God damn that took a long time. I mean a really long time. 13 years I’ve been trying to catch that damn fish!
It all started a year or so after ocarina of time came out on the N64. I caught word of a rumoured “Hylian loach” that would some times appear in the fishing pond in Lake Hylia. You could supposedly catch said loach and it would be the heaviest catch in the pond. After many years of trying and spoting what I presumed to be the loach I gave up trying, thinking that it was actually impossible to catch him…
..Well it’s 13 years on. The remake is out for the 3DS…and the internet has proved me wrong. You CAN catch him. Turns out that what I saw all those years ago in the blurry 300 pixel resolution of the N64 WAS the loach. So armed with FACT I set out to catch him. I started on my journey home- on the tube. Reading up that you have to enter the pond at exactly sunrise or sunset (when the sound of the wolf or crow calls) to make the loach appear I tried it out. on the third try (which was a morning crow call) I went in and there he was Lurking at the bottom of the pond…
Fast foward 4 hours later- I have completed my journey home, My wife and Son have gone to bed and I am sitting in the swealtering heat, in my arm chair, trying to catch a digital eel. If I were to analyse this situatioin I’d no doubt find many deep routed pshyciatric flaws so I’m going to do the British thing and Brush past it. I had tried in vain to catch the thing when he was lurking at the bottom of the lake but an hour of that saw that it was fruitless. Then he seemed to make a brake for the edge of the lake. Using the first person view to line up my shot- I took it, and snagged the bait dodging bastard! After a bit of a struggle i reeled the sucker in! And what was my reward?..
A PURPLE RUPPEE?! I got more than that for playing a fecking song to a wood elf! Bloody waste of my time! I could have done something useful like become a doctor…or ate a really nice cake. But at least my endeavour shows that they did keep the legendary loach in the 3DS remake. Whoopie Shit.
The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time 3D review.
Its 1998, I am 13 years old. It is approaching christmas eve and I know for certain that I have something amazing waiting for me in my stocking. You see not a few months previously a certain game was released that is rocking the world. That game is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time. The first 3D adventure game of the Zelda series to be released on the behemoth that is the N64. I know that never in my life will I be this excited to play a game- ever.
Its 2011, I am 26 years old. It is Friday the 17th June and I’m on the motorway heading back to London from a holiday. I know that today I need to find a certain game. A game that once rocked the world. You see today, a remastered gem is being released on the nintendo hand-held box of joy – the 3DS. Fully remastered in 3D, at an eighth of the size. That game is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.
There are a lot of parallels in my life but none make me feel as old as this happening. My favorite game of all time has been lovingly re-mastered from its original N64 form into a full 3D adventure on what is essentially the Game boy’s Great great grandson…twice removed.
Last night I finished it- in normal mode (we’ll get to that).
And was it good?
Yes. Lets continue:
The Legend Reborn?
It’s an incredibly un-nerving word these days; “re-mastered”. I remember when they “re-mastered” Red Dwarf, which just essentially meant “Fucked about with” rather than “re-mastered”. The process of re-mastering is supposed to happen if there is room for improvement. If the original product didn’t quite match the original creative idea. Now “fucking about” with the LOZ Ocarina of Time is an extremely dangerous idea: as the fan base is roughly the size of China and could quite easily overthrow the worlds government if displeased. Telling those fans that they are going to “tweak” their favorite game is tout amount to suggesting they swap their penis for a third testicle. But tweak it they did and as one of the “third testicle” brigade, I have this to say: Not bad boys, not bad.
They have managed to re-do most of the game without actually sacrificing any of the feel of the original. The major change concerns the animation of the characters, the character models and textures. Everything has been re-done but with all the accuracy and charm of the original- they just look less like rod puppets now. That in my book is a good thing. Rather than make new artwork and change the game to look like Twilight Princess- they have lovingly re-drawn the originals. Apparently the game now closer matches the original concept artwork for the game. That is the true meaning of re-mastering: make it look like it was always meant to. Oh and they’ve also made it 3D…was that not clear? As mentioned in my 3DS review, I’ve never been a fan of 3D, I think the whole cinema thing is a gimmick that will hopefully soon fizzle itself out. But the 3DS convinced me there may be a place for it in gaming. Having played through LOZ in 3D I can confirm I’m a convert. It was breath taking. Seeing the epic moments like lifting the master sword and traveling through time coming out of the screen at me was more than a little impressive. If there is a game that shows people how 3D should be done, then this, at the moment, is it. The 3D does make me feel like I am playing with little miniature models though- you know the ones you used to get out of 20p machines back in the day: or little Subbuteo players. I kind of like that- makes me feel like I’m playing with action figures instead of a video game. an important thing to note is that it contains the original soundtrack from the N64. No orchestral re-mixes here (Except for the 3D end credits). I know Craig from Screwattack sited this as a negative in his review but I couldn’t disagree more. The soundtrack was perfect the way it was- in pure Midi old school fashion. Sure the orchestral ones are epic and all but they just wouldn’t sit right in the game in my opinion.
Whats New Pussycat?
Having played the original N64 version to death (Completed 15 times, not even an exaggeration- in fact it may have been more!) I have noticed a few key changes: all for the better i must say!
Hot Swapping:
The N64 always had the “kick in the shins” debilitation of being limited to the four C buttons ,four action buttons and a D pad to assign actions and items. The original delt with mapping items to three of the C buttons which meant you had to jump back into the item menu when you wanted anything else. Taking advantage of the 3DS Duel screen- a vast improvement has been made to the equip and item menus. This time items are assigned to the X and Y buttons (Keeping A and B as action) as well as two additional touch screen buttons ( marked as I and II). At first I was dubious of this but it turned out to work really well as they are just in thumbs reach of all the other buttons. On the other side of the touch screen you know have instant access to the ocarina without having to assign it as an item (big improvement!). Also you can now reference all your learned ocarina songs whist playing it by pressing the sheet music button- gone are the days of flipping back to the menu to try and remember the notes to Nocturne of shadow! The boots have now been added to the items list instead of the equip (or Gear as it is in this version) so you can assign them to your buttons which is a god send for the Water temple and Shadow temple because it means you don’t have to keep going into the menu to change your bloody footwear.
the new highlighted water level change doorways
Water improvement:
Oh god the water temple. Any player of OOT on the N64 knows what I’m talking about here. But whats this? They’ve CHANGED IT? Well its only surface changes but god damn it made it a hell of a lot easier to understand! First off the afore mentioned hot swappable boots mades it a lot less time consuming as you need to change your footwear more often than Gordon Ramsey tried to re-launch his carer. Also the places where you can change the water level are now clearly marked by glowing water artwork on the doorways and a little water level symbol by it. I remember the first time I played it -back in 1998 and there was only one bit I has to seek help on: and it was in this temple. In the middle room where you change the water level to the mid point : it lifts a platform which you can then dive under and get a small key. In the N64 version you would have had NO IDEA about that happening unless you were incredibly lucky and happened to be looking there. In this version, the camera changes angle as the water raises to show you the opening. Big tick right there. And the BIGGEST improvement is that you now RUn with the iron books on when you are under water! This speeds up things no end and anyone who suffered playing through at the speed of a turtle tied to a post with elastic will rejoice with me.
Masters May Apply:
As an added bonus- when you complete the game for the first time it unlocks the “Master Quest”. This was originally seen on the gamecube bonus disk that came with “Wind Waker” and is essentially a mirrored, harder version of the game. Im about to play through this for the first time so more on that later…
Helping hands
So it seems that kids today require a bit more hand holding than the ones back in the 90′s. Luckily Nintendo has got you covered with the addition of sheikah stones – Big ass versions of the stones of truth that glow green when a new video clip is available. Once you step inside it gives you little flashes of locations or actions you may want to try to get your adventure going. Alternatively you may want to hand it to someone who played the game years ago to finnish it for you.
Also Navi has gotton a lot more pushy. If you haven’t done anything remotely right in a dungeon for a few seconds she will chirp up with advice to seek out once of these stones. Trouble is these stones are only available OUTSIDE the dungeon, and you can bet your ass it don’t have the one piece of advice you are struggling to find! Nice one Navi- now back in the jar.
How do you improve on perfection? Well you’d have to go a very long way to beat this. Although Ocarina of Time is very much a game of its time- lacking some of the recent innovations like clever cameras. and having some very dated 2D artwork in places- it’s what we signed up for! Im putting bets on the fact that 80% of people buying this game played the N64 original and are just dying to get back into Hyrule to re-live their youth. I know I was- and I couldn’t wait for Eponas nose to poke me in the face in 3D.
Original Box art for the game
With the nintendo’s launch of the 3DS now somewhat of a distant memory its amazing to think that they have only JUST added the most interesting part of the consoles features.
The “eshop” launched earlier this week with a free copy of Excitebike to distract you from the fact that they waited months to release the ruddy thing. A nice touch that it has been re-done in 3D as part of their “3D Classics” range as well so not bad nintendo, not bad.
The real pay off is, however, more to do with the 25th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda (my all time favourite game franchise by the way). My childhood memories of school holidays always seem to co-incide with a Zelda game. One of my fondest remembered was “Links Awakening” on the Game Boy. I can remember sitting in the garage and playing the ever loving stuffing out of that game every day. Well Nintendo pokes a red hot needle into my Achilles Retro heel once more and launches it on the 3DS eshop- as part of the celebration of the 25 years that we have been guiding an elf, in green pyjamas, around a field hunting pigs (Probably the most unfair sum up of Zelda ever right there). Of course it stands to reason that they have launched the DX version of the game which came out in 1999 on the Gameboy Colour. Its got an extra dungeon and a different coloured tunic- more than enough reason for a whole new game there if you ask me. I have no problem paying whatever nintendo’s money dragons decided they want for this – which as it turns out is just a bit below £6. Although, now I come to think of it, I do remember picking up the cartridge version of Zelda DX in Dixons for 50p….I think i’ve been virtually Done over haven’t I?
Got something to say about the Zelda 25 years? Come and have a chat in the Forum
As explained in our 3DS review there is a little feature on it called “street pass”. It allows other people’s Mii characters to transfer to your console when you pass them. You then have the option for a personal greeting. This was one I got this morning…
I hate 3D.
I happen to think it’s the most ridiculous fad since LuLu. I guess what bugs me most is that we are embracing it like a new born at a family picnic – with a chorus of ooohs and ahhhs wherever it deems appropriate to rear it’s eye straining, £3 extra on your cinema ticket- head. Apart from Avatar – that thing rocked hard – but you get my feeling on the matter. So when news filtered down to me from my sources (In.ternet) that Nintendo were throwing their hat into the 3D gaming ring I was, to say the least, sceptical. To say the most- I thought they were making a giant rainbow coloured, vomit inducing mistake. Me and Nintendo still need to have words after that whole “motion control” thing that they attempted to kill the game industry with a while back (notice how most of their games now revert to the controller being held sideways to control instead of waving it around like a leper with a loose limb? Funny that). Maybe it was just Bait for the other behemoths of gaming to chew at for a while so Nintendo could get the “3D” drop on them? Bait which they took beautifully I might add.
Shiny box- with added smudges
So it’s here now. It’s called the 3DS, and I have one.
the original DS
With nintendo now having more versions of their popular hand held, dual screen wonder than I have socks (That’s right, I have 5 socks – 2 pair, 1 spare) it’s only this 5th incarnation that actually changes something big enough to warrant me getting one. The offer of a camera or a bigger screen to see the amazing low-res graphics failed to woo me – which is all the previous models had. So let’s kick off- with the help of bullet point headings!
The 3D Double image
Graphics
On first glance I didn’t notice a massive change. That was until I put in an original DS cart and then it all became clear as a lawsuit against Michael Barrymore. The top screen is now a rather tasty looking wide screen with graphics that are very nearly (to the eye anyway) on par with the Wii. The same hideous alias problems are carried over from it’s Wii brother but with a screen that size they are excusable if you move the console away from your face.
My 3DS - on my table no less
Inbuilt
Nintendo have included some goodies with this DS. You can take 3D photos. You know, they’re like photos…in 3D. The Wii consoles tumour ridden representations of you and your friends (or as they call it ” Mii”) have made their way over. You can even hook up and transfer the ones you made on the Wii – nice touch. The method of doing so is a little less than straight forward however. I had to go to the Wii’s Mii channel, press A, B and 1 (in a place that avoided actually hitting a menu screen or picking up one of the Miis) and then holding down 2. After three moons had passed the menu to “connect to DS” came and all was well. Could have just been a “connect to DS” button but hey ho, why have one of those when you can play contortionist with your Wii remote eh?
Also inbuilt is a daily stats program linked to a pedometer. So not only can you see how much of your life you’ve wasted on harvest moon but you can also clock the milage you’ve done with the DS in your pocket. Nice.and it rewards you too- you get play coins for walking. I think its something like 10 coins for 1000 steps, and you can only get up to 10 in a day. Good incentive to get the kids outdoors I suppose… “You want that new outfit for Blanka? Fine, four laps of the field and it’s yours’”.
Street pass is also included. This allows your and other strangers DS consoles to talk as you walk past each other in the street. A little green light will be glowing on your DS to let you know you’ve made a pass, so to speak. When you open your DS and then go to street pass plaza you will meet the Mii of the stranger you passed. There are some other little features you can do such as trade puzzle pieces or play a bad rip off of final fantasy with ghosts and cats. Pity I’m not 7 or I would lap this stuff up. At my age now I would much prefer a feature to swap favourite recipes or map locations of good places to sit down.
3DS cart (left) vs original DS cart. FIGHT!
Games
I only have one game for it at the moment as none of the others seemed worthy of my cash. That game is Pilotwings resort – a ressurected classic from the N64 with absolutely nothing else in common except for the first part of the title and the fact you spend most of your time in the air. It’s a good enough time eater – trying to beat old high scores, collecting unexplainably floating things (be it rings, mii trophies or funny gates with your face on it) and generally trying not to crash into things. You will fail. The system is also comparable with all your original DS games (unless you played the import game in which case some of them may not work anymore). This is the first DS to be region locked so no more getting the odd obscure mud wrestling title from Japan- you’ll have to make do with another European Barbie game instead. The big one I am waiting for (and the whole reason I bought the thing if I’m honest) is Ocarina of Time 3D…but that’s one for another post.
Hazzahhh! A thumb stick! A good one too.
It’s 3D…Without glasses
So one of the big downfalls of cinema 3d is that you have to wear specs that make you resemble the fresh prince…on the day he’s wearing his prescription sunglasses. Nintendo stick two “child friendly” fingers up to this concept and have developed a screen that shows the 3D without human peripherals. And you know what- it works. As long as you are viewing it at the 3 degree angle that counts as it’s “sweet spot”, but lets not be picky here – we should just be grateful that it’s not red and green. The effect really does make you go “wow” when you first pick it up, and “help, I’m blind” an hour later when you realise your eyes are now adjusted to see ONLY the 3DS screen. Oh well- you know what you were getting into. And if you are still having big problems then you can knock that little 3D slider on the side of the screen down so that you can get used to the effect – then go for the burn and crank it up to 11. Even the menus are in 3D, a nice touch…mind you if you are going to make a 3D device and don’t release much content for it at launch, you had better damn well include some loveliness inbuilt to show off the fact that mario can now touch your face.
Augmented Awesomeness
Ok this is a game changer, for the kids anyway. It is so difficult to explain how this works i’ve decided to go rogue and do a video for this part:
So would I recommend it? Yes. Buy one. Or if you’re a game employee – buy 5 from your local tesco at a cheaper price just incase your stock runs low..