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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.

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.

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

Miyamoto Says Something Was "Missing" From Zelda: Twilight Princess. We Know It, Too.

I really enjoyed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. To me, it played like a much bigger, much more detailed version of Ocarina of Time, which is A-OK in my book. I also got to ride a horsey.

But in the most recent installment of a long-running interview with MTV Multiplayer, Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledges that perhaps Twilight Princess could have been...fresher.

Whatever your stance on the current status of the Zelda franchise, you can't really argue that it's a bad thing when its creator decides it's high time to innovate.

I like reading message board threads about the steps Nintendo should take to freshen up Zelda because nobody agrees on anything. Since I already know people are going to fire arrows on me for merely sharing my suggestions, I thought I'd belt out a few.

First, I'd love to see some cel-shaded graphics again, but not Wind Waker Link. The original Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link included some great instruction booklet character art that jogged our imaginations while we played as jagged snot-green sprites; I would love to see a return to that traditional art style. It inspired so many of us when our imaginations were still supple.

Posted Oct 29 2008, 05:33 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: the legend of zelda, ocarina of time, twilight princess, nadia oxford, link to the past, link’s awakening, adventure of link, ganon

For Love of the Game: The Legend of Zelda – The Shadowgazer

We could run a daily For Love of the Game feature on Zelda remakes alone. Zelda 1 with 16-bit graphics, Zelda 1 made out of Lego, two-dimensional Ocarina of Time, side-scrolling Ocarina of Time, Link’s Awakening running on Minish Cap’s engine, Twilight Princess dating sims, and on and on and on. People love Zelda, they always want more Zelda. But, and it’s a truth that’s taken a serious toll on the series, people tend to want Zelda exactly the way they’ve had it before, only slightly different. Fans aren’t the only ones who keep remaking Zelda; Eiji Aonuma’s been doing a bang-up job of it for almost a decade.

More interesting than homebrewers adding a special blend of basement hops to the same old quest-lager are those adventuresome folks making all new Zeldas. The re-appropriation of yesterday’s art can yield both inspired results, as with Zelda: Outlands, and well-meaning but forgettable outings like Parallel Worlds. It’s especially rare to see a homebrew Zelda filled with original sprites and scenarios. King Mob’s The Legend of Zelda: The Shadowgazer, from the looks of this trailer, is especially becoming.

Posted Oct 28 2008, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, for love of the game, game boy, the legend of zelda, zelda II, the legend of zelda parallel worlds, homebrew, link to the past, zelda outlands, link’s awakening

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.