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Jan 31st, 2007 at 03:42:57 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Super Mario Brothers 3 was the first video game I ever played or owned. I vaguely remember getting it, along with a sweet top-loading NES for Christmas one year--and it remains one of my top Christmas gifts of all time.
It's been a long time since I've played, and I am a bit rusty--I died twice in the first four levels. Fortunately, I have died so many times in the game that it didn't faze me and I drove through the first several worlds with relative ease.
Even though I've been watching these levels scroll by my entire life, the level of graphics the game has even on the original NES is fairly good by Super Nintendo standards, and the level design is elegant and filled with secrets that I exploit like old friends that I no longer care about. The huge numbers of items (from the mushroom to the music box to the frog suit) give it a lot more variety than the first two mario bros games, and the levels have a great variety (especially between the differently themed worlds)
For years after I stopped seriously playing the game, I continued to find new secrets, learn new tricks, and overall be surprised by the sheer volume of material and thought that went into this game.
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Jan 19th, 2007 at 18:44:16 - Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) |
Although my friend Tim is standing behind me telling me that Ocarina of Time is the greatest game ever, I have to say my second session with it was much more aggravating than the first.
Going through the Dodonga cave, the second dungeon so far, has been a lot more difficult than anything previously. The rooms are far more interesting and complex, but the 64's single joystick and the games poor perspective controls make hopping around platforms with quickly-exploding bomb flowers a little bit too difficult, I think, for this stage of the game.
While I am aggravated by the controls at the moment, the puzzles and enemies have gotten more interesting and the various items--bombs, deku sticks, the slingshot, and of course the sword and shield--still give the extremely flexible adventure feel that defines Legend of Zelda games.
In the end, as an RPG-lover with a large crowd of Zelda-obsessed fans, I know from experience that the little things that are annoying me now will become less and less annoying as I get back into the style and perspective of the system, and out of the two-dimensional thinking that playing too many game boy games has me stuck in.
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Jan 18th, 2007 at 19:28:23 - Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) |
Every time I see a list of classic games, Ocarina of Time is on it. Every time I see a list of good games for the N64, Ocarina of Time is on it. Whenever people are talking about the Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time comes up.
And whenever I told them that I hadn't played, they acted all surprised. I mean, I do own a Nintendo 64. What the hell else could I have done with it?
Well, I finally got around to borrowing a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time from a friend, and so far, I'm happy that I did. I don't know if all the anticipation will be worth it, but the interface and gameplay are nice and fully 3D on the 64, where often graphics or gameplay can't keep up with the third dimension that that generation of consoles brought about.
Making the transition to a 3D link when the only Zelda games I've seriously played are A Link to the Past and Oracle of Seasons (I also played most of Adventures of Link, but it wasn't as memorable) was a little weird--I still expect a topdown view that scrolls between screen-sized segments of the world--but after a few minutes the weirdness faded away and I was into the gameplay.
Like all Legend of Zelda games, Ocarina of Time has a nice mix of puzzles (for example, sneaking past guards, pushing blocks into the right positions, and using a rooster to wake up an old man) and action (as you walk around the world map at night, zombies jump up from the ground.) Getting into the 3D environment is a little bit intimidating for me, but nothing in the beginning of the game was too challenging for me to handle, and I'm excited about the possibilities that links enormous arsenal will hold in three dimensions.
The storyline is still at the very beginning, but what it sounds like so far is Link and Zelda--two ordinary kids, plotting to get in the way of a creepy adult (Ganondorf) that they have a bad feeling about. I know from experience that Legend of Zelda is epic fantasy, and I know that the plot is going to progress and build nicely throughout the game, but at this point I can't help but think of them as adorable and misguided anime kids.
Overall, I'm very happy to finally be playing this classic, and even happier that it hasn't been at all disappointing.
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Jan 12th, 2007 at 18:59:00 - Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) |
I stopped playing Oracle of Seasons for a while, but when I picked it back up I was happy (although not surprised) to find that it was extremely easy to get back into the "flow" of the game.
I spent most of my time playing the "trading game" that is present in I believe all Zelda games. I don't know what the final objective is, but exploring the various places that I've passed and sneaking into the parts of the world that I had never been able to reach before is worth the time regardless. While the puzzles are still easy and getting through the game will probably take me less than a week, just the experience of fighting the various monsters and exploring the world make it a title that will be worth coming back to for kicks.
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magfrump has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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