tetris attacked — on the go

just a quick post. i know i said i was going to cut down on the sequels, but i had some games already in the pipeline to finish, one of which was the game boy version of tetris attack. i had played and thoroughly enjoyed the SNES version and was looking forward to trying out the various iterations the game has gone through since its original release in 1996.

puzzle games tend not to vary much, and the original game boy version of tetris attack has even less reason to as (according to the game’s page at wikipedia) it was released pretty much simultaneously with the SNES version. in terms of the trappings and modes the games are pretty much the same. the biggest difference is the size of the well (alert! alert! geek speak ahead. skip to the next paragraph to avoid!): in the SNES version the well is 6 blocks across and 12 high, whereas in the GB version it’s 6 across and only 9 high. this definitely changes the rhythm of the game, and working your chains vertically becomes less feasible. the difference in the well size may probably require you to adjust your strategy if you were reliant on working in the middle of your stack to make chains like i was. also, perhaps as a way to compensate for the limitations on making chains, it feels like the game handles garbage blocks a bit differently than the SNES version. as in the SNES version, making a line next to a garbage block causes all the garbage blocks to turn into regular blocks, but in the GB version there seems to be a significantly bigger pause while the garbage blocks are popping; this makes it easier to rearrange blocks below the garbage blocks and set up chains based on what the garbage blocks have turned into. this change helps make the game more balanced overall, although it also makes it easier to rebound from getting a lot of garbage blocks. since i haven’t played the SNES version in a while i may be mistaken on that, but that was my impression.

since i hadn’t played any version of the game in a while, i had a good time just getting back into it. even though i’d played the SNES version a fair amount, i’m still far from being a chain master, so there was definitely plenty of worthwhile time spent just improving my tetris attack/panel de pon skillz. i cleared the regular mode on the hardest difficulty, which was rather on the easy side, before proceeding to the “vs COM” mode. on the hardest normal setting this was definitely more of a challenge, but the game gives you infinite continues so it doesn’t take too much effort. after beating bowser the game challenges you to beat bowser without any losses in the first 7 stages (in which you battle your “friends”, e.g. lakitu or poochy, who have supposedly been put under a spell) and with less than 7 continues in the final four stages (i.e. you can use each of the “friends” you’ve accrued as a continue). this is also more of a challenge and definitely kept me coming back for more.

all in all this was a nice portable alternative version to the SNES version. the graphics, music, and sound make the transition pretty much intact, and although the gameplay ends up having slight variations, it’s still the tetris attack you know and love and it’s very much worth checking out. especially if you’re a geek like me who gets into the minute differences between versions of the same game! lucky for me there are still plenty of iterations of the series to check out in the future. hahaha.

another attack of tetris attack links!
- linked to this before, but still worth noting: nice general PdP fansite
- themushroomkingdom.net has a comparison of the SNES tetris attack to the original, japanese-only panel de pon
- passwords at IGN
- entry at gaming.wikia.com with info on all the characters

100+ games and super mario still reigns

i had to set aside my resolution to tone down on the number of sequels i’ve been playing temporarily in order to commemorate the 100th game i’ve completed since i started keeping track of my renewed gameplaying obsession a few years ago. to mark the occasion i decided to play through probably the most iconic video game of all time, the original super mario bros. for the NES.

i’d squeezed in a quick playthrough a while back, but for this occasion i sat down and played through both “quests” without warping. i was also going to try to do it all without any continues and without using the extra lives cheat in 3-1, but in the end i had to use the continue cheat after all. although i have world 8 pretty much completely memorized, i haven’t played world 7 as much as the rest of the game; but i was pleasantly surprised to find that the game wasn’t going to just be a mindless nostalgia trip.

what’s there to say about the game that hasn’t already been said? the game has been rightfully universally praised, and it’s easily one of the top landmarks of video game history; it’s hard to imagine its influence will ever be underestimated. even after countless playthroughs there’s no doubt that this game absolutely holds up and is as much fun as ever. the characters, pacing, powerups, design, music, graphics, gameplay, everything is just fantastic, with each world offering up surprises. from our modern-day persective and hundreds of mario games later it’s easy to take all of its innovations and wacky creativity for granted, and it’s only when we stop to think about how crazy the whole setup is (plumbers in the mushroom kingdom?) that we get a glimpse of how sad and dark a world without mario and company would be.

even after all this time i’m still noticing little details in the game. for example, a while back the good folk at gonintendo linked to a post that pointed out that the bushes are just the clouds colored green, and this playthrough i noticed that the flagpoles are different colors depending on the stage. and i haven’t even gotten into all the dumb stuff that people have found out about the game since it was released that have added to the game’s appeal, like the infamous minus world glitch, the jumping over the flagpole glitch, and the dancing on the ivy trick. (and i’m sure i’m not the only one who still makes the mario face out of the bricks in that one bonus room.)

[as a side note, i happened to be reading an old issue of nintendo power (feb 2006, vol 200) and in it kazuaki morita, one of the programmers of the game, mentions that when they first heard about the infinite lives cheat he and miyamoto "thought the call was a hoax", but that when they tested it out he had "a real scare". he concludes by saying, "Fortunately, very fortunately, the 'unlimited Mario' cheat had a ton of PR value as word spread, because I sweated bullets over what might happen!" haha. awesome.]

although i’m keeping this post short, there’s nothing small about my love for this game. in looking over the many, many games i’ve played over the years, somehow the original super mario bros. still tops my list of all-time favorites, even after all these years. the world is forever indebted to the genius that is mario creator shigeru miyamoto and all the good folk at nintendo who worked on SMB and continue to give us great gaming experiences even now, a quarter of a century later. it’s because of them that i am and will always be a nintendo fanboy. here’s to another quarter of a century (and more) of great nintendo games!

whoo hoo! mario (and ‘uigi’s) super links!
- nice nostalgic review of the game at videogamecritic.net
- themushroomkingdom.net has a great site on the game including tons of useless factoids, like the number of goombas in the game (142).

milon’s castle’s secrets uncovered

i realized that i’ve been playing way more sequels this year than ever before, so i decided to step back and dig into the pile of games i’ve been meaning to play (and finish). the first one i laid my hands on was milon’s secret castle by hudson soft for the NES. MSC was one of those games i had owned and played as a kid, but i had never been able to finish it. it had always intrigued me, and at long last i have fulfilled my childhood dream of beating the game. from the vantage point of the current internet age, i was at a huge disadvantage in tems of beating the game, because somehow i had lost the instruction book and was missing the crucial information that you can continue by holding down the left button when pressing start at the title screen. i’m amazed that i was able to get as far as i did back then with this huge handicap; never underestimate the tenacity of a kid whose mom won’t buy him as many games as all his friends’ parents.

looking through reviews online it seems the game is pretty much universally maligned. just starting the game i immediately recalled how incredibly frustrating the first room was. the game offers you no hints on how to progress, and i still don’t remember how i finally had the breakthrough that you have to destroy the two blocks in the bottom right corner of the room, then push the middle block, and then shoot a bubble in the empty space to reveal an essential door. this breakthrough is all the more frustrating since it’s only one of two times you push a block in the entire game. anyway, this random review i came across eloquently further illuminates the game’s gameplay:

My guess is that the presence of the word “Secret” in this game’s title is rooted in the fact that virtually every room here holds hordes of secret rooms and items. You aren’t expected to just fire your weapon at enemies (that quickly respawn), but at EVERYTHING. You’ll be breaking blocks like crazy. You’ll be firing into blank, empty air. You’ll be constantly flooding the screen with bubbles because any single location in any single room just might hide a doorway leading to something you need to clear the game.

a bit of an exaggeration, since the secrets aren’t in completely random locations, but it is true that to progress you’ll be making a habit of shooting bubbles everywhere possible. having gone through all the pain of learning how the game operates so many years ago, playing through the game this time around was mostly just enjoyable. imho, the rooms are well designed with a lot of variety in their layout; the castle, which serves as the game’s map, is fun to navigate; the music and graphics are both enjoyable; the main character is endearing; and the powerups, while not approaching the epic scale of nintendo’s franchises, are all pretty useful. there’s also a bonus level that’s fun. the biggest drawbacks are that the boss battles are pretty much all the same (although the same could be said about the original super mario bros.); the last boss is fairly lame, and the ending consists of a single still image (although, again, super mario bros. doesn’t offer anything better either); and on the third floor all of the three bosses you can choose to face are pretty much impossible to beat until you find a couple of remaining powerups. people also complain that milon doesn’t have an invincibility period when he gets hit, which means that the damage can rack up, but i didn’t have much of a problem with that.

all in all given the fact this was released in 1985, i ended up being pretty impressed with the game’s solid gameplay and nicely designed rooms. once past the initial frustrations i think many people would find a lot to enjoy, but i can see why so many people would never be able to get to that point. if the instruction book had included an explanation of the first stage the game probably would’ve gone over much better, but as it is this is a classic that will probably never get the attention it deserves. the japan-only sequel (available on the VC) is apparently a much more straightforward platformer that has gotten good reviews, and i’ll definitely be checking it out, as well as the game boy version of the original which has a password feature. i think the original game contains all the elements for a great revival, though; but it doesn’t seem like that’s likely to ever happen. too bad!

milon’s secret links:
- great fan site including info on other versions and the text of the instruction manual.
- great info at strategywiki.org, including images of the castle map, level maps, enemies, and bosses.
- this random page has images of all of the in-game “hints” which are amusing. i never did figure out what the heck “A WATERPOT IN ICY ROOM” means.
- entry at wikipedia
- nintendoage.com includes scans of the manual

the holy grail of video games

although i’m cetainly a video game buff, i’m not a “collector” for the sake of collecting; i’m a collector only in terms of wanting to play original games in their original configuration (i.e. with the original hardware and peripherals, although sadly with arcade games i have to make do with the nearest console version). this has led me to some relatively expensive purchases, but nothing too extreme. given the mountain of great games i haven’t played, there isn’t too much need to really dive too deep into the realm of obscure but worthwhile but also pricey games.

nevertheless, i find video game collecting for the sake of collecting to be interesting. racketboy has a feature on “the holy grails of console gaming” that’s an interesting read. but the reason i’m mentioning all this now is that the guy who runs the essential videogamepricecharts.com (how did we ever live without it?), posted this week about his epic saga on acquiring the holy grail of console gaming, the nintendo world championships gold cartridge. it’s a great read (you’ll laugh! you’ll cry!), and here’s a hearty congratulations to the guy at VGPC for accomplishing what many people can only dream of.

mario (and luigi) karted again

i hadn’t really been that into super mario kart when i played it last year, but i found myself curious about its first sequel, mario kart 64. MK64 has the advantage of true 3-D graphics and as a result much more varied tracks, but it also offers up some great new items (triple green and red shells, the ghost item, the fake question block, and the dreaded blue shell). the biggest changes to the setup are that each cup consists of 4 tracks instead of 5, there are less laps, and you get unlimited retries. all those changes make the game much, much easier, something i found myself having mixed feelings about but in the end preferred.

because of the latter changes and also because the tracks were easier (it seemed like there were far fewer hairpin turns), in general i didn’t have much problem getting the golds all the way up to the 150cc mode using my man luigi (didn’t bother with mirror mode, though). like many sequels, MK64 feels like a leap forward, and i ended up enjoying it much more than SMK; in fact, it’s made me a convert to the series. the main complaints people continue to have about the series is that the AI opponents pull off superhuman feats and that the better items are given to those who are losing. in my playthrough of the solo mode i found the AI’s rubberbanding to be a bit annoying, but given that your computer opponents are usually relying on weaker weapons (e.g. banana peels) and pretty much never chuck a red shell at you i didn’t think it was too unfair. i also didn’t have much of a problem with the item distribution, and i actually really grew to like the fact that even if you make some mistakes you can still win a race thanks to some much-needed items when you’re lagging behind. racing games in general rely on perfection more than most, something i dislike in games in general, but the kart series helps alleviate those types of headaches. and even though the item distribution makes for a more casual experience, the game still requires more than blind luck to win each race. i can definitely see how the item randomness could be a big pain in a multiplayer game, though.

all in all, despite being a bit too easy this was a thoroughly enjoyable game, and despite some misgivings i decided to give it the benefit of the doubt since it’s just too much stupid fun and i officially inducted it into my “top games of all time” list. it doesn’t look like the series has evolved very much, but i’m looking forward to trying out the rest of the series (although it looks like the next entry, super circuit on the GBA is a bit of a step back).

kart links:
- a nice look at MK64 in the context of the series as a whole
- comparison of metacritic scores and sales of all the games in the series at wikipedia and a chart of the playable characters
- “The real Rainbow Round has been found!”: funny pic at gonintendo
- entry at wikipedia
- PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com
- random collection of cheats

season of oracles

even though i’d finished playing a zelda game recently (majora’s mask, as recounted here) i’d been itching to play a 2D zelda game for quite some time, so i started in on the next in line, oracle of seasons for the game boy color. i thought i’d just see how the series’ return to 2D would fare, but by the time i’d gotten the powers of all four of the seasons i was hooked.

it seems a fair amount of the game’s uniqueness is due to the fact it’s paired with the game oracle of ages, so i’m going to withold my final judgement until i play that game. but although i enjoyed playing seasons there wasn’t a whole lot that felt really fresh. the rod of seasons was entertaining but didn’t offer up that much variety; the second world didn’t have a whole lot to make it memorable; and there were a fair number of pseudo-new items, i.e. items that were ostensibly new but had the same effect as items from previous games. there were a handful of unique items that offered up some surprises, though, as well as some animal helpers (a first for the series, i believe, not counting epona), and it was fun to hear some of the tunes (and characters) from ocarina and majora make appearances here. i also felt nostalgic seeing the game engine, which was clearly based on the classic link’s awakening, and also from seeing the reworkings of elements from the original NES zelda including many of the bosses (and the “pay me for the door repair” man who is back with a vengeance haha).

the useless items to collect in this game are rings which potentially could have been much more interesting as each offers different abilities, but since most of those abilities give only a tiny advantage and you can only equip one at a time the overall benefits are practically nil. also, the game was intended to focus more on action while its companion, oracle of ages supposedly focuses more on puzzles. i’ll have to see how that ends up panning out, but it did feel that in general in this game the boss fights were a bit more difficult than usual, sometimes pointlessly so. all in all, though, this was a fun game and a classic zelda title, although not likely to end up as one of my favorites of the series. it might be that i prefer my zelda games to have less emphasis on action, so i’m looking forward to playing oracle of ages before too long.

season of links:
- walkthrough and FAQ at zelda.com
- the official site for the game is still up
- nice game site at midnight castle’s zelda site
- the entry at wikipedia includes information on how the two games interact
- review at IGN which recommends playing seasons first
- FAQ that compares the original japanese vs the localized english names
- page at zeldawiki.org, including a gallery of all of the enemies
- guide at IGN

yoshi’s super island

i’ve never really been that fond of yoshi, mostly because i found him to be pretty useless in super mario world. i hadn’t been that excited by that game in general when i played it a couple of years ago for the first time, but i figured that its sequel super mario world 2: yoshi’s island, would have about as much similarity to its predecessor as wario land: super mario land 3 had to its predecessor (super mario land 2). so i was keeping an open mind about this, my first game with yoshi in a starring role. (although to be unnecessarily exact, i had played the US tetris attack which starred yoshi and other characters from SMW2).

it turns out i was somewhat wrong about SMW2 being completely different from SMW. it’s true almost all of the surface of the game is completely different. one of the central game mechanics that’s new and radically different in SMW2 is that yoshi (actually a whole slew of ‘em in different colors) is always carrying baby mario around and has to retrieve him whenever yoshi gets hit and baby mario gets knocked off. having to retrieve baby mario gets a little tiresome (especially when accompanied by mario’s yelling), but it does give the game a different feel which is appreciated. yoshi’s ability to swallow enemies and lay eggs and then throw them is also brand new, and he (i.e. they) also has various unique powerups in the guise of some special fruits he can swallow that give him extra firepower, as well as a few somewhat random transformations. the art style, which was intended to have a crayon-like, “storybook” feel, also contributes to the game’s completely unique feel.

but what actually surprised me was that, aside from all of those many surface changes, much of the game’s platforming reminded me of SMW, only way better. and not only that, but the variety in the stages felt improved to such a degree that it reminded me of SMB3, extremely high praise indeed. SMB3 is chockfull of surprises, and although SMW2 starts off a bit slow (the first two worlds, of six, don’t have much character) and had me feeling like i was going through the motions of playing through yet another platformer, pretty soon the game had surprises at every corner and had me completely hooked. the enemies are well designed and oftentimes funny (and i definitely appreciated the return of SMB2’s shy guy to center stage), and i especially appreciated the admirable number of boss battles. none of them were particularly hard, but all of them were entertaining and fun. i was also surprised that elements i’d first seen in new super mario bros. for the DS actually had their origins in this game.

in terms of difficulty SMW2 wasn’t that hard to complete, although in lieu of the alternate routes of SMW instead the designers added tons of useless things to collect and find in every level (namely stars that increase your baby mario timer, red coins, and flowers). item collection does expand a platformer’s gameplay a lot, and the levels are definitely designed well enough that finding all the items isn’t mindless and dull, but finding 45 items in every level was a bit overkill for me. at some point i’ll probably go back and work my way through all the levels again to find all the items, but for now i’ve added it to my list of all-time greats and moved on to my next challenge … and conquest, hahahahaha! i’ve gotten to be a fan of yoshi (and baby mario), though, and am looking forward to trying out yoshi’s story on the N64, even though it hasn’t really gotten great reviews, as well as his other adventures.

coupla yoshi’s super links:
- entry at wikipedia
- good FAQ at gamefaqs
- quite a few yoshi wallpapers at yoshiart.com

dead-ly house

i got a copy of the house of the dead 2 and 3 return completely randomly, and not being big on light-gun shooters in general i didn’t play the game for quite awhile. (in case you don’t know, the game’s a wiimake of two games that were apparently popular in the arcade but which i’d never encountered previously.) i was looking for a co-op game to play with the significant other, and so even though neither of us are even into zombies that much i thought it might be fun.

and actually, it was fun. at first we alternated between HotD2 and HotD3, but it didn’t take long to find out that HotD2 is significantly harder, so we ended up focusing on HotD3. the game is set up so that as you play the game more, you unlock settings that give you more continues and more life, as well as additional difficulty options. there’s a cap on the maximum number of continues you can choose (9), and continues are shared between the players. my SO, being a n00b, used up the majority of the continues so that even on “very easy” we had trouble getting to the end. a classic example of a game with a co-op mode that doesn’t take into account the players’ differing levels of ability, but when i beat the game twice on very easy on my own it unlocked unlimited continues for HotD3; so then we played through it one more time to beat it together. teamwork, awww.

i enjoyed HotD3 overall. the dialogue is intentionally cheesy and entertaining, and the enemies are amusing, and the graphics aren’t anything flashy and don’t feel too dated. the main problem i have with the gameplay is that the bulk of the game is fairly mindlessly easy, but the boss levels are suddenly much harder, even once you’ve learned the patterns. (even with all my playthroughs i was never able to fully master the sloth boss. alas.)

comparing it to HotD2, from my experience (and i think most people agree) the latter is definitely superior. the branching paths in HotD2 keep the game feeling fresh, and saving civilians adds to the gameplay’s variety. having to sit down and master all the boss fights made me reluctant to try to beat the game, though, so i didn’t bother. i did some of the training exercises for variety, which provided a nice change of pace. the wii version of HotD2 has a new mode to enhance the original arcade mode: in the new mode you can use a couple of powerups to compensate for the limited number of continues, but i didn’t end up exploring those options very much. the main complaint about the package as a whole seems to be that both games only offer up limited continues (for example, in this review at 1up), but i don’t have a problem with that, assuming that HotD2 provides the same mechanism to unlock unlimited continues, i.e. by beating the game a couple of times on any difficulty level, including very easy. the effort makes the victory that much sweeter. haha.

last thing: i tried the wii zapper, and i liked the stability it added to my aim, although i wasn’t completely satisfied with the weight of it, or the feel of the trigger. for light gun games that don’t use the nunchuk, the wii zapper is certainly not ideal. at some point i’ll try nyko’s wii perfect shot gun, which seems to have gotten good reviews.

in any case, the house of the dead 2 and 3 return was a surprisingly good release and is certainly recommended, even though HotD3 is fairly shallow and mindless. the wii release has also gotten me interested in the series as a whole. not enough to run out and get the wii’s followup, the house of the dead: overkill, but i’m definitely going to pick up the pinball of the dead and i’m definitely going to track down a copy of the typing of the dead. eventually!

dead-ly links in da house:
- entry at wikipedia
- a glowing review at videogamecritic.net
- entry at metacritic

HotD3-specific links:
- FAQ of the xbox version: includes a fair number of the quotes from the game, including the classic, “a security guard? you gotta be kidding!”
- entry at wikipedia: has info on the four endings

majora unmasked

so the loooong game that was taking me forever to finish was the much discussed the legend of zelda: majora’s mask. in a complete coincidence i finished the game after some marathon sessions shortly after the game was released this week to commemorate the 300th release on the virtual console.

due to the game’s release there’s been tons of discussion about it online these days. despite its reuse of much of the design of ocarina of time, the game is as much a black sheep of the zelda series as zelda II: the adventure of link was. the game is noted for being darker in tone than the rest of the series, with the disaster of the moon crashing into the earth always looming literally overhead. the central game mechanic, in which you replay the same three days over and over again, a la the classic movie groundhog day, is amazingly innovative, even almost 9 years later. the game hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention as it deserves, perhaps partly because of its unusual mechanics, but also perhaps it was a bit ahead of its time. hopefully now it will reach a broader audience who can appreciate what a great game it is.

and what a great game it is! i’ve been enjoying my progression through the zelda series, but after i finished ocarina, zelda fatigue was threatening to set in. luckily this game provided a real breath of fresh air and in fact it’s joined my list of “favorite games of all time”. this isn’t to say it’s without its flaws, though. one of the main complaints people have about it is that the time limit sometimes makes you repeat extended sequences of actions, which can be frustrating to say the least. and even outside of the time limit there are some places where the game sets you up so that it’s highly likely that you’ll have to repeat a section because you didn’t complete it on the right day. in my case the problem with the repetitions was compounded by the fact that either my n64 or my expansion pak is buggy, because when i zipped through areas the way i usually do the game would freeze. once i got used to slowing down and letting the camera catch up with me i was usually fine, though, although there were still way too many occasions where i’d have to redo whole sections even beyond what a normal playthrough of the game would entail. extremely frustrating, but the game was definitely worth slogging past that issue and any other quibbles i might have with the game.

in addition to the completely absorbing and fresh central game mechanic, there’s also a more complex story than usual that unfolds well. it seems that the game’s designers made a conscious effort to make the characters come alive. in this interview from nintendo power tezuka, one of the supervisors of the game says:

There were a number of characters in Ocarina of Time that we wanted to describe more fully. We didn’t have the means to do it in Ocarina, but in Majora’s Mask we do because players have the opportunity to meet every character in the game and learn more about them.

in response to the question “Is there anything you weren’t able to accomplish in Ocarina of Time that you have included in Majora’s Mask?” miyamoto adds:

Yes. In fact, that is why we’ve decided to base the game on the three-day intervals. This allows gamers to see characters as they go through their daily routines in more detail. Depending on which time of day you visit a particular character, he or she will be doing different things.

one of the things i really appreciated about the game was how well the side quests are integrated into the game. a lot of the side quests involve the characters you’re constantly running into in the town, which serves as the home base. so while you’re preparing for the next part of the main quest, it’s almost impossible not to become curious about what’s going on with these other characters, and before you know it you’re deeply involved in trying to help them with their problems. also, because of the time mechanic there are many times where you’re forced to wait around for a particular time of day, so in those cases the side quests and the mini-games, like the shooting gallery, become ideal ways to pass the time (assuming that you don’t get sucked into them and lose track of time as i repeatedly did). in fact, because of the game’s design i ended up doing way more sidequests than i usually do. also, the sidequests where you have to find and collect useless tokens (in this game, as in ocarina, they’re golden skulltulas) are contained in two skulltula houses instead of scattered all over the game map, and i completed both of those as well.

well, not much else to say without getting into the details of the game and spoiling some of the surprises. but let it suffice to say that there hasn’t been a game that has sucked me in so completely in quite a while, as my significant other will attest. a flawed masterpiece, but one that i highly recommend every gamer should experience. (oh, and in case you were wondering, when you beat the game, the game automatically saves so that you keep anything you accomplished in the last 3-day time period you played.)

links unmasked!
- if you’re looking for additional basic info about the game here’s a good review at vc.nintendolife.com.
- there are tons of great zelda sites that have tons of info about the game. zeldadungeon.net is a good one and has tons of screenshots.
- the official site has a good bare-bones FAQ if you get stuck and want to minimize spoilers. if you’re looking for an in-depth walkthrough this one on gamefaqs is pretty good.
- text dump at zeldalegends.net
- video of some cool easter eggs on youtube. and here’s a cool reference to star fox in the game that someone noticed that may or may not have been intentional. also, zeldainformer.com has a pretty good succinct list of easter eggs.
- funny majora-related comic at brawl in the family
- just for fun, here’s a zelda 64 caramelldansen video featuring characters from ocarina and majora
- some majora wallpapers at zeldauniverse.net
- majora seems to inspire a fair amount of discussion and debate. zeldainformer.com has some interesting essays, including “The Tribe That Vanished from Legend” that speculates on the identity of the happy mask salesman, and “The Message of Majora’s Mask” that explores many aspects of the game that you may not have pondered very closely.
- this company first4figures.com was selling collectible figures of the skull kid and fierce deity link, but it looks like they’ve sold out (unsurprisingly).
- entry at wikipedia

went! fought! ouendaned

elite beat agents was the game that tipped me over the edge and caused me to finally buy a DS, and i wasn’t disappointed: it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time, and ever since then i’ve been hankering to play the original japanese version, osu! tatakae! ouendan (i.e. go! fight! cheer) and its sequel.

ouendan is certainly an import-friendly game (and now that i think about it, i think it’s the first import game i’ve officially completed), and i thoroughly enjoyed getting to re-experience the series’ unique and totally awesome gameplay with completely different stories and songs. (i also enjoyed the character design, which is by the same artist as EBA, atsushi saito.) there are a number of other small differences between the two games, and in some ways it’s a bit surprising that i so preferred EBA to the original. part of it is no doubt due to the language barrier, but in general the situations and characters in ouendan seemed just less wacky and off the wall overall. the songs throw enough curves that even an EBA vet like myself will have to spend some time getting to the highest level of difficulty, and not knowing any of the songs except one added to the challenge (although i’d only known a bit more than half the songs in EBA). incidentally, if anyone’s wondering, the one song i did know in ouendan was “linda linda”, originally by the blue hearts, which is featured in a pretty rad japanese movie called linda linda linda. the one major drawback in ouendan compared to EBA is that at the hardest difficulty level the markers appear for what seems to be a shorter amount of time than in EBA, thus requiring much more memorization, which i find to be a fairly cheap way of adding “difficulty”. so all in all this doesn’t surpass EBA in my affections, but i’m still definitely looking forward to playing ouendan 2, and of course i’m still hoping for the day we get a US sequel to EBA.

cheer-ful links:
- crackedrabbitgaming.com has a great fansite including links to original versions of the songs, screenshot translations of the menus, and a page of trivia
- the official website is in japanese, but it includes some rad wallpapers and interviews with the developers that google translate might be able to help out with but isn’t working for me at the moment.
- gamefaqs has a few good FAQs including translations of almost all the game text and the japanese lyrics to all the songs and their english translations
- interview with iNiS co-founder and game designer keiichi yano
- entry at wikipedia