While rumors that Nintendo is close to closing a deal with animation studio Illumination for a Legend of Zelda film should come as no surprise in the wake of the record-breaking success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, some fans have made it abundantly clear online that they aren’t all that jazzed about this potential pairing.
What You Should Know About Mario Strikers’ Big Free Update
In a recent episode of The Hot Mic podcast, reporter Jeff Sneider said he’d received a tip from “a great source” indicating that Universal Pictures, Illumination’s parent company, is close to penning a deal with Nintendo for a future Zelda film.
“Zelda…is looking like the next big Illumination Nintendo franchise, which again, I think we were all sort of expecting, but I’m told that that is happening and it’s costing Universal a pretty penny because of the success of Super Mario, like Nintendo kind of knows its worth at this point, but yeah, I’m told that that is now going to be a reality,” Sneider said.
Kotaku reached out to Nintendo for comment.
Fans think Nintendo should shop around elsewhere for a Zelda movie studio
Despite Illumination having great success with the Mario film, the Despicable Me studio isn’t looking like a first-choice draft pick to adapt the fantasy video-game franchise to some Zelda fans, who perhaps see the studio’s tendency toward glossy, upbeat films as a mismatch for a series whose tales are often poignant and shot through with magical mystery.
Specifically, some fans have expressed fear at the thought of a Legend of Zelda film from Illumination that comes packed with pop song needle drops, a tendency seen not just in the Mario Bros. movie but the studio’s other films as well. (Eminem, anyone?) Zelda fans are also dreading the idea of enduring rounds of glitzy casting announcements packed with Hollywood stars for a film based on the beloved series. Here’s some of what folks are saying about the Zelda movie deal rumor.
“I enjoyed the Mario movie but I can say with full confidence Illumination is NOT the right studio to handle a Zelda movie,” YouTuber Penny Parker wrote on Twitter. “Not saying ‘it will be bad’, but they couldn’t even show the restraint to not put 80 licensed songs in Mario, a franchise already revered for iconic music.”
“Illumination making the Mario movie filled me with so much glee but the thought of them making a Zelda movie stops me in my tracks LOL,” Twitter user velsmells said. “Also I know [animation studio] Fortiche is definitely busy with Arcane S2, but it’d be so cool to see an entire Zelda movie with their style,” they continued, including images from the hit League of Legends tie-in show to support their argument.
“I agree, I don’t think Illumination is the right fit at all for the Zelda IP. I am just saying if it HAS TO BE them, Toon Link is the most fitting route to go with,” Twitter user UltimaShadowX wrote in a separate thread, referencing Link’s cel-shaded look in The Wind Waker. “Imagining DreamWorks doing a Zelda movie with The Last Wish style would be insanely hype and preferable.”
While an animated adaptation of Zelda seemingly comes with challenges that the Mario Movie didn’t, it makes sense that Nintendo might want to throw its sword-wielding hero onto the big screen, considering the fact that the Mario Movie recently surpassed Disney’s Frozen as the second-biggest animated film of all time, according to Variety.
During a Mario movie press junket interview with Japanese news publication Nikkei (translated by Video Games Chronicle), Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto expressed interest in future movie projects so long as they’re centered around “characters that are suitable for film and characters that are well known.” When asked about the possibility of a Zelda movie in a recent interview with Polygon, Tears of the Kingdom producer Eiji Aonuma expressed his enthusiasm for the idea, saying “I am interested for sure. But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately.”
Fox Business, the subsidiary of Fox News Media, has discovered that some gamers are discovering their queerness thanks to Link, calling the Legend of Zelda hero a “nonbinary or trans icon.” Some, to the shock and horror of Fox, are even calling Link an “egg-cracker,” aka someone or something that helps a person realize they are trans. As you can imagine, the Fox journalist doesn’t seem happy about any of this.
Skyward Sword HD Revisits The Stumble That Led To Breath Of The Wild
Tears of the Kingdom, the latest game in the iconic Legend of Zelda franchise, launched on May 12 to rave reviews from critics and players alike. Many are already calling it the best game in the series, and some are even suggesting it’s one of the best games ever made. In the weeks since release, players have mastered multiple duplication glitches, learned how to build incredible machines, and all sorts of other fun hijinx. All in all, Tears of the Kingdom has enjoyed a mostly positive reaction from the gaming community. Even so, Fox Business has now decided to step in to point out how bad it is that so many of the game’s trans and nonbinary players identify with and feel inspired by Link.
In an article posted by Fox Business on May 31, writer Jon Brown seems to have discovered that Link is seen by many—including his own creators—as a relatively gender-neutral hero who anyone can relate to. The article links to a few stories about this topic, including this excellent one from Gizmodo, and seems surprised that an article like this exists alongside the site’s other Zelda stories.
Breaking: Fox continues to be horrible
Then we, inevitably, get to the point where the Fox writer calls The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom a “children’s game” and suggests that outlets like PBS are trying “to make a children’s video game about gender identity.” Which would be a very bad thing, apparently. Don’t you know, kids might accidentally read an article about the game and…turn gay? Trans? Whichever is the worst thing right now in the right-wing outrage machine.
The article then decides to include a tweet from the awful propagandist Libs of TikTok and yell about The Sims 4 including chest binders and top-surgery scars. Again, Fox Business seems to think that all video games are designed and sold exclusively for children. And kids can’t be exposed to real-world concepts like gender, sex, trans people, scars, or anything like that!
Fox Business’s article ends with an odd paragraph pointing out how much controversy surrounded the release of Hogwarts Legacy, but that it still sold great on… uh…Twitch? You mean the streaming website that briefly sold games but then stopped years ago? Hmmm, you folks over there at Fox might want to take another pass at this article. Or just delete it. I’d go with that option.
Street Fighter 6 has a lot of modes to check out and knobs to turn, to the point where it might seem overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. The sickest of fighting game sickos will likely head straight for the training room to discover the finer points of their preferred fighter and figure out the matchups, but for the rest of us, here are a few tips for getting started, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just hitting the streets.
Why Mario Strikers: Battle League Could Be Nintendo’s Next Multiplayer Hit
Immediately change your graphics settings
For some reason, the console versions of Street Fighter 6 default to “Resolution Mode” instead of “Performance Mode.” This means the game will prioritize graphical fidelity over framerate in certain modes, like World Tour. So the game might look better, but it will run at 30 frames per second rather than a smooth 60. Any fighting game player will tell you that framerate is everything and it should be prioritized over all else because of just how reactive you have to be, so switch to Performance Mode first thing after you boot up Street Fighter 6.
On PC, meanwhile, there are no pre-set performance profiles and the game defaults to the standard 60fps. However, you can also increase the maximum framerate to 120, which is recommended if your PC has enough power. Also be sure to check the game’s resolution, which seems to default to 1080p even when you have a higher-res monitor.
Give every character a shot before settling on a main
If you’re new to Street Fighter and haven’t picked out your favorite based on past experience, it might be hard to suss out who you want to play as. If you have previous fighting game experience, you might gravitate toward certain characters based on their archetypes. For example, maybe you typically play grapplers and like to get in close so you might gravitate toward Zangief or Manon.
But if you don’t have any frame of reference for who you might like, sometimes the easiest way to feel out characters in a fighting game is to just try them out. Street Fighter 6 has a fair amount of tools to give you a taste of how characters play, from an arcade story mode to dedicated character guides. You’ll also be taking pieces from each of their movesets when customizing your character in the World Tour mode. Whatever avenue you choose to familiarize yourself with the roster, it’s always worth giving everyone a fair shot. You never know who you’re going to click with until you try them out, so be open to the experience of testing out characters and matchups before going hard on a specific fighter.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Change your online character and your control scheme to Classic
One of the big draws of Street Fighter 6 for casual players is it has two control schemes. One is called Classic and features the typical quarter circles and charge inputs of previous Street Fighter games. Then there’s the “Modern” control scheme, which has ultra-simplified inputs—think special moves from a single button press—at the expense of modestly decreased damage output.
If you like the simple Modern controls then you’re probably already set, as the game defaults to them across all modes. However, if you want something more along the lines of past games, as most returning players will, you’ll need to change it before you start fighting, and in a couple places. The first, most far-reaching toggle you’ll need to switch is in the Options menu under Controls, which will let you change from Modern to Classic controls for both players. However, for some reason, Street Fighter 6 doesn’t apply this setting to its online fights.
To change your control scheme for online play, you’ll have to maneuver through some decidedly unclear menus. Start by pausing the game in either the main menu or an online lobby and going to Profile. This will bring up your Fighter Profile, which will default your primary character to Luke. In the bottom-left corner you’ll see an option for “Battle Settings,” and here is where you can change your preferred online character, your matchmaking settings, and your control schemes. Jump over to the Character tab and you’ll see all the characters in the roster. Pick your favorite and that will be the one you use in online battles.
While you’re there you’ll likely want to switch all the other characters to Classic controls, too. You’ll need to press the “Update Character Settings” button for each of them. It’s a lot of button presses and menu scrolling to get there, but if you don’t take the time, you’ll load up a character online only to find none of their buttons do what they’re supposed to do.
Consider disabling the commentators
Capcom touted play-by-play commentators as one of Street Fighter 6’s big features, but while having pros narrate your fights might sound cool, in practice, it can get a little awkward. I tried both a single commentator and duos, and while I don’t think either experience is really worth having someone talk over the fight’s audio cues and banger soundtrack, having only one person narrating the match is the better experience. When you have two commentators, the tracks make half-hearted attempts at banter, but the discussion never sounds natural, and it’s easy to hear the flaws when they’re trying to sound coherent. Character names and moves are almost never called out with any specificity, and the commentary generally feels detached from the specifics of what’s going on in the fight. so the whole ordeal is hollow. It’s a fun idea, but the implementation never quite gets there. Sometimes the matches just speak for themselves better than any pre-recorded commentary can.
Turning off the commentator is easy enough in standard matches, as it shows up in the menu as you set them up. For online matches, you’ll have to open your battle settings and tab over to the “Other” menu. Just swap the Commentary Settings to off, or customize them to see if you can find a pair you like.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Remember your custom character’s physical appearance affects gameplay
In the World Tour mode, you create an original character whose moveset is made up of special moves drawn from the main fighters’ repertoires. However, while your custom avatar’s equipment, moves, and level will affect how they play, your appearance will, as well. For example, create a shorter character and they’ll have a smaller hitbox, but their kicks won’t reach as far. If you create a giant hulking beast of a fighter, they’ll have more reach but your opponents’ pokes will connect much easier.
I made my character look like me and wasn’t concerned about whether or not he was competitively viable. And really, I don’t think anyone should. Make your weirdest little guy, or make a big beefy lady who can swing Zangief up by his ankles. Or make a character who looks like you. Do what your heart desires, but do keep in mind that your character’s size does affect spacing and other things worth considering in a fight.
Drive Gauge moderation is key
One of Street Fighter 6‘s big additions is the Drive Gauge, which is used for things like Overdrive Attacks (the equivalent to EX moves) and your parry. The Drive Gauge is abundant and will fill up pretty quickly as you parry and block damage, but it’s important to not rely on it so much at the expense of your other tools. Sustaining your parry will nullify most attacks, but it will leave you open for a grab or Critical Art ability. If you run out Drive Gauge, whether by overuse of Overdrive or by keeping parry active, you’ll enter a “burnout” state that will not only deprive you of Drive Gauge skills, but also increase your blockstun and open you up to chip damage when blocking your opponent’s specials. Drive Gauge takes a lot longer to recover when you’re in this state, and you won’t be able to use any associated abilities until the bar is full again. So while you might want to go HAM on all the fun Drive Gauge moves, using them with reckless abandon will inevitably bite you in the ass.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Don’t rush to your master of choice in World Tour
For story reasons, your character in World Tour will start out with Luke’s moveset. As you meet other characters from Street Fighter 6’s roster throughout the story, you can ask for them to be your master and teach you their fighting style and special moves. As tempting as it might seem to rush through the game to find your main and learn their moves, World Tour mode’s balance isn’t really scaled for you to do that.
As I mentioned in Kotaku’s review, World Tour can be a real grind. Even when you’re leveled up to a comparable level to your opponents, their HP pool will often be higher than yours and their damage output will be, too. If you try to bulldoze your way through it trying to find Cammy or Ryu, you’re going to run headfirst into walls as the story missions escalate in difficulty. I spent more time than I would’ve liked using Chun-Li’s style as my base before finding my main to study under, but putting in that time helped make reaching the subsequent masters easier.
Use items in World Tour
While a competitive player may groan at the notion, performance-enhancing items are baked into how Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode balances fights. These consumable boons range from healing items to damage and defense buffs, and you can use them in World Tour fights with no restrictions. If you want a challenge, you can certainly try and force your way through big fights without healing or buffing your character, but broadly, World Tour scales fights with the expectation that you’ll have items on hand with which to heal and power up. You have to pause the game during a match to use them, so it’s easy to forget about. But get into the habit of buffing up your attacks and healing when you’re in a pinch.
Grinding isn’t just fighting
One of the most important resources in the World Tour mode is Miles, Points you acquire through actions like doing quests and just walking around. These are important because they act as your continues throughout the game. For standard fights you encounter throughout the world, continues might not be necessary, but they’re a godsend in story segments like tournaments, where losing one fight without a continue means you have to restart an entire boss rush from the beginning. Earning Miles through side-quests and walking is another part of prepping for big fights that’s just as important as grinding character experience and buying items.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Do not sleep on the social elements
I can’t overstate how good Street Fighter 6’s social elements are. Each master you meet has a relationship meter you fill up by using their attacks, facing enemies who also use them, giving them gifts, and doing their dedicated quests. The higher the meter goes, the more special moves you’ll learn. But more importantly, you’ll also unlock new interactions in which each character will tell you about their life, their training, and their future. These exchanges were my favorite part of World Tour, and while the fighting game grind might be what appeals to you most, don’t sleep on the social aspects. The writing is silly, fun, and helps make these characters feel like more than their moveset, which is something Street Fighter 6 excels at.
To say Capcom fumbled Street Fighter V is an understatement. SF5 launched in an incomplete state, going all-in on “esports” to the point that it shipped without even basic single-player modes, and the flat, offense-heavy combat came off so canned, so rote, that it almost felt turn-based. (Also, Ken had bananas for hair.) Years of patches corrected some of this (the bananas remain), but SF5 will always be a wounded animal in a series of apex predators. So Capcom had its work cut out for it with Street Fighter 6.
Thankfully, Capcom’s latest take on the classic fighting series feels like it’s learned the right lessons from the last game’s drubbing. Street Fighter 6 both sets a stellar foundation for the next decade of Street Fighter’s competitive scene and gives the button-mashers among us something robust, if sometimes frustrating, to sink our teeth into.
A return to first-class fighting
Street Fighter 6 is a return to form, but the most pronounced upgrade is in how much it captures the spirit of its characters, both in and out of fights. Personality and swagger practically drip from this game. Consider the bumpin’ intros before versus matches. They create some striking and often hilarious contrasts, such as Ryu stoically walking toward the ring with determination while Blanka does cartwheels down the runway. Each character feels fully realized through their moveset, voice lines, and often-charming win screens—witness newcomer Manon’s, in which the elegant dancer smiles and waves for a photo as she’s deemed the victor. Where oftentimes Street Fighter V could feel sanded down and sterile, Street Fighter 6 oozes confidence, which helps make it as entertaining to watch as it is to play.
Image: Capcom / Kotaku
It would be easy to dismiss that confidence as style over substance, but it also bleeds into the way Street Fighter 6 plays. The game is flashier than ever, but its new mechanics make old characters feel fresh and new ones feel like meaningful additions. The most fundamental change comes in the new Drive Gauge system. Now the Super meter is just for your powerful Super Arts, and the Drive Gauge governs everything else. It fuels a number of tactics and maneuvers both old and new, and is central to every fight.
For example, you can spend your gauge on a wind-up blow called Drive Impact, which is great for creating openings, and has armor to push out of endless corner combos. Drive Gauge also fuels Overdrive attacks (the new term for EX moves), which are more powerful versions of special attacks, like a fireball that can beat other projectiles or a faster lightning kick. You can also perform a Drive Parry, Drive Reversal (like an old Alpha Counter), and Drive Rush (cancel moves to extend combos). The Drive Gauge regenerates over time, but be careful not to let it fully drain, as that puts you in a devastatingly vulnerable “Burnout” state.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
On paper, the Drive Gauge making so many strategies universal—in contrast to the hyper-specialization of SF5’s V-Triggers—might sound like a flattening of Street Fighter’s diverse roster. For example, Ryu and a small handful of other warriors no longer have a monopoly on parries. Instead, I found it freed up design space for the aspects of each character that actually make them special to rise to greater prominence.
The new characters are fresh, and so are the old ones
I’m a long-time Ryu main (I’m a sucker for the beard, okay), and his Street Fighter 6 incarnation has the most filled-out moveset in quite some time. Changes like Hashogeki (a close-range, energized jab) no longer being tied to a counter, or the Denjin Charge (which powers up his fireballs distinct from any use of meter) opened my mind to new strategies after playing the character for years. Even after hundreds of matches in Street Fighter 6, I’m still learning new things about my main, and how foes I’ve faced plenty of times in other games are now different, and often more dangerous.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
On top of reimagining old faces, Street Fighter 6’s new additions are all forces to be reckoned with, some of whom I’m curious to see how the community reacts to in the coming months. Manon’s grappler moveset is complimented by a mechanic which makes her grabs more powerful with each successful use. (As you’d expect, you’ll want to keep your distance and rely on ranged attacks, lest you end up being used as an unwilling dance partner.) Kimberly’s a student of Guy, and not only is her spray-paint-enhanced ninjutsu playstyle vicious and agile, she’s a style icon who I want to be like when I grow up. JP, who steps into the main villain role now that M. Bison is gone, commands a fight with space-manipulating moves. While I’m still getting used to facing him, I always feel like I’m playing defense and reacting to how my opponent uses his incomprehensible magic to attack me from all angles.
This is the kind of game I want to take online for months or even years to come, and thankfully, Street Fighter 6‘s online has been an effortlessly enjoyable experience thus far. Running around lobbies as my custom avatar, sitting at cabinets with friends, and welcoming passersby to join our queue makes online feel like as communal an experience as you can get in a digital space. Getting in and out of matches is pretty simple, and you can make menu-based private rooms with friends rather than entering the 3D public lobbies if you don’t want to deal with a rando interrupting you and your friend’s sessions. It’s also easy to spectate other players’ matches, and watch replays of the greats. Between both the beta and the final game, I’ve put over 20 hours into Street Fighter 6 online without much of a hitch. I had a few matches against players with worse internet than others, but broadly, my experience online has been pretty great.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
I can’t wait to watch pro players take advantage of these new characters and max out their potential, but I’m also interested to see how casual players take to them, because Street Fighter 6 does a lot to try and court the casual audience, from a simplified “modern” control scheme (specials come out of single button presses, at the cost of lower overall damage) to a surprisingly deep RPG-like mode that gives you a story to go along with all the punching and kicking. However, I’m not sure just how much a casual player who button mashes their way through arcade modes will jive with what the game has to offer unless they’re willing to put in time for the grind.
We all live in a Street Fighter world
One of the headline features of Street Fighter 6 is single-player World Tour mode, a story mode that lets you create your own character, interact with the primary cast, and run around its silly little world solving silly little problems. As far as fighting game stories go, it’s no Mortal Kombat or Injustice, but I can’t deny I was absolutely sucked into Capcom’s attempt to make Street Fighter feel like a world that actually exists, rather than just backdrops you fight in.
World Tour’s character creator is one of the most robust I’ve ever recreated myself in, and as a short king, I loved how it let me not only be that in the game, but recognized it mechanically. My character’s a little guy, which means my kicks don’t have as much reach but my hurtbox is smaller. More often than not, character creators can feel like everyone’s dressing up the same two mannequins, but Street Fighter 6 really commits to letting you create who you want and letting them take up real space, literally and figuratively. You can create some real weirdos and the game doesn’t bat an eye, but you can also faithfully recreate yourself and have it be recognized.
The actual story World Tour is built on top of is pretty light fare; you get your anime fighting rival and there’s some drama and talk of what “strength” means. That’s all fine and well, but I was genuinely surprised and delighted not by the story, but by the social elements in the gaps.
World Tour lets you meet and train with each character in the main cast, and on top of learning their moves and grafting them together to make your own moveset, there are also social elements that let you develop a relationship with them. Straight up, this is the best part of World Tour. Some of my favorite Street Fighter 6 moments have been listening to Ryu recount old stories and learn how to text (he didn’t know smartphones were a thing). In general, most of the characters don’t have a ton of involvement throughout the main story, but the smaller stories that I passed through remain highlights of World Tour given that I’m not really enamored with its structure beyond that. (After you complete the story, there’s still side-quests and leveling up to do so you can take your character online, but getting to that point feels like a bit of a chore.)
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Rise and grind
For a while, I found World Tour frustrating because I was naturally trying to play it like a fighting game. You can run around a small open-world area and meet NPCs with their own problems and missions to send you on, but you can also challenge them to fights, and that part is where World Tour goes from a fun jaunt through the streets to a weird, often grindy and tedious exercise in button mashing. While World Tour’s fights are real-time action affairs they’re heavily governed by RPG-style stats. There are levels to gain and stats to juice, but even when you’re at or around the same level as a major boss, they still have more health and hit harder than you can.
Whereas playing as the main cast online offered balanced fights that were quick affairs of outsmarting one another, World Tour fights often felt like wars of attrition in which I would have to laboriously wear down enemies who had bigger life bars and could cut mine in half with a quick combo. Instead of playing to my character’s strengths, I was spamming hadokens just to chip away at their giant health pools. The stakes often feel high, as retries are limited and only replenished by spending time walking through the world, making them a precious resource. You can use items to boost your power and heal during these fights, but it sure sucks if you burn the precious items and then lose anyway.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Across the board, World Tour’s combat felt arduous, whereas it felt effortless and rewarding in any other mode. I loved putting myself into Street Fighter’s world and interacting with characters I’d loved for years, but every time a big story moment came I dreaded having to confront another OP boss. World Tour contains some of my favorite things to come out of Street Fighter in years, but the unfair-feeling fights felt like vegetables I had to power through to get back to dessert.
It’s a shame that the actual fighting is the worst part of World Tour, because it has so many cool ideas. Making a customized moveset full of different character’s attacks (à la Ace from Street Fighter EX3) feels like I’m keeping pieces of the people I’ve met throughout my journey. I love the idea of players creating their own builds and pitting their avatars against each other in the online lobbies, I just feel like World Tourleans so hard into the RPG framework that it loses a lot of the skill-based satisfaction that comes with getting better at a fighting game.
If you’re the type who loves a grind and enjoys the prospect of wailing on a bunch of civilians to make numbers go up, this mode has that. If you want to play through some really fun stories featuring your favorite Street Fighter heroes and villains, that’s one of World Tour’s biggest draws. But if you’re interested in a tight, satisfying fighting game experience, World Tour isn’t quite that, and it sucks because a mode geared toward people who don’t want to be FGC experts shouldn’t so often feel frustrating and insurmountable for reasons that go beyond how fighting games typically play. I wonder if World Tour will put more casual fans off at least as much as it draws them in.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Despite my frustrations, I left World Tour with a greater appreciation for all the best parts of Street Fighter 6. It’s a sublime fighter that makes smart changes that honor what makes the series great. It’s also a full, complete game from the start, that won’t need to be fixed and extended with endless updates later. The game’s energetic street fights, bolstered by a filthy visual flair that feels down and dirty in a way the series hasn’t in years, makes it as fun to watch as it is to play. It’s style and substance. It’s depth and spectacle. Street Fighter got its soul back, and I can’t wait to see where Capcom takes it as the next generation of fighting games kicks off.
As reported at the time, the commercial’s creators were inspired by, of all things, an Amazon review left under the game’s predecessor, Breath of the Wild. Written by a Japanese user, it told the tale of a “working adult” who spends his days “plainly wondering why I’m still alive”.
Rediscover your sense of adventure with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I am a working adult, so-called businessmen.I’m jostled by the commuter rush, bowing down to customers and bosses, being forced to train junior staff and doing many things, and I end up working overtime every day.Even the mountain I see on my way to work, which I don’t even know the name of, irritates me.When I get back home I’m dizzy and have no energy to eat food, so I just drink alcohol and sleep.If I have time to play games I should be going to seminars or looking for a marriage partner, which makes me more impatient than I should be.I spend my days plainly wondering why I’m still alive.
I went to buy alcohol because I ran out and saw the Switch on sale in the shops. Then I remembered the day.When I was a child and really into Mario 64, my friend said, “lame to play Mario nowadays! Now it’s the era of PlayStation!” and I felt embarrassed.At the time, I didn’t want my friend to dislike me, so I also remember that I replied, “Yeah, you’re right. Mario is already old-fashioned!”
The beauty of FF7 at that time and the shock of being able to listen to the CD on TV… the recent kids may not understand these feelings.That’s how attractive and innovative it was for kids back then.
I’m still not sure why I picked up the Switch at the time.I just held a beer in one hand and bought the console and Zelda, thinking I could sell it if it was boring.
Yesterday, my work day, I looked out of the train window at a mountain I didn’t even know the name of and thought, “Looks like I can climb that.” At that moment, I burst into tears and couldn’t stop.The businessmen of the same age who were beside me must have thought, “What the hell is this guy.”
I would recommend it to all my fellow businessmen who are pressed for time and scrambling day after day to maintain the status quo, even if everyone hates you.Don’t say it’s just a game. We were born during the golden age of video games.Have you ever seen your family move their entire body when Mario jumps?Do you remember playing Mario Kart or Smash Bros with your friends bringing their own controllers?Have you ever discussed Chrono Trigger or FF7 strategies with your friends?Now I know. When I was a brat, my parents bought me expensive consoles and software for my birthday, Christmas and something.My parents, who were always nagging me, managed to raise money from their living budget to buy expensive games for me.
I’m touched to belatedly realise many things that I didn’t realise due to the busyness of living my own life.I should have been more filial.
The 5-stars reviews are all good ones, so there’s nothing for me to talk about now.This Zelda gives me the “challenge and reward” I forgot about.I can freely explore the world without maps, it’s an exciting adventure experience.People my age are sick every day to overcome tomorrow. But don’t despair of your life.The adventure I wanted was in such a place.
P. S.I feel like thanking this Zelda and I would like to apologise to the Mario 64 development team and Nintendo.I’d like to apologise for the lies I told that day, saying that Mario 64 was old-fashioned, even though I loved it.I am sincerely looking forward to Mario Odyssey being released this winter.
Postscript, 7 May: after 180 hours of play, I got all “recovered memory” and saw the ending.More than anything, I’d like to thank all the people who read my awful, long, cluttered and embarrassing review written emotionally. I’d also like to thank all the people who gave it a “helpful” rating, not only for reading it. I’ve never been appreciated by so many people even in my job.I really enjoyed my 180 hours spent running around Hyrule. I’d like to thank not only Nintendo but also all the Zelda fans who have continued to support Zelda. Thank you for a great adventure.
For all the similarities between this man’s tale and the commercial, the part where he apologises for abandoning Mario in the face of a PlayStation advertising campaign—I did something similar with Sonic 3 when my friends were playing WipeOut—hit hard.
The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, better known as C2E2, was held a few weeks back and brought in nearly 100,000 attendees over its three days.
There were some cosplayers among them, of course, some excellent cosplayers, and as usual all photos and video here are provided by Mineralblu (you can check our way more of his stuff at his Facebook page). Also as usual, every photo has a watermark on it detailing the cosplayer’s social media information and the character they’re cosplaying as.
Link, hero of the Legend of Zelda series, has been through many visual changes over the years. We could all rank our favourites there. But have you ever stopped and wondered how the different Links across the timeline smell?
The Week In Games: Twisted Therapy And Toy Soldiers
These Anime Moms Deserve All The Flowers For Mother’s Day
Monday 6:46PM
I’ll be honest here, I have not, so I’m very glad Megan Farokhmanesh, writing for Wired, thought to ask this important question. It’s not often games critics and journalists get interviews with important Japanese developers, so when they do—and having everything go through a translator never helps—interviews tend to end up being about boring, predictable stuff.
Here, though, right off the bat, Tears Of The Kingdom Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma are asked “Which version of Link, across the long-running series’ dozens of titles, would smell the worst?”
Aonuma points to Breath of the Wild’s version of the character, who wears a barbarian-style outfit with a bone cap and furs. “That might be kind of smelly,” he says, noting its “wild animal odor aroma.”
Fujibayashi, who says that “across the many decades” he’s given interviews he’s never been asked to consider which hero is most in need of deodorant, cast his vote for Twilight Princess. Although Link spends much of his time digging through dirt and running through dungeons as a wolf, Fujibayashi is thinking of one specific moment. “There are some scenes in Twilight Princess where Link engages in sumo wrestling with the Goron tribe,” he says. “I imagine he’s pretty smelly in that situation.”
Good answers! Now I’m trying to think of which Link would smell the best, and keep coming back to the freshness of early-game Wind Waker: a lovely blend of sun, sea, sand and coconuts, which is exactly how the whole game smells in my mind.
Please don’t think I’m only posting this here because of the stinky discourse, either, because the interview also gets excellent—and surprisingly blooper-filled—answers to “What are the best—and worst—things you’ve created with Ultrahand and Fuse?” as well, which you can check out over on Wired.
It is May 12, 2023, and on this fine day the much-hyped Nintendo sequel The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finding its way into the eager hands of players around the world. But you: Maybe you stand apart. Maybe you didn’t end up playing the previous game, 2017’s smash hit Breath of the Wild. Or maybe you dabbled in it and fell off for whatever reason. I won’t judge, I’m right there with you.
Disney’s New Post-Apocalyptic Anime Proves The Mouse Has Good Taste
The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule
Monday 3:53PM
Now here you are, seeing all these cool trailers and…interesting…things popping off in the new Zelda game and you’re wondering, “Do I need to play Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom? Should I?” Well, that’s what I’m here to help you figure out.
A series purist will always say to go back and play the games in proper order (which when you consider how long Zelda’s been around, you might want to be careful with that line of thinking). But here I’ll lay out some pros and cons for each course of action. There are valid reasons for either approach, so let’s get into them.
By the way, this article is a spoiler-free zone. So feel safe to read on even if you haven’t touched 2017’s Breath of the Wild.
Is Breath of the Wild’s storyline worth experiencing before Tears of the Kingdom?
Breath of the Wild tells a very average fantasy story. Hold your farmer’s pitchforks; I don’t say that to put it down. In general the story’s overall beats are very familiar to almost anyone who’s experienced a Lord of the Rings or Star Wars joint. You’ve got your dark lord, your threat to peace, your amnesiac protagoboy, your magical items of power, rinse and repeat. Watching a quick recap video would be plenty to give you a general sense of BotW’s plot, and you won’t be robbing yourself of a grand-epic-of-all-time if you do.
How Breath of the Wild tells its story, however, is something you may wish to consider experiencing in full form, not just via synopsis. Link’s journey to regain his memories has him meet countless charming and memorable characters along the way, which will get you a lot more emotionally interested in the greater story of Hyrule (simple though it is) and the people who live there than if you just breezed through a summary.
Breath of the Wild’s characters make an otherwise typical fantasy tale worth the trip.Image: Nintendo
If you’re just interested in a quick SparkNotes rundown of Hyrulian history, a wiki or video will do it. But if you value the experience of meeting interesting characters and gaining greater emotional investment in a fictional world, jumping into Breath of the Wild first will be time well spent.
Does Tears of the Kingdom make Breath of the Wild’s gameplay obsolete?
We’ve all been there: You play a sequel first, and then the original just feels ancient by comparison. Some sequels so dramatically improve on their predecessor that it’s tough to go back. Mass Effect 2 is one such example. Skyrim may be another.
First of all, no: Tears of the Kingdom certainly has its share of improved quality-of-life features—such as in fast travel and cooking— but nothing so earth-shattering that Breath of the Wild suddenly feels neolithic in comparison.
Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t obsolete Breath of the Wild’s gameplay. Image: Nintendo
As for whether or not they feel too similar, fear not. While very similar in key ways, Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are distinct enough that going back to the older game after Tears of the Kingdom would still give you plenty of new experiences to enjoy.
As my colleague Kenneth Shepard told me after his first handful of hours in Tears of the Kingdom, the gameplay in the sequel is “less an evolution and more a sidestep.” Link’s new abilities, specifically the crafting and new Ultrahand ability, make it a distinct enough experience that if you play these in reverse order, you won’t feel like your abilities have been drastically dialed back in scope.
Tears of the Kingdom is a looker—and it won’t melt your Switch to plasticky goop.Image: Nintendo
Tears of the Kingdom looks graphically daunting for the old Switch, so should you wait for future hardware?
It’s no secret that the aging Wii U wasn’t too kind to Breath of the Wild. And basically everyone who saw early footage of Tears of the Kingdom got a little nervous thinking about whether the humble Nintendo Switch, released over six years ago, might be able to keep up.
Well, I have good news. Or, rather, Digital Foundry has good news: Tears of the Kingdom will run pretty damn well on that old Switch of yours. You can expect a very close-to-solid 30 frames per second with some drops here and there, particularly when using Link’s new Ultrahand ability. Fast-travel loading times are also rather quick, around 30 percent quicker than in BotW.
Nintendo / Digital Foundry
I hear you thinking, “surely there’s another console from Nintendo on the way, right?” The Switch has been out for a while, true, but as we reported on Tuesday, May 9, Nintendo has no plans for a hardware refresh or followup to the Switch in 2023.
Say you don’t mind holding off on the game everyone’s chatting about right now and are cool jumping into Breath of the Wild first. Can you expect to knock it out in a weekend? Well, no.
Breath of the Wild is a long game, and every moment is worth it.Image: Nintendo
According to Howlongtobeat.com, the main story of Breath of the Wild is around 50 hours. And if you want to do all the side-quests? You’re looking at just under 100 hours. If you’re a completionist fiend, HLtB estimates 189 hours. Our own experiences bear those numbers out.
Breath of the Wild is a game of sweeping proportions. The world is enormous and there’s so much to do. If you haven’t played it yet and Tears of the Kingdom’s release really has you interested in seeing what all this Link business is about, expect to need to set aside some time for BotW should you jump into that first.
Even if you’re not a completionist, taking in the world of Hyrule in the Switch’s first Zelda title is an experience best enjoyed at a gentle pace, and you won’t feel worse for having taken the time to let it all soak in.
So, yes, BotW is long. Which is good, since it’s a great game.
While some franchises are okay to enter at just about any point, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild offers some compelling reasons to give it a shot first. The plot consists of standard fantasy concepts, but is told very memorably and in a vista-rich open world that’s a joy to explore.
But, if you do decide to jump straight into Tears of the Kingdom, a quick synopsis or two of BotW’s story beats will get you up to speed quickly. And with the gameplay differences, playing the two games in reverse order shouldn’t feel too strange.
Order aside, another question is whether you ought to play the older game at all. You may feel differently, but my personal take is that Breath of the Wild is such a genuinely wonderful experience, from the well-told story, to the satisfying gameplay, and a world that is genuinely full of life and beautiful to explore, that you owe it to yourself to play this modern classic if you haven’t, even if you’ve already logged solid hours in Tears of the Kingdom.
KANSAS CITY, MO—Allowing for a brief, relaxing respite from an otherwise grueling schedule, Friday’s release of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom reportedly offered local man Nick Powell a much-needed escape from the monotonous grind of playing other video games. “When you spend eight or nine hours a day with a controller in your hand, slogging away at all these video games, it’s nice to relax and unwind with a different video game,” said Nick Powell, adding that he was looking forward to enjoying the new Zelda after a long, arduous week filled with nothing but Overwatch 2, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption. “Day in, day out, I’m occupied with completing all my deliveries in Death Stranding and running an entire town in Animal Crossing. It gets pretty exhausting, so it’s important that I set aside time to reconnect, recharge, and just be myself—or Link, at least—while saving the land of Hyrule from the forces that seek to destroy it.” Twenty minutes into the game, Powell acknowledged that while he was grateful for the opportunity to escape into a virtual world that was separate from the other virtual worlds he spends time in, he was starting to get bored.
Calling All Chicago-Area Worms: I Started A Worm Club To Meet Other Worms
You probably know Jack Black from his long career as the enthusiastic star of films like School of Rock and Kung Fu Panda, and most recently as the actor who was the perfect amount of excited to voice Bowser for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. While Chris Pratt convinced me that he’s never touched a controller in his life, Black wants you to know that he is a hardcore gamer like the rest of you, something he’s made many delightful YouTube videos about in the past on his channel JablinskiGames. Now he and Kyle Gass, who together are better known as the rock duo Tenacious D, have created a musical tribute to games in their signature style, complete with a video in which a cartoon version of Black cameos in games such as God of War, Fallout 4, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, Sonic, and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Disney’s New Post-Apocalyptic Anime Proves The Mouse Has Good Taste
The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule
Monday 3:53PM
‘
Tenacious D – Video Games (Official Video)
This is good, actually. Black starts off singing that “I don’t play video games no more, I never play video games.” As the video goes on, it becomes clear that his cartoon persona is as plugged in as the rest of us. He makes exceptions for AAA and Nintendo games that he considers to be “experiences,” all while reiterating over and over that he doesn’t have time for gaming. At one point, he appears naked while riding the most fucked-up-looking horse I’ve ever seen. True to the experience of gaming, the animations are filled with gratuitous violence, but with a comedic tone.
Over and over, he stresses: “That’s not a game. That’s an adult thang.” His song addresses how gaming is stigmatized by people who didn’t grow up with a console, but it’s not woe-is-me about it. Black is so excited to share what he loves about his favorite games, and you should be too.
The music was produced by Tenacious D, which, if you’re unaware, is a comedy rock duo formed by Black and Kyle Gass, another actor who also appears in the video (only to die incredibly frequently). Tenacious D has a sizable cult following, but The Super Mario Bros. Movie has reminded mainstream audiences that Black can really sing. His performance of the love ballad “Peaches” blew up the internet, and is eligible for an Oscar nomination.
Of course, the other reason that Black is enjoying so much popularity right now is because he doesn’t act like engaging with video game media is beneath him. Or that he’s paid for his time. When he has to put in a public appearance for the Mario Bros. movie, he goes above and beyond to dress like he voices Bowser. Even his “Video Games” video stands as a work of art on its own rather than a cynical marketing ploy to capture the gaming fan base. I hope Nintendo brings him back for whatever the next Nintendo movie is going to be. They’d be making a huge mistake if they didn’t—Black’s charisma and goodwill extends beyond the movie screen.
Last night I was scrolling through TikTok in the midst of an edible comedown, and I stumbled upon something so ridiculous, so cringe, so brilliant, that I couldn’t believe I had yet to see it before. It’s called Maverwatch, and it’s a 2018 hype video for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks that features its star players doubling as Overwatch characters.
This Wacky Magical Girl Anime Is Studio Trigger-Coded To Perfection
Edited to look like an Overwatch play-of-the-game clip, which highlights a particularly gnarly play (usually a multi-kill) at the end of every match, this minute-long video feels like something my high brain cooked up in a daydream. But it’s not. This clip is real, and every second is transfixing, a strange mix of car-wreck tragedy and knee-slapping comedy. You can’t deny, however, that the editing is top-tier, with the all-too-familiar ding sounds indicating an Overwatch kill, the Overwatch font showing off “eliminations” of rival players getting stunted on, and the in-game music swelling in-between each wooden NBA player delivery of a hero’s line.
Athletes are, by and large, not known for their acting and line-reading skills. In the rare chance that you get an athlete with a glittering personality who can actually say dialogue without sounding like a kid forced to read out loud during class, teams will push them to the forefront of marketing materials and commercial opportunities (Eli Manning, Tom Brady) or even let them play the lead in a film (LeBron James, Michael Jordan). I can say with some confidence that none of the 2018 Dallas Mavericks players have the same je ne sais quoi as James or Brady, but that only makes the Maverwatch experience better.
The man behind Maverwatch
The clip begins with Dirk Nowitzki aping Soldier: 76’s ultimate ability line (“I’ve got you in my sights”) while pretending to activate an imaginary visor before cutting to clips of him sinking threes.
“Dirk got Soldier because he’s the rugged old leader of the team,” Austin Guttery, former in-game media creator for the Dallas Mavericks and creator of Maverwatch, told Kotaku via email.
The second player highlighted is former Mavs center Deandre Jordan, who pretends to pop a Lucio ult (“oh, let’s break it down”) under the nickname “Shootscio.” Help me. “Jordan got Lucio because of his great defensive plays and his ability to keep the team alive,” Guttery explained.
But when it came time to assign Mavericks point guard and Grandmaster Overwatch player Luka Doncic a character, things got a little heated. “Luka actually reeeeeally wanted to be Hanzo, since that’s who he usually plays, but there was a player on the team, Wes Matthews, who was known for pretending to shoot a bow and arrow after each shot during the games, so naturally we HAD to make him Hanzo,” Guttery said. “I picked Luka to be Junkrat because of his blonde hair. Luka was the tiniest bit salty and tried to talk us into making him Hanzo, but we had already shot Wes’s part, and we only got one quick shot with each player every year.”
The other players were assigned based on any connections Guttery could make between them and an Overwatch hero—or if he thought they could manage to pull off a good enough mime of a character’s moves. No, I cannot stop laughing at Luka pretending to pull a Junkrat RIP-Tire.
Aside from the drama that came with assigning Mavs players their Overwatch counterparts, Guttery says that it took ages for him to get the video approved because his boss “didn’t actually know what Overwatch was.” But telling him that Doncic was a huge Overwatch fan “really helped sell it.” The clip was shot during the team’s media day, and aired on the in-arena screens during a lull in gameplay to a “pretty good reaction” from fans.
“I almost got fired!” he related cheerily. “After our videos air in-game, we usually don’t put them out online until after the season, or unless we get permission from [owner Mark] Cuban to run them. But I was so excited about how this one turned out, I really wanted to see how the Overwatch community would react to it. So I posted it on Reddit and within the day it BLEW UP…It eventually caught the eye of my boss who got, um, pretty upset that it was out there, and he was afraid that if Cuban saw this, we wouldn’t be making videos for them anymore, so I removed it. Luckily Cuban never got wind of it, so it was a non-issue.”
But Overwatch developer Blizzard did indeed see the video, and sent Guttery a “really nice Widowmaker figure” that the team kept on display at the office. And now, that very same video is making the rounds on social media yet again. Time is a flat circle, but Luka Doncic is no longer a Hanzo main. It’s Zarya now.
Lifeweaver has been in Overwatch 2 for just under a month, and already the plant-based support hero has had some pretty significant reworks in both his control scheme and abilities. Personally, I’ve had a much better experience with the character since his last update, but it sounds like Blizzard is planning more changes as it tries to figure out where the character should fit into its popular hero shooter.
This Wacky Magical Girl Anime Is Studio Trigger-Coded To Perfection
In a new post on the Overwatch website, director Aaron Keller talked about the team’s mindset regarding Lifeweaver moving forward. While they’ve made some improvements to his healing output (he now has one of the higher ones in the game), the team says changes like tightening the spread on his offensive alt-fire Thorn Volley haven’t had much effect on his kill rate. On the bright side he also has one of the lowest death rates of any support hero, so I’m glad to hear you all took my advice and are keeping your distance from the fight.
All that said, Keller says the team is still looking to better figure out Lifeweaver’s intended role in the game, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do since he joined the roster. Before Lifeweaver, Baptiste and Brigitte were my go-to support characters depending on my team’s makeup and the map type, but Lifeweaver feels like this very situational character that I mostly run just because he’s new, I like him as a character, and his kit is fun, rather than because his utility feels objectively better than the other options.
His abilities—like Petal Platform, which raises a player to high ground, or the controversial Life Grip, which pulls an ally to Lifeweaver’s position—are best used within a coordinated team. The trouble is, most randos online don’t understand or don’t care about how they can create effective plays, and it feels like most just want support players to act as heal bots, rather than leaning into more varied support abilities. It feels like my teammates, and sometimes myself, don’t know how to coordinate around Lifeweaver, so I can see why Blizzard hopes to make his ideal role clearer in Season 5.
Keller continued:
When it comes to future changes for Lifeweaver, here’s what we are thinking. We want it to be clearer why players may select Lifeweaver over other heroes. If your current hero pick isn’t working for some reason (whether it be the map or enemy team comp), what’s a strong incentive for swapping to Lifeweaver? We may make other changes along the way, such as lightly buffing his Thorn Volley and reducing hit volumes, but ultimately, we’ll have changes targeted at further pronouncing Lifeweaver’s strengths and clearly defining his role on your team. This could be leaning harder into his healing effectiveness through a new passive or bringing additional benefits to some of his utility-focused abilities. With a defensive-based hero, we have to be careful how far we go in terms of buffing raw healing and defensive abilities – too far can negatively disrupt the overall flow of an engagement. These are some of the early things we’re iterating through, hope to have our next set of changes ready for Season 5.
Even when Lifeweaver first debuted, I figured he would be a character that would evolve a great deal over time, similar to Symmetra, whose moveset has changed more than once since she debuted at the original Overwatch’s launch. As someone who’s already put over a dozen hours into Lifeweaver, I’m hopeful whatever changes come will help him be the effective support character everyone wants him to be, as Overwatch 2’s beleaguered support players could really use some wins.
Back in the 1990s, Philips tried to break into the video game market with its doomed-to-fail, multimedia set-top box standard called CD-i. Many brands and models of CD-i players were released but all of them were flops and mostly forgotten in 2023. However, Philips did acquire the rights to develop three Zelda games for its unpopular machines. They were terrible. Now, a fan has taken what’s perhaps the worst of those games, a top-down RPG starring Zelda herself, and unofficially ported it to the Game Boy.
Let’s Talk About Gotham Knights’ Predictable Ending
You might be wondering how Philips was able to create Zelda games, and on a non-Nintendo platform. The answer to that involves Sony, weirdly enough. In 1989, Sony and Nintendo signed a deal to create a CD-based add-on for the SNES. However, Nintendo would later back out of the deal and instead work with Philips. Sony was bitter, and decided to develop its own game console, a little device you might have heard of called the PlayStation. Meanwhile, Nintendo saw the poor reaction to the Genesis’ Sega CD add-on and backed out of its planned SNES CD hardware entirely. It’s believed that, as some recompense for dissolving the deal, Nintendo ended up licensing some IP to Philips, allowing the company to make its own Zelda games. They weren’t great, and one of the three, Zelda’s Adventure, is seen by many fans as the worst of the bunch, and is often cited as the worst Zelda game ever released.
Still, even if it’s a bad game with terrible controls and awful live-action FMV cinematics, it’s still a Zelda game, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it has its fans. One of them has spent a few years developing a full port of the CD-i flop for Nintendo’s Game Boy. And now it’s out, and it’s really cool!
John Lay
The story behind the new Game Boy Zelda
Zelda’s Adventure for Game Boy was developed by John Lay, who describes himself as a programmer and graphic designer. According to Lay—a big fan of the 2D Zelda games—out of the three CD-i Zelda games games, Zelda’s Adventure “looked interesting.” And after stumbling across an early version of modern development tool GB Studio, Lay decided to start working on a demake during covid-19 lockdown as the idea of a portable version of the unbeloved game seemed like something he’d want to play. So he started work on a proof of concept that was just the first dungeon and the initial part of the overworld, which he estimates to comprise about 20 percent of the overall game.
“After I finished I took a short break and during that time GB Studio released an update I was eager to try,” Lay told Kotaku. “So I…continued the game where I left off and developed approximately another 40 percent of the overworld and dungeons.”
However, he ran into some GB Studio limitations, so he had to modify the engine with custom-created code to make the full demake feasible.
“I then used this modified engine to develop a third prototype with the remaining 40 percent of the overworld and the final dungeons,” he said. “During this time GB Studio released a third update with a bunch of improvements, so I sat down and planned out how to combine all three prototypes into a single game.”
Lay says from start to end this whole process took about 14 months, since starting work on the game in April 2020.
According to the Itch page for Zelda’s Adventure, it was developed to aesthetically resemble 1992’s Link’s Awakening, but also includes some features from the Game Boy Color duo Oracle of Ages and Seasons. Lay calls his creation a complete port of the full game, and the music was composed by Beatscribe.
How to play Zelda’s Adventure for Game Boy
If you want to play this neat port on a Game Boy emulator, you can download the ROM from Lay’s Itch page. However, you can also play it in your browser without having to download a thing, or just watch a full playthrough of the fan game on Lay’s YouTube channel.
John Lay
Honestly, Lay’s new fan game is probably the best way to experience Zelda’s Adventure, that odd and barely remembered piece of Nintendo ephemera. I mean, unless the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom decides to include some deep-cut references to it, in which case we all might have to go back and reassess the CD-i disaster. Though I very much doubt that’s going to happen.
As for Lay, he doesn’t have plans to demake the other two Zelda CD-i games, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, on Nintendo’s portable or any other console. But he did enjoy working on the project, and wanted to shout out to both his composer Beatscribe and the “incredible developers” behind GB Studio.
“Thanks to everyone who supported the project,” Lay said. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback so far, it really makes it worthwhile. I hope you enjoy the game!”
Whether you love it or hate it, the end of Abby’s third day in The Last of Us Part II is one of the sequel’s most memorable moments. While playing as Abby, the secret second main character of the game, the player is forced into a brutal fight with long-time protagonist Ellie in a Seattle theater. If you would like to relive this intense moment every time you look at your shelf, an incredibly expensive statue set is on its way that recreates the scene. If you’re willing to shell out a couple grand, that is.
Oshi No Ko Is An Early Anime Of The Year Contender
Collectible company Prime 1 Studio is releasing two statues that are sold seperately of both characters. One features Abby with swappable arm pieces holding either a handgun, hammer, or molotov cocktail (which she notably can’t use in The Last of Us Part II). The third of which you can only get if you buy the Bonus Version of the statue from the company’s website. The other statue features Ellie and has her sneaking around an archway with a shotgun on hand, but it isn’t available for pre-order at the time of this writing. Once both statues are placed next to each other, it recreates the scene of the two protagonists’ confrontation. There’s less forcing the player to choke Ellie out here, at least. The Abby half measures at about 22 inches in height, so the statues are both pretty big. Make sure you’ve got the shelf space for it before you get your hopes up.
Prime 1 Studios
It does look incredible, but I’m a Last of Us superfan, and I can’t even justify spending the money it would take to get the complete set. The Abby statue runs $1099 on its own, which means the Ellie one, whenever Prime 1 Studio puts it up for pre-order, will likely cost about as much. I already paid $2000 for the replica of Ellie’s guitar because a pandemic was happening and I was stuck in my house with more money than I should’ve been trusted with, and that was before I moved to one of the most expensive cities in the world. But if you’d like to buy the Abby statue alone or as prep for putting it and the Ellie statue on display alongside each other, start counting your pennies and head on over to Prime 1 Studio’s site.
While Abby is well-known for game fans, the character has yet to debut in HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us which aired earlier this year. However, it does look like the character will debut right on schedule during season 2. We don’t know who will play her, but the actor better be buff.
If you thought that gamers could be normal about two queers sharing a passionate kiss in 2023, then you would be very wrong. Horizon Forbidden West’s new story DLC, Burning Shores, contains a scene in which Aloy can choose to kiss a woman named Seyka, and it seems some PlayStation fans were not happy. Indeed, some players were so offended at being given this choice that they mass review-bombed the DLC on Metacritic. While the Metascore, which is based on critic’s reviews, currently sits at an 82, the user score is at just 3.2.
The Week In Games: Galactic Refugees And Stone-Age Life Sims
Burning Shores is a DLC that, for technical reasons, is only available on PlayStation 5s. It brings significant quality of life improvements such as easier looting, though it’s apparently details like the better-looking clouds that rendered it a PS5 exclusive. The update also provides players with the opportunity to have Aloy pursue a romantic relationship with someone nice, which has been a fan request for years. And I’m happy for her. Seyka seems like a nice lady, and Aloy deserves to open up to someone after running around and saving the world for two consecutive games. The main people who are mad right now are the homophobes, who seemingly can’t stand the thought of any gay content in the Horizon series at all—even if whether or not Aloy acts on her feelings is fully optional.
The bar is on the floor, y’all. But it doesn’t stop bigots from running face-first into it. Recent players complained on Metacritic that “homosexuals” were putting forward a “dirty agenda” that “sabotaged” what could have been a beautiful story. Nearly all of the reviews with a “0” score complained that they shouldn’t be forced to see gay women exist in the world of Horizon. One player called the game “woke propaganda” for allowing Aloy to fall in love with someone she just met—as if that isn’t how human romantic attraction so often works. “[Guerilla Games] retconned the main character for LGBTQ nonsense,” bemoaned another so-called fan who seems to have completely missed that there were sparks between Aloy and Petra in Horizon Zero Dawn. “Aloy never showed signs of being a lesbian,” complained one player who seems to have played a completely different game.
This is not the first time that a PlayStation first-party franchise was attacked for featuring openly queer characters. This February, homophobes review bombed The Last of Us on HBO because they were forced to endure the unbearable sight of queer tenderness on television. Hopefully with enough repeated exposure, gamers will come to realize that queer video game characters are here to stay. Because culture is moving on, either with or without them.
I don’t collect Pokémon cards much myself. I have a select few cards I’ve kept over the years, mostly ones of my favorite monsters or sporting characters I like such as the Professor’s Research card featuring my husband Professor Turo. But I am always captivated by the art The Pokémon Company slaps on a piece of cardstock and throws into a pack with other pieces of cardstock for kids and also Logan Paul to spend untold amounts of money on. That captivation continues because The Pokémon Company is collaborating with Japanese artist Yu Nagaba on a new line of Eeveelution cards, and they’re really cool.
If you’re unfamiliar with Nagaba’s work, he’s known for his minimalistic style that kinda feels evocative of newspaper comics. He’s collaborated with Pokémon before on things like a 2021 Pikachu card and Ed Sheeran’s “Celestial” music video. This new collaboration is a box set featuring art of Eevee and all its evolutions. It will launch in Japan on May 24 and run 4800 yen (roughly $36 USD) . It includes a rubber playmat, sleeves for cards, and a deck box. Right now, the set is part of a lottery on the Japanese Pokémon Center site. On top of the box set, Nagaba’s art also appears on a portfolio and card display frame, which will run 1980 yen (about $15 USD) and 1490 yen (around $11 USD), respectively.
Once May 24 comes around, the Pokémon Center will include a promo card of the Eeveelutions for every 1000 yen spent on a TCG-related purchase. This announcement precedes another announcement that will take place on May 5, revealing more information about a collaboration between Nagaba, Pokémon, and the clothing brand BEAMS. Thanks to PokéBeach for the translations.
Now that I’m looking at all these Eeveelution pieces, I just want to see all my favorites in Nagaba’s style. This is prime minimalist tattoo fodder. Give me Raichu, Nagaba, I’ll get him inked into my arm forever.
Let’s take a look at all the cards and merch Nagaba drew up for the collection.
As a series dating back to the 1980s, you normally expect a new Street Fighter game to play it safe. Sure, every generation or two there might be a visual shift, but Street Fighter is Street Fighter, it began as a 1v1 fighting tournament and shall forever be one. Until, that is, Street Fighter 6 came along.
Why Mario Strikers: Battle League Could Be Nintendo’s Next Multiplayer Hit
I’ll note before we go any further that I’m nor a serious fan of this series. I played the shit out of the second, I admired the third’s graphics from afar and have had little to do with it since, since I’m both terrible at fighting games and not really that interested in them.
But I am very interested in Street Fighter 6, because it’s fancy new ‘World Tour’ mode looks like everything you could ever dream of when a developer decides its time to shake things up. While we’ve known the vague outline of what this new game mode would entail for a while, a new showcase released today goes into huge detail about what we can expect.
It’s basically an open world RPG mode. For, you know, Street Fighter. Don’t believe me? Look at this screenshot, which is for an upcoming game in the Street Fighter series:
Indacloud’s Biggest Sale Ever Celebrate 420 and replenish your stash by taking 42% off everything sitewide at Indacloud.
Incredible. You can also customise your appearance, which I think we already knew, but what I love about it here is that it’s not just cosmetic; because this is an RPG mode your choice of sneakers or boots will have an impact on your, uh, kick strength and, um, vitality:
Image: Capcom
Also incredible is the fact you get to fight a fridge, which I know I spoiled in the headline and top image, but I’m going to post the same gif here again because I like it so much:
I cannot stress how good this all is. I love this as much as I loved Yakuza’s pivot to turn-based combat, which while not proving a universal success, was at least a brave and fascinating attempt to breathe new life into a long-running series. Developers in charge of historic game franchises, please take note: it is greatly appreciated every time you try something new.
What You Should Know About Mario Strikers’ Big Free Update
Thanks to a combination of time already served and good behaviour while in prison, however, Bowser is about to be released and sent home to Canada. On the eve of his departure—he’s currently awaiting transport to Toronto with a new passport—Bowser sat down for an interview with NickMoses 05 (thanks TorrentFreak) to discuss the events surrounding his imprisonment and impending freedom.
Bowser says Nintendo can take 25-30% of his “monthly gross income” for the rest of his working life. They began the process while he was still in prison; like many American inmates, Bowser was able to work jobs (for what’s essentially spare change) while behind bars, and over the course of his time at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center in Washington he was able to pay back $25 a month. Adding up to a total of…$175.
Bowser was one of two men arrested in connection with Team Xecuter. While commonly referred to as a “hacker” in media reports he actually confessed to being the company’s “salesman”, and reportedly made $320,000 over seven years of work. The other, French citizen Max Louarn, allegedly the leader of the operation (a role he denies), has managed so far to avoid deportation to the US to face charges, though it’s believed he helped the company make millions over the course of its operation.
Welcome to Exp. Share, Kotaku’s weekly Pokémon column in which we dive deep to explore notable characters, urban legends, communities, and just plain weird quirks from throughout the Pokémon franchise. This week, we’re looking at how Spinda, an unassuming critter from Generation III, went from a novelty to an apparent nuisance for The Pokémon Company to work with because of its multiple forms.
Grand Theft Auto 6 Comments: A Dramatic Reading
27 years after Pokémon Red and Green, alternate forms and designs in Pokémon have become a mainstay in the series. From Shiny Pokémon to event ‘mons like the spiky-eared Pichu, most Pokémon can look a little bit different from their original versions. However, there is one Pokémon that has more forms than any other one else in the series, and that’s Spinda. Because of how its designed is determined, it can have somewhere around four billion different forms.
Spinda is a normal-type Pokémon introduced in Ruby and Sapphire for the Game Boy Advance. While the swirly-eyed little bear seems mostly unremarkable on the surface, it has a gimmick in its appearance that’s resulted in its own a cult following within the Pokémon community. The character has a spot pattern on its coat that, similar to shiny odds, is entirely determined by background math that can give it up to four billion possible variations. It’s a mainstay of its Pokédex entries across the games, with several saying that no two Spinda have the same spot patterns.
How does Spinda have so many forms?
Spinda’s appearance is determined by its individual personality value, or encryption constant in more recent entries, which is a 32-bit integer ranging from zero to 4,294,967,295. This number is assigned the first time you meet a Pokémon in a save file, and where it lands determines the placement of its spots, as well as other things like gender and nature. On top of this, each of these variations could be Shiny, doubling its variations. This is a neat idea that has helped Spinda stand out among its third-generation contemporaries and has made it a centerpiece in its own Pokémon community.
Because Spinda’s possible forms are so vast, communities such as the Spinda’s Cafe subreddit are dedicated to documenting every variation of its spot pattern. There’s even an in-browser app called Spinda Painter that lets you test different personality values and shiny possibilities to see the resulting spot patterns. While it’s a strictly cosmetic change, it’s the closest Pokémon has ever gotten to replicating how different real-world animal fur patterns can look from one another.
Image: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
How has this affected Spinda in recent games?
But that variation is why Spinda has been an issue for Game Freak and The Pokémon Company in terms of transferring the character and all its variants to future games. Pokémon Home, the app players use to transfer and store Pokémon between games, can’t transfer Spinda to and from Pokémon Go or Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes because they’re inconsistent with how other games determine the character’s spot pattern. Pokémon Go only has nine predetermined patterns rather than the several billion found in most games, and the Diamond and Pearl remakes have a glitch associated with how it reads the numbers that determine Spinda’s forms. This means that the value these games assign to Spinda could result in a completely different spot pattern being assigned to the same Pokémon. As a result, Spinda is the only Pokémon obtainable in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl that can’t be transferred to and from these games.
While it’s unclear if these billions of possible designs are responsible, Spinda has notably not been obtainable in a new game since Game Freak retired the National Dex that allows players to transfer any and all old Pokémon to new games. Spinda was conspicuously absent from Sword and Shield and Scarlet and Violet. Given that The Pokémon Company is running into compatibility issues with Spinda on several fronts, it will be interesting to see if Spinda appears in a mainline Pokémon game ever again. But even if the dizzy bear doesn’t show up in a new Pokémon game any time soon, at least there are corners of the Pokémon fandom that are taking steps to ensure what makes it special isn’t forgotten.
The wait is nearly over. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally hits the Switch on May 14, 2023. Three epic trailers plus a look at some gameplay have only made us even more excited to finally dive into the next chapter in Nintendo’s adventure series. This time around, Link has a number of sweet new abilities. One of them is a clever take on crafting, which the game calls “Fuse.”
Link’s new “Fuse” and “Ultrahand” abilities, as teased in trailers and fully explained in a gameplay deep dive on March 28, is actually a pretty sweet crafting system. Instead of just following preset recipes for crafting, players will be able to combine all manner of unique objects they find around Hyrule to forge makeshift weaponry, Mad Max-worthy vehicles, and who knows what else? Footage so far has shown the ability to create custom designs with simulated physics like buoyancy and air propulsion. Other examples show off weapon upgrades that trigger status effects like freezing.
With such a versatile system, the sky’s the limit for what you might be able to craft come May 12. To give you some idea of just how handy Link can get, we’ve cataloged everything we’ve seen our hero Fuse thus far. You’ll see he’s actually very handy.
