A Green Mushroom

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild In this episode: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is finally out, and Beej and Void are playing (and loving) it. Void has it on the Switch, and Beej grabbed it on Wii U. We discuss the differences in the versions and how each piece of hardware handles the game (hint: they’re pretty much the same). We discuss how Breath of the Wild treats armor and weapons differently than other games in the series, making it much more like a traditional RPG, but still feeling totally like Zelda. The setting is a unique version of Hyrule, and it’s a welcome change. You can see the other Hyrules there, but this one feels more alive...even though it has technically been destroyed. Nintendo did what Nintendo does: makes a game full of fun little details. In a way, they did what Blizzard did with World of Warcraft--took an existing genre and perfected it. The game assumes you’re not stupid and doesn’t have a real “tutorial.” You have an intro, get ...

Nintendo Switch Launch Spectacular! In this episode: Nintendo Switch is here! It’s launched! Void got one! Beej didn’t! He can’t find one at all! There were however...hiccups. Don’t buy day-1 console hardware from Amazon. Impressions of Hardware Why is Nintendo marketing it as a console that you can take with you instead of a handheld that docks? It plays better when it’s   not   docked. Suspend any time and anywhere, like a handheld.  Faster suspend and more integrated than PS4. Definitely leans toward the handheld side and not the console side. Kickstand sound is disconcerting. Controllers: Joycons are great, and they feel awesome when clicked into handheld mode. Also as separate controllers, and the clip thingies make them bigger and more comfortable. The dog-head controller is terrible. But the Nintendo Switch pro controller is the best, and it connects to the PC, too, a bonus. I do not like the dog head controller at all (the grip) Docking and undo...

I managed to snag an NES Classic the week before Christmas and I've been playing it since then.  I don't want to review it or give impressions of it the way I normally would with a game or system I'm just diving into. The NES Classic is just pure nostalgia in and adorable little form factor.  It transports me back to being 5-10 years old again and I can't describe the joy I get from seeing my kids play it.  They're just so happy playing the same games I was at their age.  It's amazing. If you have any nostalgia for the NES you should pick up a Classic as soon as they get their stock situation under control.  You won't regret it.

With my Zelda series lite playthrough done and my rankings locked in I just wanted to take a bit to reflect on how I feel after sampling the series in order.  Once again, here's how the rankings shook out for me personally: A Link Between Worlds (2013) A Link to the Past (1991)   The Wind Waker (2002) Oracle of Seasons (2001) Oracle of Ages (2001) Majora's Mask (2000) Ocarina of Time (1998) The Legend of Zelda (1987) Tri Force Heroes (2015) Twilight Princess (2006) Link's Awakening (1993) The Minish Cap (2004) Skyward Sword (2011) Spirit Tracks (2009) Phantom Hourglass (2007) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988) The most surprising thing for me is how poorly the 3D Zelda games held up.  I enjoyed most of them a lot the first time I played them but going back to them in the greater context of the whole series made them feel clunky, slow, and just generally not as compelling.  Their 2D counterparts held up much better than I remembered and A L...

Before starting this chronological series sampling, Tri Force Heroes is the Zelda game I had played most recently.  It only came out last year and I played it right when it released.  I didn't think my opinions of it would have changed much, but I was interested to see how it held up in the context of the rest of the series.  Mostly, I was curious where it would rank. I actually just picked up my old save file for this one since the game is designed to be replayed.  You unlock different costumes and levels as time goes on so I figured I would start with the full game unlocked this time. I was quickly reminded that hell is other people.  Well... sometimes.  When you get grouped with random people online it's always a grab bag.  You never quite know what you'll get.  Maybe someone will disconnect.  Maybe someone will just not understand the puzzle even if you walk them through the entire thing with emotes.  Maybe they'll just stand...

A Link Between Worlds is my favorite Zelda game.  If I wasn't so close to the end of my playthrough of the series I wouldn't be confident enough to say that, but now I am. It takes everything I love about all the 2D Zelda games before it and includes those elements... then improves upon them in many ways.  Plus, it renders them in a cool 3Dish way on the 3DS.  A Link Between Worlds is also a huge homage to Link to the Past, which has been sitting at my number one spot in the rankings up to this point. And it really shows.  Everything from the overworld to the dungeons pays tribute to Link to the Past.  It's not a one to one copy or direct rip off but there's no question that this is supposed to be the same world and deal with the same themes.  It was a brave choice since it could have made this game feel like a retread instead of something new.  Instead, it feels amazing. I love the open and non-linear style of Link Between Worlds.  ...

Spirit Tracks is the second DS Zelda game and it shows.  It's improved over Phantom Hourglass in a few ways but at it's core it's basically the same. The controls once again trip it up.  The only notable thing here is that it adds some cool touch screen train gameplay that actually works fairly well. I ripped on Phantom Hourglass controls a lot yesterday so I'm not going to reiterate all that except to say that I still hate the controls and all my complaints still stand. Just because it adds some train gameplay that's decent I'm going to put this one barely above Phantom Hourglass in the rankings: A Link to the Past (1991)    The Wind Waker (2002)  Oracle of Seasons (2001)  Oracle of Ages (2001)   Majora's Mask (2000)  Ocarina of Time (1998)  The Legend of Zelda (1987)  Twilight Princess (2006)  Link's Awakening (1993)  The Minish Cap (2004)  Spirit Tracks (2009)  Phantom Hourglass (2007) ...

Twilight Princess is a Zelda game that I never beat despite starting it on at least five different occasions.  In the past the thing that pushed me away from the game was always the motion controls.  I know they were supposed to be a cool gimmick at the time but I never liked them. To avoid that and give Twilight Princess a fair shake I decided to go with the HD remaster that released recently on Wii U.  That way I was able to play the game with a normal controller! First off, this game looks really nice with the HD remaster.  The graphics are crisp and totally up to modern, if stylized, standards.  No complaints there.  The controls are also much better.  They're similar to the Wind Waker HD controls, which makes a lot of sense since they were both redesigned for Wii U.  I found the game much more playable as a result.  I still have negative feelings from the motion controls but I was able to let that go and dig in with the Wii U gam...

The Wind Waker has been my favorite 3D Zelda game for a long time.  If asked off the cuff what my absolute favorite Zelda game is I would often put this one forward.  It's really good. Revisiting it shows that it still holds up.  I love the open ocean, the exploration, the controls, the music, the art style.  There are so many unique things about this game and it feels like they finally hit their stride with 3D Zelda games at this point in the series.  This incarnation of Zelda as Tetra the Pirate always makes me happy too! While it originally came out for Gamecube the last two times I've played it were the remaster on Wii U.  It's extra gorgeous plus it has some nice modern features in it.  The Wii U gamepad holds the map and inventory which is super useful.  Not to mention the "swift sail" in the remaster.  It basically lets you travel at 2x speed and always have the wind at your back without having to reposition the wind through so...

This is probably the easiest part of my Zelda series playthrough because I secretly played both Oracle of Seasons and Oracles of Ages earlier this year... and loved them. I played these games a bit as a kid but never beat them then.  Earlier this year they were on sale together on Virtual Console for 3DS so I picked them up on a whim not remembering much about them. The Oracles games are basically taking everything they learned from Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask and using that to make the best Game Boy Color game they could make.  It controls wonderfully, has amazing design, never feels frustrating with progression, and the two games feed into one another.  If you beat one you can import your save into the other and after finishing that... you unlock a true final boss and secret ending to the game! I can't believe how much I love these.  With all that said, they're still a little bit limited by the Game Boy Color har...

Continuing with the lite Zelda project brings us to Majora's Mask.  It's an odd one out for the series but I love some of the things it's doing. If you've never played it, Majora's Mask is much more non-linear than any other Zelda game.  It's all about exploration and discovery.  You repeat the same three days that lead to a moon crashing into the planet and in doing so you slowly gain powers, items, and masks that will help you on the way.  You also learn songs on the ocarina that perform all sorts of tasks and change how you interact with the flow of time. I beat this one a few times as a kid and once even did a 100% run of the game while getting the Fierce Diety Mask at the end.  That was a good time.  This time around I booted it up the remaster on my 3DS and played through the first half of the game or so. It's still really fun... if you're in the right mood.  Unless you're following a guide you'll find yourself repeating a lot of ...

Ocarina of Time is a very important game, not only to the Zelda franchise but also to gaming in general.  It was one of the first big 3D action/exploration/adventure games and it helped define the genres.  It's also obviously what all the later 3D Zelda games were based on. First I should say that I loved this game as a kid.  I've beaten it many times and for years I would consider it a 10/10 game.  I still think it's a 10/10 game for the time when it came out.  It will always have a special place in my heart and my gaming nostalgia. With that said, it honestly hasn't aged well.  I went back and played hours of it and found a lot of frustration.  The controls, camera, and some of the 3D spacial thinking are just old.  And I was even playing the remastered HD version on 3DS where they fixed a lot of things.  So, while this game is important and I still love it when looking at it via nostalgia I just don't want to play it again right no...

After wrapping up A Link to the Past I fired up Link's Awakening on my 3DS Virtual Console almost immediately.  I was really excited to get into the next game, especially one that I hadn't played since the Game Boy Color days. And wow, it has not aged well.  I know I beat this game on Game Boy Color when I was a kid but it just doesn't hold up anymore.  The screen sizes are too small for anything super interesting to happen on any one screen.  I know that's a conceit to the Game Boy and Game Boy Color but even later GBC games like the Zelda Oracle games feel better than this. Not to mention the player messaging.  If it were just the screen size and graphics that make the game feel aged I could deal with it but the killer thing for me is the horrible player messaging.  It's super difficult to know where to go next or what to do next.  It completely killed my momentum and generally made me want to be playing anything else. So, I'm going to set ...

The Nintendo Switch Revealed In this episode: The   Nintendo Switch   is unveiled! And being the Nintendo fans we are, there was just no way that we could go a week without talking about it. Here’s what we know so far: It’s a handheld system AND a home console with detachable controllers that you can use in different configurations. They’re called JoyCons, but there’s also a Pro Controller available. There is also a spacer-thingy that connects the JoyCons into an almost-Pro Controller. You can also use the JoyCons double-handed like a Wii Nunchuck. There’s a kickstand on the main screen and a 3.5mm headphone port! It’s HD and cartridge based. We saw lots of games for it including a new 3D Mario game, a Mario Kart, some kind of basketball game (that neither of us know about, but y’all might), Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon, and Skyrim. And then we go into geeky-speculation mode, which is always fun. We talk expandable storage (because Void does all his games d...

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the first game in my "Zelda lite" playthrough of the series that I dug in deep with.  I had forgotten just how good this game is. I fired it up on Wii U Virtual Console and after getting past the intro for the first time in years and years... I was just amazed.  This game is still really good.  Even by modern standards.  Yeah, some modern conveniences are missing but nothing that truly hurts the enjoyment of the game (especially with built in save states on Virtual Console). This is the first Zelda game that feels fully formed.  It's the core of the series realized fully.  Exploring the overworld, uncovering secrets, slowly figuring out what to do in dungeons, getting more skillful at combat, finding new items to get around the world... it's all here. Not to mention the structure.  It's almost identical to the structure of Ocarina of Time.  A Link to the Past finds you needing to collec...

Ugh, ok... so this is the game that made me hold off on doing this series playthrough for a long time.  This is the main game that made me make this a "lite" version of a series playthrough and made me give myself permission to not actually finish all the games. I do not like this game. I know it has it's fans and I know it's technically a main Zelda game... but it's just not.  It doesn't feel like a Zelda game should.  This is mostly a side-scrolling beat-em-up with Zelda trappings.  It doesn't have the freedom and open exploration of the original and it definitely doesn't feel like any other Zelda game out there. I wish I liked this game enough to actually finish it once.  But, I don't.  This is one of the few Zelda games that I've never finished.  At this point I've come to the realization that I never will and I'm ok with that. So please forgive how much I'm glossing over this one.  If you're a fan of it let me k...

This is where the series starts and where my sampling of the series begins.  The Legend of Zelda is a game I played and loved as a kid.  I've beaten it many time, but none of them recently.  But hey, when you're a kid and don't have many games on hand you beat all the ones you own multiple times.  A few years ago, my brother and I took a day on Virtual Console to see how far we could actually get in the game.  We made it through five-ish dungeons before giving up.  This game is really hard. I can't believe how much I must have mastered it as a kid to be able to beat it on more than one occasion.  Sitting down and playing it yesterday was an exercise in frustration.  Yes, the core of the series we love is here... but it's still gameplay from the 80s.  It's difficult to make progress and even using the save states on Virtual Console it's still full of frustratingly tough section. I played through the first few dungeons last night just...

My latest Gamefly game was Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.  If you haven't heard of it I'm not too surprised.  It's a Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensai (SMT) crossover game that's exclusive to Wii U and the localization is text only so all the voices are still in Japanese.  Talk about having a narrow niche for your game. I found that I loved Persona last year, which is also a spin off of the SMT series, and I've really enjoyed the last few Fire Emblem games so I thought there might be something here for me. And I did!  Kind of. The core gameplay mechanics are really solid.  I was having fun with the combat, progression, dungeons, and little touches like the texting mechanic in the game.  I loved the style of the game, very bright and with colors that pop.  It has a cool style to it.  And the fact that it's definitely based in some anime influences didn't bug me too much either.  It's kind of quirky. A minor complaint, which isn't ...

Metroid Prime Federation Force is a game I really wanted to like.  It's another one that I tried out via Gamefly because I was unsure about it... and I'm glad I did. It's not that this is a bad game.  It actually looks like a really solid game, but only under the correct circumstances. This game seems like it would be great if I were playing on a New 3DS and had four friends in the room with me.  Or even having four friends I could coordinate with online.  But, I'm here by myself with a 3DS XL. It seems like this game was built from the ground up with four player co-op in mind and playing single player just feels lacking.  The fact that I'm not playing on a "new" 3DS means I don't have that analog nub that functions as a second analog stick.  So, instead of traditional dual analog stick FPS controls it's a huge step back. Again, this game isn't bad, it's just not for me.  If you do happen to have four friends to sit down with an...

I had never played a Rhythm Heaven game before and when Nintendo stealth launched this one on the eShop I heard a bunch of people I trust say that it's a great jumping on point for the series. It's essentially a "best of" from the Rhythm Heaven series and the gameplay itself is made up of a ton of different mini rhythm games.  As someone who likes music games I thought this one might be for me. It kind of is and kind of isn't.  I like the rhythm games and have fun with them but each one individually is way too short for my taste.  I'm used to music games where you play through an entire song, not a minigame that takes less than 30 seconds.  I feel like I haven't really been able to sink my teeth into any of the minigames enough to enjoy them because of their short length. That being said, what is there is really fun.  I played this game pretty solidly for a few days and then put it on the backburner for 3DS games.  I think I'll dip back into ...