phantom-hourglass
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GDC 07: Legend of Zelda impressions
DRAW! That's probably the best way to describe the experience of playing Phantom Hourglass, the upcoming Wind Waker sequel. The demo at this year's GDC was multiplayer-only, and had you going against one other person in a Zelda version of Capture the Flag (the Flag being pieces of the Triforce, of course). There were two sides that you played as: either as Link, or as a villian trying to stop our beloved cel-shaded hero. As Link, you had to make your way through a maze, search for pieces of the Triforce, and bring them back to your "base." Easy enough, right? Well, there's one catch: the Triforce is crazy-heavy, and your movement will come down to a crawl, making you quite an easy target. A Nintendo representative explained a technique that makes the process slightly easier: pick up the Triforce piece, and then throw it afar. By tapping on the Triforce again, Link will automatically run forward, picking up the piece.While it's usually fun to play as the Chosen Hero of Time, Phantom Hourglass' multiplayer mode was much more fun when playing the villain. In this mode, you have three controllable characters on an map. By drawing a line from the character, you'll be able to control where they move. If they run into Link, the boy loses, and the round ends. Drawing paths, attempting to corner off Link, feels incredibly empowering. It certainly brings a smile to have all three of your characters slowly trap Link into a corner, making him await certain doom.It certainly was an amusing demo. However, controlling Link was simply not fun. Moving him through stylus control instead of using the face buttons seems clunky and imprecise. I'm hoping that the single player will incorporate more of the drawing elements from playing as an enemy, as they were very satisfying. Nintendo already has the graphics down: it looks beautiful. With just a little more work on the controls, Phantom Hourglass may become a truly excellent addition to the Zelda franchise.
DS Daily: On Zelda
Remember this? Phantom Hourglass crushed every other option in that poll, and today we'd like to talk about why. What is it about the Zelda franchise that keeps you enchanted? We'd also love to hear about your favorite Zelda memories. We recently re-played the original on the Virtual Console, and rediscovering everything brought back our earliest memories of the series. It's made us half want to play through all of them again! Do you ever get that urge? And for those of you who (gasp!) aren't fans ... what is it about the adventures of Link that turns you off?
Yet another 'games to watch' list
We can only guess that it wasn't enough for the DS to steamroll everything and everyone in 2006. Nintendo wants to own 2007, as well. Not that we're complaining; after all, we are total slaves to our beloved handheld. But it just seems altogether crazy that there could be so many lists predicting great games in the coming year, and that the lists could vary so much. No matter your pleasure, 2007 is bound to be packed with more DS games than you can possibly afford. And in celebration of our future indecision, IGN has offered a list celebrating ten of the best coming games for the year. We've included the full IGN list after the jump, and we'd love to hear how it compares to some of the other lists you've seen since the end of last year, because there's been a ton. We've even dipped a toe into the list-making process ourselves.
Wii Mario & Metroid, DS Zelda in late '07
Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will arrive in late 2007 according to the latest round of whisper down the lane. CVG reports that "sources close to Nintendo" have cited the delays and have also verified that Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass will be released at the tail-end of next year.Officially, Nintendo would only acknowledge that Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Phantom Hourglass would debut in 2007. But the holiday stretch (October-December) is the obvious release window. Be patient.
New Zelda for Wii "deep in development," Phantom Hourglass delayed
The new issue of Game Informer (#165) reportedly alleges that the next Wii installment of The Legend of Zelda has been "deep in development for around a year." Admittedly, this rumor comes as little surprise, since consistent first-party support is crucial for Wii's success.We needn't remind you that Twilight Princess is a GameCube game with tacked on Wii functionality. While no doubt a key asset to the Wii launch, Twilight Princess is not a showcase for the new platform. Rest assured Nintendo has been working on 'that' particular Zelda entry since the moment the Wii concept was birthed. That's not to say we expect a true Wii Zelda before 2008. Remember, Metroid and Mario are holding it down in '07.Game Informer also reports that Phantom Hourglass for DS as been delayed until October 2007; a full year after the Wind Waker sequel was initially expected. Sound familiar?
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass preview
The Legend of Zelda, like Pokemon, Final Fantasy or any other great series, will never grow old to gamers like us. No matter how much Zelda you shove down our throats, we will always take it with a smile. The demo at Leipzig was the same as E3, but IGN felt the need to give us an update as if they feel the game is as hot as it was back in May. The answer -- of course it is you half wit! We kid, we kid. The four available stages on the demo (boss fight, Field, Sea and Dungeon) are as impressive as ever. Though the new controls are a little tricky, we know that several gamers, new and old, will adjust. We won't see Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass until 2007, but we are sure the wait is well worth it.
Sum-up of Phantom Hourglass
How long have we waited to hear more about Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass? Too damn long if you ask us. We finally got a little more info to share with you. The plot! Here you go: Many months have passed since the events of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Link, Tetra and Tetra's band of pirates have set sail in search of new lands. They come across a patch of ocean covered in dense fog, in which they discover an abandoned ship. Tetra falls into danger when she explores the ship alone, and Link falls into the ocean when he attempts to rescue her. When he washes up unconscious on the shores of a mysterious island, he is awakened by the sound of a fairy's voice. With the aid of this fair, he sets off to find Tetra - and his way back to the seas he once knew. You remember Tetra right? She was the blond mouthy pirate that threw Link out of a barrel into the Forbidden Fortress and talked to you through the stone she gave you. Yeah, her! Now, we get to save her. How much longer do we have to wait? Oh, yeah... forever.
Magazine scans of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
French website Jeuxfrance has scans from Japanese gaming-mag Nintendo Dream of Nintendo's upcoming DS-megahit, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The in-game images don't appear to reveal anything new beyond the demo video shown during Iwata's GDC keynote in March.There are some new things, however, like the drawing above which would seem to indicate that Link's spin-attack will be controlled using the stylus. We're all for stylus integration and all, but that makes us nervous in a Metroid Prime: Hunters demo sort of way. The questionably accurate machine translated page says we can expect a playable version at E3, so we'll try and pencil Link in while we're there...[Thanks, Einhanderkiller]
GDC Recap: Disrupting Brains
The keyword that was bandied about during Satoru Iwata's speech at the Game Developer's Conference was "disruption". Through the DS, Mr. Iwata illustrated how Nintendo was disrupting the mechanistic game industry by creating new and unusual games, some which may not even have been considered as games if Nintendo hadn't pushed the idea that maybe, just maybe, exercising your brain was just as fun as exercising your trigger finger.Brain Training formed a large part of the presentation, with Iwata providing some background info as to how the game came about and how successful (1,7 million units sold) it's been ever since Nintendo and floaty-head Dr. Kawashima put their heads together. Getting people together was an equally important topic, with Iwata noting that simplicity and ease of use was a priority with the Nintendo Wi-Fi service, no doubt a contributing factor to its rapid growth rate that has surpassed even Xbox Live (though to be fair, the latter and very different service isn't free and requires a larger initial investment). To round off the DS part of the conference, Nintendo showed off some footage of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, a brand new and cel-shaded adventure for Link and his eternally in peril princess pal. We were instantly enamored by this one, but we're still quite disappointed that no new information regarding the US launch of the DS Lite surfaced. Oh well, E3 should tell us how accurate wildly incorrect our predictions were.For more coverage on Iwata's keynote, check out Chris Grant's ramblings over at Joystiq by clicking the "Read" link.
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass video
The British Gaming Blog has obtained a spectacular video trailer of the newly announced Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and we insist that you download and watch it immediately. The game seems to be a follow-up to Wind Waker, boasting colorful cel-shaded graphics and exploration of the open seas.It looks like the action mostly takes place from a top-down perspective and incorporates plenty of touch screen activity. We're particularly amused by the ability to draw the trajectory of Link's boomerang and scribble notes on his crusty dungeon map. No word on a release date yet, but we think "now" would perfectly suffice.[Thanks JohnathanEx!]
Zelda DS: Phantom Hourglass Revealed
Our Joystiq informant, Christopher Grant, informs us straight from Iwata's GDC keynote that a new Legend of Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass, is destined to be released on the DS. And yes, we get to use this old chestnut:Zelda? More like Celda!More news as it breaks.[Update: The conference is now over. It was...kinda boring. An epic post summing up all the DS details from the conference will be uploaded shortly.]
