A Link Between Worlds Box Art!!!! And school.....

Hi everybody!

I'm about to get into my thoughts on the ALBW box art, but first, yes, I do realize I've been gone for 23 days now.  But school has been really, really crazy, and I just haven't had much time recently. Between homework, debate team, band, working on my Eagle Scout project (yes, I'm a boy scout), cross country, and working at my new job, it's just been really crazy.  I'll definitely be more active, but it may come to the point where I can only post on weekends.  Sorry about that.

Now, onto more pleasant topics!

So, recently the box art for ALBW was released, and I just have to say, it looks stunning.  Absolutely amazing.

Typically, I'm kind of skeptical about the all-gold (or mostly gold) covers, but personally, I think this one looks great.

Oh, and see that Nintendo Network sign up in the top right?  That means it will have some kind of online feature!  I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's something more than a Miiverse-like feature, although even that would be kind of cool.

And now the official release date for North America is here: November 22nd!  That's less than three months away!  I really can't wait for this.

Oh, and Wind Waker HD will be here on September 20th!  The eShop version, that is.  The physical copies release on October 4th.  There's the regular version for $50, and there's also one that comes with an exclusive Ganondorf figurine, for $60.  Personally, I think I'll wait until I can get the Ganondorf figurine.  Plus, I prefer physical copies anyway.

And that's not all... they've also announced...

The Wind Waker HD/Wii U Bundle!!!!!

I really want that Gamepad.  Really,  REALLY badly.

So it comes with the EPIC looking Gamepad, the 32GB Wii U, a downloadable WW HD (though I do prefer the physical copy), and a downloadable copy of Hyrule Historia.

Now, I'm not really too sure about that last thing.  I mean, Hyrule Historia... downloadable?  On a screen?  I definitely much prefer the actual book itself in my hands.  I don't really know why, I'm just that way.

And that's not the only new console-related news...  Nintendo also announced...

THE 2DS!!!

Wait.... what?

Let me guess what you're thinking: (assuming you've never seen this before, which you probably have...) the design is horrendous!

I have to agree with that one, although I see why Nintendo made it this way.

The only reason Nintendo made this (as far as I know, anyway) is because it's intended for younger kids.  As we know, the 3D effects of the 3DS are discouraged for children under 7 years old, because it damages their eye growth or some other shenanigans.  Also, the hinged screen (apparently) breaks much more easily than this... block, even though I've never had that happen.  Which makes it more suitable for children.

Pretty much, this is supposed to be a cheaper alternative to the 3DS meant for younger children.

Oh, and apparently the speakers... oh, wait, I mean speaker... is mono (which is kind of self-explanatory, assuming you noticed it had only one speaker) instead of stereo.  No more hearing sounds from different directions... :(

That, along with the fact that the "two screens" are actually just one big touch screen separated by the outer casing, shows how much Nintendo is going for cheap-ness.  And I mean cheap as in price-cheap, not cheap as in... bad-quality cheap.  But the top screen is covered with a layer of glass (or something) to prevent it from actually being used as a touch screen, which I think is sad...  But I'm also glad that it's not, because then I'd really want one and I'd probably end up buying one (assuming they made 2-touch-screen games).

Anyway.

Erm....

Oh, Four Swords.  I beat it.  With my friend, whatever his name is.  You know what, I keep forgetting his fake name I made, so I'll just call him by his real name.  Grant.  There, whatever.  It's not like he's reading this or anything....

...

I think...

That aside, it was a really fun game, though really short.  But I kind of expected it to be, so it didn't really let me down.  

And Oracle of Seasons, I just got to the Ancient Ruins, if you know where that is.

I really can't wait for A Link Between Worlds...

Bye!

Zelda Dungeon Marathon; Nintendo Direct!

Whoa!  This is my 50th post!  Yay....  I would have done something special if I had known in advance, but I didn't...

So, anyway, I've been watching the Zelda Dungeon Marathon, if you can't tell by the title.  They're playing EVERY Zelda game (even the CD-i ones), so it's a pretty big deal.  At the time of posting this they've beaten Phantom Hourglass and they just started Link's Awakening.  You can check it out here.

And we also had a Nintendo Direct today, that revealed much more information on Zelda than I expected.  First, I just want to show this video on A Link Between Worlds that was included in the Nintendo Direct.  Sorry I couldn't post the actual video, but I couldn't find the video on Youtube using Blogger's search thing.  I wish there was a way to post videos from a URL.

Anyway, at the beginning, Iwata talks about the "shadowy" Triforce in the A Link Between Worlds logo:

He says it "suggests the existence of another Triforce in a different world from where Link lives".  I think that sounds pretty awesome.  It would be a pretty cool story element to have some kind of Anti-Triforce in the Dark World, in my opinion.

Also, I have to say, my main concern for this game was that it would be kind of lame to play the game in the same world as A Link to the Past, since many people have already played that game and it would kind of take away from any possible exploration for those fans.  Well, I'm now reassured, because the video mentions that the Dark World will be entirely new, whereas the Light World will be the same.  I can settle for one world being new.

And to me, the Dark World looks AMAZING in this game.  The atmosphere is what really gets me, as it's a look I feel that they couldn't quite achieve with the Super Nintendo's hardware.

Oh, and those little drop-offs at the edge of parts of the map:

Imagine how cool that will look in 3D.  That picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it looks really cool in the video.

And the Pegasus Boots are back!  Finally!  I've always wondered what they would look like in a dop-down 3D game like PH/ST, and here we have them.  I'm excited for these to return.  I just love how Link skids a little when he's done running...  XD

And lastly, the transition between the Light and Dark Worlds looks cool... but kind of... I don't know... trippy, I guess?

Still cool, but kind of weird.

And last, I want to talk about The Wind Waker HD.  Specifically, the Triforce Chart Quest.  If you've played Wind Waker, you know that toward the end of the game there's a quest where you have to collect 8 Triforce Charts, or maps, and then get them "deciphered" by Tingle, and use them to find the specific locations in the sea where you need to get chests from the bottom of the ocean containing the Triforce Shards.

Now, it looks like this has been changed in WWHD.  Look at this picture:

Link is holding up a Triforce Shard, but he's on land.  Specifically, on land in the exact same place where you get one of the Triforce Chart.

So, if the video containing that picture in the Nintendo Direct is anything to go by, then it looks like Nintendo's skipping the entire section of getting the maps and just giving you the shards where you would have gotten the maps before.  I found that quest annoying, but games tend to have their share of annoying parts, so I'm not too sure about them changing this part of the game.

Well, at least it will be nice not to have to gather up all those dang rupees to pay Tingle to decipher my maps.

Well, that's all I wanted to post about today, so I'll see you later.  Bye!

Majora's Mask Glitches!

Hi.  Now, some of you may be wondering how I'm posting this if I'm at camp.  Well, I came home early, because I acquired Streptococcal Pharyngitis.  That's strep throat.  I just taught you a new term that you probably didn't know.  And if you did, then no offense, but that's a little weird.  Unless you're a doctor or something.  Then it's, you know, pretty normal.

Anyway, I'm on antibiotics now, so hopefully I'll be better soon.  And I did have time to post last Saturday when I got back from my other camp, but there wasn't really anything to say, so I just left it at that.

Due to the title, you're probably assuming that I have been doing some glitching around in Majora's Mask.  Well, that assumption would be correct.

I recently went back to my first file and finally completed the Anju and Kafei quest to get the last masks (Before I would ALWAYS mess it up in the stupidest ways, and then I'd have to start over), and then I went on to get the Fierce Deity Mask and beat the game again.

Now, you're probably thinking that it's kind of sad that I just now finally completed this, but I can explain.

So, if you've done the quest, you know that there are many events that happen at certain times, and you MUST be there for these events, or else you mess it up and have to start over.  The thing I missed the most often was probably the time when Kafei comes out of his hideout to get the letter, and you have to creep in within that short 30 second time period.  Luckily, this is pretty early on in the quest, so it's not that bad if you have to start over.

Other times I'd make it all the way to Sakon the thief's lair, and at 6:00 PM, when he's running up to open the door, RIGHT before he reaches it, he'll see me and say "I'm not doing anything suspicious!  Really!" (or something like that), and then run away.  This is SO annoying, and it's really near the end of the quest, so you have to start over.

And by far the most annoying, obnoxious, and downright stupid mistake is the one I'd make the most often:

Sakon would open the door to his hideout, and Kafei would run inside.  After it finishes playing this short cutscene, there is a short moment where the camera goes all weird before going back to Link, but in that time, you still have control of Link.  The rock that you hide behind with Kafei to wait for Sakon is near to the dropoff with the river below, so in that period where the camera isn't quite at Link, I'd accidentally jump off the dropoff and into the water below.  The only way back up to the cliff is to exit the area by swimming far upriver, climbing out of the water, running back, and re-entering the area. Unfortunately for me, exiting the area causes the rock door to shut again, thus rendering the quest unable to be completed and making me start ALL.  OVER.  AGAIN.

But I finally did it, and I was really happy when I did.  :D

So, after that long story that hopefully didn't put you to sleep, here's a few videos of some of the glitches I attempted in Majora's Mask.  I was too lazy to actually record from my TV, so I just recorded the TV screen with my MacBook sitting on a chair.  :P  So I apologize for the bad lighting/angle, and for the stupid camera reversing the image.  I've never understood why Apple makes their computers' cameras do that.  It's like looking into a mirror.  So everything you see on the screen will be backwards, and Link will be right handed, and the meter on the bottom that measures time will appear to go backwards.

So... the first glitch I did involves Link becoming Zora Link in the Southern Swamp but not being able to move, and then getting constantly eaten, spit out, and re-eaten by a Big Octorok until he dies.  I also apologize in advance for any background noise in this first video.  There's not as much in the other two.

Yeah.... I don't know why that happens.  Heck, I don't even know what is happening half of the time in this.  Most of the video was just me experimenting.  I got the idea by reading about a glitch that lets you leave that area of the Swamp without the other area loading, and re-entering it on the other side for everything to be duplicated.  I tried that, but I realized that the water was still poisoned, so I decided to turn back, and... that happened.  XD  (I then cleared the water, but I still couldn't get it to work.)

Next, I decided to try the glitch that lets you use the Fierce Deity Mask outside of boss battles.  (Zelda Dungeon, please forgive me for using a link to Zelda Wiki.)  After succeeding, I just fooled around in Clock Town and tried some other things that I'd read about.  Oh, and the Clock Town guards won't let you out, so I experimented with other ways to get out.

And lastly, I did some more in Clock Town.  This time, it's a glitch that lets Link fall through the ground of Clock Town, and fall endlessly until he touches the bottom of the map.  Sadly, due to the reduced video quality because of uploading this video straight to Blogger and not through Youtube, you can't see it, but in the original, at 0:56-0:57 you could see Link way down below the ground, falling.

And then we have this picture I took of Link, floating in midair, with the Giant's Mask on.  (Another glitch).

It's really weird.  Since he can't become giant outside of that one boss battle, the blue "transformation light" just stays there around his head.  And his face looks like he's screaming (you can see it under the mask at the right angle).  Weird.

And that's all I did with Majora's Mask.  I can't seem to do the Fourth Day glitch.  What you've got to do is look into the telescope when the moon's about to crash, and exit the telescope within the last 5 seconds of in-game time (that's about a fifth of a real second, with the in-game time slowed down).  I gave up after several tries.  Maybe I'll come back and do it again sometime, though.

Other than that, my copy of A Link to the Past and Four Swords arrived, and so did my GBA link cable, so I'm really looking forward to playing that with my friend.  What was I calling him again?  The one I mention most often... oh, yeah!  Luke.  With Luke.  Once I'm feeling better.

I'm also going over to Luke's house with Jackson to play Four Swords Adventures next week.

And now I've got to get back to summer reading...  I really wish they assigned good books for summer reading.  I enjoy reading, but not when they're some ancient "classic literature" books that are really boring.

Anyway, see you later!