Used games have plagued publishers and developers for many years but with a move towards digital content and talk of patents to stop used games sales from both Sony^[1] and Microsoft^[2] could the age of second hand games be coming to a close? It is very doubtful that only one developer will pursue this type of tech, otherwise they risk a large portion of their fan base switching sides. Nevertheless digital sales are on the increase and with no way to sell your digital content license after you have finished with it you no longer have the option to make money from old games (and nor do retailers).

You can’t blame console manufacturers for wanting to cut back or even stop the sale of used games; after all they normally sell consoles at a loss. Even the PS3 sold at a loss when it was first released and that was priced at £425^[3]. The reason behind this is to get a good install base built up and then generate revenue from software sales. If gamers decide to buy only used games this means the console manufacturer will have no way to recoup their costs; IGN’s Colin Moriarity talks more about this issue during an episode of game scoop! Which I suggest you check out ^[4].

Used games have been a staple of many games retailers for years; it is no secret that shops can make a greater profit from buying and selling used games than they can from new releases. After all when a new game is released is has to cover manufacturing costs as well as pay the publisher and developer; all of these factors eat away at a retailers profits. When buying and selling a second hand game the retailer is free to pocket all the profits (minus overheads of course) as the developer and publisher has no way to take a cut (although there are now online activate codes, which I talk about later). Selling second hand games isn’t illegal so a shop or gamer is well within their rights to make a profit from doing this.

This article raises several arguments for and against used games and from the offset I’d like to make it clear that I don’t present a right or wrong answer, I am merely presenting both sides of the story.

Why should the games industry be any different? 

Many of those in favour of used games can argue that the games industry operates no different from other industries with regards to second hand sales. Vauxhall for example won’t get a cut of my money if I sell my Corsa next year, nor should they. Why should the games industry be the exception to this rule? If you purchased the game as a boxed product then decide you no longer want it why shouldn’t you be able to sell it? Now on the other hand it could be argued that Vauxhall have a very good chance of continuing to make a profit long after my car has sold, not only do they offer services and MOTs on used cars but Vauxhall parts will need to be bought to maintain the car (of course 3^rd party parts can be purchased instead).

Another way in which car manufacturers capitalise on used sales is by having their own used car show rooms and finance options. This would be akin to a developer or publisher such as EA setting up a dedicated store, specialising in the sale of used EA games. You could then argue that if used games pose such a large problem then developers should open up shops to sell their own used games at competitive prices.

DLC, online multiplayer and patches

Developers can still benefit from sales of used software, let me explain why. This generation has witnessed a sharp rise in the sale of DLC (downloadable content) and generally this is viewed as a way to extend the life of a game by adding new maps, levels, stories etc…

The original owner may have also bought a DLC pack which cannot be transferred to the new owner. If the new owner then decides to also buy DLC the developer makes a further sale even though only one game has been sold. Strategically timed DLC can even prevent or at least prolong a player selling on their copy of the game. The Call of Duty franchise for example, offers DLC over several months, therefore if you want to experience the new content you have to keep hold of the game.

Along with DLC this generation has also seen a big push for online multiplayer content and this brings us to another debate. DLC and online multiplayer both require an internet connection and are both offered to a customer via a server. When DLC is obtained by a customer the developer is directly benefiting from the customer accessing the server (which will cost money to run and maintain) whereas multiplayer is generally a free service. Developers have recently started to capitalise on this by only allowing access to multiplayer content if an online pass is activated. The pass will come free with all new games but can only be activated on one account. If the game is bought used the new owner must buy another online code in order to access the multiplayer content. In this situation you cannot blame the developer; after all you are not only playing a game in which they have received no money from you directly but you are now also using their server bandwidth and interacting with their online community. It could however be argued that the previous owner will no longer be accessing the multiplayer content and so their impact on the server and bandwidth has simply been passed on to the new owner.

Developers can also lose out when they offer patches and various updates for a game. Patches cost the developer money to create, submit and store on a server for gamers to download. Services like this are totally free so a player with a second hand copy of the game will effectively be costing the developer money when they update their used game.

Building a fan base 

Although buying used games isn’t illegal this debate reflects a similar situation the music industry found itself in with the rise of Napster back in the early 2000s. Big well established bands such as Metallica complained that they were losing money from all the sales they were missing out on ^[5]. On the other end of the scale many artists (generally less well known bands) didn’t actually mind their music being stolen because word spread and their fan base grew. Arguably the same could be applied to second hand games, with one large difference (and note I am not saying that buying used games is as bad as outright stealing music). Musicians make the majority of their income from touring and not from sales of music; developers on the other hand make most of their income from the sale of games.

Building a fan base through the sale of used games can have long term positive effects on game sales; many franchises I got into as a kid have stuck with me to this day. When I was younger I remember waiting all year for my birthday or Christmas just so I could get a few new games. I also remember saving money for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and this was a big event to buy a game brand new, on release! Generally this meant that if I wanted a game any other time of the year I would have to save a bit of pocket money and make a trip to the local games shop to sift through used games. Super Metroid was one game I remember buying second hand, years later I am still a fan and have bought brand new copies of every Metroid game ever since. This is one such example and I now find many established franchises I grew up with still interest me today and I buy new versions of these games. 

Retro games

Generally I will only buy a used game if it is no longer for sale brand new (retro games from old consoles) or if I have some sort of voucher e.g. CEX credit. This probably stems back to being a child and having to buy used games, generally in pretty poor condition. When I was finally old enough to earn my own money I opted for brand new games that I could open and be the first person to play (especially being a bit of a games collector and wanting to keep my collection in great condition). I no longer had to put up with kids who had smeared their jam and chocolate covered fingers over the cartridges.

As people get more invested in games they generally want to experience a back catalogue of a franchise they love or see how genres have evolved over the years. Others want mint condition copies of 20 year old games or to relive games they played as they were growing up. Previously I’ve never really considered retro games as part of the “used games” debate, owing to the fact that they are out of print and could not be bought new. This all changed with the release of consoles like the Wii and PS3, where back catalogues are now offered for many old franchises, effectively giving a developer a way to once again make money from old games.

Conclusion 

I can’t offer any real conclusion of sorts because I never expected to make a decision as to whether used games are a good thing or a bad thing. I think larger franchises which sell several million copies of a game won’t notice much of a mark on their profits from the sale of used games. If anything, my previous point about bringing in new fans to the franchise applies. With smaller developers and niche games that only sell several hundred thousand copies used games have a much larger impact on the developer. After all development costs are rising, teams are getting bigger and risky or poor selling games have a very large effect on the future of many developers. Maybe I’m biased because I work in the industry and see companies closing quite often. Maybe you think developers should be greedy and want to block all used games sales just so they make a bit of extra cash. Either way it’s an interesting time for the games industry.

[1] http://kotaku.com/5972787/sony-patent-could-stop-you-from-playing-used-games-possibly-on-the-next-playstation

[2] http://www.edge-online.com/news/the-next-xbox-always-online-no-second-hand-games-50gb-blu-ray-discs-and-new-kinect/

[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/feb/01/games.guardianweeklytechnologysection2

[4] http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/02/06/game-scoop-the-pros-cons-of-an-always-connected-console

[5] http://web.archive.org/web/20071129061341/http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=195&wit_id=252

But around here at the Po Life ain’t nobody got time for a Top 10 list, which is why we do the Friday Five. This week I bring to you, “The Top 5 Video Games of All Time.” Yes, this list has been done to death in a multitude of different fashions because, duh, the internet LOVES lists and the internet LOVES video games. But you know what? Those other lists are some shit. I looked at three different lists today and they all had the original Super Mario Brothers as the best game of all time. Are you kidding me!? Yes it was revolutionary and yes it helped save the video game industry and yes it may very well be the most influential game of all time, but the best? Shame you video game mass media; you’re better than that.

Yeah this game was tight, IN LIKE 1985. AMIRIGHT!?

That is where the little guy (me) comes in. I have been playing video games since as long as I can remember and consider myself pretty well versed in the subject. Some of my earliest memories involve me watching my brother play Megaman 2 on the original NES while I tried to memorize the levels. Video games have literally been a backbone of my upbringing and have been a constant throughout my entire life. I am perfect for a list like this because I don’t have any sponsors, I don’t have any hidden agenda, and I am not afraid to take some risks with my list. I know you’re thinking, “Joey, you write for a blog that gets 100 views a day, I wouldn’t exactly call your work risky.” Well thank you very much ever-present fake reader, who I often invoke because I am a terribly lazy writer, you are correct. But I have made this list up in my mind in so many different iterations, constantly adjusting the list as time goes on and the more games I play. So suck it.

As for how I put together the list, I am judging my favorite games based on some nebulous criteria that are hard to really quantify: how many times have I played it? Does the game still hold up today? How immersed into the game do I get? How much FUN did I have playing the game?

So feel free to judge, comment on, commend, insult, or hate on my list. Hopefully it will get you thinking about what your favorite games are too. In descending order:

5.  Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

You don’t know how long I deliberated on the #5 spot on my list. I went back and forth between this and StarCraft 2 for a day before finally landing on the Plumber instead of Jim Raynor for one reason: I have significantly more fun playing Super Mario RPG than I do playing StarCraft 2. SC 2 is the best Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game of all time and I have played it about as much as I have played anything. But it is too frustrating and often leaves me angry as opposed to happy after a play session. So that leaves me my main man Mario.

I consider Super Mario RPG to be the greatest turn based “JRPG” of all time for several reasons. It takes most the annoying issues with traditional JRPG games and eliminates or mitigates them. Hate random encounters every two seconds? The only way to enter into a battle in Mario RPG is to run into a bad guy on screen. Hate grinding? The game progresses at such a pace that grinding is unnecessary. Hate androgynous, anime style characters that are completely un-relatable? Mario RPG’s cast of characters is filled with ones we all (mostly) know and love: Mario, Princess Peach, Bowser, Toadstool. The whole crew is back, with some awesome new characters (Geno, anyone?).

It starts off as a typical Mario game; Bowser kidnaps the princess and it’s your job to save her. However, that tried and true mechanic soon gets turned on its head as you realize who is really behind all the chaos in the world. You even get to have Bowser AND Princess Peach as playable characters in your party. But what makes this game truly special is its charm, wit, combat system, and amount of content packed into the game. There are so many side quests that you have to discover for yourself (the game doesn’t call them out explicitly for you), that it takes multiple playthroughs to see and get through them all. The detail and love that went into this game truly shines throughout the whole experience. It was made by Square Enix and Nintendo back in the good ol’ days when they still worked together, so you know the production quality is superb.  I recently played and beat Super Mario RPG in the last year and loved every second of it. It completely engrossed me for the 10^th time. That’s the making of a great game.

4. Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction

Diablo ruins lives. This isn’t opinion or conjecture; it is a fact of life. I can’t tell you how many hours of sleep I lost playing this game or how many times I refused to go out with my friends on a Friday night because I just wanted to get one more Baal run in, praying that this time a Shako would drop and I would have quick enough hands to pick it up. I’ve had girlfriends yell at me for playing too much and friends seriously worry about my mental health because all I could talk about was what I traded my last SoJ for.

What makes Diablo 2 so great is that it gives you a sense of constant gratification while pushing you to search for more. Doing hell Mephisto runs over and over and over is like getting a slow drip of morphine every 5 minutes. It leaves you feeling just good enough that you want some more before the feeling runs out. No game has captured the collective imagination of the Po Life bloggers as much as Diablo 2. What we call, “Bringing it Back” is really just us dusting off our old CD keys and giving the game another go. And it always ends up the same way.

Elijah emails all of us asking if we want to bring it back. Cliff immediately jumps on board with a Barb, Merkyl is hesitant but gets sucked in by the lure of his MF Sorcerer, McCannon tries to resist but eventually starts a trap Assasin that he abandons at level 25, Bart gets all giddy and makes an Amazon, and I vehemently resist as long as possible. Then, I eventually get sucked in and start playing right as everybody starts getting bored with it. I grind up to level 85, gear up my Druid with elite gear, and take on the game’s final bosses by myself. Then I realize that everybody quit playing months ago and I haven’t seen my friends, or sunlight, in the same span of time.

Diablo 2 undoubtedly ruins lives, but it is one of the greatest video games ever.

3. Mass Effect 2

The Mass Effect series is a perfect match for me as a gamer. It basically is a Star Wars Action Role Playing Game set in the best video game universe of all time with sexy blue aliens. Within it is a detailed morality system, interesting and complex characters, an amazing breadth of content, choices that actually matter, and a storyline that you can connect with. At one point in time this would have gone at the top of my list. I don’t know if some of the luster has rubbed off on it because I haven’t played it in a couple years or that Mass Effect 3** has somehow lessened the experience for me. But regardless, Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece of a game.

The space saga that unfolds in Mass Effect 2 is some of the greatest storytelling in video game history. The story centers around Commander Shepard as he pulls together a specialized crew specifically designed to save the galaxy from impending doom. The game never takes its foot off the pedal as you rush to save world from the Reapers, who are hell bent on destroying all organic life and thus completing the cycle they were designed to finish. The amazing thing about Mass Effect 2 is that while you always have a sense of the larger war being waged around you, the story is very intimate and personal. You make connections with every crew member by taking part in their ‘loyalty’ mission. As I learned a little bit about them and their past, I found myself legitimately caring about all of the characters. You form relationships, bonds, and sexual encounters that you generally care about, something that few other games are able to accomplish. I didn’t want to save the world just so I could say I beat the game, I wanted to save the world because I cared about the people that inhabited it.

The game also features some of the best graphics to date, a world that feels like it is actually inhabited, and smooth, effortless gameplay that adds to the whole experience. While the game isn’t perfect, it is completely engrossing and memorable. From the moment I picked up the game, I couldn’t put it down again until all of my friends were safe and the galaxy saved. Except for Mordin. RIP buddy; you will never be forgotten.

2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

When you read lists about the greatest games of all time you often find Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time listed as not only the best Zelda of all time, but it is usually is listed as the greatest game of all time as well. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED Ocarina of Time and it barely missed making this list. But the best Zelda game of all time is A Link to the Past and I don’t think there is much question about it.

If you haven’t played this game, immediately stop what you are doing and go play it. Right now. I am dead serious. A Link to the Past has everything a great Zelda game should have: a grand adventure of a small boy from humble beginnings, hidden rooms and treasures, interesting puzzles, sharp game play, charm, the master sword, heart containers, great music, and fun boss battles. It also had the first “Parallel World,” known as the Dark World, in all of the Zelda games. This was as mind blowing for me as the first time I experienced a woman. It also set a precedent for several future Zelda games, including Ocarina. This may not seem crazy to us know, but in 1991 when the game was released, it was pretty much unheard of.

McCannon claims he has beaten this game more times than he has any other game and is a self-proclaimed Link to the Past master. I personally have beaten the game on several occasions, including once in the last year, and I loved every second of it. This is the type of game that is truly ageless; we both will be able to pick it up in ten years and enjoy the experience just as much as we did the first time we played. Do yourself a favor and play this game as soon as possible. There isn’t much else that needs to be said.

1. BioShock

It is hard for me to put into words the experience of playing BioShock for the first time. I strongly believe that the first 30 minutes of this game are an absolute masterpiece in every sense. I don’t mean a masterpiece of a video game, but a masterpiece of art and storytelling. I remember playing the demo for the first time, which consisted of the first 30 minutes of the game, and becoming absolutely mesmerized.

“They told me, ‘Son, you’re special. You were born to do great things.’ You know what? They were right.”

You are on a plane, looking through your wallet at old pictures and puffing on a cigarette. Without warning, there is major turbulence. The plane crashes into the middle of the ocean in the black of the night. You struggle to reach the surface of the water as you are pulled in twenty different directions. You resist the urge to breathe underwater, straining with every fiber in your body to reach the surface in order to fill your lungs with the sting of oxygen.

Suddenly, fire. You see the airframe of the plane tumble through the water, descending into the depths of the ocean, lost to the world forever. You immediately come to the realization that there are no other survivors. It’s just you. You see a light house in the distance, your one beacon of humanity and your sole hope for survival. As you step into the light house the door closes behind you. Standing in front of you is a giant statue of a man holding a banner that reads, “NO GODS OR KINGS. ONLY MAN.”

You find an elevator, climb in, and are immediately submerged under water. Here, in your elevator-submarine, you are introduced to Andrew Ryan, the founder behind an underwater utopia named Rapture. You are immediately introduced to the cityscape and the main theme of Rapture through this short clip; individualism and its consequences.

As your journey in the submarine ends, you are thrown immediately into the violent and tortuous nature of Rapture as you witness a murder in the flickering lights of this underwater city. The murderer turns to you as you are still enclosed in your submarine, temporarily safe from the horror around you. He looks to you and says in more of a shriek than anything, “Is it someone new? AHHH!” At this point you are intensely aware of one thing; something is seriously wrong with this city.

I don’t want to spoil anything else in the game because nothing I can put together will do justice to the experience that is BioShock. No game has lasted with me longer, haunted me more, or engrossed me as much. I recommend that you play this game as soon as possible and without hesitation. You won’t be able to put it down once you pick it up. But remember one thing; a man chooses, a slave obeys.

Honorable Mentions: Zelda: Ocarina of Time, StarCraft 2, Tales of Symphonia, MegaMan 2, Mario 64, Donkey Kong 2, Goldeneye, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario Brothers 3.

*I apologize to anybody out there who is sans asshole who I have offended.

**I loved Mass Effect 3, but it didn’t quite draw me in like Mass Effect 2 did.

Nintendo Europe has announced that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is available for download at the reduced price of £19,99 for one week, starting today,

I DID subscribe when the Zelda and Super Mario comics ran in the magazine over the course of a year, and I remember there being complaints about comics being printed in a gaming magazine. I guess I can see that argument, but I personally looked forward to each new installment. The Zelda comic was based on A Link to the Past, which had just recently come out, and covered most of the highlights of the plot while diverging a bit during parts that wouldn’t have translated well to the comic format.

A few interesting bits of trivia about it include:

• There’s a mention of the ancient knights of Hyrule riding into battle on a giant bird. I don’t know that much about Skyward Sword, but I do know Link rides a bird in it. I wonder if there’s any intentional connection there.
• It could also be considered foreshadowing that Link travels with a fairy companion, here named Epheremelda, and of course the fairy Navi guides him in Ocarina of Time (whether you want her to or not).
• While the Dark World in the game turns Link into a bunny, in the comic it starts to turn him into a beast, with the explanation that it’s due to his anger. Kind of makes more sense if the Dark World is supposed to physically reflect someone’s personality. Why a rabbit in the game? Does Link just have a particular fondness for carrots?
• Link’s parents refer to his uncle as “our brother,” so we never actually learn which side of the family he’s on.
  

• There’s a depiction of the human Ganondorf who looks much more normal than the Gerudo form he’d eventually receive.
  

• There’s a suggestion at the end about how Link and Zelda can never really be together, despite their ongoing bond.
  

Then there’s Super Mario Adventures (I think this page has better scans, but they’re not complete), based on Super Mario World, but in a much looser and sillier adaptation.

That makes a certain amount of sense, as Mario games rarely have particularly engaging plots (I guess the RPGs could be considered the exceptions), and there’s something about the characters and settings that lend well to whimsical comedy. To give you an idea of the style of this comic, Bowser performs a rap when he shows up to kidnap the Princess, and then turns a group of Toads to stone in a visually absurd manner.

The spell affects Mario as well, but he’s cured by a week of massage.

One interesting thing about this comic is that it’s one of the earliest instances of Bowser having a thing for the Princess rather than just kidnapping her for political gain. Mario and Luigi do travel to Dinosaur Land and meet Yoshi, who wants them to help him free his fellows from captivity under the Koopas, so it does essentially follow what plot there is in SMW. Other characters include a bodyguard to the Princess who might be Toad, and the amoral but sometimes helpful salesman Friendly Floyd.

I found it interesting that, while the DiC cartoons made Mario the ravenous one, presumably because he’s fatter, in this comic it’s Luigi who’s more motivated by his stomach. He’s the one who gets caught in a trap by the smell of provolone.

Also worthy of notice are the sound effects, which include these gems:

There was also a Star Fox comic in Nintendo Power, but since that series never held as much interest for me, I’m not going to review it here. It’s probably somewhere on the Internet if you’re interested, though.

When you really love somebody Valentine’s day can be exciting. Panning it, though, can be a nightmare. You want every detail to be perfect: from your outfit to the dinner with the perfect pairing of wine. Oh and don’t forget the flowers! Even the music needs to be just right. Well shoot, it’s already the day before the most romantic of holidays, where will you find the time to plan everything?

Fear not! Your pals at Famicom Flashbacks are here to help. We’ve each picked out classic video game tunes that are sure to woo over your own Princess Peach or Super Mario. So, without further ado, here are some of our favorite romantic game tunes. Feel free to click the videos to listen to our picks while you read about why we chose them.

Brandon’s Pick: “Zelda’s Lullaby” (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for N64)

For me, the Legend of Zelda series always provides some of the greatest video game music. If you’re into action and adventure it has some amazing tracks. As for Romance, well, it has that too! There are great examples through out the series. Most recently, Skyward Sword was packed with some extremely heartfelt music (probably due to all of the harps).

I have to say though, if I had to pick one song from this iconic franchise to be “the most romantic” it would have to be Zelda’s Lullaby from Ocarina of Time. When I picture Link and Zelda together (doesn’t matter which game) this is the song that plays in my head. It’s both romantic and EXTREMELY sweet. I’m talkin’ RED VELVET CHEESECAKE COVERED IN WHITE CHOCOLATE! That’s why Zelda’s Lullaby takes the cake. >Brandon

bit.Girl’s Pick: “K.K. Aria” (Animal Crossing for Gamecube)

It’s a cool night and I’m headed to the local café: The Roost. Brewster, the hip barista, serves a nice hot cup of coffee for a mere 200 Bells. It’s my favorite place to go on a Saturday night after 8:00 to hear the smooth tunes of K. K. Slider.

He is a master of a number of different musical genres. You can request everything from Samba to Techno, and even Western inspired. You can even get a bootleg recording for your home. The song that I find the most romantic is K. K. Aria. This song reminds me of a ballad and might not sound out of place in a game like Final Fantasy. Of course it sounds much different live than it does when you play the song in your house. >bit.Girl

M-Trip’s Pick: “If You Still Believe” (Legend of Dragoon for PS1)

What song do I think of when I’m in the mood for love? “If You Still Believe” from The Legend of Dragoon soundtrack.

I remember back in high school and I was on the prowl for some hotties when nothing seemed to be going my way, then I had an idea. What if I popped in the most romantic song ever and blasted it from my uber chick-ready Jeep Grand Cherokee?

Result? Well… lots of pointing and laughing. But, hey, I still felt like the man!

This track is the ultimate love song cause right from the get go you feel the instant connection between Dart and Shana, two of the main characters. Dart’s town is burned to the ground and Shana is kidnapped leaving him to save her from a nasty, nasty man.

I’m tearing up just thinking about it! I think I’ll go stare at the poster for awhile and remember my awesome chick acquiring skills from my youth… all thanks to The Legend of Dragoon! >M-Trip

Jupiter’s Pick: “Aquatic Ambiance” (Donkey Kong Country for SNES)

Wow guys, those are great songs to put on a mix tape for your little schoolgirl crush. Maybe you’ll even muster up the courage to ask that special someone to the prom (but if not, I’m sure your dear Aunt Gwen will be happy take you).

Now FamiFlash fans, forget their cute little ditties. For those of you past the “puppy love” phase: close your eyes, play “Aquatic Ambiance,” and get ready for a truly sensual experience. Just listen to those smooth, erotic sounds. I swear, the first time I swam with the Kongs, well, let’s just say I must have entered into puberty right then and there.

Whew… Sorry I need a second to compose myself. I’m listening to it as I write this and I just got to the 50 second mark. Seriously listen to this. Are you thinking wafting silky curtains in the bedroom of an early 90s made-for-tv movie? You know things are heating up. Of course it’s Network and they won’t show it, but you know.

To this day I am sure the developers of DKC knew exactly the reaction these watery levels would give players like me. I mean if not for the lascivious music alone, just play one of those water levels and look at some of the blatant erotic imagery. I’m talking about you, Engarde (DK’s lovable swordfish companion). >Jupiter

We hope this article helped all you love birds out there. What songs do you recommend? Are you surprised as we are that none of us even touched Final Fantasy 8 for this V-Day special? Comment below or on our Facebook page!

#10 TUROK 2: SEEDS OF EVIL

The days of the N64 was when the Turok series reached the peak of its popularity, with Turok: Dinosaur Hunter catching people’s attention despite its dodgy platforming sections. The follow-up, Seeds of Evil, promised to be far grander than the first game, and actually managed to deliver in spades upon its release. Turok 2 is a massive game, with huge labyrinthine levels that need to be revisited again and again in order to discover new areas using newly-acquired abilities. But what everyone really remembers about the Turok games is the creative weapons, and in Turok 2 nothing was more attention-grabbing than the Cerebral Bore. A homing projectile that would seek out and attach itself to the nearest enemy’s head, the Bore would then drill into their brain, spewing juices out before blowing up. To a kid in the 90s, this was beyond awesome. The Turok series has continued to lurch on since then, but it’s never been as respected or relevant as it was on the N64.

#9 SNOWBOARD KIDS

Snowboard Kids was a fantastically fun and quirky snowboarding game. While the gameplay wasn’t anything out of the ordinary from other action-orientated racing games the solid snowboarding controls gave it a different feel to other racing games of the time. With cute, super-deformed big-headed characters and far more creatively decorated environments than are usually found in snowboarding games, Snowboard Kids oozed charm. It even had a super-powered ninja as its ultimate secret unlockable character. A snowboarding ninja! Definitely the Mario Kart of snowboarding games, it’s a shame that after one good sequel and one ill-advised reimagining the series has pretty much disappeared into the void.

#8 SUPER SMASH BROS.

Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube made Smash Bros. one of Nintendo’s biggest and best-selling franchises, but its comparatively humble origins lie on the N64. A much lower budget affair than its sequels, Super Smash Bros. pioneered the series’ unique damage and knockout system and fast-paced easy-to-learn gameplay. Though the host of collectibles and unlockable characters that would make the later games such massive and enjoyable single player experiences weren’t introduced until Melee, the original game’s quirky mission-based single player mode still offered some entertainment to a solo player. But just as with its sequels, Smash Bros. was at its most entertaining among blood-thirsty friends.

#7 WWF NO MERCY

I’ve always been partial to wrestling games, even back in the SNES days. WWF No Mercy is still widely considered to be the best wrestling game ever. Personally I feel it’s grown a bit dated and sluggish and the WWE Day of Reckoning games and later WWE All Stars replaced it as my favourite wrestling games. But I can’t take anything away from No Mercy, it was a brilliant game that I sunk an unnatural amount of hours into and was always good for some multiplayer rumbling. Perhaps the only major black mark on the game’s reputation was its tendency to delete saved data, which could be pretty devastating depending on how much time you’d devoted to creating your own roster of grapplers.

#6 PERFECT DARK

GoldenEye 007 might have been the first popular and brilliant FPS to win Rare massive acclaim during the early days of the N64, but, it’s spiritual successor Perfect Dark was an improvement in every way, pushing the N64 to its limits even with the inclusion of the required Expansion Pack. Dropping the James Bond license, Perfect Dark instead put you in the shoes and full-body cat suit of corporate spy Joanna Dark and set you out to unravel a nicely told story of subterfuge and alien invasion in its single player missions. But the best part of the game by far was the incredibly in-depth customisation available in the multiplayer mode. Even if you had a full group of four friends playing, bots were available to completely fill up every match. Even if you were playing alone, using bots made multiplayer matches fun, and you could customise your bots from their appearance down to their difficulty level and even their general AI behaviour. With a host of objective-based match types such as Capture the Flag and Hold the Briefcase as well as the more straightforward death matches and the option of setting up multiple teams in each mode, the depth of Perfect Dark’s multiplayer gave it a great amount of mileage.

#5 POKÉMON STADIUM

The release of Pokémon Stadium was probably one of the most monumental gaming events of my young teenage years, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that sentiment. With Pokémania in full force at time, Pokémon Stadium would offer the fans something almost inconceivable at the time, the ability to transfer their favourite monsters from their Gameboys to their N64s to experience a Pokémon battle in full animated 3D. They could have released a bare bones game based just on that concept (and would attempt to do so much later with the critically lambasted Pokémon Battle Revolution on the Wii), but Nintendo went the extra mile for this one. Pokémon Stadium was packed with challenges for a solo player to take on, testing their trained teams against even better competition than could be found in the main Red and Blue games. But the real point of the game was pitting your Pokémon against a friend’s team in order to really test their mettle. Pokémon Stadium 2 would be released to coincide with the launch of the second generation Gold and Silver games, but while the game itself would be at least as good as its predecessor the real magic of Pokémon Stadium was seeing your favourite Pokémon in 3D and it would never be as big a deal again as it was the very first time.

#4 BANJO-KAZOOIE

Super Mario 64 earned its spot as one of the biggest, most popular games on the N64. That said, this is my list and there’s apparently only room for one proper 3D platform game on it. And for my money, Banjo-Kazooie just edges out a win over the Italian plumber’s outing. It just seemed bigger and deeper to me. Mario might have tested your old-school platforming skills more, but Banjo-Kazooie focussed more on exploration, giving you massive and intricate worlds to explore and slowly feeding you the new abilities you needed to uncover every hidden collectible. And I’ve never considered myself a proverbial “graphics whore”, but Banjo-Kazooie looked so much better than Mario 64 that there’s no contest in that area. But it really was Banjo-Kazooie’s gameplay that drew me in so much it became one of the few games I’ve ever properly 100% completed to this day. While being released a little later in the console’s life than Mario 64 means that Banjo-Kazooie could never be considered as original or pioneering as the older game, I still have a softer spot in my heart for Banjo-Kazooie’s brilliant and vast level design and memorable quirk of sticking a pair of cute googly eyes on every inanimate object it could.

#3 MYSTICAL NINJA STARRING GOEMON

Quirky isn’t quite the word for this brilliantly wacky, hilarious and always memorable adventure. Packed with a unique mix of Japanese humour and frankly incomprehensible madness, Mystical Ninja is something that you truly have to experience for yourself in order to properly understand or appreciate. It’s hard to say just what makes Mystical Ninja so good, but I’ve never heard a bad word said about it by anyone who’s played it. The soundtrack was incredible, the gameplay was solid and there were plenty of hidden collectibles and side quests to keep you digging deeper into the game. This was a real underrated diamond in the rough, and one of the favourite games in my collection.

#2 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME

Ocarina of Time was a massive milestone in the N64’s lifetime and cemented Nintendo’s position as the best developer of that generation. The scope of Link’s epic time-travelling adventure was something that had never been seen before, and as much as I loved A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, Ocarina of Time definitely raised the bar for the series. The new characters and locations became so iconic and beloved that they’ve defined the series ever since, especially the former pig-like monster king Ganon being reimagined as the badass green-skinned warlock who would continue to oppose Link in future Zelda instalments. The quality of Link’s first adventure into the brave new world of 3D gaming was recognised from the moment it was released, and its reverence has only grown with time. Fans will have had plenty of opportunities to replay it thanks to its rerelease on later platforms like the Gamecube and 3DS, but its shine never wears off. It’s commonly found, and rightfully so, at the top of Best Game Ever lists all across the Internet, so it might be slightly surprising to find it hanging around here at #2. But despite the amazing adventure that Ocarina of Time was, there was one other game that consumed quite a bit more of my early teenage years.

 #1 LYLAT WARS

The N64 revamp of Starwing was the game that came bundled with my N64, and as a result the first game I would ever play on the console. It definitely left an impression on me, and never really fell out of the group of titles I would cycle between even towards the end of the console’s lifetime. Despite the games relatively short length its replayability was seemingly endless. Unlocking the alternate routes in each level and exploring all of the different levels made for at least three playthroughs, and that was before you started trying to win all the medals and unlock the secret Expert difficulty. Trying to best your high scores to achieve the elusive medals for each level was incredibly addictive, a perfectly judged goal that was difficult enough that you might never achieve a full set but reasonable enough that you might always feel victory would be in your grasp if you gave it one more try. It’s a damn shame that Nintendo have neglected the series for so long, handing it off to other developers who have put out decidedly average efforts under the license so far. Star Fox Assault and Command were both decent enough, but neither came close to living up to the series’ lofty high points.

So those are my ten favourite games from my favourite console. It’s a shame that writing this really took me back to the days when you could rely on a Nintendo console to offer not only quality, innovative first-party titles but also a host of second and third party gems, days which seem long passed now. And while the Pokémon and Zelda series’ have continued to grow from strength to strength, many of the games on this list have fallen on harder times, especially the titles from Rare who have somewhat fallen from grace since they were bought out by Microsoft. Thankfully, even if we may never see anything new done with these titles, most of the games here have been made available again in recent years, whether through straight ports or remakes on Nintendo’s newer consoles and handhelds or through digital release on Nintendo’s WiiWare channel.

Along with a few lovely demos, I’m reminded of the new-old release duo that is Super Mario 3D land and LoZ; Ocarina of Time, both of which I have do not own yet (why? Because I’m a forgetful idiot, thats why). So I thought I’d make a list. I love lists. Everybody loves lists. Here is my list.

3DS Games I NEED:
Legen of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS Remake)
Super Mario 3D Land (Raccoon Mario aww yeah!)
Luigi’s Mansion 2
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

There will be more, certainly a Pokémon title, be it of the main series or a spin off, and definitely from other platforms, but for now, this is it. Well…this and Crash Bandicoot 2.

The Legend of Zelda was released July 29, 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the first role-playing game for its time. Since the game was created for an 8-bit cartridge, the range of colors were restricted. The designers had to recycle colors for certain lands and dungeons. These colors were flat and the only form of shading was by the use of thin to thick lines. In the first and brighter picture one can notice the attempt of texture by the use of patterns. The bushes are a repetative green and the rocks are identical. The main emphasis in this screen shot is the bridge. It would be the first thing the player spots because it is their only route to continue on their quest. The brighter contrasts in color suggest the player is outside, compared to the darker colors of the second screen shot of a dungeon. The dungeon uses deeper colors to create a darker and more spooky effect. The colors on Link are also lightly saturated, the hair and outfit are slightly different from his outfit in the sun. The proportions between the old man and Link are perfectly matched. The Legend of Zelda might not appear as a work of art, but for 1987, this game was a hit!

Years later Nintendo released a more complex system, the Nintendo 64. Named for the fact that it housed a 64-bit cpu, this product provided game designers with more graphics capabilities. On November 23, 1998 Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. Also created by Miyamoto, this game was the first Zelda to be in 3D. It has a wider range of colors which helps create more texture. In the first screen shot one can easily decipher grass from dirt because of its use of lines and multiple colors. The map, health and action icons are all more vibrant colors compared to game-play for easier view. Link’s fairy Navi, is also bright and has an aura around her letting you know that she is glowing. The scale of the surroundings and creatures make the game feel more real, enhancing the role-playing adventure.  

The second picture is visually stunning! The sky changes from day to night creating a glare on the player’s camera view depending on the angle. The value of the land gets progressively brighter as the sun rises. Distant areas have a darker contrast and Link’s shadow moves in perfect harmony with the rising sun.

The final picture from Ocarina of Time, is a hallway scene. I chose this picture because of the dramatic use of lines. The rug and patterned wallpaper help twist this room as the player actively runs through it. The pillars closest to the player are more vertical, but as one looks towards the end of the hallway, they become more horizontal. This hallway, paired with eerie music and a dark playing room, gives the ultimate playing experience for its time.  

The most recent Zelda game to date is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Released November 20, 2011 this game was inspired by Miyamoto’s love for impressionism. The sky is said to be his tribute to Cézanne. As the player looks off in the distance they will notice the images are blurred, but not how your average video game blurs. The distance blurs in Skyward Sword are more like brush strokes, similar to Monet. Also, the colors are brighter in comparison to Twilight Princess. Pastels rule the environment while vibrant colors decorate the main character, people and surrounding creatures. I was not a fan of the visual aspects of this game until I researched it. I have a much greater appreciation for the art in this title and I hope others can see the same.

“Well, Ocarina of Time is like one of the best games ever,” Jacob, a student aged 12, told us, “so it’s not really a big deal. And Wind Waker was like a major step forward for the franchise so it will be great to see it remastered for next-gen.”

For a long time Nintendo have received some criticism over claims of just “rehashing” additions to their major franchises. Each Pokémon is almost identical to the one prior, as with 2D Mario, and, some say, with Zelda games. Fukuyama is well aware of the stigma. “We spent like five years making Skyward Sword you guys. We spent ages trying to change shit up to take full advantage of the new Motion Plus hardware,” he says quickly, frowning, the translator struggling to keep up. “But still people either hated the changes we made to the Zelda franchise, or just said it was still the same. So we’re just going to give the people the rehashes they want. People ate up Ocarina of Time 3D, they’ll eat up Wind Waker U. Those games are great. Play them again. We’re going to work on Majora’s Mask 3D next. Maybe once you guys make an original Zelda game we’ll give it another crack, right?” Then he snapped the 3DS he was holding in half and left.

Home consoles were blessed with iconic characters who lived in some of the most mind melting universes. As gamers we’d be able to explore these worlds meeting some of the most memorable characters whilst engaging in unique & engaging gameplay experiences.

Boundaries were almost always being pushed and we were witness to technical feats which only a decade before were not imaginable.
Games such as ICO, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Mario 64, Donkey Kong Country (insert more) did things with the medium which had never been done before, leading to endless subsequent imitations, whether it be in the artistic qualities, gameplay, or story telling.

The icon, whether it is the setting, the story, the protagonist, a talisman, a gameplay mechanic or the dreaded antagonist (to name but a few examples), is the star of the show. It’s the reason we played games back then and it’s the reason we continue to play games now. It’s the reason the Walking Dead game blew away all expectations in beating a host of AAA games to game of the year 2012.

When a game becomes more than a game, when it becomes a phenomenon & part of a broader cultural moment in society publishers can’t help but want to cash in on that success and clones appear. This cash grab shifts the developers focus from making a complete & engaging experience, to making something that sells because it follows a set of criteria which gained said trend setter the success. When this happens we loose the icons, the moments which we can’t fully explain, but they just make ‘that’ game so much more than just a piece of entertainment and more like an experience, which we then share with our friends.

I remember playing mass effect 1 thinking that was the best story I’d ever experienced in a game, because I had made it my own. I subsequently replayed it 11 more times, even making a Barack Shepard, cause god knows the galaxy needs the kind of change we can believe in.
Mass Effect 2 came out and I received my pre-order, I rushed home from university & my initial thoughts were WOW this game is so cinematic and the environments looked more busy and real compared to the 1st game. As I ploughed my way through the game I started to think yes, the combat is awesome, but this feels like a slightly clunky Gears of War & with almost no exploration in the game it certainly didn’t feel like an RPG. The charm was diluted. Whether this was to try to reach a larger audience & whether it was due to the new publisher were thoughts which I dwelt on. Even so, I completed the game a total of 26 times. I have no idea how I finished my degree.

The announcement of Mass Effect 3 was mind blowing, hearing the return of more rpg-like elements and that the game would have the largest environments ever built in the Unreal engine were all great things. A few months passed & news of the story being leaked spread. I didn’t read anything further as I wanted to keep things fresh & spoiler free. When it was announced that they would be introducing a new human squad member and that Thane or any Drell for that matter would be in my squad I felt let down. I didn’t want to have to learn about a new character whilst I was trying to remember who had died and who would be happy/ angry to see me whilst I attempted to save the galaxy. I was turned off, I avoided news about the game for a few months, until news of a forthcoming demo emerged. I thought what’s the worst that could happen? So, I played it, I turned my Xbox off & to this day have refused to buy mass effect 3. Hearing about the fan uproar about the endings only added further nails in the coffin.

The problem for me was that Mass Effect had started something, it had set an expectation. The side missions were a bit dull & the environments weren’t eye-popping, but it had a sense of scope, scale and I felt like I had a real sense of purpose when I assumed the role of Commander Shepard. The combat, unrefined and sometimes clunky was effective and as far as systems go, Bioware did a fantastic job of mapping everything out. The great alien characters and the experience of learning about their cultures was slowly pushed to one side, as generic military types infested the Normandy.

I think it comes as no surprise that following Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 3 & The Old Republic that the doctors left Bioware. The spark, the magic, whatever you want to call it, it’s not there. It feels as if EA has set them to chase $$$, to build a world which you can fill with content, take out and sell as expansions, rather than create gripping experiences with great resonance. Quality doesn’t just mean presentation, quality has to run throughout the game for it to become an icon.

Hello again! Apologies for taking such a long time to post again. Life got a bit hectic for a while there. It still is, but I hope to post a bit more often – starting now, with a ridiculously long post about both a very recent event and also about something from my childhood memories. At the same time! I can’t help being so crazy-talented. It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m Spiderman. Wait, no…

ANYWAY… on to the promised ‘something different’ (read: upbeat) post. This past weekend I was able to attend the 2013 Symphony of the Goddesses, a symphonic concert of Zelda music held in likely the most famous building in Australia, the Sydney Opera House. For those not in the know, here is a big healthy dose of context:

The Legend of Zelda (often shortened to ‘Zelda’) is a video game series that kicked off back on the original Nintendo system in 1986 (87 in the US). The original is the fourth-best selling video game of all time. When Nintendo rated its top-200 games, three of the top four were Zelda games. The first place spot was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That game is noted by Guinness as being the highest-rated video game ever (and indeed, is nigh-mythological in its nostalgia-inducing powers among gamers. More on that later). Depending on how you count re-releases and updated versions, and whether you count some of the… third-party titles like the CD-i games (hint: you don’t because they are horrifically bad), there are somewhere between 16 and a billion Zelda games. Let’s call it ‘about 20′ to be safe. The series has lasted over 25 years and is still going. The short version of this paragraph is: Zelda is a powerhouse series only rivaled in popularity by the likes of Mario himself. The rest of this post will be split between talking about the games and talking about the concert, in that order. In the interest of finishing this post before the heat death of the universe, I’ll stick to a few keystone games of the series with personal meaning to me. Also there will be highly-recommended music for your listening pleasure. Also-also, there are spoilers for these decade-or-two-old games below. You have been warned.

——————————————————————–

So, the games. Sources of so much fun, so many internet memes, so much good music. Where to start? Well, I’ll touch on the original briefly, because I really have to… but I must confess, I didn’t actually play it all that much. In fact, the first game was a brutally hard maze of unlabeled screens in an age before the internet made it easy to find your way through a game. Hidden passages with no indication of their existence, obscure dungeons needed for progression pointed to by only poorly-translated and strangely-phrased phrases from old men in random caves… this was not a game for the weak. So why did it take off? Well, probably a few reasons… for one, it was big for its time. The overworld was huge and varied (at the time, varied meant one part was green and another part far away was brown, or white to represent snow, or filled with statues that animate and proceed to kill you). The lack of direction may actually have been part of the charm, as well. A cave on the first screen held only an old man with a sword and the most important advice in gaming history “IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE. TAKE THIS.” So you grab the sword and the adventure begins. I don’t know about you, but as a kid I -liked- the idea of grabbing a sword and exploring a giant world of adventure. The Legend of Zelda appealed to the adventurer in us. Get sword, kill monsters, save princess. It’s basic, but it works.

This is not from the game, but I feel it gets the basic message across very well. If video games have taught me anything, it’s that you should always trust old men giving you swords and advice. See also: Star Wars.

On that note, I should probably mention one of the most common mistakes made by non-Zelda-fans (read: people who haven’t yet played the two I’ll be focusing on next). Despite that the series is ‘The Legend of Zelda”… the main character is not Zelda. Zelda is the princess’s name. The one you rescue in most games. Even the games SHE ISN’T IN carry her name, though. The hero’s name is actually Link. Poor Link, never getting the recognition he deserves. Though to be fair, Zelda develops into a pretty dynamic character in later games, ditching the ‘damsel in distress’ gig occasionally. But to make sure this is clear:

This is Link. You play as this guy in pretty much all of the games.

This is Zelda. She is a princess.

I can understand the confusion, given that they are both skinny elf-like people with long blonde hair and a thing for wearing impractical gloves and dresses (it’s a “tunic,” I swear!). Nonetheless, now all you non-gamers can successfully fake your way through a conversation with a Zelda fan by remembering the key difference – Link is the one with a hat. Moving on!

Oh, one more thing. This is the overworld theme, which eventually simply became the core theme music for the series. Given the limited beeps and tones the NES had to work with, this is some good stuff. Inspiring enough to set a child’s imagination running into the fantastic world around them. I’ll probably link a newer version later, but this is where it began and I think it played a big part in why the series took off.

A Link to the Past

This is where my own Zelda journey began. In fact, this was the very first video game I specifically begged my parents to buy (the traditional childhood pastime). I recall cutting out paper swords and shields and taping them to the wall as part of my campaign to get this game that I played once at a friend’s house and thereafter needed to make my own. And once I got it, ohhhh it was worth every minute of whining. The Theme, if you will. The massive world to explore (most Zelda games take place in a place Hyrule, but the map changes around a LOT between games… more on that at the end of the games section). And just when you’ve collected the three magical thingamajigs, gotten the magic sword, and slain the evil wizard who captured the princess this time… BOOM, the game smacks you for your insolence, drops you into an even bigger and more dangerous ‘Dark World’ (which mirrored the Light World in many ways) with seven more dungeons and magical doohickeys to collect. Even without that twist, the game would have been reasonably long for games of that era and higher quality than most.

Yeah, it was kinda like that.

A Link to the Past, besides having a name custom-tailored to being nostalgic about it, also pretty much defined the future of the series. The first game had been a big world with no real direction or story beyond ‘sword, monsters, princess, go’. The second one had more of a story but was also a side-scrolling game with a totally different feel (and fans are very divided as to whether it was fun or awful). This, the third shot at the series, got it all right. Link still gets a sword, kills monsters, and rescues a princess (actually like… seven of them), but there’s more to it than that now. Ganondorf/Ganon, the Big Bad of the series, gets established as such. Princess Zelda (previously captured and comatose in the first two games respectively) takes her first slightly active role in helping Link by helping to dispel the barrier around the final castle. The series icon, the Triforce (three golden triangles arranged in another triangle), while it existed in the first game, got some lore behind it as the super-powerful divine-magic artifact that the bad guy usually wants and the good guys don’t want him to get. It was pretty much good times all around, and most of these features would be echoed down the line of future games. This game was fun enough that I still play through it every couple years or so.

And that masked scorpion-looking monster in the bottom-left up there is another childhood memory. I had had a lot of trouble trying to beat it so eventually, in my frustration, my little brother asked if he could try. Naturally, he managed it and thus never let me live it down. This happened again later with another game, and both bosses are stuck in my memory forever as a result.

The Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (OoT) is considered by many to be the high point of the series, with one of the most recent entries finally having the potential to perhaps challenge it atop its throne. Part of this is undoubtedly because this was the first 3-dimensional Zelda game, and (for the time) it was a visual feast. A vast open central field, soaring waterfalls, a sandstorm-filled desert, and puzzles involving more than pushing blocks onto switches (one of my favorites was definitely the mirrors-and-light set of puzzles in one dungeon, especially once you got the shield that also reflected light beams. One of EVERY player’s least favorite was the entire Water Temple and its obsession with changing water levels to access different parts of the place and praying you didn’t miss a key and get stuck halfway through. Yes, this is a running joke/gripe among Zelda fans). And then you traveled 7 years into the future, aging from child-Link to adult-Link, and found a ruined world. Cue a bunch more temples and collecting cool stuff to figure out what happened and fix it. Hyrule also got populated with various races of demi-human people which would, again, become a series staple (though some of the races show up more than others). As the game’s title might indicate, OoT also caused the series to lean in a musical direction, and several later games would feature an instrument or similar implement with special powers, often as the keystone of a game’s mechanics. Next music to listen to – the Gerudo Valley theme (one of the most-remixed videogame tunes ever, too). Just try to get that out of your head later.

This game also threw players for a loop when the presumed-male Sheik character, who helps Link along most of the ruined-world portion of the game with ninja-like agility and smokebombs to come at go… turned out to be Zelda. Somehow. Magic, one assumes. But it was a glimpse of awesomeness in a character that wasn’t Link, for once, and we liked it. She still got captured briefly, but came around in time to help during the final confrontation of the game (another rule of the series: Ganondorf always turns into a giant monster when you beat him the first time).

Fighting a ghost-horseman who leaps from creepy paintings and flies through the air. All in a day’s work for the Hero of Time.

So what made this game so good, beyond the obvious graphical and audio improvements? The community, for one thing. Never had a game been surrounded by so many rumors circulating the internet and between friends. The game had secrets. Lots of them, and some of them well-hidden. Others were the bizarre results of glitches, revealing hints of further content (often cut content). The Triforce couldn’t be found in the normal game, but screenshots from old prerelease material showed it hovering in a temple chamber. Theories abounded on how to find it, or access a Sky Temple in which it rested, or get an upgraded mount that could go new places, or unfreeze a location permanently iced0over during the seven-year gap, or find a belt to turn Link into a girl (yeah, well… that’s the internet). Some were blatant lies and trolling. Others yielded surprising fruit. Using a bug that involved physically lifting part of the game out of the system, but not so far that the game froze, I was able to leave the starting town without finding the sword that normally lets you do so. I proceeded to beat half of the game using limited secondary weapons like sticks and bombs. Upon reaching the adult-Link part of the game, triggered by picking up a much better sword, the game broke in a really interesting way. Suddenly I could use items from horseback that the game never intended me to use. A grappling-hook item (the ‘hookshot’, the best item in the series in all its later forms as well) used from horseback on certain signposts overhead left me walking or even swimming in mid-air, and thus able to access all kinds of areas that should have been off-limits. This was bizarre and exciting stuff, and really my first exposure to any sort of gaming community beyond ‘the kids at school’. I loved it, and sank many hours into trying out all the rumors and secrets I could find, and friends I’ve spoken to say they did similar things.

This grainy little picture caused more man-hours of searching through OoT than were spent finding Osama Bin Laden.

Plus there was a fishing minigame. Everyone likes fishing.

Games Summary

There are a lot of other things I could cover, from the much-darker sort-of-sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask (nightmare fuel in game form) to the bright and colorful cel-shaded Wind Waker series, but I want to wrap this up for now. The games are fun, keeping a lot of the core aspects of gameplay and story from game to game while changing things up just enough to keep things interesting. New toys and weapons to try out, new monsters to fight, new puzzles to push blocks through, and new remixes of familiar tunes to make us smile. Before moving on to the concert, I want to add one last little thing I like about the games.

By and large, the games take place in timeline (a long, crazy timeline with multiple prongs and games in a very different order than they were released. It took more than two decades for Nintendo to actually release said timeline, preferring to keep fans guessing). What does that mean? Well… Link isn’t always the same Link. Some games make this explicitly clear – a blonde kid finds a green outfit and a Hero’s Sword and his name just happens to be Link. Zelda is usually Zelda, but I can think of a few times she didn’t know it until halfway through the game, and a few others that suggest the ‘replacement princess’ thing for her too. Ganondorf is himself, being evil and possessing more lives than a schizophrenic cat, but almost every game pulls a new variation on ‘oh, maybe it’s some other guy this time’ until of course the farce falls apart and it’s him again. Hyrule itself has been conquered and in one game actually sunk beneath the ocean entirely. Yet the games keep playing out with the same core essence of a story. Why do I like this?

Well, honestly, there’s a sort of romantic sense to it. A hero, a princess, and a villain (later also tied to pieces of the Triforce representing Courage, Wisdom, and Power respectively, for added symbolic effect) – living and dying dozens of variations of the same tale throughout history. Each has clear, unquestioned roles to play… explaining in part why a character with virtually no voice of his own in any of the games (CD-I didn’t happen!) manages to still capture the imagination of children and adults who want to fill those pointy brown boots and go on another adventure. Sue me, I’m a romantic and sometimes odd things appeal to me. But… I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only one.

That’s right, hero… go save the princess and the world. Again!

—————————————————————-

The Symphony

This section will be short because it’s hard to describe properly if you weren’t there. I could say the music was great – and it was. I could laugh about how the show’s speaker was clearly a Zelda fan, telling us not to worry, there was no Water Temple section in the dungeon medley (the conductor herself was also a fan, and seemed quite pleased to be a part of the production). I could relate how the concert took place in the Sydney Opera House of all places, perhaps one of the most impressive locales possible for “mere” video game music. But it still misses the point.

The night before attending, I read a review of the performance that had taken place that evening. The reviewer essentially said ‘the music was alright, but the musicians seemed somewhat embarrassed, and I felt it too. But hey, these geeks are into it.’ I was… so utterly disappointed, both in the reviewer for taking that deprecating tone and at the thought of those playing the music thinking it was an embarrassment. I hope at least one of them accidentally finds this post by a chance Google search and skips down to this section, because what I have to say here is probably the most important part of the whole post, but I had to build up to it.

This isn’t “just video game music”. It’s 25 years of memories, spanning more than a generation of gamers and indeed, players of all ages. It was a few thousand people that night (over a hundred thousand total, counting all shows of the Symphony of the Goddesses) that shared memories, nostalgia, hours of fun. I could walk up to anyone near my age or above, in that room, and reminisce about that blasted Water Temple or how great the Lost Forest music was, and they’d know instantly what I was talking about. I could look to my left and see an eight year old kid and his twenty-something dad wearing the same Zelda shirt and silly grins, or look a few rows down and see a woman twice my age here on her own because, well, she likes Zelda. Because the core of the games keeps so many features with each new incarnation, even the newest fans can talk about the series with people who played it twenty years ago. It’s really no different from the communities that build up around anything else that lasts as long as Zelda has (See also: Star Wars/Star Trek, any given sports team, Harry Potter (well, it’s getting there), and so on).

To the musicians and choral groups who played that afternoon: I hope you got a glimpse of what I’m saying… the joy you brought thousands of people sharing a common interest and experiences. I think maybe you heard it in the enthusiastic applause after the Overworld theme, or the outright cries of joy when you announced the second encore would be Gerudo Valley. This music carries emotional weight, a direct shot to the nostalgia, and for two and a half hours, we sat in that dark hall, watched occasional clips – flashes of the games and musicians intermingled, and we remembered. We remembered the sense of vast worlds of exploration, the thrill of adventuring and being a hero, the fun of showing friends a new game or staying up late to figure out “just one more room”. Some of us remembered vivid moments of childhood and one of our very first games, and the good times we had with it. So thank you for a great symphony, and remember that good music is good music regardless of its source.

For the rest of you, if you listen to only one bit of music in this post, go out on this note (and enjoy some of the other songs linked to it from there):

Once more unto the breach, dear friends…

So now a confession must come from me. (I do that a lot, don’t I?) Anyone who knows me knows first-hand that I love the Zelda franchise with a passion. Or, as Brother would say, a flaming purple passion. (Don’t ask, ‘cause I don’t know where he got that.) The characters, the storylines, the gameplay, everything. I have LoZ decals on my car, a wallet, even a lanyard for my key card at work. So here’s my confession:

I’ve never actually really played or beaten a Zelda game. Ever.

Yeah, I played the original NES one, but I didn’t really understand it. (I was kid, okay? What do you want from me?) The sad fact is, I rather suck at them. I tried desperately when the N64 was released, and even managed to go a little ways in Ocarina of Time. But as it got harder and harder, I found that I just didn’t possess the skills to master such amazing awesomeness. I was great at Mario Kart, Smash Bros., even Mario 64, not to mention that I was a pro at most NES games. So what was I to do? I wanted to see what the heck happened. (Okay, so I really just wanted to see Link as an adult. Pervy elf fancier, remember?) Low and behold, I discovered that my little brother, who was probably about eleven when Ocarina of Time came out, was surprisingly talented at just about any video game handed to him. He started playing OoT, so I started watching. New discovery – we were actually a pretty sweet team together. When he couldn’t figure out a puzzle or couldn’t find an object, I could often point out something that he’d missed. Yes, it was the beginning of something beautiful.

From that point on, I just pretty much let him play every game while I watched. It was like seeing a movie for me. Not a bad deal in the long run. We’d grab some lunch/dinner and spend countless hours poring over the next dungeon or puzzle, oohing and ahhing as the storylines unfolded. Legend of Zelda and Fire Emblem were the top two on our “must-play” list.

OoT. Best Zelda game ever.

It was also extremely complicated, which is why die-hard Zelda fans love it still to this day. But by far, the creepiest aspect of it was the Shadow Temple. You knew it was going to be difficult. You didn’t know it was going to be mind-scarring. Remember that Brother was only about eleven or so when we played this, and I was around seventeen. It’s late at night, on a weekend, if I remember correctly. All the lights are off in the house because Mom and Dad are already in bed and it’s just cooler that way. Creepy music is playing in the background of the game. Brother enters a chamber of the Shadow Temple, unsure of where to go next. Suddenly, we both see this strange, black spot on the top of Link’s head. We stare at it, perplexed as it slowly grows bigger and bigger. The next thing we know, a giant severed hand jumps out and brings Link to an instant, untimely demise.

I’m pretty sure we both screamed like little girls.

My heart actually tried to jump out through my throat. Brother kept whomping on buttons like crazy screeching, “Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!” But alas, it was to no avail. That was just one of many difficult temples, but it’s the one that sticks out in my mind the most. Actually, I don’t think I could forget it if I tried. Between the dead hands and the long-necked zombies (I forget their proper name)…yeah. Those gave us both nightmares.

However, it’s still one of my favorite games, and it was the one that sparked both of our interests in LoZ. To this day, I still make Brother play games for me. Yes, I have my Mario Kart and Smash Bros., but when it comes to complicated games that I don’t stand a chance on, he’s awesome and plays for me.

I tell ya, that’s a good little brother.

See? Mind-scarring.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

I miss this game so much! The ending always gave me goosebumps…especially when Link goes back in time and meets Princess Zelda all over again at Hyrule Castle.

The music, the characters, the game play, the plot…PERFECT!

Nostalgia at its peak.

—Moonlight

This is because, frankly, they don’t exist. The N64 is the most perfect console ever created, and is the only console I’ve ever owned where the joy I experienced unwrapping it has stayed with me constantly throughout its lifespan.

It was also the console that confirmed for me that I was going to be a gamer, that playing games was going to be something that I did, something that I loved.

Everything about the N64 reeks of nostalgia, from the stupid (amazing) trident controller (who needs to be able to reach ALL the buttons right?), the cartridges which you had to blow dust off before they would work. Even the shape of the controller ports was amazing and ridiculous. Hell, even the console itself was a stupid shape.

So in tribute to my childhood years, here are three of my favourite N64 games of all time:

Banjo Kazooie (1998) 

Banjo-Kazooie was a platform game developed by Rare, one of the most renowned developers of the 1990′s, and published by Nintendo. Banjo-Kazooie took the inspiration from Super Mario 64, then covered it in sparkles and collectables and unleashed it on unsuspecting 8 year olds (including myself) everywhere.

Behind the sparkles and collectables (Red Feathers, Gold Feathers, Musical Notes, Jigsaw pieces, honeycombs, Eggs, Mumbo Tokens) Banjo-Kazooie is actually a brilliant platformer. It follows the story of a honey bear (Banjo) and his friend a red bird (Kazooie), who lives in his backpack. Banjo and Kazooie must rescue Banjo’s little sister Tooty from the evil witch Gruntilda.

There were so many abilities and gameplay mechanics in Banjo-Kazooie, from using Kazooie to walk up steep slopes, to flying, to Banjo’s combat, the game was remarkably deep, and is probably my favourite platform game.

Perfect Dark (2000)

A spiritual successor to 1997′s Goldeneye, and another game developed by Rare, Perfect Dark was  the seminal FPS of the N64 generation. It ran on the same engine as Goldeneye, but with some vastly improved features.

It improved on Goldeneye in almost every respect, animation, AI, graphics, mechanics, and arguably, multiplayer. Goldeneye, was my first love in the FPS genre. But Perfect Dark took strides forward made by Goldeneye, and polished them to a mirror shine.

Many of the features in Perfect Dark went on to appear in successive other games in the genre. Almost all weapons in Perfect Dark had an alternative mode of fire, opening up huge amounts of versatility in the multiplayer. As well as the frankly ridiculous Farsight sniper rifle. An alien sniper rifle which sees and shoots through all terrain while scoped, and kills in one shot.

Perfect Dark became a solid multiplayer favourite for me and my friends right up until about 2004. Even thinking about it now, I’m not sure if I prefer any other FPS for local splitscreen mulitplayer.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

Somewhere, in an attic near Hereford, sits my old N64 and one game only. That game is Ocarina of Time, over the years I’ve given away all my other games to friends or sold off at car boot sales. But I fully expect to keep my N64 copy of Ocarina of Time for the rest of my life.

Everything about Ocarina of Time (OoT) just works within the context of the game. It treads the fine line between controller snapping frustration and boundless joy whenever you figure out a puzzle or beat a boss. The Spirit Temple being a great example of the former, and the Forest Temple the latter.

It was one of the first games I played which really used music as a part of the game, rather than just background noise. And this concept is still one which fascinates me today, with a huge expansion in the number of games which are based entirely around music.

Also, was probably the first open world game I ever played, and giving child-me a huge open immersive world to play in absolutely blew my mind

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Well that’s my two cents. Those are three of my favourite N64 games, and probably three of my favourite games of all time, on any console. What are yours?

Nintendo has done the impossible with the Legend of Zelda franchise. For over 25 years, they’ve sold the same basic story to millions of fans repeatedly. This is not even a bad thing; The Legend of Zelda is a series that has always been released with such sincerity that the magic has not once faded from it. With each new release, the charm is still there. Nintendo has created a cricle of trust with its fans. The fans know what they’re getting with each title, and the creators know what the fans want. Since Ocarina of Time, the fans have discussed the timeline, seeking confirmation from Nintendo about their theories. Now Nintendo has delivered it in the form of the Hyrule Historia.

I’m not going to give away much about the timeline in my review. Don’t worry. If you’re a fan and haven’t read it yet, I don’t want to spoil it for you. If you’ve come across the timelines page spread across the internet, don’t worry, there’s more to it than just the bare timelines page.

Hyrule Historia divided into three parts, four if you include the manga in the back. The first quarter solely focusses on the artwork from Skyward Sword, since it’s not only the most recent title in the series, but is also one of the titles that mostly plays into the fact that there is storyline to the Zelda universe.

The second quarter is all about the timeline, laying down all the games and detailing the important parts of all the games to get a broad sense of the storyline.

The rest of Hyrule Historia, a good half of the book, is artwork for the franchise. Including a lot of concept art that never made it into the games.

As much as I enjoyed reading the timeline, I really found myself loving the concept art in the second half of the book. A lot of the concept art of areas and gameplay elements not used in the final games found their way in, which was especially interesting in the case of games like Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks. There’s a lot of variations of styles for Link in games that were never used. A lot of strange and interesting characters that could have walked Hyrule but never did. And a bare-chested design for Tingle that I thankfully never saw in a game.

The timeline itself surprised me at points. Before diving into the actual book itself, I never looked up the timeline when it was officially announced. I’m glad I didn’t, because without the chapters explaining it, it felt strange for the way it splits. But even with a little thought towards why it went down the way it ended up doing, I can accept it happily. I am wondering what direction the series is going to head into though. It feels as though the entire reason they finally give us an explanation to the timelines is because, looking at each one respectively, they’ve all reached a similar point.

It’s interesting how big a deal the timeline has become amongst fans of the Zelda series while, especially now that the entire thing is put down in front of us, it’s very clear it was never intended to really be the main focus of the series. A lot of the choices made in the story make it very clear that most of the connections and choices are made up as they go along. Again, not a criticism, since it’s handled incredibly rare. Near the end of the book, one of the people behind the series, Eiiji Aonuma even admits the main focus is exploring the hardware’s functionality, with the story as an after-thought.

Maybe that’s why Zelda has managed to still feel like you’re actually out there exploring something new to this day. That sense of exploration is still there from the side of the developers, and in their excitement, they try to distill as many ways to carry that feeling over to the player.

A lot of the art, story details, and general ideas within the Legend of Zelda franchise went right over my head the first time I played most of them. I love exploring games with good, strong settings, and usually do my best to find everything it has to offer, no matter how well hidden. Reading Hyrule Historia made it clear to me how much more there is hidden away in those games. Even teaching new things to a Zelda die-hard like myself.

There’s no way around it. If you’re a fan of the Zelda series, the Hyrule Historia is something you should read at least once. It’s an amazing collection of art and facts about a game franchise that has always been crafted full of amazing art styles and an incredible attention to detail. Absolutely worth the money.

PROS

•  The 25th Anniversary Illustration
•  Way the timeline is handled
• All that artwork

CONS

•  Barechest Tingle. I could have lived happily without seeing that.
• Some details are hinted at in a manner that makes it seem Nintendo still wants to be able to deny having acknowledged it.

Few franchises fill fanboys with as much childish excitement as Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda. Having reached incredible heights with the phenomenal success of 1997’s The Ocarina of Time, Link’s formulaic but always enjoyable adventures have consistently kept the Zelda franchise at the top of Nintendo’s list of moneymakers.

With a number of gaming websites raising questions of Nintendo’s place in the market and their ability to compete against the likes of Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo needed to make an impression at this Nintendo Direct broadcast, and opted to use fan nostalgia as rope to drag themselves away from the intense criticism they have been receiving since the 3DS’ lacklustre launch.

Nintendo delivered. Regardless of recent hostility towards the company, any news regarding one of the most recognisable faces in gaming is bound to stir-up a storm, and even though a Wii U Zelda title was always inevitable, the mere acknowledgment of the game was enough to reignite the flagging flames of the Wii U. Those flames were then set ablaze with the revelation that one of the most beloved franchises in the series’ lineage, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, will be receiving an HD makeover in the not too distant future.

As a born and bred Nintendo guy, I lost interest in the company last generation after they seemingly abandoned the very fans that lined their wallets for decades in favour of the casual market and games like Wii Fit. This time around they seem to be trying harder than ever to win back the hearts of the hardcore fans, and these are the exact kind of announcements they need to be making in order to accomplish that. The one thing that keeps people interested in Nintendo games is the overwhelming sense of nostalgia associated with their large roster of franchises, and I will most certainly be picking up a Wii U as a result of this announcement.

Sure, the Nintendo Direct broadcast was a somewhat muted affair overall, with not much in terms of concrete details, established franchises, or noteworthy gameplay footage to demonstrate the Wii U’s burgeoning future, but the Legend of Zelda franchise holds enough heft to single-handedly rescue any flagging system. With the 3DS already set to have a stellar year in terms of AAA games and established first-party titles, it’s hard to question Nintendo’s ability to quickly turn opinions when they’re on the ropes.

If Nintendo can build on this momentum going into E3 (and it certainly seems like they will now that Super Smash Bros, Mario and Mario Kart have all been confirmed to make their debuts at the event) then it seems the Japanese gaming giants may have finally had the moment of clarity that Western gamers have been praying for since the final days of the GameCube.

@jordanmarsden

The flow of time is always cruel. Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it. A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days…

This is the number one title of At the Buzzer’s top 25 games of all-time, as voted on by the main ATB cast members and other friends of the show. We’re not quite done with this just yet — tomorrow we’ll post the group’s list and each person’s individual rankings, and on Friday we’ll post the best responses we’ve gotten so far along with our own impressions on how it all turned out.

For more information on how this whole thing works or for the other games on the list, check out the Related Links at the bottom of this post.

1) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Chris: I’m faced with a difficult task in writing about our number one game of all-time for a couple of reasons. Number one, the other two guys have had a crack at their thoughts on it already, so I’m going to have to try to avoid repeating what they said a million times. Number two, even though I thoroughly enjoyed this game when I played it as a teenager, it’s not even in my top 25 and I have conflicting thoughts on it being our best game ever. So work with me here as I sort through my manly emotions.

There’s no doubt that Ocarina of Time is one of the most influential games ever made. Even though Super Mario 64 was responsible for the explosion of 3D gaming, Zelda seemed like an improbability because having to control a camera with one thumbstick and Link with the other would have made fighting a nightmarish experience. But Z-targeting fixed that problem with a lock-on system that was waaaaaay ahead of its time. Fans probably would have been happy with a mediocre to above-average camera system, considering the difficulty of converting a 2D franchise into 3D — instead, they got near perfection.

Maybe that’s the best way to describe how I feel about this game: near perfection. Damn near everything is done well. The soundtrack has some major hits on it that far outweigh a few misses (Gerudo Valley? Windmill Hut? Saria’s Song? etc.?). The level design is some of the best we’ve ever seen in the series, and considering the pedigree that Zelda has in crafting puzzles and dungeons, that’s no small statement. The item inventory is rock solid, with several great items that can be used in a variety of ways — the only downside is the whole “adult Link can’t throw a boomerang for some reason herp derp” syndrome. The characters are fantastic, especially considering how fleshed out they were 15 years ago (we almost take for granted what Zelda and Link are like at this point, but this was relatively new territory back then).

It’s possible that I kept Ocarina of Time off my list because I wanted to give some other Zelda games credit and I knew the rest of the panel wouldn’t vote for them as highly (like Link to the Past and Majora’s Mask). This game has a ton of nostalgia for me and it’s a definitive part of gaming. So I can’t say that I’m upset about it being our best game ever — it certainly has plenty of merit. Even now, I think back to some of the most chilling moments of this game (the Door of Time opening, Zelda revealing herself as Sheik, the escape from Ganon’s Tower…) and my heart says this is an acceptable pick.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, Ocarina of Time beat Resident Evil 4 by one point when the final tally came in (290-289). It was extremely close, with OoT picking up a first-place vote from Shaun and two more fifth-place nods (in addition to a 15th). Was it the right decision? That’s up for you guys to decide in the comments below.

Dave: What hasn’t been said about this game or this series? The Legend of Zelda appeared on our top 25 list a whopping 5 times. That’s 20 percent of the list just following around Link and Zelda on their never ending quest to defeat Ganon/Ganondorf. The great thing about it, though: no one can really argue those choices.

Somehow, the team at Nintendo continuously delivers the goods in every new Zelda game they create. The Ocarina of Time is no different. Since it is the first Zelda game to be in 3D, it just feels right that they seem to go back to the beginning to tell the story of Hyrule. And what a story it is. Not only is this the first Zelda game to break the third dimension, it also breaks into the fourth dimension as the name suggests.

The real beauty of OoT is the control system. In the two dimensional games, it was fairly easy to control Link — basically point left or right and stick your sword out. Naturally, moving into the 3D realm was going to be difficult, as many other game creators failed miserably (I’m looking at you Sonic). The Z-Targeting system allows the player to move around effectively while also never getting hit from behind only because the player couldn’t move the camera properly. The Z-Targeting system is so good that it hasn’t really changed in any Zelda since. Every game allows you to lock onto a target and then literally dance around it with a variety of jumps, backflips and hops to constantly stay one step ahead of your opponent.

Even if the story had been just mediocre, most people would consider this game one of the greatest of all-time, but the story delivers in every way. We literally get to see Link grow up from a starry-eyed kid from the Kokiri Forest into the Hero of Time, and then back again and again. As I said in my Chrono Trigger review, I’m a sucker for time travel games and their interconnectivity. Being able to switch back and forth between a child and an adult in order to defeat Ganon is unique enough, but it’s thrown over the top when you realize that your initial travel into the future is what releases Ganon into the world. The kid version of you lives in a happy, well lit world, while the adult you lives in a horrible evil place where darkness reigns.

The dungeons in the Ocarina of Time feel like they belong as a part of the game, and not just a “oh here’s the next level I have to beat,” the sidequests are actually a lot of fun — yes, even the Biggeron Sword quest (which was entirely useless because I never wanted to use that thing after I got it) — and the different areas of the world are fun and completely unique.

There aren’t many negative things that one can say about The Ocarina of Time. If you look on any top 25 list, it’s always on there, and if you ask almost any gamer from about 25-40 they’re most likely going to say that this is on their top five. In fact, this game was so good that sales of ocarinas even went up as a result.

Shigeru Miyamoto has provided the world with thousands upon thousands of hours of entertainment thanks to his vision of games. I kind of like to think that putting his finest creation at #1 on our list is our very small way of honoring him.

Shaun: An enduring, enchanting classic in every sense of the word, Ocarina of Time was my number one vote for best game ever, and to be honest, it’s not even close.

It’s like, in a sublime state of divine inspiration, Nintendo combined all of the best aspects and features from gaming’s entire history, and put it into one immaculate package. I’ll start at the beginning.

Zelda is a series known for its strong openings. Your uncle venturing off into the rain in A Link to the Past. Link getting shipwrecked on a mysterious island in Link’s Awakening. Ocarina of Time continues this tradition, featuring an arcane tree sending forth a fairy to find a boy destined for greatness, and currently experiencing a haunting premonition of events to come.

The world and level design here is instantly immersive. It took me about 10 seconds to adjust to no jump button before I marveled at what an ingenious move that was. The forest around Link was bustling and alive, a character all its own. As the world continued to open up and Link discovered Hyrule Field, the sense of adventure, exploration, and ambition shot through the roof; I don’t remember ever feeling so joyously overwhelmed in any game before.

As Link explores the world, he uncovers the series best designed set of dungeons. Each one is distinct and memorable, featuring unique puzzles that are both inventive and intuitive. Yes, the water dungeon is frustrating at times, but its solution isn’t abstract or unfair; you just have to outthink it.

Nintendo, always aware of pacing, also implemented combat mechanics in way that changed 3D gaming forever; Z-targeting. Being able to focus your attacks on a target streamline the system, and made each encounter exciting and breath-taking. Link can seamlessly take down a bat with an arrow, backflip away from a Stalfos’ sword attack, and then lunge forward with his counter, each move instantly accessible through the face buttons.

OoT also features one of the best inventories in the series; each tool is relevant and serves a purpose, with no wasted space or questionable inclusions. Furthermore, the dungeons did a good job of bringing back puzzles that require your entire arsenal of tools, rather than specifically revolving around that dungeons new item.

Of course, the namesake of OoT is what really makes it special. Going back and forth seven years should and does manipulate numerous things about the world, and is used to great effect. Plant a seed, and in seven years, it will grow. Turn into a kid to access tight entrances adult Link is too big for. Create a paradox and break the time continuum completely by visiting the guy in the windmill. The opportunities are endless, and they’re intriguing every time.

The time mechanic doesn’t just affect the gameplay; it also plays heavily into the story, elevating it to become the one I remember the most fondly. It was the most epic, tragic, powerful tale I had ever seen in any game, and it continues to break me to this day with heart-wrenching moments, deftly balancing bleakness with humor.

Link voyaging off on his own, leaving his childhood friend Saria, and her in turn becoming a Sage, preventing them from ever reliving those days of youthful joy. Link returning to Lon Lon Ranch to find a corrupt Luigi (I forgot his real name) taking over the place and ruining Malon’s life (I ship Link and Malon together. No doubt. In case you were wondering). Link awakening after seven years to a world that has been completely devastated by Ganondorf, and witnessing how his dark influence is twisting everyone he used to know. Zelda’s guilt at the naivity of a child. The list goes on and on, but there is never a dull moment, never a wasted scene. Consequences are felt and demons are faced, all ramping up to the amazing conclusion that would dictate the path the rest of the series took. Some people consider Skyward Sword to the be the pinnacle of storytelling in the series, but it all started with OoT.

Perhaps it didn’t define the 3D platforming adventure like Super Mario 64, but what it did might be even more impressive; it succeeded at making Zelda work in three dimensions, a feat many thought to be impossible. It also raised the bar for the series in storytelling and characterization, and excelled in its masterful score, ingenious dungeon design, and impeccable inventory  integration. Furthermore, innovations like Z-targeting and dynamic sword combat continue to set the franchise apart to this day. Rarely does a game mean so much to so many different people; for these reasons, Ocarina of Time is the best video game of all-time.

MORE FROM AT THE BUZZER’S TOP 25 LIST

(2) Resident Evil 4

(3) Chrono Trigger

(4) Mass Effect 2

(5) Knights of the Old Republic

(6) Pokemon Red/Blue

(7) Portal

(8) Final Fantasy VI

(9) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

(10) Super Mario 64

(11) Kingdom Hearts II

(12) Persona 4 Golden

(13) Super Mario Bros. 3

(14) Halo

(15) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

(16) Super Smash Bros. Melee

(17) Super Mario Galaxy 2

(18) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

(19) Final Fantasy IX

(20) Star Fox 64

(21) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

(22) The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

(23) Fallout 3

(24) StarCraft

(25) Bioshock

Best Games Ever: #50-26

Best Games Ever: #75-51

Best Games Ever: #100-76

Honorable Mentions

Introduction

In the last 12 months, Russell Whyte or as he is more widely know, Rustie, has taken the world of EDM by storm, breaking boundaries and causing controversy and many a YouTube argument with his in-your-face productions that are bombastic to say the least. Those of you who know me will also know the special place in my heart i reserve for Scottish DJs and producers, which is currently occupied by the likes of Jackmaster, Teklo, Hud Mo and of course Rustie, the latter of which has been making no holds barred, hip hop inspired gemstones, long before trap became ‘a thing’.

For instance, his debut album Glass Swords, while having tracks that could certainly be described as trap, was across the board just a solid album that was technically sound and diverse. It was hands down my favourite album of 2011 for a variety of reasons. First of all, Rustie himself has cited the classic Nintendo 64 game ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time’ as inspiration. This is a game that made up a large part of my childhood and that of countless others, listening to tracks like Death Mountain (an obvious reference) is not only an aural delight but also a hit of pure nostalgia:

After listening awe struck through his album the first time round, it was clear that he had developed his tastes and style and thrown it all into 13 tracks that have the strength to stand on their own. The first single from the album Ultra Thizz b/w Dreamzz is simply anthemic, with the drop of the former being compared to angels combusting and I can only agree. I have read that there is ill feeling for the lack of bass in the track, even at .wav and vinyl quality but frankly I feel this only gives Rustie further boasting rights to be able to create such an intense track without the need to appeal to those with a penchant for sub bass:

But his album isn’t all about the 70bpm onslaughts. Pieces like Globes bring the tempo down and the result is easier to take in and having a chance to appreciate the intricacies rather than be assaulted by drops constantly:

The eponymous track, Glass Swords mellows everything out further, with a boneless structure and epic synth it just makes the entire album a more complete work, diversifying the style while keep everything unmistakably Rustie.

A few months after Glass Swords was released, Rustie graced the decks of the legendary Essential Mix and took us on a two hour journey through the emerging trap and hip hop scene that was nothing short of spectacular:

Over the course of two hours, you get more ambient and atmospheric wonders mixed into the bass and synth heavy works that he is more known for and splashes of hip hop and even going as far as dropping Nicki Minaj. All of this is interspersed with samples straight from the N64, wolf howls, fairies filling up your hearts and the soothing glow of the always welcomed warp pad after a boss fight. The highlight of it has to be the unrelenting City Star VIP, which I am desperate for a copy of, this one is peppered with those genius samples:

Following on from the huge success of his Essential Mix, a stellar remix of Joker‘s On My Mind was offered up and I’ve been squeezing it into my sets wherever possible because it is simply great. Having Rustie on the remix has complemented the vocals so well and honestly I can’t help but sing along to the ‘You’re no good for my health’ climax:

Recently there has been a lot of bad feeling surrounding trap music and it seems to receive a lot of very negative attention..my point of view, as with anything, there is shit trap but the good stuff usually shines through, like Rustie for instance. As Jackmaster said re: Rustie  and Hud Mo: “it’s just two Scottish guys taking over the world”.

// Angus

I was talking to a friend about the remake earlier in the week, and he was far less excited than I was. My friend stated that he didn’t want to see a remake, he wanted a new game. He said that he was sick of Nintendo just releasing the same games over and over again. He wanted something new. Part of me agrees. I want to see something new; how long can Nintendo keep releasing the same thing each time? I would have liked Nintendo to announce the release of a new Zelda game. My dream is a Zelda game set in an ultra-futuristic world, akin to blade runner, but that will never happen. I want to see Nintendo push the envelope and try something new. It is the same thing I was talking about in my recent Pokémon blog. Nintendo takes a ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ approach, and it wears thin at times. However it doesn’t change the fact that I love Wind Waker, and to that effect I love
Zelda.

Zelda is my favourite game series of all time. The first Zelda game I ever played was A link to the past. I had no idea what I was doing. I got lost, killed and spent rupees on stupid stuff. My friend hastily took the control off me and said I was ruining his game. Even though
my first journey to Hyrule was a bit unsuccessful, I was hooked. From then onwards I played every Zelda game I could, finishing Link’s Awakening, Oracle of seasons, and Oracle of ages. Then I came across Ocarina of time. My mind was blown! Ocarina was like nothing I’d ever played before; it was puzzling and difficult, but at the same time it was compelling and rewarding. It was just a shame that I didn’t have an N64, so I had to play it at a friend’s house. But hay, I was playing it. Fast forwarding a bit, for the sake of narrative, I eventually got myself a N64 and played through OoT in the comfort of my own house and I was loving it. Zelda was awesome!

Anyway back to Wind Waker. Before the game was announced, Nintendo showed footage of a new Zelda concept at Spaceworld 2000. The footage we people’s minds; it was miles ahead of previous games. However when Nintendo showed footage of their next Zelda game at E3, Link was shown in a cartoonist form. People were pissed! What the people didn’t stop to think was that Nintendo were trying something new. Nintendo were making a cell-shaded game. Nowadays people herald the game and talk about how stunning it was, but at the time, as I say people were pissed. But all those ill feelings were forgotten when people first played Wind Waker. Suddenly everything made sense. The colours and the cartoon nature fitted perfectly with the landscape that Nintendo had created. Gone was the Hyrule field, and in its place was a great ocean. Islands were placed all around, some you had to visit, and others were there for your personal exploration. Sailing the seas never became tiresome either the soundtrack kept you company, as well as the NPCs that were also traveling the high seas. You would battle and trade as you made your way to the next land mass. Kinda how I always imagined a Pokémon Orange Islands game would be, but that will never happen.

Wind Waker wasn’t the perfect game. Some of the plot twists were predictable and the ending felt a bit rushed (because it was). This means that there is room for improvement in the remake…which is good, right? Well firstly I’d like to see them fix the end game. I want to see the final two dungeons added back in, and replacing the rather tedious section of hunting for Triforce pieces. I think I can fairly state, that nobody really enjoyed that section. If you did, what the hell is wrong with you! I’d also like to see some GamePad functionality, such as; maps on the screen and quick access inventory like we saw in OoT 3D.

I’m going to wrap this up now because, 1 it’s getting late and 2 I’m starting to run out of things to say, that have a level of insight and or humour. So…I can’t see what the problem with a HD Wind Waker remake is. Sony release HD collections all the time and nobody bats an eyelid. When the Metal Gear collection released you could hear the sound of a 1000’s gamers simultaneously releasing seminal fluids into their underwear. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking them, I was one of them. If you check back on Friday for Gaming Hall of Fame (or great gaming debates as I want to call it, since it was my idea), you’ll see that. I do acknowledge that these collections will probably be cheaper than Wind Waker Hd, and maybe that is the problem. I don’t know, don’t really care either. I love the game and I’m going to pick it up. I’m sure you are too, otherwise why would you have read this far? If you’re not going to buy it/ don’t like Zelda I suggest you leave know, before I draw my Master Sword.

By Matt Husselbury

Facebook: /tubelove

Twitter: @Messiah_MPH

Instagram: Messiah_MPH

Nintendo Network Wii U Thing: Messiah_MPH

This being my first dating/single life/relationship post with personal anecdotes, I would like to point out that I do not enjoy writing about these topics. Here at the Blurg, we (see: I) like to keep these topics off the presses. First of all, my BFF already has a dating blog (see: Can I Get Ur Number?) and I would never want to cramp his style. Second and most importantly, I have the most abysmally boring dating life of any 23 year old human I have ever met and would never dream of subjecting the masses to my weekend to weekend monotony. I’m not pointing this out for sympathy points, because this could probably be different if I wanted it to be, but I believe that this is all important to mention in my disclaimer. However, things have picked up (from zero point zero to a couple of successful interactions over the last six months) recently, and I feel that I have made a discovery that I simply cannot keep to myself. That being said, here goes nothing…

Ladies and gentlemen, I seem to have stumbled upon a small phenomenon in the dating world that I like to call “The Zelda Effect” (TZE). I am going to go ahead and assume that the readers of the Blurg are familiar with The Legend of Zelda video games, mainly because you all should be. But to be fair, the short synopsis is that a boy, Link, goes on a series of journeys through multiple versions of the game to rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon, the antagonist of the series. There are some more in depth pieces that do play an important role in the success of TZE, i.e. the Triforce, Ocarina, Epona, etc…but this is enough of a base of information to get my readers through this post. Zelda is a pretty big staple in the gaming world, so big that I (not at all a gamer in the least) am extremely familiar with it. There have been a few different installments for various Nintendo gaming systems, but I have found that the N64 flavor, The Ocarina of Time, usually yields the best results.

I define a successful night out as having a good conversation and some fun flirtation with a dude at a bar/gathering/whatever…anything that happens beyond that is a great and extremely rare bonus. I do not enjoy talking to strangers in a bar type situation in any way, shape, or form, and I think that guys tend to pick up on my awkwardness and interpret it as a negative vibe that I never mean to give off. But folks, I am a strong believer that practice makes perfect and with the help of TZE, things have been looking up.

Finding the perfect time to mention Zelda is imperative. For example, in my most recent successful use of TZE, I noticed that homeboy had the Triforce as the background on his phone…perfect opportunity! I mentioned that I liked his background, we talked about the fact that I have never advanced past Jabu-Jabu’s belly on the N64 game and that this is maybe my biggest failure as a human being, and the connection was made! Conversation immediately had a better flow, I felt less awkward…TZE did the hard work for me! In another recent TZE moment, it was brought up that the necklace I was wearing looked like a Triforce. I made sure to assert that yes, I did catch the reference and yes, I do know about this game. Again, there was the connection. A couple Ocarina song naming competitions here, rants about how bullshit The Windwaker was there, and that’s what I like to call TZE.

I think it’s important to note that I am not actively dating/hooking up with any guy that I have TZE’d, BUT I have been on dates with/hooked up with guys who I have TZE’d. It is also important to note that TZE has never ended a conversation or taken it to an awkward place. It has a 100% success rate as an attention grabber

. Like I mentioned earlier, TZE does the hard work for you. It bridges the gap between you and a stranger in a vaguely comical way and allows you to have a conversation that the guy may never have had with a lady before now. It makes you unique, interesting, and fun which in turn, makes you attractive. As someone who struggles to bridge the gap between awkward and interesting in the dating world, I have found that you should embrace the things that make you unique, the things that you may have pre

Prelude of Light?

viously hidden as the parts of you that are widely regarded as different or strange. First off, lets get this weird shit out of the way, because if it’s a turn off for you then you can GTFO. Second, you are most confident in the things that you know, and if what you know is video games, or Star Wars, or weird nursing stories, so be it!

This brings me to an important final point. I am not writing about TZE to give chicks secret talking points for dudes. Never, and I mean never, pretend to be an authority on a topic that you know nothing about. If you are not familiar with the Bolero of Fire…do not use TZE. If you have never fumbled with the yellow arrow buttons to summon stupid fucking Epona…do not touch it. If you have never grappled around the Deku Tree…step away. Fakeness is the most unattractive quality there is, and I would never support a person using my beloved TZE without AT LEAST a cursory understanding of the goings on of Hyrule. Simply, make your own Zelda Effect. Do you know the ERA of every Pittsburgh Pirates starter since 1995? Perfect! Can you name every dwarf accompanying Bilbo Baggins on his unexpected journey? Impressive! Can you recite pi to the thirty seventh digit? Genius! With that, interwebz, I give you “The Zelda Effect”. With great power comes great responsibility.