Monthly Archives: August 2014
Zelda Hyrule Warriors – first thoughts
I got a chance to play Hyrule Warriors yesterday. It was excellent. It didn’t disappoint me at all. Granted I only got to play it for about 10 minutes, but everything I experienced was fantastic. It’s not so much that the game is flawless in it’s execution, it does have its problems, but it does exactly what I wanted it to. It kicks ass. It’s heavy metal Zelda. I remember the first time I ever played Dynasty Warriors I thought to myself, “I didn’t know they had electric guitars during the Three Kingdoms Era in China.” And I was sold immediately. No different with Hyrule Warriors. Classic Zelda tracks remixed with heavy metal guitars. It’s just fun. No mucking about in unforgiving dungeons, or frying brain cells trying to solve puzzles (not that those things are bad), it’s just constant nonstop action. Something that Zelda has never done before. Which I have no problem with, but I fear this game may fail to find it’s place in the market.
One thing Zelda games have not really had a problem with is suffering from franchise fatigue. -See Call of Duty, Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero- It’s what happens when you release too many games from the same franchise too quickly without enough variation from game to game. A new Zelda release takes its time and at least attempts, if not always successful, to try to change the gameplay elements with each release. But they always, for the most part, have the same core elements to their gameplay. Hyrule Warriors being so vastly different, I feel it has a very specific niche to fill. For starters, it’s much more for the hardcore gamer, which aren’t generally found playing the Wii U. Dynasty Warriors has always been Xbox or PlayStation. And for fans of classic style Zelda games, I know the feeling of “But this isn’t MY Zelda game” is out there, and they may feel underwhelmed by the repetitive hack and slash combat, mourning the lack of adventuring and dungeon delving. It’s still Zelda, it’s just a new way of playing it. I know Nintendo wants to get more serious with their games. Hopefully this is a glimpse of what is to come. The release date, I think, is also not the best timing. It’s being released right around some other lumbering behemoths, such as Destiny. It’s likely to be overshadowed and should have had a more isolated release date.
Why does even concern me? Because I want Nintendo to be king again god dammit! I fucking love Nintendo and it saddens me to see them stumble. Yeah the Wii was a piece of trash, but the Wii U is great and there’s some great content coming out for it. I know this game is going to be awesome and I want others to share my joy. I don’t want teenaged to twenty-something males to feel emasculated playing on a Nintendo console anymore. It actually makes me sad when I see 12 year olds and all they want to play is Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. A game doesn’t need to have guns in it just to be fun to play. But that’s a discussion for another time.
D-Pad Hero
I actually finished making this cart awhile ago, but I only just recently put together the video for it. If it looks like the game is hard, it’s not. Well, it’s not particularly easy either, but I make it look hard. I’m completely awful at things that require quick hand coordination.
D-pad Hero
Maybe I’m Just Tired…
For the past few hours I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the trial of Dragon Quest X to work on my PC. Download it and install it. Right, sounds easy enough. But too bad the whole friggin thing is in Japanese and I had to create a Japanese Yahoo account, which itself took around 2 hours. You know those, ‘captcha’ things they use to authenticate you’re a real person when creating an account for something or posting on a forum? Well I had to do one of those in Hiragana and I spent way too much time staring at symbols that mean nothing to me. Anyway, I finally got it to download and install and now the updater is at…5%…
So I happened to have a NES cart of, “Where in Time is Carm Sandiego” sitting on my desk in front of my this whole time and I had my daily epiphany (I don’t really have daily epiphanies). That’s supposed to be Carmen stealing the crown from some olde tyme aristocracy. Why, throughout my entire youth when this game was relevant (was it ever relevant?) did I not realize what this picture was SUPPOSED to be? I always thought it was just a bunch of people dressed up in periodic clothing to let you know the game was about time travel. Never did it dawn on me that Carmen had uncrowned a noble and absconded with the treasure while armed guards do NOTHING. And is she even really trying to get away? So let’s analyze this picture:
Woman in red – She’s actually dead and not really there. That’s why no one noticed her dismay and calls for help when Carmen came in to take the crown. This is where M. Night Shyamalan got his idea for the 6th Sense.
Man on Left – he is a dandy fop and unable to act
Pregnant Woman – initially I thought she had just fainted, but by her body language and angle of leaning, you can tell she’s beginning to go through contractions. The placement of the gentleman’s hands behind her lends an idea of her condition as he seems to be gently holding her mid torso, making sure to not wrap fully around her stomach. Also, it’s obvious her water broke and is evaporating from the heat given off by Carmen’s time machine
Man on Right – he’s attending to the pregnant wench
Guard on Left – Is posing for a picture. Since the first cameras took 10+ minutes to take a picture, he has to stand around looking assertive until it’s finished. Also, they’re not invented for several hundred years later.
Guard in back – May or may not have Downs Syndrome. It’s typical of those with such a disorder to become confused easily under stressful situations and are ill equipped emotionally to deal with them appropriately. Hence this man’s fearful, yet menacing gesticulations. BTW, who gave him a sword?
Carmen Sandiego – What the hell is she riding? I would want to say it’s some sort of motorcycle, but I’m not sure there are any wheels. It looks as if it’s got some sort of Knight Rider-esque front frame, but instead wheels it appears to be mounted on a roman column. As a kid, being a fan of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and having knowledge of their method of time travel, this method seemed no less strange to me. But recently I noticed that her legs are actually placed up beside her like riding a bike and now it doesn’t make sense. How is she supposed to make a swift get away when her vehicle of choice doesn’t appear mobile. I suppose it doesn’t matter when you under assault from guards of this nature.
7% update complete…. Ok DQX I guess you can wait until tomorrow.
Devil World
Just finished another cart – Devil World. I’m not sure what to make of this game. It’s kind of like Pac-Man, but lacks a certain something that you can only get with Pac-Man. On the other hand, you can turn enemies into fried eggs by breathing fire at them after picking up a cross…
Devil World
gameblorg 