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The overlooked innovation of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
This is Making Time, a column about the games we've always wanted to play, and the games we've always wanted to play again. Choosing the definitive Zelda game is a fool's errand. There are those who say the series peaked with Ocarina of Time. Twilight Princess has its adherents. Others – for reasons I cannot fathom – insist that Wind Waker is the best. Heck, there are even some fans that really love the quirky (haunted?) Majora's Mask. Personally, I tend to opt for the 16-bit opus, A Link to the Past.That is only, however, if you asked me which Zelda I thought was the best. Now, if you were to ask me which one was my favorite, I'd have to go with Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. I tend to play through it every few years, and its recent jaunt onto the 3DS eShop (just in time for Thanksgiving) gave me the perfect opportunity to revisit it again.
NintendoWare Weekly: Crashmo, Zelda 2, Spirit Hunters
NintendoWare Weekly has a classic treat this week with 1988's Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link for $5 on 3DS. If you're looking for something a tad more modern, Crashmo, the sequel to Pushmo is available to help you avoid familial obligations.There's also the Pokemon-esque augmented reality games Spirit Hunters Inc Light and Shadow for the DSi. More details after the break.
Japan's 3DS Ambassador games include Metroid, Zelda 2 [update: North America too]
Two days before the arrival of the 3DS Ambassador Program games, Nintendo of Japan has revealed the full list of ten NES (Famicom) games being released there. This could be the exact same list of games we get in North America and Europe -- all we know is that the initial five games were consistent worldwide. The five games revealed today include Metroid, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, Yoshi's Egg, Mario Open Golf, and Wrecking Crew. In addition to those, Super Mario Bros., Balloon Fight, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong Jr., and Ice Climber will be available for free, to anyone who qualified for the Ambassador Program by taking their 3DS to the eShop on time. And, of course, these will be followed by ten GBA games. [Update: Nintendo of America tweeted the rest of the NES games coming to North America ... and it's exactly the same games!]
Top 5: Jury's Still Out
In this little hobby of ours, there are undeniable classics. Only an utterly clueless fanboy will ignore Shigeru Miyamoto's contributions to gaming, and any Nintendo enthusiast can never deny the quality of a series like Halo or God of War. No matter the platform, there are games which make up the foundation of this medium as we've come to know it. Traditionally, the formula would seem to be game made by a respectable company + a few years to let it sink in = indisputable classic. Yet there are a few that still provoke debate. These are games that are neither universally adored nor hated. They almost always spark conversation, and are considered by some to be an acquired taste. Here are the Top 5 games that we all can't decide if they're classics or not. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
How well do you know your Zelda grass? [update]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/How_well_do_you_know_your_Zelda_grass'; So, you think you're a hardcore gamer? Maybe you are. But, how well do you know your grass samples?These posters, which are being sold at a Viennese store called Subotron for €12 ($19 USD) each, will really put you to the test. To help you out a bit, there are two samples from The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, while the other four are from Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana), and Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2). All the games without the word "Zelda" in them were published by either Squaresoft or Enix, which is why we haven't gotten them (and might never get them) on the Virtual Console.See if you can figure out what game each sample belongs to (despite the poor resolution). Don't worry if you can't discern which is which, though -- we've posted the answers after the break.
The VC Advantage: A link to the past (of Zelda II)
The Internet has made it easy to find cheats for games, but we miss the tips pages from game magazines, when the discovery of a new code could inspire you to go back to an old game. These codes aren't exactly new, but oldness is the essence of the Virtual Console! We're bringing back the classic codes every week on The VC Advantage. We used to think that Nintendo's programming was above reproach, when, in reality, Nintendo's work -- even EAD's top-shelf games -- are just as riddled with bugs and glitches as anyone else's. And that's to our benefit, since without Nintendo's occasional gaffes, there'd be no Minus World, no secret Metroid maps, and no Chris Houlihan's Room (or no way to get there, anyway). In the case of Zelda II, you can use a weird glitch to give yourself an advantage early in the game, provided you can get through, uh, the early part of the game. First, complete a palace level. Pause the game, save, and quit while the experience points are tallying (using the in-game save system, not the Wii's). Open a game in another profile. The experience points will be added to this player's profile instead of the first. Completing any of the later palaces would send multiple levels' worth of points into a new game.As we mentioned, the catch is that you have to be able to complete palaces before you can benefit from this. The difficulty of the freaking palaces is what makes this glitch worth exploiting in the first place.
