Richardwebb

There is a genius to those old-school fixed camera angles that's been lost with more free 3D movement. That restricted vision really ramped up the tension: you were never sure what was behind that desk or just out of shot, waiting for you - and the beauty was that there was no way for you to know. That constant re-evaluation of your surroundings and cumbersome tank controls made really heightened the survival aspect for me.

As someone who played Ocarina of Time when it first released, I was amazed by the freedom of movement underwater, and the different secrets this held. Disappointedly Breath of the Wild did not offer this ability in the slightest, nor did TOTK. I find this a strange oversight: it is one of the first things I tried on both games. It's almost as it the Zelda games have leap far into the future in many respects, but have gone backwards in many others. Some DLC that allows us to explore the underwater regions would be fantastic.

What happened to Nintendolife's policy of not putting spoilers for TOTK in the headlines? I'd say giving explicit details of what's included in the game as a spoiler.

I think the negative comments about 'BOTW dlc' are misplaced, and I'll explain why. If we have not seen new features or story or whatever then it is not a fault of the game but the marketing. The trailers and demos put out so far have been deliberately coy, not revealing much. As a consequence many of the 'its just dlc' crowd are misunderstanding that the trailers and the finished game are different things. It is highly unlikely that 6+ years of development would only include the features, locations, story that we have seen in the marketing. Nintendo are clearly keep this close to their chest. Still, we need to do better at distinguishing between the promotion and marketing of the game and the game itself.

@Shepdawg1 They've not released a good trailer yet I agree, which perhaps explains some people's pessimism. By this stage in BOTW we already had THAT trailer which gave a much better indication of the scope, feel and mechanics of the world. For now the TOTK trailer feels fragmented, less coherent and only really previews some new mechanics.

I wonder if 'changes to the world' is a time loop reference? Or perhaps a time travel mechanic that has an element of causality to it? This would certainly explain the massive delay. Orchestrating a time/causality system similar to Majora's Mask across such a big map would take a considerable amount of effort...... not to mention the new environmental mechanics that have been previewed in the trailer.

@mariomaster96 I think it’s a little unclear from the review what is meant by characters participating in cross-pathed storylines. The characters may be present, but still have very little impact or interactions with the main protagonist like the original.

@Dom_31 I’m also curious. An ensemble cast is such a hallmark of JRPGs that it was a shame they didn’t interact more in the original. ‘Participating’ in crossed patched stories is a little open to interpretation. This could be a few lives of dialogue or characters that have a real impact on the story.

The original Monkey Island. The banality and obscurity of some of the puzzles defied belief. Pre-internet days was a massive struggle - so much so it actually took me years to finish.

I feel this headline is a bit misleading and somewhat out of date. Toon link has already been given a second (and third and fourth) chance and is widely seen to be one of the better Zelda visual designs.

@JayJ not everyone owns multiple consoles

If people are going to complain about cloud versions then they least need to say why. I'm a little tired of reading comments which are anti-cloud as a default position. From this review (and my experience) the cloud versions can work really well. Yes, there are performance differences between games (as there are with all ports) the issue then surely must be cost? For essentially a streaming service the game is too pricey - especially fir something that will only last as long as they decide to maintain the cloud version. If it were cheaper, people might be willing to accept compromises. We can't just be anti cloud without giving good reasons

For me it’s the unsettling disorientation that happens in the Forest Temple which gives it an edge over the other temples. That eerie, repetitious music, the fact you don’t really know what the space is and the shifting layout. The whole place kept your senses on edge in a way I don’t think any of the other dungeons have done for me

All this coverage, and still not a review yet.

I think a some on here forget that a lot of people only own a Switch so this idea of playing a superior version on another console simply isn’t an option. So all these comments saying “madness paying a premium” and “I’m waiting for it on Gamepass” (or my favourite comment: “just get a Steam deck”)are missing the point. By this logic no Switch owner should ever play Witcher 3, Hitman, Doom, Control or any of the countless other games that are a downgrade from the original. Not everyone is a hardcore gamer with multiple consoles or a high spec PC to run these things.

I’m not against cloud gaming. I’ve had success running them on my WiFi, though I can appreciate others have not. But my issue is that this inconsistency is not reflected in the cost; full price for a game that may or may not work for you? That’s quite a gamble.

@Vexx234 yeah, the coverage of this screams of clickbait if I’m honest. Too much coverage for too little content. I couldn’t even reasonably answer the poll because we barely heard Chris Pratt say anything anyway

I think this is definitely a case of NintendoLife creating news where there is none. There’s nothing ‘unsettling’ or ‘off’ about the Mario image, but because you’ve mentioned this in the headline and during the article it’s going to create a controversy where there was none. If anything the new image is remarkably ordinary in how they’ve translated it to the big screen.

@umbreon_sylveon I had a similar issue with Octopath. The individual stories had interesting aspects, but because they never really intersected or had any stakes to them so I quit.

I think there are a lot of people who have not played WW or TP on any console, so would welcome this. Even if you have played or owned either of these recently, there's no reason to be 'against' a port for the benefit of those who haven't experienced them. It's a fairly simple win win for everyone. They're 20 and 15 years old respectively.

Wasn’t Tunic an Xbox exclusive? Or should I say, a Microsoft exclusive as it’s also on PC. Surely that should factor into things goi by forward as Microsoft has been pushing Game Pass so the idea of a purely ‘console’ exclusive is less relevant to them

@ALinkttPresent “completely abandoned the zedla series” 😂 I think you know this isn’t true

@RubyCarbuncle or perhaps the ‘young people’ are so young they’ve never owned a Wii or Wii U so have never played those games. Have you considered that?

Ask me about LOOM.

@happylittlepigs I'm not sure what your argument here is. You say the game is popular, sold well and is a "really good game" but then you claim hipsters have over inflated its reputation and it doesn't deserve it?

@ReaperMelia Agreed. Also I think Nintendo's art direction is optimised for a small screen. Something like this would be pretty challenging to play on an undocked switch. Same goes with many of those other AAA unreal games not designed for the Switch

A lot of comments on here are about the water looks ‘unnatural’ or that the scenery needs ‘’more detail’ but this is not the art direction the game is trying to go for - so it seems unfair to judge it in those terms. It’s basically going for that kind of matte anime style so of course it’s not going to look ‘realistic’ - the Pokemon games never had. This argument about graphics reminds me of when Wind Waker was first announced and the similar furore about how it didn’t look realistic enough or it was going in the ‘wrong direction’. We don’t complain that Celeste or any of these games ‘lack detail’ because that’s not the approach they’re going for

@ophone I guess because the end of the year is traditionally the time when everyone looks back at the previous year and reflects, rather than January which is very much looking forward (NYs resolutions etc).

I've always thought that it was the 'fairytale' aspect of Zelda that set it apart from your average RPG. That very simple 'save the princess, save the world' theme works really well - especially when the main character is completely mute, and we can essentially embody this role of the 'prince' going on his quest. Few other games outside of Zelda really capture this simple magic and combine it with extremely polished but immersive gameplay. For me - that's what sets it apart.

Just shy of 20 years - but the Resident Evil remake (also on GB) has aged like fine wine

In fairness, I think this has less to do with young people not recognising a GameCube than the fact it doesn’t really look like a console at all. If it were a NES with a controller I think anyone would be able to tell it’s a console - even if they couldn’t name the make and model.

I think that part of the issue is that the Pokemon fan base has grown up - but that the core games remain, in essence, for a younger audience. Even with a bit of a refresh (which I think many aspects of the series is in need of) the core game won't staisfy many of the older gamers who expect features comparable with other games.

@EriXz I believe BloodNinja said in another article that they were 'done' with Nintendo, yet here they are still commenting on unreleased Nintendo games many months later.

Here’s a question - when is it a leak and when is it just theft? I wonder if ‘leak’ applies better to say, spoilers, or information that perhaps was never intended to be sold. Secrets or things like this. But in this case if the entire game is suddenly out online, without permission of the creators or owners- you could argue that is just theft. I’m not taking a position on this - I’m just genuinely interested why it’s referred to as a leak.

I think it’s worth taking into account the average age of people voting on these things…..judging by this list the voters are relatively young (as most of the games are relatively recent).

@Clarice Where is the jab against masculinity?

I come for the random Nintendo news, I stay for the Kate Gray Zelda articles.

I think I'm in the minority who doesn't think that graphics are the big issue with Pokemon games these days.....it could look like wind waker or something 'unrealistic' but still be good. Actually trying to 'find' Pokemon in this more detailed world would be pretty difficult. I think the fundamental issue is the gameplay - regardless of graphics - the game hasn't really moved on from Gold/Silver in the late 90s...

I think an important distinction should be made between most console games and a lot of dopamine-rush short-term mobile games that force you to pay money for extras in order to get your next rush. I think there is a legitimate issue with the later which should be discussed - but lumping all “games” together and labelling them negative doesn’t help anything.

@BloodNinja But English isn't a phonetic language, so just because it's pronounced one way in 'wifi' doesn't necessarily mean it's pronounced the same in another. I guess that's what this debate is about. In Japanese I imagine there is a lot less confusion about how Fi is pronounced.

I’m not convinced this will succeed in the way the Switch has. The vast majority of Steam games are not designed for small screen - playing something like Witcher 3 undocked was tricky enough. I think it’s one thing to have the entire Steam library available remotely, but quite another to have those games optimised for playing on the go. In that sense Nintendo is way ahead, regardless of the what the consoles feel or look like.

Leaving Kokiri forest in Ocarina of time. I felt that I was collectively taking a giant leap into the unknown, along with the entire gaming community in 1998. The smallest of bridges….with the biggest of impact.

@BloodNinja This is a comment section on a website, everything is going be opinion. If you don't like me making the perfectly relevant point that covering these topics should have a credible source (as many good journalists would agree with) then clearly this conversation doesnt interest you - in which case I have no idea why youre commenting on my post to begin with

@BloodNinja I don't think it's a question of small story vs big story. Commenting on rumours isn't good journalism however way you put it, unless there is a credible source.

I enjoy Nintendolife, but there are a lot of these articles based on rumours that are beginning to get a little frustrating. This isn’t good journalism - essentially making an entire article out of someone’s unverified Twitter claim. There are so many good writer and good articles on this site - it just seems a shame to have these ones.

@Pod This would be so good if it did

I'm not really sure this is deserving of a story. "Company ends promotional sale" surely shouldn't have got this much coverage anyway. But here we - even after the game has stopped being sold to report that SHOCK - somebody has put something on eBay.

I think we need to move past this emotional reaction that Nintendo is somehow anti-consumer or negative for having a timed release. The entitlement of some fans is mind boggling. I'm a Zelda fan and we haven't had anything like the Allstars series on Switch, but here is everyone going crazy because a port of some old games is disappearing.

@Minecraft_Master Its a promotion, not "anti-consumer". There are literally thousands of games that have temporarily been released for a short time. This is nothing new - its just a business practice.

Think about it: nobody would even buy a Mario Allstars game if all of the Marios games were already available to buy on the switch forever.

It may be "anti-consumer" as you say, but artifically limiting the time this game has been on sale for has made Nintendolife give this decision a lot of PR and coverage. It it forces people to buy this game out of scarcity - then that's more shrewd business than anything else.

Not saying I agree with it by any means - but there is a business logic behind it you should acknowedge.