Last week was E3, an event that I always look forward to, because I’ll learn of upcoming releases from some of my favourite developers. I know there will be announcements for some of the yearly-released titles as well, but for me there was also a sense of awe at the original content coming. I have always been a Nintendo guy, and every time they release or announce a new iteration of their IP I’m the first one to drool.
I don’t get into “Who won E3?” because I feel it’s nonsense. I do however point out my favourite (and least favourite) announcements. The stories I enjoyed and the events that excited me. Boiling everything down to “X won this year!” makes it seem as though announcements didn’t matter. Continue reading E3 2015 – Highs and Lows
Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.
Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every once in a while I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!
Last week I presented you with a fun puzzle-y scenario, three in fact and they’re still open. Go check them out and let me know what your solution is!
This week’s puzzle is from one of my favourite games of all times, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In the Dark World’s 7th dungeon, Turtle Rock, you come up to a room with a pit, two doors—one of them locked—a railway track and a bunch of unlit torches. With the help of the Cane of Somaria you create a platform on the rails to light the torches floating over the void. The problem is you need to use the Rod of Fire and the torches don’t stay lit for very long.
This place, first friggin’ puzzle and it stumped a lot of people!
This can be a frustrating puzzle but I love it just because of that reason. It’s the last ‘traditional’ dungeon—the next one, Ganon’s Tower I consider ‘endgame’—the game it throws everything it has at you, to stop you from rescuing the last maiden, Princess Zelda, and this starting puzzle is a perfect example of how intense Turtle Rock is. The Rod of Fire takes a big chunk of magic per use and the torches light out quite fast, so you need to figure out the right moments to light them with as few blasts as possible and still get to the door before the torches die out. It takes some good thinking, a little strategy and some luck!
A Link to the Past has many fun and engaging puzzles. Hell, the entire Ice Cave is one big layout puzzle, but I had to mention one of them and this was the most memorable one for me. How about you, any interesting Zelda memories?
E3 has come around again and with it, a slew of titles and systems and announcements and the hype trains have been going full speed in plenty of directions. The biggest surprise for me was how much hype came from Nintendo’s announcements. With two days down and one to go, Nintendo hasn’t only announced games and projects in its current franchises but also managed to shut up those that criticise it for not delivering new ideas. Continue reading The Nintendo Matter – E3 2014
Nintendo, the Big N, the company gamers love, hate and love to hate. A company that’s been responsible for so many innovations yet people still clamor for them to shut their doors and do something else, follow in the footsteps of other “fallen giants” and leave the market for the superpowers that are Sony & Microsoft. Why do they get so much hate? Why are they the butt of every joke? It seems most gamers, the newer generations especially, have forgotten Nintendo’s role in our history, their mark on the industry. Continue reading The Nintendo Affair – Unwarranted Hatred?
With the new Zelda game just a couple of weeks from now, scheduled for November 22, Nintendo has just released a brand new trailer, a quirky, and very funny trailer in true Nintendo fashion, in which the game’s Producer, Eiji Aonuma, runs around New York trying to escape Nintendo of America agents, so they don’t take him back to work, showcasing Link’s new ability to help in his escape.
This was a sure-buy for me even before the trailer, which now has just made me even more excited about the game.
Here’s the trailer, courtesy of Nintendo Everything:
Silent heroes are a video game staple, from the days when there wasn’t really much of a choice to the modern days where their use is deliberate. Some silent heroes make sense while others don’t, and I’ll go through a few of them in this piece, as well as explain why the Silent Hero is such a good thing, why we need silent heroes in video games.
Silent Heroes such as Link, Gordon Freeman, Adol Christin and Crono from Chrono Trigger to mention a few have been used in the past to enhance the immersion of the player. Some characters aren’t completely mute; they react, like Link silently answering the question “What’s your name?” which makes him seem he’s telepathic or something. Same with Adol Christin from the Ys series, he never says anything, but when prompted, a text-box appears saying “Adol explained the situation and introduced himself” or something similar. You never get to see him actually saying things, but you know he’s saying them. In fact, Link could use that as well, give at least some indication the guy’s talking. Some others, like Crono, Freeman and the Marine from Doom, never say a single word and if they do (within the game world), you’re never given any indication it actually happens.
