Tag: the legend of zelda: breath of the wild

Categories
Games Personal

Favorite 5 Games

There’s a tweet making the rounds right now encouraging you to share your favorite 5 games of all time. Narrowing down your favorites to a truly top 5 is of course an impossible task — I’d count pretty much every Legend of Zelda game as favorites — but I tried to do the exercise nonetheless, highlighting 5 games that had a strong enough impact on my gaming life that I would certainly count them among my favorites. Just below this I’d need to also include a Mario game (probably Super Mario World) and Ultima (especially Ultima 7), but for now, here are possibly/maybe my 5 favorite games (in no particular order).

Phantasie III: The Wrath of Nikademus
SSI was better known for all of the games it produced under the Dungeons & Dragons license (Pool of Radiance being my favorite), but this pre-D&D era RPG was a highlight for me. It’s quite possibly not a great game if you revisit it now, but I remember spending countless hours playing it, and a lot of those hours were played side-by-side with a friend in front of the PC (a Commodore PC-10), our own version of couch co-op. Also, the names I used for my characters in this game are the same names I continue to use for any character I need to name in an RPG.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Zelda series in general is my favorite series in games, and so narrowing it down to 1 or 2 titles is tough, but it’s hard not to point to A Link to the Past as a milestone (and its modern 3DS sequel, Link Between Worlds, is fantastic as well). The Super Nintendo graphics were astounding at the time, and it was certainly the game that cemented the series as a classic for all time.

Wave Race 64
I love Wave Race so damn much, and I can say that I also love the GameCube sequel (Wave Race: Blue Storm). Experiencing those beautiful giant waves was a joy, and added a fun level of randomness to the racing experience. More than any other racing series, this is the one that I’d most like to see a proper sequel, and so I keep wishing that we’ll see one on Switch.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I was a huge fan of the Infocom library of text adventure games, and it all started with Zork, but the adaptation it produced of Hitchhiker’s is the title that is the most memorable to me. From the insanely convoluted Babel Fish puzzle (that you pretty much needed the hint book to help you through) to just the genuinely funny vibe throughout, it stuck with me.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Including a game that came out just a few months ago? What can I say, as someone who truly loves the Zelda series, this entry is as groundbreaking as it is fun as it is engaging. To see Nintendo produce such an amazing Zelda game thirty years after the first one is something I feel is pretty special.

Categories
Debaser

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I don’t know if it’s because of all the movies I’ve been watching of late, but I haven’t been keeping up with everything I’m playing in my Debaser diary — and I have in fact been playing tons of stuff, same as always. Might as well kick off my efforts to catch up a bit with Breath of the Wild, which not only is one of the best gaming experiences I can remember having, it’s certainly up there as one of my favorite games of all time — I know, maybe too soon to say something like that, but that’s how I feel. It’s no secret that the Zelda series is my favorite game series, and so despite everything Zelda I’ve played in my life, it’s amazing to be so excited and happy about a Zelda game at this point in the franchise’s history. It also made me fall in love with the Switch — even though I played most of the game on the TV, I loved being able to play sessions late at night in my bed, and now as I play Persona 5 and Nier: Automata, I just keep wishing I could do the same thing. But yes, I loved Breath of the Wild immensely, and although I “finished” it (defeated Ganon) after about 55 hours of play, I’ve already gone back into the game to keep exploring the world, and do more shrines (I had only done around 50 when I completed the game). I’m excited to see what the story DLC for the game is going to be like, and also can’t wait to see how they’ll follow-up this game — although I am still wishing they do another 2D sequel to Link to the Past and Link Between Worlds.

Categories
Art Games

New Year 2017 Visuals

If you were to ask me what my favorite New Year images I’ve seen shared so far, first up would be the Mother-inspired illustrated piece by Amelicart (pictured above, via this tweet), and then the Legend of Zelda illustration shared by Nintendo, below, which pays tribute to classic imagery of the original game (both below).

Categories
Games Web

GameCenter-DX Plays The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

screen-shot-2016-10-29-at-14-05-30

I’m of course a huge fan of GameCenter-CX and Arino Kacho, regularly watching old episodes. But more than just a gaming celebrity, Shinya Arino is also a Japanese comedian, part of a duo called Yoiko, and his partner is Masaharu Hamaguchi. Nintendo has often partnered with GameCenter-CX to promote some of its releases — notably Super Mario Maker and Pokémon games — and one of these special web series takes the form of GameCenter-DX, where Hamaguchi takes on the roll of Executive Director (quite the promotion, considering Arino’s lowly “section chief” title). Where Arino sticks to retro games (Super Mario Maker being the understandable exception), Hamaguchi only plays new games, and the latest video has him playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s similar to what we’ve seen in the demo videos from E3, but fun to watch nonetheless.