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by Lucius P. Merriweather | 25 January 2017 · 9:34 pm

The Year of Zelda

Like pretty much everyone else in the gaming world, I’m very excited for the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. After the slightly lacklustre reveal of the Nintendo Switch, I’ve decided to get the game on the Wii U and hold off on purchasing a Switch until there are a few more games. But before I buy it, I want to polish off the few Zelda games I’ve yet to complete.

I’ve played almost every Zelda game out there, but there are still a few that passed me by for one reason or another. I missed out on Minish Cap on the Game Boy Advance, although I recently purchased it for the Wii U. I played Phantom Hourglass on the Nintendo DS, but I never got around to buying its sequel, Spirit Tracks. I got Skyward Sword just after its release, but six years on, I’ve still yet to play it. I’m not sure why I keep putting it off – somehow it just feels like I need to save it for a special occasion.

Well, I guess now that special occasion has arrived. The release of Breath of the Wild is shaping up to be a landmark moment for the series, and I’ve resolved to play through every Zelda game I’ve missed before buying this latest entry. That might mean I miss playing it at release in March, but I can wait – it will only make playing it for the first time all the sweeter.

Changing the season in Oracle of Seasons is key to solving puzzles.

At the moment, I’m about two-thirds of the way through Oracle of Seasons, one of a pair of Zelda games for the Game Boy Color that were, uniquely for the series, co-developed with an outside developer, Capcom. I remember the two games, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, got a lukewarm reception at the time, but I’m heartily enjoying my playthrough of Seasons. I’d even go so far as to sat that – heresy! – it’s better than Link’s Awakening. Don’t lynch me!

Anyway, here’s the list of Zelda games I’m planning to play through before finally getting my hands on Breath of the Wild, roughly in the order I intend to play them. I’m leaving out Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and Tri Force Heroes, as really they’re spinoffs (and they don’t particularly appeal to me, anyway).

Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Oracle of Ages (GBC)
Minish Cap (GBA)
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
The Adventure of Link (NES)
Spirit Tracks (DS)
Wind Waker HD (Wii U)
Skyward Sword (Wii)

I’m aware that the two NES titles might be a slog to play nowadays, and Adventure of Link is renowned as being the worst in the series, so I may very well just dip into these rather than playing them to completion. Similarly, I’ll probably only dip into Wind Waker HD, as I completed the original back in the GameCube days, but I’m intrigued to see how they’ve tarted it up for the HD generation.

I’m also intrigued to play Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland on the DS, starring everyone’s favourite fairy-wannabee manchild. If I can get hold of it, I might add it to the list.

Are there any Zelda games you’ve missed out on? I’d love to hear if you’re planning a similar Zelda marathon ahead of the launch of Breath of the Wild.

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Tagged as Games, gaming, Nintendo, oracle of ages, oracle of seasons, Retro Gaming, The Legend of Zelda, tingle's rosy rupeeland, Video Games, Zelda, zelda breath of the wild

by Lucius P. Merriweather | 20 January 2017 · 9:13 pm

Spiffing Reads: Twitch IRL, Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Easter Eggs

This week on Spiffing Reads, we start off with a worrying look at what madness Twitch hath wrought.

How Twitch is turning ‘always be streaming’ into a career with zero balance (Polygon)

Once I got past the slightly baffling headline, this turned out to be a fascinating and slightly scary article about how much time people spend streaming on Twitch in the hopes of making it big. In a way, Twitch is the modern equivalent of scratching out a living as an amateur rock band hoping to sign a multi-million dollar record deal. Some do make the big time, but the majority will struggle to get by – and the price is high. This writer says he spent 6 days a week streaming for 12 hours a day, which is apparently what viewers ‘expect’. It sounds like utter madness to me. And now Twitch has launched ‘In Real Life’ (IRL), a way for streamers to keep streaming on their phones when they would normally be, well, just living their life. We really are living in The Truman Show.

The big Zelda: Breath of the Wild interview (Eurogamer)

A chunky interview with Zelda director Eiji Aonuma. Probably the most interesting part is that they considered making Link a woman for a while, and they still haven’t ruled out the possibility for the next installment. Sounds like a good idea to me – would be interesting to see how it changes the dynamic of the game.

The costs of developing Easter eggs (Polygon)

A really fascinating article on something I’ve always wondered – how to developers justify the time it takes to implement Easter eggs when they are usually up against it in terms of simply delivering the game on deadline? Well worth a read.

Spiffing Reads is a regular feature where we pick out the best gaming articles of the week. If you’ve read anything interesting, please let us know in the comments.