Video: Players Give Their Opinions On Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Day 1 buy for me! Also, this is a sequel to ALttP, not a prequel.

I had my doubts (a lot of them) but now I'm sure this is going to be a blast. Although, I'd like the graphics to look less like plastic. They remind me of NSMB in a bad way.

It's too bad there aren't snes games in the 3DS because I'd like to play A link to the past first

I think I'll pick it up eventually, but I'm not expecting anything too great. I wish they'd go full 3D with a handheld game. Ocarina showed it's no problem for the 3DS.

I'm going to Cardiff Comic Con on saturday. I haven't heard it mentioned at all, but I wonder if Nintendo will be there. Even if they're not, it's sure to be a great event to pick up street pass hits. At the Eurogamer expo last year my friend was just constantly clearing them out and getting 10 more straight away.

I feel a lot better about this game knowing other fans like it. I was a bit doubtful before this video, thanks NintendoLife for re-lighting my interest in this game

Still don't like the slightly shiny and plasticky graphical style they've went for here.

The graphics in general look a bit cheap and rushed to me, a little bit like it was made by some homebrew developer instead of a top tier first party Nintendo team, and for a Zelda game that's pretty disappointing.

The rest of the game looks solid though.

Note however that no one was like "Wow! That was amazing! This is going to be another stunning Zelda masterpiece!".

You think that was the case when Nintendo first let people try A Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time, for example, or when they saw the first trailer for Twilight Princess.

Well, that's what I want and expect from Zelda games.

@Kirk That's the artstyle, not the "graphical style". The graphics themselves are great for what the 3DS has to offer. How in any way does it look rushed? It runs at 60 FPS.

Ill actually support this game & buy new day 1. Cant say the same for wwhd.

That Ganondorf cosplay..

@FishieFish Those people are embarrassing..

Makes me want it even more!

Am I the only one who notice the word "prequel"? I thought a link between worlds was a sequel to link to the past? Typo or spoiler?

@BlatantlyHeroic

The artstyle is a part of the graphics.

Let's not get into that debate however because if you think graphics only means the tech (things like rendering, framerates, polygons and shaders etc) you are wrong, have been since the word was first used in gaming and even before then, and this is not up for debate.

The graphics look rushed in many ways; from the shiny plastic look of many of the objects (which is actually a graphical technique applied to the textures instead of pure artwork) to the slightly dated looking particle effects (also a graphical technique more than pure artwork), or the really cheap N64 looking water effect that looks more like some kind of blue liquid metal or plastic than pretty water (once again another graphical technique rather than pure art).

There's many areas where the graphics don't look like quite right or as nice as they could and overall they just look a little bit rough and unpolished.

It sort of looks how I imagine some homebrew developer might do the graphics rather than a talented first party development team.

@Kirk I like the overall artstyle, just because it's not washed out like most games today are, doesn't mean it's lazy.

MCM manchester was a great day! playing this and all the other games at the booth was awesome. its nice to see myself in my radionintendo t-shirt in the video

@BlatantlyHeroic

It's nothing to do with this not being "washed out" like other games or whatever.

I'm all for good use of color in games and in fact hate a lot of these modern almost monochrome grey or brown "realistic" and "gritty" games.

I'm on about having a shiny plastic look to almost every surface that just looks wrong in most of the places it's used.

It's a bad "artistic" choice, even though in most cases it's actually accomplished via a cheap graphical technique and some kind of simple filter rather than actual "art" as such.

Most of the particle effects also look very generic and lazy to me too. Like they just used the generic built in ones you'd get free with some dev engine rather than actually making ones that looks right for the game such as the lovely particle effects and related stuff they have in Wind Waker for example (like the little painted looking puffs of smoke when and enemy dies).

I just think the artistry is a bit lacking in a few key areas, mainly because I think they've use cheap and easy graphics techniques to save a bit of time when creating a particular effect (like the water) where it would certainly have looked better it they'd either taken a more art based approach or spent a bit more time creating at least decent water effect, and it just makes the whole game look a bit less attractive and polished than it could look.

It will be very, very hard to surpass the perfection of "Link to the Past" on the SNES (and GBA I guess) so I will be picking this up expecting a new Zelda adventure game without having to constantly remind myself to compare both versions.

@Kirk Maybe people like the plastic look. Your opinion is your own, don't go shoving it down my throat forcing me to accept it. I have my thoughts, you have yours. Case closed.

A Link to the Past is one of the greatest titles of all time for me. I have a big faith this follow up will be near perfection.

Not sure if I'll be able to afford it when November comes around (it is near Christmas, after all). I'll probably end up getting it as a Christmas present. Pokemon X and Y will be my last big purchase for myself this year.

@BlatantlyHeroic

Here we go with another one of these responses from someone thinking that I simply can't be right about this.

I mean you understand that simple stuff like bricks or dirt shouldn't look shiny and basically reflective, right?

They are made of coarse stone and dirt and other non-reflective materials, not some kind of shiny plastic polymer or metal.

So, having them be needlessly shiny and plasticky looking, with no reason or logic or artistic merit, just looks wrong.

It reeks of lazy art direction and rushed asset creation, using generic and outdated graphical rendering techniques, to no doubt try and save some time and money to get the game out more quickly.

There is no "case" here.

_{Watch the insults please, that was not necessary — TBD}

Can't wait for this. The ds offerings left a bad tatse in my mouth so I'm glad they went in this direction! This should be EPIC!

what is nintendo thinking with this lazy uninspiring zelda game. I love zelda, but this for me is a huge disappointment when you consider what other games look like on the 3ds. OOT looked amazing, these cheap boring graphics with verry little imagination and texture. sort it out please. minish cap and a link to the past look 10x better and there ancient now.

I'm starting to get excited about this one. I'm one of those freaks who think Phantom Hourglass was more fun than OoT, so this one could be one of my favorites.

Art style I don't care about that much as long as the gameplay is fun. Only Zelda art style I absolutely loved was TP but it's still my favorite series, graphics aside.

hmm, this one had me least exist of any Zelda launch since I started playing. Still I'll get it.

@DarkCoolEdge ALTTP already got ported to GBA. So technically, it's also a GBA game. Those sadly are also only made available in the ambassador program so far, just ten, but I wouldn't be surprised if they released it on eshop around the same time as ALBW.

@ToniK You cannot NOT love Minish Cap art style, can you? TP had a wonderful dark style, that's true.

@Kirk
I never was much of a critic...and I'm not saying your wrong or anything, I just kind of don't see what you're talking about. You said everything looks shiny, but I kind of don't see it... I mean, I guess they could make things look dingier or something, but it looks okay to me. I mean, when I think of shiny graphics and such, I think of Sonic Heroes...and this doesn't look like that. I know you weren't talking to me, I just wanted to toss my opinion out there. Besides, 3DS screenshots always look worse than how the game would look when you actually play it.

@Shambo I have the ambassadors games. It' The Minish Cap, not Alttp the one they gave away. Great game btw but not one of the best of the series.

@Spoony_Tech You're not alone. Good bye DS Zelda games, you despicable tyrants! Link Between Worlds is looking brilliant, can't wait to play that game!

3DS is the killer handheld of this generation. If not the best handheld ever released.

@Kirk Since this is a sequel to ALttP, I think they were going for a style that's similar to that game. I certainly don't mind it at all. But to each his own I guess...

@DarkCoolEdge I have them too, and I know. To me Minish Cap is one of my favourites, but that's personal opinion. What isn't, however, is that these a.p. gba games prove 3ds V.C. can emulate gba games, and ALTTP has been ported already. So it's not impossible, and would serve great as a hype builder.

Or preorder bonus...

Hint-endo, did you read that?

Did you?

Was expecting longer in-depth reviews, but oh well.

Zelda's are always a winner. WW haters are just dumb.

@Bingoshi

Well you've probably just not paid attention to it before.

Have a look again with what I've said in mind and you will notice that pretty much every single surface has a slightly shiny and plastic sheen to it...

Rocks, water, trees, bricks, floors, walls, all look slightly shiny and plastic. Everything looks slightly shiny and plastic.

Not in a good way, assuming there is such a thing.

Many of the textures looks slightly blurry and dirty too and certainly when compared directly with the same assets in the original.

@ScroogeMcLz

The issue I have is not related to it being a sequel to A Link to the Past or being done in a similar top down view, or having a more vibrant cartoon artstyle, or whatever else you think of as being similar to A Link to the Past.

I absolutely love the look of the original.

It's simply about the actual objects, everything in the game from the walls to the water, looking slightly shiny and plasticky for no good reason other than lazy art direction.

It just looks a bit wrong.

@Marshi It is a sequel. They have said this plenty of times. It would not be a twist, just a lie to call a game a sequel and then at the end find out it is a prequel.

@Shambo I misunderstood your previous message. Still, I don't think they're going to put GBA games on the 3DS eShop anytime soon. In fact, they've only announced the intention to release them on WiiU.
Typical Nintendo deafness...

Although I find that the comments in the video don't say really much, I'm sure this game will be great. Some were complaining about the graphics or artstyle but I can't see the point. In my opinion the world looks way more alive now.

@DarkCoolEdge perhaps a 3d classic? Probably not though, given the top-down perspective... Very slightly 3d? Or given 2ds, a 2d classic

@Shambo A 3D classic is totally out of the question. As Brian Provinciano explained about Retro City Rampage, to convert a top down game to 3D you need to re-do the graphics with polygons and, obviously, a new engine.

So the best we can hope for is a VC port.

"The graphics in general look a bit cheap and rushed to me, a little bit like it was made by some homebrew developer instead of a top tier first party Nintendo team, and for a Zelda game that's pretty disappointing'

Agreed! It looks like a fan-project!