Grazza

Can't answer the question, sorry, as I didn't manage to get a Wii Remote Plus. Perhaps this would be a good thread to compare the two games though. I've just had a strange experience. I fired up the Wii (a challenge in itself) and decided to play around with both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword is still fresh in my memory, and my opinion of it hasn't changed. I still find the graphics to be blurry and the motion control to make the game feel "stodgy", like wading through mud. Then I loaded up Twilight Princess (GameCube version). Now bearing in mind I'm still using the Wii, so it's exactly the same television and exactly the same leads, it's surprising that the graphics look 100x better. Even just by the title screen, where Epona rears up, it just looks so much clearer and sharper. I don't mean this as a snide comment, but I think 6 years of playing on the Wii have made me forget what good graphics are like. To me, Twilight Princess on GameCube honestly looks much better than anything on Wii. Anyway, I chose a save file and materialised in Lake Hylia - certainly a beautiful version of it, arguably the best in the series. But it was night, so I decided to boost to the desert. Now, in my opinion the desert in TP is also the best in the series, as it actually feels like a desert rather than the barren, Super Mario 64-like playset in Skyward Sword. I found a hog, jumped on its back and rode along in the direction of the grand palace, which is visible in the distance. After that I warped to the Southern Woods, ran northwards and soaked up the atmosphere. Upon entering Hyrule Field, I called Epona and rode anti-clockwise around the map, through Kakariko Village, then getting into a fight with hog-riding Bublins in the field north of that. Everything felt so smooth and fluid as I held the GameCube pad and swung my sword on the go. I then warped to Zora's Domain and explored the underground caverns. What struck me about the whole thing is that Twilight Princess is so much more like the full Zelda experience than Skyward Sword is. It has a proper overworld to explore and - just as importantly - atmosphere. The lighting, the music, the visual detail... it's all heartfelt. The awkward thing for me is that I've been a critic of Twilight Princess, and for that I honestly feel I owe Eiji Aonuma a huge apology. In my defence, I was very angry about the way Nintendo made two versions, and I still think I was "correct" about the things I've said in that regard. But my anger blinded me to how good it really was - until my 2nd and 3rd playthroughs, that is. With Skyward Sword, though, there is no anger. I just don't think it's that good. I could opine a lot more about this, but let's just say that I think they could do a lot worse than go back to the Twilight Princess style on home consoles (and personally, I'd like them to forget the Wii ever happened). Get Eiji Aonuma back directing, because he's brilliant (he only produced Skyward Sword, not directed). And basically, you know that demo of Zelda HD, with Link fighting a giant spider? I wouldn't be at all sorry to see more of that next week at E3 and to find out it's been turned into a full game.

Excellent article posted by @Ronnie. I agreed with every word.

Enjoyed it tonight as usual, along with the semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday. At the end of the day, the whole event is great entertainment. I do feel the song quality was a little bit lower this year, with quite a few decent songs but none that I liked as much as Lena's "Satellite" or Serbia's "Magical" (loved those two ). That said, I very much enjoyed Lithuania, Italy and Turkey.

Has anyone done Bonus Stage 5 yet? I can catch all the Hooligan Sisters, but there's a difficult section after that. It really is split-second stuff. To give an idea of how hard this game is (or how bad I am), I took over 17 minutes to complete the very confusing Bonus Stage 4. The Par time is 2.30.00. Good job it's got such good music! EDIT - OK, completed! Did it immediately after typing that I couldn't! I was one or two blocks away from the end. As it stands I have the "Par" for Incidents 1-12 and Bonus 2. Don't think I'll try to get the others, as I'm just not that good a gamer. I do keep replaying them anyway, however, as it's such a good game.

Yes indeed. To me, Jake Kaufman is one of the modern geniuses of gaming. Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Mighty Switch Force sound brilliant through headphones. Anyway, as Debug Mode says, 5 more levels of top class gaming became available today! Bonus Stage 1 is full of difficult jumps, Bonus Stage 2 (my favourite so far) is full of the best type of block and Bonus Stage 3 is full of my least favourite switches. At the moment I'm stuck on Bonus Stage 3, but it's great to jump into my favourite eShop game again and hear that music. Thank you very much WayForward!

Arguably, no game really needs a remake unless it ran badly in the first place. Even in those circumstances, "enhanced emulation" can be more effective. Ocarina of Time on the N64, for instance, is only dated by its low resolution and juddery framerate, but I remember vividly both those things were noticeable in 1998. Then, just as now, you soon get used to them and see the great game beneath. With the Wii U, we will have the hardware to run a perfectly cleaned-up version (1080p and 60fps) of OOT or MM, whereas if they did a full remake with more detailed graphics, they may not be able to achieve that. In this regard, a very sophisticated emulator (by this I mean the Wii U's Virtual Console, which will hopefully fit the bill) may be the best option. On the other hand, I'm contradicting myself because a true remake can be a thing of joy. OOT 3D springs to mind, finally with character models that look like the artwork! Or the superb Metroid: Zero Mission, which infuses the NES original with all the charm of SNES-type bells & whistles. Remakes, then, are a rare treat but will always be selected very carefully.

Whilst I very much hope Grezzo produces a remake of Majora's Mask for the 3DS in the same superb style they did OOT, I suspect the best route for Zelda on home consoles from now on may be the "high-quality emulation/HD-boosted" route. Sorry to bring it up again. Just to clarify, what I mean is that the best version of Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask may well be the N64 versions as they were, but with these adjustments: * Improved resolution (1080p) * Improved framerate (60fps) * Better textures * 16:9 Widescreen (but it has to be extra at the sides, not cropped) * Rumble (which the 3DS doesn't have) * Traditional controller (again, the 3DS doesn't feel quite as good in the hands and the N64/GameCube pad) In other words, things that would require a certain amount of attention, but no polygonal adjustment or extra dungeons.

Yeah, I really do want one, for some reason! I very much enjoyed Ocarina of Time 3D, so am eager for more. The way I look at is Zelda is one of the first things people want to see when Nintendo has a new machine. With the Wii and DS, the thing most on my mind was "When are they going to do a Zelda?", and it's the same with Wii U and 3DS. It's not just about having one to play (as people have said, OOT 3D meets that need); for me it's more about seeing what Nintendo are setting out as the Zelda engine for any particular machine. For example, once Phantom Hourglass was shown, there was no great desire for lots more Zelda, as we had seen what it'd be like on the DS. I think people were very keen to see a Zelda on the Wii, because we had that strange situation with Twilight Princess, where it didn't indicate what one would be like if made just for Wii. Skyward Sword itself was particularly late, so we have this situation where we want to see a new console Zelda, despite just having had one. I always say Ocarina of Time in 1998, Majora's Mask in 2000 and then new hardware two or three years later was the best way to do it. There is also a post-3DS factor with the Wii U in that the pressure is on Nintendo to show fans what would really excite them - to bring out all their best franchises - although I admit expecting to see Zelda this year is wishful thinking. Yeah, that is a bit of a shame, dude. Just hope there are some bridesmaids your age.

I predict we're going to have to wait until GDC 2013 to see Zelda 3DS. Very much hope it's sooner though.

Approaching this from a different angle, I often wish businesses (particularly retail) would go back to the "Are You Being Served?" model of always having their departments staffed. I've no doubt some people get bored at work, but I think having too much to do is worse. I look around and see so many failed or failing companies, and I can almost guarantee each one has become greedy and taken the focus off providing good service. Businesses are so scared of having staff with nothing to do that they go to the other extreme; namely, they don't employ enough staff and have them all stretched too thin. Shareholders and executives may want to make more and more profit, trying to make businesses more "efficient", but what they don't seem to care about is that if you cut a business down too much, the customers think "This is rubbish" and abandon you in droves. Loyalty is not easy (or even possible) to win back.

Etrian Odyssey sounds better and better. There is now a "beastly warrior" class, and it has been confirmed there is such thing as a subclass (which apparently was in Etrian Odyssey III). http://www.siliconera.com/2012/05/17/etrian-odyssey-ivs-beastly-warrior-might-be-able-to-learn-magic-with-a-subclass/

Siliconera has a lot of screenshots: http://www.siliconera.com/2012/05/16/new-project-x-zone-screens-with-gemini-sunrise-haken-and-morrigan/ I don't know if it's just me but I think the sprite work looks stunning. This is the sort of visual style I'd like a lot more eShop games to have, including platformers.

Shaun the Sheep has been the star of Nintendo Video. I absolutely adored "The Art Class" and anything with the bull or pigs.

That's actually something I'd be interested in. I fancy some more 3rd-person 3D games on 3DS.

In answer to @Jamba on Letterbox (sorry for the late reply), the truth is I ended up not playing this much. The gameplay seems to revolve around Parrying, which I just didn't have patience for. Sorry if this isn't very helpful. I was trying to have a bit of a spring clean and decided to sell most of my games, including this one, so maybe there's some fun to be had, but I wasn't in the mood at the time.

Just been playing The Legend of Zelda on my 3DS (the Ambassador version). Although I think it needs a map, I'm greatly enjoying it. This has made me hope Nintendo does make another 2D Zelda, because there is nothing like that feel you get with Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and (presumably - I haven't played them much) the Oracle games. Making it top-down like the DS games isn't enough. It has to be real 2D to have that same feel. You know, the way the dungeons are made up of square rooms, with a wall to the left, right, top and bottom. The way you have to push blocks because one of them might slide along one square. Or the way you might have to bomb a wall to gain access to a different part of a room. Link to the Past 2? Yes please.

In principal, I can't help but agree with @madeinbeats on a lot of these points. Yes, the 3DS is a dedicated games machine but, to me, the fact it does so much more is actually what elevates it above previous handhelds I've owned. It's typically the only thing I carry about with me, and in this regard is great to view photos and such. The only problem is that some of the features are so bad you almost have to view it as though it doesn't have them. Take the web browser. Not the worst I've used (the decent PPI alone makes it nicer to read pages with than the Wii's or DSi's), but any type of video is a no-go. Still, to be fair to Nintendo, I'm sure software licensing is a complex issue. The worst problem for me is the photo saving. Often I see a picture and think "That's a good pic, I'll save that" and I get "This image cannot be saved", whilst others can. It's a total lottery, and it comes back to what I was saying about how, when things are this unreliable, you can't really say whether the 3DS has these features or not.

Part of the joy of Zelda is the familiarity. Every six years or so, you're going to get a new version of Hyrule with some incarnation or other of Ganon. We saw him 8-bit, then 16-bit, then polygonised on the N64, before the textured polygon/cel-shaded versions on the GameCube. Now we're due HD Hyrule and HD Ganon. Part of the problem recently is that the GC and Wii are so similar and have therefore made the last ten years feel like Groundhog Day, but that goes way beyond Zelda. I do agree that the handheld games and the 2nd iteration of Zelda on any console (like Majora's Mask) should be (and are) an opportunity to get more creative with the characters and settings. As far as I'm concerned, all the GB, GBA and DS Zeldas were perfectly original.

Well, I for one am enjoying your posts as you are perfectly describing the early parts of the game. Sure, I once had to learn the controls of Ocarina of Time, just as I had to learn the controls of Shadow of the Colossus and anything else, but the point about good controls is they should disappear once you've learnt them, allowing you be to become immersed in the game. With Skyward Sword, the controls never did "disappear". I was always thinking "Where is my hand? Which way do I have to move it?" The Ghirahim battle where you have to move it slowly one way and then quickly the opposite way is almost a farce. (Incidentally, there are some good boss battles in Skyward Sword, but none of them are the swordfights.) In the end, the only thing I liked about the controls was the ability to differentiate between vertical and horizontal (not the direction), but you could have just as much fun in Wii Sports Resort. I don't hate motion controls, but I think they are best kept to multiplayer, living room fun, not long, immersive experiences. Yes, you'll get used to the controls enough to complete the game, Retro Link, but I see no reason why they should return in future Zeldas.

I think there's a big difference between remakes and HD versions. Anything that runs through the Dolphin emulator surely can't be considered a remake because, as I understand it, it's "just" improving the content that is already on the original disc. (By the way, does it improve textures? If so, how?) As such, I'm pretty sure most people would be happy if Virtual Console games looked as good as that. A remake requires a lot of effort. For instance, Ocarina of Time uses much-improved polygonal models. Naturally, only certain games can be selected for full remakes, but I don't see a problem with this. I suspect Grezzo developing Ocarina of Time 3D didn't even take 1% development time off the first proper 3DS Zelda. It also was a good way of providing the 3DS with an early must-have title. With all this in mind, I am 100% in favour of both remakes and HD versions.

It's funny, I actually prefer the Blues Brothers pic before you put the colour in. But don't listen to me. 9 out of 10 times I prefer b&w to colour.

Oh yeah, any Virtual Console releases have got to be HD. It's an HD console that will be played on HDTVs... I won't buy anything SD. I kept my GameCube (fully aware that it might be the last-ever good Nintendo console), so I've no need to download Wind Waker in SD. HD though? Bring it on. It may be unfashionable, but I'll say it again - HD is one of the most important things in gaming. I know people don't want to be graphics whores, and they like to say gameplay is more important (which it is), but ever since I strained to see the blurry depiction of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time on the N64, I've considered it very important that a game looks sharp. So, 1080p for N64/GameCube games is a must, ideally running at 60fps (framerate is also very important). Even better would be if they go back to the original textures and improve them for the current generation.

Nintendo has said that, with the Wii U, it wants to first appeal to the core, then the wider audience later on. If they mean what they say, these are the Wii U games that would get the hardcore gamers more excited than anything else: - Metroid Prime 4. No motion controls. It must be as tight and neat as the GameCube original. - Realistic Zelda by Retro Studios. The "realistic vs. cartoony" argument will never be settled, as there is too much appeal in both types. But tell me, whose heart would not beat faster at the reveal of a game similar to the demo we saw at E3 2011? - F-Zero UX. Nuff said. - 3D Super Mario. Whether you are bored with him or not, few games are as respected by the core as much as Mario's full-on, 3D efforts. Like everything else on this list, it should be dual-analogue with no motion controls. - Wind Waker sequel. Say what you like about new IPs and such, and Nintendo making too many sequels, but Wind Waker is still the game Nintendo cannot beat. Until they can find a sure-fire way to do so, I suggest there is nothing that would get gamers as excited as a full-on sequel to the sea-based masterpiece. I do not believe there will be any decent 3DS games shown at E3, so this is my list of the games I really, really want on that handheld: - Cel-shaded Zelda. - Dragon Quest XI by Level-5. - Shantae 3 by WayForward. - "Nintendo Sprite Division" set up in order to create sprite-based, fully 2D "SNES+" games like a Link to the Past sequel, a Super Mario World sequel and most importantly, Metroid V, a worthy successor to Metroid Fusion. I'm not entirely sure what to predict here, so I'll go for... - Another eShop game by Wayforward. - Majora's Mask confirmed to be on its way (credit to welsh gamer for saying it first). ... Basically, I've kept my predictions modest in order to avoid disappointment.

It would be good if Nintendo offered these soundtracks for download on 3DS.

Agreed, you never have enough money for what you want. I'm thinking of playing through it, just buying what I can afford. Maybe see if I can win enough Metal Slime/Metal King Armour for everyone who can wear it, and not buying anything else. Either that or just sticking to the ones with really good magical or elemental defence such as Magic Armour and Dragon Mail respectively.