Day 73 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: The Legend of Zelda

On New Years Eve 2013 I made a number of resolutions. One of those was to finish every game in the Zelda franchise...suffice to say I've failed, but I did play through a few of them. Let's see, I've finished...

The Legend of Zelda
A Link to the Past
Ocarina of Time
Four Swords (GC)
Four Swords (GBA)
Minish Cap
A Link Between Worlds
Skyward Sword

I've still got a few to go but for today's blog however, I want to focus on the first of the series.

The Legend of Zelda was released on NES in the UK in 1987, and was regarded as an absolute masterpiece, thanks to its grand scale and allowing players the freedom to approach the game in whatever way they wanted. You could tackle the dungeons in any order, explore Hyrule till your heart's content or perhaps increase the challenge by not allowing yourself to use the sword.

I on the other hand didn't need to increase the challenge because the game drove me utterly mad! I was constantly getting killed, I never had a clue where to go, a walkthrough was never more than a few inches from my face and those Keese/Bat things have to be the most hated characters in gaming, ever!

...so why is this a happy gaming day?

When you gather the scattered fragments of the triforce, make your way to the enemies lair, defeat Ganon and save the Princess...it feels so rewarding. The Legend of Zelda rewards exploration, experimentation, and overcoming seemingly impossible odds. Yes, the game is horrendously difficult, but it laid the foundations for an entire franchise that generations have come to enjoy, and thankfully the principle of rewarding a players curiosity and ingenuity has lasted the entire series.

Hopefully this will still be the case when the new open-world Legend of Zelda title hits the shelves in 2015.

Day 72 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: ZombiU

ZombiU is a fantastic first-person survival horror game for Wii U, and the closest thing Wii U owners have to popular survival games like DayZ.

You play as a survivor negotiating their way through zombie infected London, gathering supplies and trying to find a way to escape the ruined city. Every time your character perishes you take on the role of another, quite a unique feature, emphasising the sense of survival required to beat the game. Not only that, but if you want all of your loot back you have to seek out your previously deceased character, now a zombie, and put them out of their misery to reclaim what was yours.

When ZombiU is connected online you will be kept updated of other player's progress throughout the game, and if they ever fall victim to the zombie apocalypse, their character will be downloaded to your version of the game so you can snag their loot for yourself. It gives the impression of multiple survivors making their own way through the disaster, naturally it would have been more fun to team up and physically play together, but I think Ubisoft have done a great job working with Wii U's limited tech to provide the most immersive experience possible.

The zombies are nothing short of terrifying and allowing yourself to be surrounded generally means you're stuffed. They'll haul you from ladders as you try to escape, relentlessly chase you along corridors and occasionally they lay siege to your safe house, which results in you desperately trying to defend yourself and what's yours.

ZombiU is probably the best survival horror title in a long time and a must have for any Wii U owner. Now you can pick it up for as little as £7 so there's no excuse as to why ZombiU isn't in your Wii U collection.

Day 71 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Majora's Mask 3DS Special Edition

The biggest announcement from Wednesday's Nintendo direct, without question, was Majora's Mask for 3DS.

I must admit I never played MM the first time around, despite having sunk a ridiculous number of hours into Ocarina of Time, so when Zelda fans began pleading with Nintendo to remake MM for 3DS, I had to see what all the fuss was about. I had the game on the Zelda Collectors Disk for GameCube and I was surprised to find a much darker Zelda adventure. There's a somewhat foreboding undertone making MM a standout entry in the long running franchise.

Nintendo are releasing a special edition version of MM for 3DS, but what's going to be included??? 

The special edition includes a copy of the game, a SteelBook case, a pin badge in the shape of the mask itself (with an attractive collectors box), and a double sided poster.

It's not a bad little haul for the extra £5 you splash out on the special edition release, the only criticism I could make is why hasn't the badge been painted?! It would have been so much more visually striking, then again you could probably find something similar on etsy, so it's not the end of the world.

Majora's Mask is set to be released on 30th June 2015, better pre-order this one, folks. It's going to sell out fast.

Day 70 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Pikmin Short Movies

Announced during the fantastic Nintendo Direct yesterday, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed he had been working on a number of Pikmin Short Movies which would be made available on Wii U and 3DS after the presentation.

As you may know I'm a huge Pikmin fan, but sadly I didn't have enough moolah to buy them on the Nintendo eShop last night so I had to wait until this evening. (; _ ;) The wait was certainly worth it however, as these animations are fantastic, but what exactly do you get for the £4.49 price tag?

I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but no promises. (^ _ < )

The bundle includes 3 short movies, altogether they last around 30 minutes, and you get a few little bonuses including two idents for Toho Cinemas starring our favourite critters and the original storyboards for 2 of the short movies.

The first short (The Night Juicer) is pretty brief, which was a bit alarming at first, but I assume this was the short that was unveiled during Tokyo Game Show (mentioned by Mr Miyamoto during Nintendo Direct). Captain Olimar is playing with a blender while 3 nosey Pikmin come along to find out what he's up to.

The second short (Treasure in a Bottle) follows a Red Pikmin's journey to retrieve a marble from an empty bottle. Unfortunately he gets stuck in the bottle and has to rely on his buddies to bail him out, with some hilarious consequences. Also on the base of the bottle Nintendo NT 4 is stamped, does this mean anything???

The final short (Occupational Hazards), sees Captain Olimar on a typical Pikmin day gathering treasure. Things start to horribly wrong thanks to a short tempered White Pikmin, a fiery Blowhog, and of course, Bulborbs.

These animations are a must for any Pikmin fan and I think they're well worth the £4.49 asking price. I would recommend the Wii U version over the 3DS version, as I don't think the 3DS's resolution will do these short movies justice.

Day 69 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: The Simpsons

It's not just South Park who have produced great episodes concerning video games. This Simpsons episode from Season 7 entitled 'Marge Be Not Proud', centres on Bart as he desperately tries to get his hands on the latest video game sensation, Bonestorm. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

After Marge refuses to buy Bonestorm for him, claiming games are noisy and they distract you from school work, Bart sees if he can play the game some other way. 

He tries to rent it but all of the copies are out, and Milhouse won't share his copy, so after witnessing a gang of kids shoplifting from a local supermarket Bart decides to do the same.

Favourite Bit: Where Bart is standing by the video games and his conscience takes on the form of famous characters. Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Sonic all agree he should steal the game, claiming it's the video games companies fault for making him want it so much. 

Day 68 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: South Park

When a new console or highly anticipated game is on the horizon you're pretty much guaranteed South Park will put on a great episode. I thought I'd share 3 of my favourite gaming related episodes for this Happy Gaming Day, and just in case you haven't watched these before...SPOILER ALERT!!! 

Go God Go- in this two part episode the Nintendo Wii is due out within a matter of weeks, but Cartman would rather risk death than wait, so he freezes himself to make the passage of time seem instantaneous. Unfortunately he ends up frozen for over 500 years, so begins an epic quest across time to play Nintendo Wii.

Best Friends Forever- A war is looming between heaven and hell, so to ensure victory God searches for 'the one' to help heaven in its hour of need. Behold! The PSP has just been released and is running a heaven and hell battle sim, who will the one to guide heavens forces and defeat the armies of darkness?!

Tooth Fairy Tats- The tooth fairy has suddenly been leaving Cartman ridiculous amounts of cash for any tooth he puts under his pillow. So the boys plot a ridiculous scheme to raise money using the tooth fairy, all for a SEGA DREAMCAST! 

BOO!!!

After a holiday, illness, and some personal stuff to take care of, I'm back. So what's been happening this last month?

Disney on Ice- The child in me wanted to go to Disney on Ice, and the adult in me was dragged there by the child in me, so we both enjoyed a night of whimsy, wonder and grossly overpriced merchandise.

The majority of the show is made up of re-enactments of your favourite Disney movies. While the performers skate around on the ice, audio samples from the movies accompany their performance. It's pretty good but during these segments I couldn't help but ask myself...why don't I just go home and watch the movies? The segments made exclusively for Disney on Ice however, were fantastic and certainly worth any Disney fans time.

One thing that surprised me though, there was no Frozen segment! I was also relieved as I'm sick of hearing 'Let It Go' but I was very shocked to find it wasn't included.

Play Expo- I went to Play Expo Manchester and sadly there wasn't much to report.

There was a lack of major developers this year (e.g. Nintendo, Ubisoft etc.), instead they were replaced with 100 PS4's which didn't offer the same amount of intrigue. I did get to try PT at long last, and it's still scary even in a room filled with hundreds of people, but it's not enough to make me want a new console.

Oddworld New and Tasty was also being demoed, and it wasn't too bad but I felt as though the magic of the original was missing, I miss the detailed backgrounds of the original Playstation release.

I also finally got to try the Virtual Boy, the only Nintendo console I had never even seen let alone played, and everyone's right...it is a piece of crap. I had a headache inside of two minutes and I can't imagine what it must have been like for those who actually bought one and persevered with it.

I don't think I'll be returning to Play Expo next year so I'll be looking for a new a place for my holidays.

Clear out- Some excellent progress was made clearing out some stuff and the possibility of getting a PC in the next few months has now become more of a reality. Don't get me wrong, there's still lots to do, but hopefully my Youtube channel will be up and running again soon.

And that's pretty much it. I'm determined to finish the 100 Happy Gaming Days feature, I think there's 33 days to go, so keep an eye out as I'll be cracking on with those. TTFN.