Castle Magus

Wind Waker is still one of my favorite Zelda games, after Link's Awakening. I mean, for me, Link's Awakening (and I'm talking all the way back to the original Game Boy version, let alone any newer versions or remakes) is at the top, no contest, and then everything else is in kind of a jumble below that, but Wind Waker is definitely near the top of that jumble, probably roughly around the same position as A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. Anyway, from the very moment I first saw and heard about Wind Waker, well before it was ever released, I thought all the people shitting on it and dismissing it as "Cel-da" or whatever, based solely on how it looked (and, particularly, how it didn't look), were utter fucking dumbasses.

Haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 or Death Stranding yet, and never bothered to finish Resident Evil 4, and I don't and probably never will give the slightest fuck about Kendrick at all.

(And I guess "out of pocket" really does just mean whatever dumb bullshit now. *shrug*)

"It's up to Princess Zelda to save Hyrule in a brand-new The Legend of Zelda story."

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Damn it, Nintendo... stop giving me reasons to maybe possibly reconsider my stance of probably never bothering to buy a Switch at some point.

I think a live-action Legend of Zelda movie has, at least, the potential to be way worse than the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie ever was, simply because they probably are going to be trying so very hard to make it be "authentic," which was something they obviously didn't even attempt to do with the live-action SMB movie. The live-action SMB movie certainly wasn't Super Mario Bros. in any "real" sense, but it was still an... interesting movie on its own merits, even if not actually all that good. Even though I liked the live-action SMB movie well enough, I still don't think it's a good movie. However, a very "by-the-numbers" attempt at a live action The Legend of Zelda movie, to me, just seems like it could be the blandest, most milquetoast thing possible. But then, if they don't do that and try to make it actually unique and distinct from the games in some way, we'll just get the same complaints about it that were made about the live-action SMB movie, that it wasn't enough like the games.

But, really, what even is "authentic" when it comes to Zelda? I mean, compare, say, Wind Waker Link to Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom Link to any other Link you care to name. Hell, throw in Super Mario Bros. Super Show Link or CDi Link, too, if you want. No two Links are the same[1], and that goes for Zelda and Ganon(dorf), too. Hyrule itself as a whole isn't even consistent from game to game (and that's assuming the game in question even takes place in Hyrule at all, since several of them don't). It isn't like the Mario games, where Mario/Luigi/Peach/Bowser/Yoshi/whoever are pretty much the exact same characters in every game.

And yeah, nobody that they cast as Link is ever going to be "acceptable" to the vast majority of fans, even if they end up doing a relatively passable okay-ish job (like what Chris Pratt did as Mario in TSMBM). It's like that whole "the elves aren't pretty enough" complaint I once heard about the Lord of the Rings movies. Basically, the point was that no matter how pretty Liv Tyler or Orlando Bloom were, they were never, as mere humans, going to be "elf-pretty," and I can understand that.

[1] - Well, aside from the ones in direct sequels to previous games, like Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass or TotK.

"Probably the two most popular Captain N: The Game Master episodes which feature Link and Zelda. Both episodes in one shot."

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So, want to know what eleven year old me thought was the absolute coolest shit ever, at the time? *points up* (Until that gets copyright claimed, anyway.)

It was basically Link and Zelda from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (voiced by the same actors), except in Captain N: The Game Master. Ah... 1990.

Does it still hold up in 2023? Ehhhhhhhhh... kinda? Not really? Okay, maybe not as well as the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon did, but it was all right, I guess. Granted, these are the only two episodes of Captain N that I've seen in a very long time, in contrast to recently watching the entirety of the D&D cartoon. But then, these are what I consider to be the best two episodes of Captain N, so... *shrug*

Nitpicks:

• Someone's trying to revive Ganon? Gee, I wonder who could be behind this plot it's Mother Brain, Kevin, it's always Mother Brain. Speaking of Mother Brain... she seems excessively weird to me now in a way she did not when I was a kid. Partly because I've played a hell of a lot more Metroid games at this point, compared to the basically zero of them that I'd played back then. In Captain N, it's literally just Levi Stubbs doing his Audrey II voice and thatsthejoke.jpg I guess, but still... fucking strange. Eggplant Wizard and King Hippo were odd choices for main villains as well, in retrospect, but... eh... it was the 90s, I guess.
• I really didn't care much for Link being a jealous asshole in the first episode who had to learn the Power of Friendship™ from Captain N. That disappointed me even as a kid watching that episode for the first time. And, watching it now, Kevin seemed rather clueless as to why Link was acting like that. Part of it being Kevin (seemingly unintentionally) hotdogging and showing up Link on his own turf (which Link explicitly says later), and part of it being Zelda getting all touchy-feely-kissy with Kevin a time or two when Link was standing right there.
• There was no music at all from the Legend of Zelda games used in either of the episodes, or at least none that I recognized anyway. I just kept hearing different renditions of the (second, as opposed to the first) show main theme.
• That 80s (early 90s?) music though.
• It is with great sorrow that I must report that these episodes were, tragically, created after Gameboy was introduced as a character on the show and that he featured prominently in that first episode. Fortunately, Kevin brought Duke along in the second one instead and left Gameboy at home. As much as people hated Uni in the D&D cartoon, I didn't mind her that much, but, man oh man, Gameboy is weapons-grade shit. It's kind of funny, because both characters were voiced by otherwise beloved voice actor Frank Welker.

It was pretty cool to see Bayou Billy and Dr. Light/Wright in the second episode, even if it was just a cameo. That other guy though...??? And I saw Mega Man dancing with a pink Mega Man for a split second and was like, "Huh? Is that Roll? I don't recall Roll being in Captain N?" No, it was not Roll. But then, I don't remember a "Mega Girl" either.

Speaking of Mega Man, it was probably for the best that neither he nor Kid Icarus had speaking roles in either of these two episodes. Cid HighwindSimon Belmont was in both of them, though, if only briefly. With that said, despite how annoying Simon is in this show, I kind of want to go back and watch at least the Castlevania-themed episodes of Captain N, now, too, if not the entire series. And I think Link and Zelda appeared in a few more Captain N episodes, as well, for that matter. Looking back on it, I find it weird that neither Mario nor Samus Aran (despite Mother Brain being the main villain) were in Captain N at all. Then again, Mario had his own show(s) so that's sort of understandable, I guess. (But then, so did Link and Zelda...) And Samus did eventually show up in the Captain N Valiant comics that came later, at least, replacing non-Nintendo-owned characters Simon and Mega Man, who weren't in the comics.

On a tangential note, I also really appreciate that the video creator left in the Nintendo-themed commercials. Or, in the case of the last one, an Atari commercial for the Mario Bros. game for the Atari 5200. An odd choice, that. (And it was an early precursor to Luigi going around calling out for Mario, too.) As weird as that one was, though, it didn't hold a candle to that truly bizarre Legend of Zelda commercial, though. (That dude was the voice of the Cryptkeeper, by the way.)

"What are some of your favorite video game soundtracks?"

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I won't go into the picks that Ian and Pat made, since you can just watch the video above to hear about those.

For me... well... for me, I have to say that music is probably one of the most important elements of a video game. If a video game has good music, I will forgive a lot of its other shortcomings that it may have. If a video game has shitty music (or no music at all, in some cases), then even if that game may otherwise be good, I probably won't care about it as much.

As for what I like, I'll just mention the Winamp playlists I have at the moment to start with. (See, all my shit is bootleg mp3s, mostly from KHInsider and, before that, from Galbadia Hotel which apparently went the way of the dinosaur. I don't have fancy vinyls like Ian does, though I have to say that's extremely fucking cool.)

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( All that shit behind cut )

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Those are not every soundtrack I have... just most of them. That also doesn't include the colossal shit-ton of orignal NES/SNES/Game Boy/GBA/DS/Genesis soundtracks that I have in emulated (i.e. non-mp3) form, which includes stuff not above, like Super Mario Bros or the earlier Legend of Zelda and Metroid games. I'm not listing all of that shit here, because I'd be here for about two or three days, probably. (Even for what I did here, Dreamwidth claims I started on this post at 10:43am. It's now 2:20pm as I'm about to click the post button.)

I guess you could call this another Game Music Thing post, since that's what it is.

(Also, I see even now that this post is going to be a fucking nightmare when I come back to it in a year or three and see that 90% of the above links are dead or some shit. Hell, even some of the playlists I tried to use now had deleted videos or "not available in your country due to copyright" blocked videos.)

Speaking of remakes, this one is definitely going on the list for whenever I get a Switch at some point in the nebulous, ethereal future. Link's Awakening was the first Legend of Zelda game that I ever owned and completed, and it still is and will probably forever remain my favorite out of all of them (even if it may not necessarily be the best of them).

Before I even watch this video, I am going to go ahead and answer the question. Yes, absolutely, monetization is affecting game design. It has been doing so for years now. I and owsf2000 and many others have been ranting about this asinine horseshit for years. It fucking sucks fucking ass fucking hole. It always has fucking sucked fucking ass fucking hole. It will never not fucking suck fucking ass fucking hole.

Now, to actually watch the video.

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( Youtube embed behind cut )

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I absolutely agree with this video. My only minor issue with the video is that it seems like Ryan and Mike are hugely behind the curve if they're seemingly only just now starting to notice this issue and to have a problem with it, due to "oh noes not muh zeldas" or whatever. Ignoring that quibble, yeah, like I said, 100% agreement with them. The whole goddamn thing goddamn sucks goddamn ass goddamn hole.

*weary goddamn motherfucking sigh*

Welp, Nintendo finally did it (with one of their flagship console titles, anyway, as this certainly isn't the first time Nintendo has messed around with that sort of thing). It was, of course, only a matter of time. Welcome to the modern video game industry, Nintendo.

(It's actually vaguely refreshing to have something concerning the video game industry to be annoyed with again, rather than having all of my wrath directed solely at SCROTUS Trump all the time.)

Hmm.

While I'm pretty sure this won't be the killer app that convinces me to finally get a Wii U, they do say in the article that "Nintendo has come out and said this is not the next-gen Wii U Zelda title that's taking so long to develop" so there's still that to look forward to. This Dynasty Warriors Zelda thing looks kind of cool and all, I guess, but it's not necessarily something that interests me personally. Still, there it is, if that's your sort of thing.

Except for a slight scare at the beginning, and another at the very end, that went far better than I could have hoped.

Scenario:

I walked into EB Games and went up to the counter.

Clerk: "How can I help you?"
Me: "Hi, I have a pre-order for Twilight Princess."
Clerk (nervously): "....are you serious?"
Me: "Um... yeah."
Clerk, to another employee: "Do we have any more Zeldas? For pre-orders?"
Other Employee: "Yeah, in the back."
Clerk (relieved): "Ah, okay, so it's just for walk-ins that we don't have them, then. Ok, I'll go get it."

He left and came back with Twilight Princess.

Clerk: "So, do you have a Wii yet?"
Me: "*sigh* ...no. And I didn't pre-order either so I guess it'll be a while before-"
Clerk: "We have some."
Me: "*blink*"
Clerk: "We just got our second shipment in like an hour ago."
Other Employee: "Yeah, I was surprised that it came so soon."
Clerk: "I've already sold over half of them. There are only five left. Do you want one?"
Me: "*blink* ...um, yes. Most definitely."
Clerk, to other employee: "I told you we'd be selling these things like crazy."

And so, things went swimmingly from that point on. I now have both a Wii and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I know that I said "Wow, this is amazing" or "Wow, I totally wasn't expecting to get a Wii today" at least two or three times before I left.

The only other problem I had was carrying it in the rain the half a mile back to here. The flimsy paper bag they put it in got wet and ripped, spilling the Wii out onto the sidewalk, which was something of an "Oh shit!" moment.

The most difficult thing of all, though, is going to be keeping myself from opening it up and playing it right now, instead of working on my MAT300 project like I should. ¬_¬

(UPDATE)

Apparently, I was even luckier than I knew then. One of my game dev team members called EB Games later to ask them about the Wii, mentioning that I had already gotten one from there, and he was told that the employees who had sold them on Monday had gotten in trouble because they were apparently supposed to hold them until Friday (for some dumbass reason). Sucks to be those employees I guess, but yay for me. >_>

(/UPDATE)