Back In Time

Let’s state the obvious–yes, I pre-ordered Ocarina of Time for the 3DS and yes, I spent a good 3 hours playing it this afternoon ignoring all else. After about an hour and half of the 3D my eyes started to hurt a little so I had to turn off the 3D setting. That’s the only flaw with the game–I can’t look through the 3D view for too long.

Other than that, and the smaller screen, Ocarina of Time for the 3DS is enough reason to buy a 3DS. Oh wait… I think that’s why I bought one. Hard to believe it’s been a full 13 years since the original N64 version was released, and while I was hoping for a new TLoZ game for the handheld systems, I’m pretty damn satisfied with this remake.

I’ve written about TLoZ before as being my favorite video game franchise, basically because “Link’s Awakening” was the first handheld game I played. Now playing this new version of OoT for the 3DS I felt like a kid again, as I was rediscovering everything I loved about Ocarina of Time.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember much of the temples or any of the secrets so I didn’t breeze through the game. Hell, I can’t even remember the bosses from “Spirit Tracks”. But I’m not going to sit here and write a walkthrough or review the game. You’ve read all the reviews already, so you already know that this game is awesome.

I played about 3-4 hours today before I finally decided to switch gears up a little and play Alice: Madness Returns (blog post coming tomorrow), and wanted to take some time to draw the connection between Nintendo’s smart move to use Robin Williams and his daughter, Zelda (named after the Princess Zelda) for this particular game commercial. You’ve already seen this commercial and probably got a bit teary-eyed, simultaneously shitting bricks with excitement as well, I suppose… wow, that’s just not a pretty picture at all. But anyway, before I started playing OoT, I thought it was a great commercial, Robin Williams just earned +1000 points in my book, etc etc etc… especially for those of us who grew up with TLoZ games, we already know the drill–don’t go on a slashing spree with the Cucco’s, try to break all the pots you find even in someone’s home, destroying bushes is a necessity when you’re poor but it’s such a waste of time. However, once you find yourself actually playing the game (again, on the 3DS) it truly takes you back to your childhood–in the same way as sneaking into your old middle school to play tetherball with your friends, you know? I’m throwing around the term “childhood” even though some of the readers of this blog aren’t in their early twenties, but maybe their early thirties–it takes you back to your youth, when you were less of an adult. I was wondering why the designers this time made Link look even moreso like a kid than ever (really, you want the peace of Hyrule to rest on this mute kid??) but I’m not going to question that logic because throughout the years, TLoZ games have always been games for everyone. They don’t have blood and gore, it’s not insanely difficult, the recurring characters are very memorable, and the temples require the right combination of puzzle-solving techniques and skill. The stories are also compelling enough, simple as they may seem–humble dude saves lovely princess and kingdom–but there’s always some kind of crazy variation in the gameplay to keep things exciting. I would also like to point out how great the soundtracks always are for these games. There aren’t too many theme songs are considered classics, themes that we can instantly identify within 5 seconds, but every single time I hear the TLoZ theme, my heart is ready for adventure again.

Played on the ocarina, of course.

True Jedi

Image via videogamesblogger.com

I know I should have been doing my taxes last night and not playing my new Lego Star Wars III: Clone Wars game, but my only justification is that I didn’t want to stare at my computer screen anymore, so why not stare at a 3D video and deteriorate my vision?

I’m still getting used to the 3DS considering I just got this game yesterday, and I already forgot to save–legitimately I forgot that the “start” button was on the bottom of the screen and instead of hitting “Start” to pause the game, I “accidentally” hit the “POWER” button. Good thing I was only bout 1.3% into the game, otherwise, random objects would have been thrown.

So even though I’ve played about 3 hours of this game thus far, I can already tell you that the battery life on the 3DS is AWFUL. I played for 3 hours and I got the low battery warning. About 5 mins later the game system shut off. Again, I didn’t get to a checkpoint to save. Can you tell it was not such a good night?

On the bright side, with the Lego Star Wars games, you can always go back to a previous level after you’ve acquired certain characters (Jedi’s, Siths, Bounty Hunters…) and access different parts of the stage, so I didn’t really mind replaying certain parts of the game, even though recollecting all those tokens is not so enjoyable the 3rd time around. How is the gameplay on this system with this particular game? It’s very similar to the Lego Star Wars III: Clone Wars for the PS3. Obviously, some of the “challenges” have been adjusted to fit the 3DS–use of the stylus, for example. If you’ve ever played one of those Lego video games, you’d probably understand why the difficulty level is generally low on these games, but they are still very enjoyable and clever in adapting the content into a game. For instance, Jedi characters being able to use the Force to move objects around, using your lightsaber to scale walls, cut holes into doorways… the little details were not missed.

I think the one drawback to playing games on the 3DS though, is how I felt the 3D graphics were screwing with my eyes. If you don’t hold the 3DS at the correct angle while you play, the images look blurry and trippy since only the top screen is in 3D. I felt like this after about an hour and a half, then I turned the 3D off. The images then seemed too flat and unexciting to me so I turned the 3D settings back up again. I just don’t think I can play on this system for a long time even though the colors are so vivid and I much prefer the Circle Pad over the Control Pad.

Looking at the graphics on this system though, makes me VERY excited for “Ocarina of Time”, because I look forward to … spending weekends staying at home conquering temples…. and stuff…