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• I Don't Think I Missed Much: Beyond Oasis

  Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection has proved invaluable in helping me patch the gaming gaps inflicted by my childhood loyalty to Nintendo. Aside from suffering at the hands of Altered Beast, I've been working my way through Beyond Oasis. Beyond Oasis is an action-RPG that was released in 1995, a particularly rich vein of gaming history. Its top-down sword-swinging action is most often compared to The Legend of Zelda, though the large sprites, interchangeable weapons and focus on fighting over puzzle-solving remind me more of Secret of Mana. With Secret of Mana being one of my very favourite instruments of torture video games, you would think that I'd latch right on to the Sega Genesis alternative about an Arabian boy with blue eyes and blonde hair. Alas, it has just not been so. Beyond Oasis works well as a distraction to pick at while waiting for my potatoes to boil, but something about it feels hollow. It feels strange to make this discovery, because I spent a lot of energy pretending not to care when the first big, beautiful screenshots of Beyond Oasis hit game magazines. Read More... Posted Apr 14 2009, 09:16 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, retro, 16-bit, sega genesis, nadia oxford, secret of mana, beyond oasis

• The Four Greatest Videogame/Drug Combinations of All Time (Speaking From Personal Experience)

  The world’s worst fears are true: you need to take drugs to play Grand Theft Auto. The only way to get the most out of your time in Liberty City is to eat ecstasy, let the chemical take hold, and swim in an ocean of thick joy as you wreak impossible acts of havoc on the digital world’s citizens. I’m sorry I’m stealing your car, I need it right now, but I looooove you, man. Just the way it is, I guess. Bold choice, Rockstar! I kid. It was no doubt an unpleasant surprise for Richard Thornhill, a father of two, to open his recently purchased copy of GTA and find four mysterious pills sitting in the game’s case. I can’t imagine the confusion and fear. My god, what have I touched? Is this poison? There’s nothing more noisome than someone telling you that drugs of any stripe enhance an experience. Oh man, you can’t listen to Dark Side of the Moon if you aren’t stoned, man. Shut up. You’re a moron. I would, however, be a liar if I said that I haven’t had a marvelous time playing videogames while using illicit substances. Yes, like President Obama, I too inhaled during the heady days of my youth. Amongst other things. Let us take a brief stroll down memory lane. I will be your pharmacological guide across the gaming landscape. Read More... Posted Apr 08 2009, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, xbox 360, resident evil, legend of zelda, nes, ocarina of time, gamecube, grand theft auto, resident evil 4, barack obama, burnout paradise, duck tales

• Not All Games Age Well

  I've written this as a companion piece to my earlier post on keeping the games you buy. As I said earlier, If I enjoyed playing a game the first time, then chances are it'll have a permanent place in my game library. Some games, however, lose their appeal as they age, or as I age. One or the other. Read More... Posted Mar 31 2009, 02:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, final fantasy, amber ahlborn, musings

• The Legend of Zelda: Manifest Destiny

  The assembled audience held their breath. Satoru Iwata had played them all. He said there would be no new Zelda announcement at the Game Developers Conference. He lied. The lights dimmed, and the trailer rolled. Wind Waker’s Toon Link sits on bended knee. Text appears: "Link, you have crossed a vast ocean and found a new Hyrule for us to settle!" A golden railroad spike descends into a fire-red z in The Legend of Zelda: Manifest Destiny. Cut to a monocled Link checking his pocket watch impatiently on a train platform. A moblin tries to sell him the day’s paper. Link chases him away with the new Dandy’s Cane item. “Join Link as he brutally wipes out the indigenous people of Zelda's new kingdom!” Read More... Posted Mar 25 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, legend of zelda, link, satoru iwata, spirit tracks

• Question of the Day: Valkyrie Profile and the Need for Voiced Dialogue

  My backlog is becoming untenable. There are games, games that I started months ago, sitting in a pile that appears to be growing of its own volition. Where the hell did that copy of Pro Evolution Soccer even come from and why is it sitting in the “to play” pile? No one in my home even likes soccer! The worst of the lot is Persona 4. Rather than hide myself away like some horrid realization of gamer stereotype, refusing to venture into the sun until the game is complete, I’ve been working through Persona since early December, taking it a bit at a time. It’s starting to drive me crazy. A few days ago, I fired it up for the first time since mid-February and was treated to one of its scarce animated cutscenes. Turns out that bear suit made a dude! Yeah, not a dude wearing a bear suit. The bear suit formed a dude inside of it. More startling than spontaneous dude generation was hearing the characters’ voices. I had forgotten they could talk you see. This is because, with very rare exceptions, I always turn off the voice acting in RPGs. Why? Because the voice acting is almost always terrible. Dragon Quest VIII’s British cast and Final Fantasy XII’s gang of breathy stoics are exceptions to the rule. Most of the time, you have to deal with screeching whiners who insist on naming every single thing they do and I’ll have none of it. Honestly though, I wonder why voice is considered a necessity in modern design. Read More... Posted Mar 19 2009, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, twilight princess, square-enix, dragon quest, persona, atlus, final fantasy xii, question of the day, persona 4, dragon quest viii, valkyrie profile, eiji aonumal john Constantine, covenant of the plume

• Pick Up Chicks In the Zelda Mobile

  You deserve a sexy car. That's why you need to own the Legend of Zelda Car. It's a 1978 Ford Fairmount adorned with the full map from the first Legend of Zelda game and other Zelda-related eye candy. Pictures of the Zelda Car have vroom-vroomed their way into Nintendo Power, Digg, and several game sites. Face it: this is the car you want to lose your virginity in, you studly 29-year-old. Well, good news. It's up for sale. The owner of the Zelda Car has taken out an ad on craigslist; he (she?) simply doesn't need the vehicle anymore, though it's been as faithful to him as Epona. It's in good condition, has a mere 110,000 miles on it (surely Link has walked/ridden more), and has fairly new shocks and tires. It's yours for $500.00 USD. Read More... Posted Mar 09 2009, 12:28 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, legend of zelda, nes, 8-bit, retro, fan stuff, nadia oxford

• Old Man, Take a Look At My Life

  Somewhere over the American Midwest, on February 7th, I was playing through Retro Game Challenge. Five hours on a sold-out airplane, stale air, more screaming kids than tranq-ed adults, and surly Delta Airlines employees shoving headphones and stale bagels in your face every ten minutes makes for the perfect gaming atmosphere. You put on the best headphones you’ve got, jack up the volume, and play until the power runs out. The flight allowed me to access almost all of Retro’s faux-NES games. It wasn’t until I was plodding about its Dragon Quest homage, Guardia Quest, that I noticed my audience. Aaron was about five or six years old, a quiet kid peculiarly calm for such a long trip. “I have a DS too.” Read More... Posted Feb 17 2009, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, legend of zelda, nes, dragon quest, wii sports, famicom, Retro game challenge, phantom hourglass, guardia quest

• Konjak: Legend of Zelda Platforming the Right Way

  In the past twelve months, much praise has been heaped upon Jon Blow for his time-bending platformer, Braid. Braid defies convention! Braid is an artistic tour de force that’s changed the gaming landscape forever! Jon Blow is mii mee mii mee mii mew! Hell with Jon Blow, I say! The man can’t even make a game by himself. He needs an artist and a musician to help him! Pfft. He’s no Joakim Sandberg, no siree. You want genre redfining platformers, Mr. Sandberg, also known as Konjak, is your man. He also happens to be the man. I kid about Jon Blow, but I’m all too serious about Konjak. His game Noitu Love 2 was without question the most beautiful and adventurous 2D platformer to come out in 2008, and I say that as a man obsessed with Bionic Commando and Mega Man 9. Thing is, Konjak is responsible for literally every facet of the game, from its propulsive techno soundtrack, to the art, to the batshit insane action. What’s he up to these days? Oh, just making a sidescrolling homage to Zelda called Legend of Princess. Read More... Posted Jan 27 2009, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, wind waker, braid, link to the past, jon blow, konjak, legend of princess, joakim sandberg, noitu love

• Swell Maps

  A few years back, I picked up an issue of British gaming rag NGamer because a) it had the Nights sequel on the cover — Nights is awesome — and b) it came with a poster. A lot of game magazines come with posters, but this one was particularly sweet. One side was a complete map of Hyrule, exactly as it appears in A Link to the Past, and on the other, a complete map of Zebes from Super Metroid. These weren’t artist’s interpretations, these were the actual games printed on paper. Super Metroid was especially beautiful. Anyone familiar with the game could lean in and pick out particular rooms, places where the game itself is especially thrilling or well-constructed. But seeing the game as a whole was eye-opening. Read More... Posted Jan 22 2009, 04:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metroid, nintendo, super metroid, game boy, capcom, legend of zelda, snes, strider, link to the past, zebes, sonic & knuckles, super mario land, hyrule

• I Only Took Piano Lessons as a Kid.

  I love video game music. I already post the occasional remix here on 61FPS but I also love listening and watching enthusiasts play classic game tunes straight. I am a science buff and enjoy digging up all manner of interesting and often esoteric facts and scientific oddities. Finally, YouTube is a strange and wonderful place. Add these seemingly unrelated statements together and you get... Read More... Posted Dec 03 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, amber ahlborn, game music, tetris, super mario

• The Day Ocarina of Time Got Me Kicked Out of History Class

  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time hit ten years of age last month, and I am so proud of it. The day I got the game, I skipped half a day of school, brought it home and forgot school even existed until my mother made me go back there the next morning. Once in class, I couldn't stop talking about Link's first 3D adventure. I bounced off the walls so hard that the teacher sent me out. Why this story is magical: I was eighteen at the time and attending grade 13, a "preparation" year for college. And I had been exiled to the hallway for disturbing the class like an eight-year-old with a pocket full of fart bombs. Ocarina of Time hasn't aged well in ten years. If I encountered a hermit scratching moss from behind his ears and blinking at the sunglight for the first time in two decades, I'd direct him in his video game education thusly: skip Ocarina of Time and go straight for Twilight Princess or even Majora's Mask. Link's first N64 outing was lacking in swordplay, no thanks to a barren overworld bristling with a few fences and peahats, maybe a leever or two. But if this hermit told me some manner of centipede god had told him to emerge into the world strictly to study game history, I'd tell him, "Oh shit dude, Ocarina of Time all the way." Ocarina of Time is a pioneer. Bare fields were a small tradeoff for playing the Zelda series' classic puzzles in 3D for the first time. Light a torch with a lantern? Yeah, if you're a sissy. Light a torch by shooting an arrow through a living flame and sparking the cold sconce on the other side of a pit? Awesome. Read More... Posted Dec 02 2008, 08:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, legend of zelda, ocarina of time, n64, nostalgia, anniversary, nadia oxford

• I've Decided on a Game Tattoo

  If I ever gather up the metaphorical balls to get a tattoo, that is. If you carefully cast your eyes to the right, you'll see the design I have in mind. Now I'm going to make you sit and listen as I slowly explain my choice. You may be tempted to flee, but pretend I'm an intimidating prison inmate showing off his tapestry. You wouldn't run from your cellmate, right? He makes you happy at night. See, I think there is a very fine line between classy and trashy video game tattoos. When I say "fine" I mean this line is as thin as the silk belched out of a spider's bum. Personally, I believe that if you're going to get the summation of your beliefs and feelings scratched onto your skin, you may as well have something to say that both you and the whole world can appreciate. You can get away with tattooing Super Mario on your forehead because pretty much everyone in the civilised world knows who Mario is and understands his contributions to modern culture. Chances are good--though by no means secure--that Mario will endure for a while longer. On the other hand, there was a time when Sonic the Hedgehog was the coolest mascot ever and it was inconceivable that he would become the fantasy husband of 12-year-old fangirls. The people who got Sonic tattoos in the '90s have some 'splainin' to do (or some big-ass gauze bandages to buy). Flynn DeMarco over at Kotaku got Jack's chains from Bioshock drawn on his wrists. This, in my opinion, is an example of an awesome game tattoo. Fans of the game recognise it immediately and everyone else can apply their own meaning to it. Nice conversation starter. Read More... Posted Oct 22 2008, 05:36 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: bioshock, legend of zelda, mother 3, tattoos, nadia oxford, dragons, vanity

• Linearity is Not a Dirty Word

  With the dawn of 3-D games on home consoles, new buzz words and selling points like draw distance, open worlds, and free roaming worlds were birthed. Games grew in size and linearity become a negative point on many reviews. Bigger, however, is not always better, and great games should never be docked points because they proceed in a linear fashion. Content is king! It has always been an enigma to me why linearity has developed this stigma. Why it should ever be considered a negative while wide open, sandbox, free roaming aspects are typically considered a good thing. Let's ignore the entire history of gaming greatness that existed in the linear majority of 2-D games and just look at some samples from my 3-D library. Some of the most enjoyable games I've ever played have been knocked in reviews for their linearity, while other games have actually used their wide open dead space as a selling point. Read More... Posted Oct 14 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, prince of persia, amber ahlborn, ratchet & clank, sly cooper, game design, jak 2

• 16-bit Morals: Sonic Warns You About Uncle Ernie

  I watched video game-based cartoons for two reasons. First, it was something to fan my buzz when my parents made me turn off the Nintendo. Second, to feed the fanfic writer gestating inside me. I hoped that game cartoons would expand on the meagre stories games offered back then. I probably don't need to tell you that I was often disappointed. In the beginning, I actually believed that these cartoons were written by highly-paid enthusiasts who were bursting with their own ideas. I didn't think of them as desperate writers who recruited their nephews and nieces for crash courses in Mario lore (obvious exception: Bob Forward, who wrote the Legend of Zelda and Beast Wars). It didn't take long for the truth to hit me, and it wasn't the bad writing that betrayed these ladies and gentlemen. It was the kindergarten-level morals that got crammed into most episodes of most everything. Read More... Posted Aug 27 2008, 05:20 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, sonic the hedgehog, super mario world, sonic the hedgehog cartoon, nadia oxford, 16-bit morals, sexual harassment, psa

• Where is Joe Madureira?

  If you read mainstream American comics in the 1990s, odds are you have an opinion on Joe Madureira. Controversially named by Wizard magazine as one of the ten most influential comic artists of all time (others on the list included Jack Kirby, Osamu Tezuka and Will Eisner), Joe's work on Marvel's Uncanny X-Men and his creator-owned Battle Chasers single-handedly launched the American manga craze that is still being felt today. He abruptly quit comics in 2001 to follow his dream of working in the video game industry. Not a whole lot has been seen of him since. Joe contributed to the all-around meh Playstation brawler Gekido, then worked on Tri-Lunar's Dragonkind, which vanished when the company went out of business. After several years of delays, Joe finally saw the release of a game with his direct influence in the 2007 PC MMORPG Dungeon Runners. Ever heard of any of those games? No, I didn't think so. Read More... Posted Jul 18 2008, 07:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, legend of zelda, where is, gears of war, x-men, thq, e3, comics, darksiders, joe madureira

• Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

  Written by Amber Ahlborn At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds

• Raised on the Stuff

  As I listened to this past Friday’s 1up Yours podcast, lazily typing away and sipping coffee, I perked up when the crew got on the topic of how they planned to introduce their children to videogames. While What They Play’s John Davison is already raising two very young gamers of his own, the other three gents still aren’t fathers but they all mentioned that they definitely want to see their kids weaned on classics from a young age. This is interesting to me because I’ve given the subject quite a lot of thought. My plan? Bed time stories. Read More... Posted May 13 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, 1up Yours, john davison, garnett lee, mega man 2, 1up, legend of zelda, shane bettenhausen, what they play, shawn elliot