Monday, September 12, 2011

Holy Din! (NEW SKYWARD SWORD VIDEOS AND INFO)

Zelda fans have been anticipating this for weeks, and now it's finally here. I just conveniently failed to mention it until now... because I've been neglecting my poor blog. I'm sorry, fans of Medli's Messages (if there's any of you).

GameInformer revealed a TON of new Skyward Sword information. And I MEAN... a ton. So much that I didn't even read through all of it.

First, we've got two wonderful videos, which are by FAR the easiest things to post.



This first video is one of four exclusive ones that GameInformer will be giving us. I was most interested in the music... fully orchestrated!

Phi also calls Link "Master", which was cute and creepy at the same time, if that's possible. XD



THIS video excited me even more than the last one did! This... just wow. LOTS of new stuff in here. Let's see how much of the interesting points I can mention in one post...

First noteworthy things I spotted? 0:35 - It seems like even diving will be using the MotionPlus in this game. They really implemented it in every aspect of the game. It's great!

At 0:40, we see that Link has learned some new moves as he literally hops over the monsters head to strike him from behind. This is, in fact, the same enemy (or at least similar to) that we saw in the GDC 2011 trailer in March. Like last time, Link can cut up his shield in any way he wants with the wonderful Wii MotionPlus.

Let's see... there's some kind of desert area, and of course more of the forest area we saw in Skyward Sword's first demo and trailer. Then, around 1:19, here's something new: With his sword, Link can draw symbols on some kind of... board thing that possessed the crest of the Hyrulean family without the Triforce - the bird-wing symbol we've been seeing everywhere in this game. He draws a heart, which causes Recovery Hearts to be spat out for healing. Very cool.

The bird-wing symbol is seen at 1:27 again as Link uses the Sword Beam ability - something I didn't see utilized very often in the demos, so I'm glad to witness it again - and it apparently works as some kind of switch.

Now, this part's awesome. 1:30 - DOUBLE CLAWSHOTS! Double Clawshots were the last items you obtained in Twilight Princess, and they were VERY fun. I'm ecstatic to see them return in Skyward Sword.

1:37 - Yet another new item. This time it's some kind of... hose? I can't tell if that's water or just air coming out of it. Many fans are guessing that it is the Gust Jar from The Minish Cap. (In all honesty, it reminds me more of F.L.U.D.D. from Super Mario Sunshine, but what do I know?)

At 1:43, Link's just using the bow, which isn't necessarily anything special... but then we zoom out and see his location. A pirate ship? Or... at least a ship of some sort!

1:55 is some more shots of the Beetle and it's incredible abilities of dropping bombs. And 2:07 is a switch that changes the room. For some reason, it makes me think of the Stone Tower Temple from Majora's Mask, with all that room flipping...

2:12 - Mine cart riding! Like in the Minish Cap! Epic!!!!

Finally, at 2:15, we see a glimpse of the Siren World (or is it Silent World? I've seen it spelled both ways... it's confusing me. XD). Some kind of Poe spots Link, and alerts the ominous "Guardians" of this alternate world. Link apparently has no sword in this area, and the Guardians are great, hulking monsters. Another interesting things to note is what Link looks like... he's glowing. I don't know why, but he is. And he changes colors when the Guardians chase him...

The Bug Catching Net that first appeared in A Link to the Past shows itself around 2:30, and right after that, we see some kind of potion guy, who apparently will make potions with these bugs, from what I understood. I mean, I don't speak Japanese, so I just have the video to go off of... (Poor butterfly...)

After, at 2:41 - BEEDLE! Beedle appeared first in... The Wind Waker, I believe, though he was also in Phantom Hourglass, The Minish Cap, and Spirit Tracks. This incarnation of his looks more like his Spirit Tracks version, since he seems to ride in some kind of flying machine, much like he rode in a hot air balloon in ST.

2:51 - Link uses a cool feature of Phi (A.K.A. The Skyward Sword). I'm not sure what the official name for it is (I've forgotten... sorry!) but I know he can use it to find items burried in the ground, or apparently, even Zelda herself. He then uses "Digging Mitts" which bare resemblence to The Minish Cap's Mole Mitts to dig up the items.

At 3:00, some kind of clock thingy causes a giant Sand Palace to rise out of the ground. Right afterward, Link enounters some kind of... statue... thingy... that glows magically and spins him around and takes him somewhere... I think...

3:14 - We see some bird-riding gameplay, with some mini-game where Link aims at targets. And then... ooh! Is that the giant whale that swallowed Zelda in the E3 2011 trailer? I don't know, but it seems to be kind of boss. There's another boss right after it... with tentacles or something... and then a cutscene with Link and Zelda in Skyloft (why is he bowing? WHY? She's not a princess!)... then Ghirahim and Zelda... and the fire boss thingy... and a fuzzy boss...

And then... the best part of the whole video.

4:19 - EPIC SWORD SPINING POSE FROM TWILIGHT PRINCESS!!!!

I am very happy. Just because that... is in Skyward Sword. That just made my day.

...Well, that's it! Can you tell that I rushed at the end? XD I have to go to bed - I've got a long day tomorrow.

There's also a video on Four Swords DSi, which I might comment on tomorrow, but I haven't time right now...

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link Available for Ambassadors!

If you were part of the select few in the Ambassador program, meaning you connected to the Nintendo 3DS eShop before August 11th, then your first 10 NES games are now available for download, free of charge!
Legend of Zelda is there, as expected, as well as Adventure of Link. Other games include:
Super Mario Bros.
Metroid
Donkey Kong Jr.
Yoshi
Ice Climbers
Balloon Fight
NES Open Tournament Golf
Wrecking Crew
And an "Ambassador Certificate," which is basically just a video explaining how to receive notifications about the Ambassador program in a variety of languages.
I've played Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link a little - particularly Adventure of Link, since I never got passed the second dungeon on my other version, which is for the Wii's Virtual Console. It's not any different, of course. ...That doesn't mean I'm not having trouble with it, haha. Adventure of Link is VERY hard.
Legend of Zelda, however... there's a difference! Well, okay, there's not a difference between the original and this one, but there IS a difference between other remakes of this game! On my version (on the Wii Virtual Console) and on the GameBoy, the story message at the very beginning of the game (which you see if you wait long enough staring at the logo) was re-written due to the large amount of errors. I was expecting the same for this remake, but sure enough, when I waited long enough to view it, it still possessed its obvious errors like "Triforce with Power" and "Prince Darkness 'Gannon'". Interesting...
Anyway... happy playing, Ambassadors! It's still to be announced when the last 10 GameBoy games will be coming out, so we'll just have to wait and see.