tougher, the worlds were more open and dungeons used to be more non-linear and maze-like. Discovering hidden stuff and getting better items felt more satisfying. Modern Zelda games got very linear, too easy and too focused on gimmicky puzzles. Modern Zelda games are bloated with stuff like cut scenes, long tutorial phases, annoying sidekicks and are full of gimmicky gameplay elements like Silent Realms, which shouldn't be part of a Zelda game to begin with.

If they want Zelda to be successful again, they have to strip it down. Down to the very NES basics. Down to the core of what Zelda was supposed to be. And this is were they should start.