Spirit-Tracks
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Joystiq's Four in February is upon us, behold our staff picks
February is a forbidding land, full of winter darkness and noisome Valentine's Day traditions that are only slightly balanced out by a steady trickle of new games. That's why Joystiq's very own Mike Suszek created Four in February, a gaming event to unify the world against the month's doldrums. Here's how it works: Pick four games to finish in February and then try to finish them. That's it. No crazy rules, no limits on what you play. Just choose four games and take them on with gusto. That's the 4iF way. The best part of 4iF is how we all get to share the struggle, though. We want you to go to the 4iF Facebook community page and tell us everything. Show us pics of what games you're playing, tell us why you're playing them, let us know when you're streaming them, and most importantly, proclaim your victories or failures. Meanwhile, over on Joystiq's Facebook page, we'll be running 4iF giveaways every four days throughout the month starting Tuesday, Feb. 4. On Twitter, we'll be tracking the action to those who shout @joystiq using the hashtag #4iF. This is war on our gaming libraries, and this is our solid battle plan. What's the staff playing? Read on.
Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses returns to LA in June
Get your finest green tuxedo ready, Los Angelenos, because the Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses concert is coming back in June. The touring show features a full orchestra performing classic tunes from the series, and this event promises "newly approved" music straight from the land of Hyrule.The show starts at the Greek Theatre on Wednesday, June 12, which puts it right on the second day of E3 2013. If you want tickets, they'll be available this Saturday at 10AM through Ticketmaster.This is a newly scheduled stop on the Zelda tour, but it's not the only one: The full schedule has dates around the rest of California, in Texas, and up in Seattle and Toronto as well.
The Legend of Zelda will soon be retold in this nursery
We think our dad is pretty cool, but here's a secret: he's not as cool as this dad. Our dad never put in three months of hard work (over 150 hours!) on something for us before we were even born. Way to look like a chump, pop.With a baby on the way, Cole enlisted the aid of his buddy Wes to create a nursery modeled around The Legend of Zelda series – specifically, Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks. The result is the video above, a tour of a room decked out in Links and Zeldas, ships and trains, and soon ... whatever it is that happens as a result of having a baby.
Wallace & Gromit creators use Flipnote Studio to create Spirit Tracks animations
You likely know Aardman Animations as the creators of the hilarious cheese-loving man and surprisingly capable K-9 duo, Wallace & Gromit. To celebrate last month's release of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks in Europe, Nintendo tapped the studio to create a trio of custom animations paying homage to the game in Nintendo's free animation app for the DSi, Flipnote Studio. Now we get to see their labor bear fruit and, oh my, these came out looking sharp, as the video above this text can attest. However, the real feather in this (Minish?) cap is the odd video past the break showing Link's game-long companion, Zelda. For us, the uneasy feeling we get witnessing Link's lack of concern seeing Zelda in poltergeist form is only exceeded by Zelda's apparent glee, despite being a creepy specter. That just weirds us out!
Director says next console Zelda will start with scale, go from there
Legend of Zelda series director Eiji Aonuma says in the latest Edge magazine that the scale of the upcoming Wii release is what's foremost in his team's mind during development. Twilight Princess, he says, was the first Zelda game where they went for a more realistic feel in terms of size and scope of the world, and yet he feels that they weren't quite able to adapt all of their gameplay ideas to that larger space. As opposed to the DS-based Spirit Tracks, which Aonuma says started out in a much more traditional place, and thus was a little easier to "realize." Aonuma says his team is starting out with a larger, grander world in the new Wii Zelda, and from there hopes to fill it up with all sorts of Zelda-esque game ideas. He and the team may not have been able to do everything they wanted with the adult Link-sized Hyrule the first time around (not that it wasn't well-received anyway), but they're planning to give it another hookshot in the next game.
Modern Warfare 2 spends fifth week atop UK sales charts
War. What is it good for? Super successful games! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may be undergoing a gradual sales slide, dropping another 11 percent this past week, but since the title has maintained the top position on the UK sales chart for a fifth week, it must be sliding down on a pretty fluffy cushion. Call of Duty: World at War held the high ground for five weeks last year before FIFA took it during Christmas week. Speaking of FIFA, the latest installment dropped from second to fifth this week. Assassin's Creed 2 couldn't find the next grip location and holds its position in third. Nintendo has Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii at spots two, four and six, respectively. As for premieres, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks rolled in at 12th place and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game entered at number 29. Now let's see how Avatar: The Movie That Inspired The Game does. If it's a hit, that should help sales of the game. Source -- Modern Warfare 2 Claims 5th Week at No1 [Chart Track] Source -- All formats chart [Chart Track] %Gallery-77537%
Nintendo's Aonuma: Majora's Mask the result of Miyamoto challenge
[Image credit: Rich Lem] Eiji Aonuma has spent a lot of time developing Legend of Zelda games. In fact, he's been in a managerial role on the franchise ever since the series' arguably most popular installment, The Ocarina of Time. So when Mario creator (and his boss) Shigeru Miyamoto asked Aonuma and his team to develop an "Ura Zelda" (a flipped version of Ocarina of Time -- what would eventually become the Master Quest), Aonuma protested. Miyamoto's compromise, though, instead turned out to be a much greater challenge -- produce a sequel to OoT within one year. "We were supposed to make its sequel in a year ... at first, we had absolutely no idea what sort of thing we were supposed to make, and we just kept expanding our plans," Aonuma told Nintendo prez Satoru Iwata during a recent Iwata Asks column."in the beginning, it was all trial and error ... ultimately, we adopted the 'three-day system,' and made it so that, if you couldn't clear the game inside of three days, the world was destroyed." Aonuma claims this concept was what allowed Majora's Mask to be created and released just 18 months after OoT came out. He also adds that lessons he learned from the development of Majora's Mask -- from having to remember a sequence of events in order to proceed, to "deep, compact play" -- helped to shape the development of the most recent Zelda release, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. We'd like to say that Aonuma will have a break from the series after serving as producer on Spirit Tracks, but he's the man in charge of the upcoming LoZ game for the Wii. We're sorry, Mr. Aonuma! Keep on truckin'! [Via Gamasutra]
Spirit Tracks ads choo up some UK airtime
Actually, the titular tracks from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, don't feature very prominently in a recent batch of ads for the game from the UK. Instead, the ads task a young woman with solving some of the game's puzzles (presumably under the stipulation that she be adorable while doing so). All three of the commercials highlight the game's use of the unique features of the DS, namely the microphone and touch screen. We're not sure how entertaining it will be to blow into the mic to play the pan flute for the thousandth time, but the first glance seems novel enough. Check out the ads after the break. [Via GoNintendo]
Introducing the Spirit Tower in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The latest trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, featuring what appears to be the game's introduction, highlights what is certain to be one of the most bemoaned features of the new game: the Tower of Spirits. Yes, like Phantom Hourglass, this game has a central dungeon area to which you'll return throughout the game, though players will be able to skip areas they have already completed this time. The trailer also seems to suggest that all the train tracks are magical shackles placed on the ground to imprison an evil presence. So that's why there are train tracks around! We would have guessed "interstate commerce." %Gallery-48535%
Nintendo Mall Experience tour heads cross-country next week
Nintendo must've had some luck with its Great Lakes and Wii Sports Resort tours recently, as the company has announced the Nintendo Mall Experience tour. Starting next week through December 20, The Big N will be stopping at shopping centers across the country to get some of its Wii and DS titles in the faces of holiday shoppers. On the Wii side, Nintendo will show off its top three games for the holiday season: Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus. For the handheld crowd, Nintendo will be pushing the new Style Savvy, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Head past the break for the full list of stops on Nintendo's Mall Experience tour.
Zelda: Spirit Tracks trailer, now with more Zelda
Nintendo's new The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks trailer (after the break) reveals a more exciting innovation than the whole train thing: You're not exactly rescuing Zelda in this game. In fact, she travels with you the whole time ... in spirit! In one of the craziest Zelda trailers we've ever seen, some wizard shows up and turns Zelda into a ghost, and then she sort of mopes around as an apparition until some guy with wheels suggests that she go on a road trip with Link. If you were wondering how Link could gain control of the Phantoms in this upcoming DS game, it's not through a musical instrument he finds in a treasure chest (the usual Zelda route), but rather it's because Princess Zelda possesses them. %Gallery-48535%
Woman creates massive Lego Zelda mosaic, takes longer to finish than most Zelda games
Alyse isn't just your usual Legend of Zelda fan -- aside from the drawer full of Link-themed clothing and decorative Majora's Mask cup set sitting in her cupboard, she's now also the proud owner of the gigantic Lego mosaic you see above. The product of her brow's sweat and her hand's work, the mosaic was created for Brickcon, an annual event that celebrates adult Lego hobbyists. Head on over to her Flickr account for shots of the impressive feat throughout its development (the above shot is of her husband, Remi, and the Lego computer case he built), something Alyse documented because she "was inspired by many of the stained glass artwork from Wind Waker." If we had enough patience to do something like this, we probably wouldn't have jobs on the internet. [Via The Tanooki]
Japan receives special Zelda Spirit Tracks stylus with purchase
Japanese purchasers of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will receive a transparent quill stylus as a gift when they put down their yen for the game. AndriaSang reports that the stylus will be given out on launch day as an "early buyer bonus," but there's no need to pre-order. If the plastic quill seems familiar, it's because Nintendo used it as a bribe back in 2007 for registering Phantom Hourglass and filling out a survey. Spirit Tracks choo-choos into retail on December 7. We're currently unaware of the quill being offered as a pre-order in North America but if the retail masses out there know differently, please let us know in the comments.
New Super Mario Wii, Zelda: Spirit Tracks & others dated for Europe
Arguably the two biggest titles set to release on their respective platforms this year, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks have both been dated by Nintendo of Europe. NSMBW is set to invade living rooms on November 20, while Spirit Tracks will be pulling into the station on December 11. But that's not all, as Nintendo has also dated Wii Fit Plus for October 30 and plans to cater to your inner fashionista with Nintendo Presents Style Boutique on October 23. Nintendo of America previously confirmed NSMBW for November 15 and Zelda for December 7; and Wii Fit Plus releases ... this Sunday! Time to sculpt that perfect figure again. %Gallery-64968%
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks pulling into retail station Dec. 7
A Nintendo press release promoting the company's holiday lineup has confirmed a December 7 release date for Link's next Nintendo DS-based outing, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. That's just in time for the cold, harsh winter -- but it's still quite a ways off. We suggest playing through Phantom Hourglass while watching reruns of Thomas the Tank Engine in order to tide yourself over until then. If you're not familiar with the Spirit-ed, Hylian adventure, check out our hands-on impressions of the game from E3 earlier this year, or watch the debut GDC trailer! %Gallery-48535%
GameStop CEO: PS3, Wii could drop price, 'key' Nintendo title coming this year
For once, someone at GameStop wants customers to be able to pay less. Of course, the items CEO Dan DeMatteo thinks are overpriced happen to be consoles, which don't have much of a retail markup -- so dropping the price on them would only give consumers more to spend on stuff with bigger markups.The console most in need of a cut, according to CNBC's interview with DeMatteo? The PlayStation 3. "That price point is clearly an issue in this economy," DeMatteo said of the $399 PS3 price. And DeMatteo would prefer a $100 cut over a $50 cut when it does happen (which CNBC thinks will obviously be this E3). "I don't know that $50 gets you that much," DeMatteo said.The executive also sees the possibility for a Wii price drop as soon as demand drops. "I think [demand for] the Wii could slow down to the extent that Nintendo may want to cut the price," he says. "Nintendo has it within its arsenal to do that. The component costs have come down considerably. They used to break even on the Wii, but now they're making a considerable margin."If DeMatteo's prediction of a "key" Nintendo game out this year is true (and if it turns out to be a Wii game), the demand may stay steady. The CEO told CNBC, "They haven't given us any insight, but they have told us to reserve [shelf] space." Both CNBC and IGN speculate that it could be a new Wii Zelda. What about the Zelda game that we already know is coming out? Nintendo already told us about one. And it's coming out on a console with better sales than the Wii. Doesn't that count? [Image: Penny Arcade]
GDC09: Watch The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks in action
If only knowing something exists is not enough for you, then we present you with evidence: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks' announcement trailer, which we've plucked from the Nintendo Channel. It's chock full of Link, trains, and dungeons. Pretty much everything you'd want from a Legend of Zelda game, except for maybe the trains bit. We're still not sure what to think of that one.%Gallery-48535%
GDC09: Train your eyes on 'The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks'
Zelda more like Celda news now, with the return of Nintendo's favorite saucer-eyed adventurer in a new DS game. According to some very brief footage shown during Nintendo GDC 2009 keynote, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (tentative title) sees cel-shaded Link ditching boats and single-horsepower vehicles for a train. Considering said train is also equipped with a cannon, we think it's safe to call this the franchise's first on-rails shooter.It's due to be released later this year, if you can believe that.%Gallery-48535%
