61 Frames Per Second : zelda ii the adventure of link

Four More Games That ARE Awesome Remade In LittleBigPlanet

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:00:00 GMT

The day we've waited so very, very, very long for is finally upon us. LittleBigPlanet is out. For real. No more delays or teasing. It's been fun dreaming up all the crazy stages we can build, so much so that we even wrote up what classic games we'd like to remake...twice! But now that the game is out, it's time to stop dreaming and start creating, and that's exactly what the clever kids over at GamesRadar did, building LBP stages of four of their favorite retro classics.

After some hard work, some very interesting stages were built based on:

Donkey Kong,

The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link,

Space Invaders, and...

Mega Man.

Click here for a full description of the process and videos of each stage compared to their source material.

Perhaps most interesting is the method used to import sprites and graphics, as seen to the right. Yeah, he's got his PS3 on his computer desk and snapping shots of Photoshop documents with his EyeToy. That looks both uncomfortable and inconvenient. Come on, Sony! You've got to know that a large chunk of the people wanting to play with this game are creative people. Illustrators, graphic designers, architects, bedroom programmers. These people would LOVE to work on assets on their computers and transfer them over to the PS3. Just tell us what format you want them in! They have to be in Hi-Def? No problem! Just let us do it! There's no way I'm lugging my PS3 all the way to my desk every time I have an idea for an obstacle to take a picture of it. I'll probably end up putting these graphics on my iPod and taking pictures of that, which can't possibly be all that high a quality. Please, please release a patch that allows users to utilize graphics from the hard drive for user-generated content. Aren't you just asking for trouble by trusting us with nothing but a webcam? Have you seen what people do with webcams?

Related articles:

Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet
Four More Games That Will Be Awesome To Remake In LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet is Insane
LittleBigPlanet Meets FFX
Sackboy Vs. Muhammad and Round 2
Sony Fans, Meet Your New Totem: Sackboy

Questionable Nintendo Products: Mario's Cradle-Robbing Picnic Plates

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:27:00 GMT

Growing up, I did my fair share of whining for whatever toy showed up on television. Needless to say, '80s commercials were all about Nintendo and ill-begotten offshoots of Nintendo's games and characters.

I imagine we Canadians are going to have to "share" our fresh water with the US as the world becomes a more desperate place, but the US has already shared their commercials with us, so I guess it's only fair. Though regulations on dirty American television have since become more strict in Canadaland, when I was growing up the lax rules meant we got a lot of ads for products that never made their way up here. So my mom had the perfect excuse for not buying me every little thing: "This is an American station. That toy is only in America."

Do you think she was just trying to shut me up?

One thing I do know for sure is that the Nintendo Cereal System never made its way up here, at least not in generous amounts. No snot-flavoured bits of Mario and Link at my breakfast table, alas, but I was still tormented by knowledge of the cereal's existence. What I didn't know until yesterday is that there was a sequel to the Nintendo Cereal System, based on Super Mario Bros 2 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The blog post, "Errant Nintendo Licensing," actually made me aware of a few batshit Nintendo products that I've never laid eyes on. Knapsacks and cereals (loaded with healthy trans fats) are pretty standard for any licensing agreement. The party plates, on the other hand, are the work of an artist tortured by fantasies that have landed more than one man in a cold cell.

Or maybe the artist was trying to portray King Bowser in a sympathetic light. Is the plumber saving Peach, or taking her away from a illicit love that he's simply too narrow-minded to understand? Is Mario in the employ of Peach's father, who will lock his virgin daughter in a tower until she weaves a rope out of napkin threads and begins a dangerous descent back to hard-won freedom and unquenchable love?

Or is Mario just lifting an eight-year-old Peach from her bed and making off with her? 'cause that's sure what it looks like, here. Worse, Toad seems elated by the whole business. "I get to watch, Mario! You promised!"

Imagine eating a piece of birthday cake at the climax of a fun party and suddenly discovering this image at the bottom of the plate, grimy and sinister with the smear of chocolate icing. I would have burst into tears.

Related Links:

Super Mario World is Terrifying!
Sweet Sassy Molassey! Super Mario RPG on the Virtual Console
Mario Will Not Retire. He Will Outlive Us All

You're a Filthy Cheater! ...Right?

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:01:00 GMT

It's like yin and yang, light and darkness, vanilla and chocolate: wherever there are rules directing life, there is a means of going against those rules. Since video games' conception, enthusiasts have proved themselves champions of cheating and game-breaking.

But it's not as if cheating at video games is as simple as being cheap about tag-backs or peeking during hide-and-seek.

I wrote an article for 1UP that looks at the long, twisted history behind game breaking. I'm putting the link up here because I'm a pimp, but also because I find the subject matter pretty fascinating. It's very difficult to draw a line between "Cheating" and "Okey-Dokey" with video games because there are so many variables to consider. Is it "cheating" if you use an in-game trick like the exhalted Konami Code? Or is the term reserved for third-party peripherals like the Game Genie and Gameshark?

How about the exploitation of game mechanics? Put Mario Kart DS and "snaking" in the same sentence on any game-related message board to launch a war.

Gamers are often rewarded when they (to quote Miss Frizzle) take chances, make mistakes and get messy. Consider Adventure, the grandfather of console RPGs. By meeting certain requirements and going off the game's beaten path, players revealed the text "Warren Robinett", the name of Adventure's lead programmer. Not an impressive trick by today's standards, but it was an early indication that there was more to games than meets the eye...and that contrary to what Atari wanted people to believe back then, video games were programmed by human beings, not robots.

Players began to wonder: "What else do games have in store for those of us who think outside the box?" Thus began the sport of banging on buttons and keys to see what kinds of rewards would be yielded. Most of the time it was a trip to the return counter with a busted game, but as games became more complex, efforts became more fruitful.

My favourite Game Genie memory is finally taking down the wretched Thunderbird that lorded over the Great Palace in Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. Zelda II not a forgiving game; the path to the Great Palace was hell, but it was a trek through Eden compared to the Palace itself. So what if I cheated a titch and employed the Genie? In the end, Hyrule was saved and I got a kiss from the original, somehow-not-mummified Princess Zelda. That's what counts, right?

...Right?

Psht, if Ganon had a Game Genie, you know he wouldn't hesitate to give himself eternal life and totally wreck Link.