So unfortunately, this blog hasn't been kept up. I really thought this would be something that would go on for a while. We almost had it going for a year, but then... well, I don't know what happened. Whether we were all too busy with school/work or if we just lost interest.
Anyway, most of what I and the others post about games will be on the Negative World forum from now on.
So, here's one last thing for those of you who follow us, if there are any of you left.
This is my review of Skyward Sword, which is my first ever video review:
You can visit the topic about it at Negative World here.
Check out this 11 minute clip from the conference that happened in Japan yesterday:
For those of you who have been saying Skyward Sword will be another Twilight Princess, you are either really jaded, or you just won't give Nintendo the chance to redeem themselves. (Though I enjoyed Twilight Princess greatly.) Zelda's not even my favorite franchise and I'm really excited from what I've seen of Skyward Sword. If nothing else comes out this holiday season for the Wii, I'm just glad to have this game.
Okay I admit it, I'm a tad obsessed with Taco Man and his wacky antics but this was brilliant. Plus it gave me an excuse for to do another Zelda-nation post. So score. It also doubles as a Captain N: The Game Master parody.
Recently a buddy of mine named Jamie wanted to do a special project. He posted it over at Negative World and I put in a request to be chose. The requirements were to post your top-six favorite Pokemon as well as suggest a theme for the photo and he would do a cartoon-ish digital painting about it. I came at him quick, with one of the first, if not the first, requests and it turns out he ended up choosing me! I was elated! Psyched! Eager to see what was going to come of this.
So I told him my favorite Pokemon were Dragonite, Mew, Bulbasaur, Politoed, Haunter, and Magmortar. Ever since the first Pokemon game, I've always had this weird fondness of Cinnabar Island. In fact, my current Simisear in Pokemon White is nicknamed Cinnabar. So I told Jamie to paint me and those Pokemon with Cinnabar Island in the background, at that point in the old games where you've just finished that part and you end up returning to your hometown for the final gym. It was always a favorite of mine. The sample is below but you can download the full resolution version here.
After weeks of working... Jamie finished his work and it is wonderful. I had to post it to the PK Gaming community and give this man props. You can hire him to do all sorts of projects if you like, but no matter what, you owe it to yourself to check out this great Philadelphia artist.
Jamie also was a key artist in IGN's Week of Zelda Art special. He did three of them, which thumbs are posted below. For full versions visit Jamie's page or IGN.com.
One of the more interesting aspects of Legend of Zelda fandom is the debate on the timeline, if any, that the franchise follows. Go to any Zelda fan site and you are sure to find numerous theories pertaining to the order and nature of the timelines. Typically they fall into two major groups, linearists and splitists which means you believe that the timeline follows a straight order or that you believe that the timeline splits, usually focused around the ending of Ocarina of Time. I'm not sure if I need to explain this but the ending of Ocarina of Time involves Zelda sending Link back to the past to live his life and Ganondorf will never come to be while also leaving a future where Ganondorf was sealed in the Sacred Realm and such.
Here lets let the Angry Video Game Nerd explain:
Now to be entirely honest I don't spend a lot of time on timeline of the franchise. While it is certainly interesting to a point, to me the whole debate seems rather fruitless because I am not entirely convinced that Nintendo has put that much effort into. I mean I could be wrong and I'm certainly not telling fans to stop debating it but people really put their emotions into it. I've seen flame-wars over the topic and it is kinda startling.
But for the sake of argument, I'll presume that there is a timeline that the franchise follows and see what I come up with. Probably won't be anything new or original and I'm not doing any real research on the matter outside of what I know of the franchise and my own observations. If there is anything I need to be corrected on, please say so and I'll make a note of it.
What we know for sure is that there have been several Links, several Zeldas and only one Ganon/dorf. Also we know that Hyrule's landscape has changed dramatically but there are commonalities of towns and landmarks. There are only a few obviously direct sequels (in which the same Link stars) in the franchise as well, those would be:
LoZ/AoL, OoT/MM, Seasons, TWW/PH
Though if LoZ/AoL are indeed directly linked (no pun honest) doesn't it seem weird that there are two different Zeldas unless the Zelda in AoL is different than the one in LoZ but I dunno.
Of course this leaves 6 other LoZ games that feature an unique Link or at least not obviously connected Link. One game I'm kind of curious about is Link's Awakening. While not explicitly stated, to my memory anyways, I've always thought that the Link in that game was the same Link as the one in A Link to the Past but I also vaguely remember reading something in some video game magazine (I'm thinking Nintendo Power) that somehow the events of Link's Awakening takes place directly in the middle of Adventures of Link when Link takes the raft ride from the West to East continent but that seems unlikely to me.
But really the crux of the whole issue is OoT and how you interpret the ending. The Wind Waker takes place after the Ganondorf is sealed time but if Ganondorf was never to exist when Link is sent back to his childhood could Twilight Princess really have happened? Most people put Twilight Princess coming after that but now that I really think about it how could it? Sure Ganondorf is essentially presented as being a god in Twilight Princess so it is possible that he could enter any reality he chooses. With that being a possibility I suppose if I had to say the majority of the Zelda games take place in the Twilight Princess branch of the timeline.
But to be honest, as interesting as this is, I'm starting to feel like I'm rambling. My true feelings is that outside of the directly connected titles most Zelda games can be taken as their own stories with meta-styled references thrown in for the fans of the franchise. If there is a truly deeper connection, fantastic, but until proven otherwise I'm not going to think too deeply about it.
In all my years of gaming one franchise has captured my heart like no other, The Legend of Zelda. While I wasn't an immediate fan of the franchise back in '87 (the originals release day) since the early '90s I've been a big fan of the franchise. It is the franchise that penetrated the overall dominance of platformers in my early days and turned me from just an average gamer into a "hardcore" (as much as I hate that term) gamer.
So I figured since it is the franchises official 25th anniversary (in Japan) and release of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D set for June 19th and with Skyward Sword due hopefully this fall I thought I'd do a series of posts until at least the release of OoT 3D celebrating my love of this franchise. Though if my fellow editors want to chime in on this very topic, more the merrier.
Now for a warm up: My Favorite Zelda Commercials!
Where can I find an NES with black buttons?
The Granny is freaky as hell. Also a Wizrobe. Damned Wizrobes.
Man I love this commercial.
Couldn't find an embeddable version of the long one.
What was with NoA and having rap songs for Zelda games?
