2017: The Year of The Legend of Zelda

If you ever want to look me up in the world of video games, you’ll find me under the username ThatFanBoyGuy, based off a video game review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl (just to warn you, the review has foul language). A more accurate username for my gaming, however, would probably be BadNintendoFanBoy. In terms of hardware, I’ve lived up to the title of Nintendo fanboy. I owned every Nintendo console from the Super Nintendo on up (Switch still pending), and I’ve own every handheld from the Game Boy Pocket on up (with the exception of the DSi). As for the software, not such much. Despite owning a Nintendo system since I was 3 1/2 years old, by time I turned 19 years old, I had never played a single Legend of Zelda game, a single Metroid game, a single Kirby game or a single Fire Emblem game. I once owned and played a Wario game, but near the beginning I got stuck, and in a time before the internet, I gave up and sold the game to a friend. That was it for Wario. I played a few levels on Donkey Kong Country when I would visit my uncle, but I would never get that far from the beginning. That was it for Donkey Kong. I had played and completed Star Fox, and I even played the first level of Star Fox 64 at a friend’s house, but it’s for Star Fox. I had played a few Mario games, and I even completed a couple, but that’s it for Mario. The only thing I really had going for me was Pokémon. I had played every Pokémon game up to the 4th generation on both the consoles and the handhelds. Like I said, I was a Nintendo fanboy in terms of hardware, but I was not a Nintendo fanboy.

That all changed shortly after turning 19 years old. Shortly after turning 19, I had convinced myself that I wanted a Wii. Even though the Wii had been out for more than 6 months, getting your hands on a Wii still came with great difficulty. Fortunately for me, my mentor and best friend Louis worked at Wal-Mart. He got ahold of Wii for me. Finally, in February of 2008, I got my Wii. As so many others, my first games were Wii Sports and Wii Play, 2 demo games that showed off the capabilities of the Wii. I still lacked a good game that both showed off the Wii’s capabilities and had good graphics, gameplay and story. I originally gotten the Wii because I wanted to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I liked the game because it really made you feel like a Jedi, swinging around the Wiimote like a lightsaber. A friend, knowing why I loved The Force Unleashed, suggested I play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess because I would wield the Master Sword light I wielded a lightsaber in The Force Unleashed. I took up my friend’s suggestion. I began playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I played the game on and off, having to borrow the game from multiple friends because I did not have a copy of my own. Finally, on June 2, 2010, I had finally finished The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, my first Legend of Zelda. And that was that. True, I liked the game because I liked the feeling swinging the Master Sword with the Wiimote, but that was it. No way I was playing another Legend of Zelda game.

Fast-forward to October 2014. I had convinced myself that I wanted a Wii U, but which one I hadn’t decided yet. Only 11 months old, and the Wii U already came bundled with a few games. Which one would I get? After doing my research, I decided the best bundle would be the Windwaker HD bundle. The Wii U console came in either white or black; at least, the Wii U Windwaker HD bundle gave the Gamepad a Hyrulian hieroglyph trim. The Windwaker came with a real game, where as most other bundles came with a demo game or a party game. The Windwaker HD bundle also came with a eBook about Hyrulian history. For all these reasons, I decided to get the Windwaker Wii U bundle. Naturally, the first game I played on it was Windwaker HD. This game too I played on and off. At first, I was unsure I would like it with the cel-shading graphics and the typical controller gameplay, but I did like it. Sure, I wished they incorporated motion controls like Twilight Princess, but besides that, it was a good game. I finally finished the game on June 25, 2014.

With renewed interest in The Legend of Zelda series, I remembered that between Twilight Princess and Windwaker HD, Nintendo did make another motion control game for The Legend of Zelda series. 10 days after finishing Windwaker, I used my birthday money to purchase The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. While the story wasn’t as good as Twilight Princess, and the Motion Plus controls were more annoying than accurate, I loved playing the game. Any opportunity I got to play video games, I played Skyward Sword. Because of this dedication, I finished the game on October 23, 2014, about 4 months after finishing Windwaker HD.

At this point I figured, “Well, I finished Twilight Princess, which is originally a GameCube game remade into a Wii game. I finished Windwaker, which is originally a GameCube game remade into a Wii U game. I might as well play all the Legend of Zelda games made for the GameCube!” It took me a while, but I eventually found a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure in very good condition, complete with original case and original manual. Thanks to backwards compatibility, I played this game on my Wii. Thankfully, I had kept my Game Boy Advance, and I got to use it as a second screen. Playing this game, I remember I played a few levels while in college with some college friends. Back then, I didn’t get it because I had never really played the Legend of Zelda. Now, I got it, and I enjoyed. I wished I could play it again with my college friends with this new appreciation. I finished that game on August 27, 2015.

By this time, friends who were Nintendo fanboys and Legend of Zelda fanboys had seen and heard that I was playing through the Legend of Zelda series. They encouraged me to start from beginning to appreciate the series as a whole. I took their advice. They also warned me that the first one is long but not hard, while the second one is hard but not long (that’s what she said). I took their advice again, and I decided that the NES games I would use a walkthrough to help me. The first game, the original Legend of Zelda, I had no problems with thanks to the walkthrough. I finished the game on December 19, 2015 in 8 hours of gameplay time. Indeed, I did have better appreciation for the other games of the series I already played. Then I played Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, or at least I attempted to play. I got through the first dungeon with much help from the walkthrough. Then on the way to the second dungeon, I got stuck. No amount of walkthrough or YouTube videos could get me unstuck. That made me mad. I got so angry, not only did I quit the game, I quit the series.

Fast-forward again to January 2017. The Nintendo has announced the Switch, thus making the Wii U obsolete. With that, Nintendo announces that The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild will be the last Wii U game and first Switch game. At first, I figured I would get the game when the price went down and I willingly went back to the series. The more I thought about however, this was the last game coming out for the systems I owned. Everything else after this would be an old game. I wanted one last time to be in on the hype about the new game. Almost on a whim, I went out and bought Breath of the Wild on its release date. Although I was disappointed the last installment did not have motion controls, I did overall like the game. It reminded of the original Legend of Zelda game, but now it was updated for modern graphics, gameplay and story. It reminded me why I liked playing the Legend of Zelda series in the first place. Those fond memories outweighed the negative ones. I finished The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on April 2, 2017, but I didn’t want to stop playing the Legend of Zelda. I wanted to keep going.

After finishing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I wanted to get back into the series. At the same time, I didn’t want to give Zelda II: The Adventures of Link another shot. I thought to myself, “Well, I pretty much was going backward in the series, so let’s continue going backwards.” I started off with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, originally for the Nintendo 64, but now on the Wii U Virtual Console. Playing Ocarina of Time, I understood why so many people love the game. I finished the on May 19, 2017, 1 week after graduating from seminary. Because I graduated from seminary, I now had a lot of free time on hands. With all this free time, I finished The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask on June 10, 2017, and I completed The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on June 26, 2017, 16 days later.

Halfway through 2017, I had finished all The Legend of Zelda games on Nintendo games (not counting Zelda II). Naturally, it only made sense to continue to the handhelds. I resolved I would finish all The Legend of Zelda games for handhelds by the end of the year. I forgot that handheld games typically have less gameplay time due to less space. I knocked out all DS and 3DS Legend of Zelda games in the month of July alone! The rest of the handheld Legend of Zelda games I finished by the end of September! I had fulfilled my goal by 3 months earlier than expected.

With some time left in the year, I figured I would explore a couple of the Legend of Zelda spin-off games. First, I played Link’s Crossbow Training on the Wii. After 7 hours of gameplay, I finished the game on October 10, 2017, with silver medals on all levels, and even platinum on the first 4 levels. Second, I played Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U. After 15 1/2 hours of gameplay, I finished that game on November 10, 2017.

That’s why 2017 is The Year of The Legend of Zelda. Although the first few games I played prior to 2017, I played through most of the Legend of Zelda series in 2017. In 2017, I played and finished 13 The Legend of Zelda games (15 including the 2 spin-offs). In regard to The Legend of Zelda franchise, I have played 18 of the 19 main series games, and I have finished 17 of them (20 played and 18 finished if you include the 2 spin-offs). The one I could not play, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, I watched a Let’s Play of it on YouTube. Perhaps I shall one day do the same for Zelda II. I’m even reading books about The Legend of Zelda! I’m not sure I would call myself a Legend of Zelda fanboy, but now I feel closer to becoming a true Nintendo fanboy.

Now with 2018 upon us, I declare that 2018 will be The Year of Kirby. For 2018, I resolve to get through every Kirby, both main series and spin-offs by 2018. I’m not sure if that will turn me into a Kirby fanboy, but I hope it will take me one step closer to becoming a true Nintendo fanboy.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I would call myself a Nintendo fanboy because ever since my first video game in 1991 (that's 19 years); it's always been a Nintendo system. Surprisingly, despite having a Nintendo for 19 years, I had never ever played a Zelda game, an important franchise in the Nintendo world. So when my roommate brought Twilight Princess for the Wii to the dorm, I thought I make it my first Zelda game. Twilight Princess was one of the last Game Cube games and one of the first Wii games. When the Wii first came out, all it had was games that were demos to the Wii's abilities, like Wii Sports and Wii play. But it needed a serious game. What a better way to start off with a familiar franchise like Legend of Zelda.

So naturally I got to start with talking about controls. I think they did a good job transferring over controls from the Game Cube to the Wii. They did such a good job. I can't tell how they would do it on Game Cube. The control pad is treated like buttons. Left, right and down are all your quick-access items and weapons. Up is access to Midna for teleportation and hints. The Wii's abilities are used well. The pointer is used for picking items, but has more important uses, like aiming your bow and arrow and aiming your slingshot. When it's not in use, your pointer cursor is the infamous fairy, which many fans will like. The Wii Motion is used with the sword, but it's simple. Move wiimote = swing sword. Not the 1:1 ratio of motion like Skyward Sword. But that doesn't really bother me. Some fans might be bothered that Link, who is canonically left handed, had to be made right handed since most people in this world are right handed. But that makes sense, and a lot of the controls make sense with the weapon at hand.

And controls, items and weapons are all used very well in the game. If you gain a new item, it most likely means you'll need it to complete most of the level, especially for the boss at the end of the section. But that doesn't mean it will never be never used again. It can be quite convenient in other places. When you get near the end of the game, you find out you're using all your items, all your weapons and all your skills. It all comes together well.

The basis of the story is the kingdom of Hyrule is being taken over the twilight realm. Link starts out as cowboy rancher, whose only involvement in fighting the twilight is saving people from the twilight. But when link ends up in the twilight territory of Hyrule, he transforms in a wolf. With this, Link is chosen by the gods to be the hero of time, the hero dressed in green. In the Twilight territory, Link teams up with Midna, the princess of the Twilight. Midna has been de-throned by Zant. Link and Midna team up to help each other, so Link can rescue Hyrule from the Twilight, and Midna can reclaim the Twilight world. The story objectives starts out in typical Nintendo fashion: seeking 3 pieces of artifact. But when gather all 3, you realize you're only halfway done. A perfect plot twist happens, reveals more story and more plot, and before you know it, you're searching for another 3 pieces of another artifact to finally bring the story to close, which involves a final boss fight in, you guessed it, 3 phases. The story is well put together. I really liked the parallels between the world of Hyrule and the Twilight world: Zelda and Midna, Zant and Ganadorf, Link and the Wolf (even thought they are the same). There is an even play between Hyrule and Hyrule's Twilight territory. In the beginning, you play as Link in Hyrule and the Wolf in the Twilight areas. When you get the Master sword, you can transfer between Link and Wolf on your own, but you need to learn when to use it accurately.

Graphics I can't talk about much. If you don't know this, the graphics card used in the Wii is the same as in the Game Cube. So there is no change in graphics, which also means they are on the same level as Game Cube. But from what I can tell at looking screenshots of previous games, this is the best graphics for a Zelda game.

So for being my first Zelda game, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It makes me want to go back and play older games, and even makes me consider buying Skyward Sword when it comes out. I give it 5 stars, the best rating. But hey, I may not truly know better because I've only played one Zelda game.