I’ve just finished another rewatch of the whole series of Daria. The two related books being hard to come by, and not owning a compatible GPS for the navigation voice thing, I checked out the other significant piece of spin-off material, this PC adventure game from 2000.
Daria’s Inferno does a fair job recreating the look of the show with appearances by many characters, all of whom are voiced by the show’s actors. The script is also authentic, with a writer of several episodes doing the honours. As a source of many new sarcastic quips, the game pretty much aces it. Not to mention new alter egos in the credits, which also features the full version of the theme song with extra verses.
Unfortunately the game can’t just be fan-pleasing, it has to deliver a compelling game experience, which is where it falls down. The game is a series of fetch quests, with dodgy pathing and hit detection from roaming mooks. You’re required to constantly click on wandering characters with a particular item, and if they touch you a few times you have to start the room again. This means getting kicked back to the room select screen and listening to the same sound bites again and again, which is the dark side of having the characters make amusing comments. The game likes putting you in maze-like areas where you have to find the right way by trial and error, and pick up items while being harassed by wandering irritants. It’s just not that fun.
Mercifully the game is short, and it’s worth struggling through the mediocre gameplay to hear what Daria has to say about all the objects she finds and the situation her dream puts her in. Yes, canon snobs: this game was all a dream, much like “Murder, She Snored”. It’s an elegant device for the purposes of the game, and it’s fun to see Mr. DeMartino’s classroom reimagined as a torture dungeon, as it is to walk around Daria’s oddly expansive house, or explore seldom-seen locations like Dega Street. And don’t forget to check for hints on every screen, as they take the form of little Sick, Sad World clips.
So while the art may look amateurish at points and the gameplay is more of a chore than a selling point, the Daria-ness of it all leads me to recommend it to fans as a sort of “lost episode”. As long as you can get it running, and I leave that part up to you; I used Virtualbox and a copy of Windows XP, but still encountered frequent crashes. Now, this is my stop. Got to get off. I may go pop. Excuse me.
PS. I just learned from reading the manual that you can use the arrow keys to move. That might have been easier in certain parts.
This is the fourth Mario & Luigi game. Hmm. Unlike Paper Mario, which often reinvents itself and not always for the better, this series is reliable but can feel safe. Sure it’s been beefed up (pardon the pun) and had extra bits bolted on, but it’s still following the formula established way back in Superstar Saga. But it’s a good game nevertheless, and often manages to overcome staleness or bring a smile.
These games are JRPGs with a platforming element. As always you control both Bros, Mario always using the A button and Luigi being assigned B. You jump around, hammer stuff, learn new ways to jump or work together to get around the environment and collect stuff, and then there are turn-based battles. They try to keep these fun and dynamic with timed hits and the ability to dodge and counter any enemy attack, which requires observation and reflexes. This is successful, but towards the end I found my favoured special attacks and just used those to make the battles go quicker.
A significant portion of the game’s mechanics are recycled to some extent from previous games, but presented in new ways or at least tweaked slightly. For example, Bowser’s Inside Story had Bowser growing to giant size and fighting with the DS held sideways. This game has Luigi becoming huge instead. The big new idea of this game is the dream world, where Luigi will sleep and Mario will enter his dream. This isn’t executed in a way that develops his character though unfortunately (except in a couple of instances), as it’s more like an alternate surrealist 2D version of the environment you’re in. It does give lots of fun gameplay opportunities though with Luigi gaining many bizarre abilities, and battles in the dream world being taken on solo but with flashy group attacks on swarms of enemies.
As always with this series, the script and characters are very pleasing and funny. Silliness abounds and fun new characters are introduced along with a fanservice parade of returning ones too. Popple, Kylie Koopa, Broque Monsieur, Starlow, and Bowser’s three minions Goomp, Paraplonk, and Guy all make welcome returns from previous games, along with a world populated by Beanish, Toads, Yoshis, and Hoos acting as tourists on Pi’illo Island. The island itself has new NPC races as well as instant standouts such as the Zeekeeper, the Massif Bros (pictured above), Britta, and others. The antagonist Antasma is mostly just cheesy and new helper partner Dreambert has his moments despite being played mostly straight, especially when he loses his composure. It all works together to create a quite busy world that feels good to run around in and interact with.
The first thing I noticed about the game though in trailers was how amazing it looks. AlphaDream have become absolute masters of 2D spritework, with wonderfully drawn characters that are so animated and shaded as to appear 3D. They can’t hack actual 3D though apparently, so the Giant Battles which appear with polygonal graphics were outsourced to Good-Feel! The graphics are definitely a selling point for this game, and this bright and colourful world is captivating.
Apart from the many small improvements to the game formula (quick example: selectable perks on ranking up), I just want to applaud this game for, like its predecessors, making the Mario world feel expansive and interesting. The newly released Paper Jam Bros looks to be following in Sticker Star’s doomed footsteps and adopting the tired, basic New Super Mario Bros aesthetic. Getting to know this new setting of Pi’illo Island was nice and the range of characters felt like a celebration of the quirkiness of this series. Its slow pace may have felt a drag at times but Dream Team (Bros.) can stand with the best of the Mario RPGs, a nice solid entry.
Pokemon is great. Picross is great. How could this game be anything but great? Is what I thought to myself. The doubts set in when the free-to-play business model was revealed. An energy system? Crypto-currency via in-app purchase? Recharging timers? These aspects already grated and got in the way for the last two digital Pokemon releases, Shuffle and Rumble World, so I had to roll my eyes.
And indeed those things are annoying to the play experience. It very quickly becomes apparent that the amount of Picrites you get is nowhere near the amount you need to get very far. But I had to quell the outrage. To enjoy this Picross game with very competent theming, I changed perspective. You get a lot of puzzles and some tidy bonus mechanics. So if you see it as a Picross game that costs $39, it doesn’t seem so bad. (The cost is a little high compared to recent eShop Picrosses, it’s true.) It must be a psychological thing to get upset when something is presented as free but then restricted, compared to paying upfront and enjoying it without further hassle. I dunno, I’m not a brain doctor. But I do know microtransactions are sucking the joy out of the whole gaming landscape.
Melodrama aside, how’s the game? Pretty great! Pokemon are super cute especially in pixel form, and the mission system is good for replayability (I ignored them the first time I did any puzzle so I could conquer them without hints, then went back for them). There’s a ton of puzzles that unlock in a fun little world map, and they’re playable in normal and Mega Picross modes. The missions then give you tablets which unlock a Micross-like mosaic of Primal Groudon & Kyogre. So between all that and the party of Pokemon you build up with different hint skills, it’s a much more game-ified Picross experience.
And it’s just as addictive to me as any previous Picross game. Maybe the simplicity of those is more relaxing, without worrying about missions or who you have equipped in your party, but I wouldn’t mind at all seeing more Picross games like this with other themes than Pokemon. Bring back the themed puzzles of Japan’s Nintendo Power SNES games. And while you’re at it, localise the two Club Nintendo Picross games you goons!
Lego Star Wars kicked off the Lego games, and it’s still one of the best. It even seems to have become its own sub-franchise, with several runs of short animated movies. This is a game based on one of those movie series, or tying into it somehow, I don’t know it’s confusing what they’re doing with these cross-media initiatives.
I was eager to see if this attempt went anywhere towards capturing that addictive gameplay of the other Lego games. There was a previous Yoda Chronicles game for iOS but it got boring quickly because of its half-assed execution on simplistic strategy gameplay. Turns out this one uses no more ass but at least switches up what you’re doing between levels.
There’s very basic autorunning 3D combat levels, quite basic free-falling levels, boringly basic space combat levels… I began to get a picture of who this game is for. Small children with no standards. Of course, they also want to make it simple so it can run in web browsers. It’s just that the game is not really very fun to play and so imprecise.
Half the time you don’t know when your attacks are going to land, or if you’re going to be hurt by falling into a bridge. And if you do, then there’s very little impact communicated. The level ends when you collect enough holocrons, which in this interpretation of the universe are strewn around everywhere, the most common object in the galaxy. Handfuls just fall out of crates. But this end can come at any time, resulting in a feeling of anticlimax.
To cut a long story short, this game is nothing like Traveller’s Tales’s (now that’s a confusing possessive) Lego games. It’s a quick and dirty cash-in for a mediocre kids’ cartoon series. Happy belated Life Day!
I’ve scanned the instruction booklets for some of my recent game acquisitions. Nobody’s downloaded any of my scans yet but maybe this time will be the one.
Ripened Tingle’s Balloon Trip of Love (Irodzuki Chinkuru no Koi no Balloon Trip) (DS) - Japanese
Game Center CX: Arino’s Challenge (DS) - Japanese
Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (DS)
Lego Battles (DS)
Find them in this folder right here with the other manuals I’ve scanned.
But what about my games played and reviewed? I caught up on my backlog, I replayed the classic Donkey Kong Country trilogies, I did the whole Lufia series, a bit of a Castlevania bender, and of course my massive Rayman series playthrough. That was great.
There were some edge cases and fuzziness, but it looks like I played 25 console/PC games, and 31 handheld/mobile games. Why, that’s 9 less in total than last year! I guess I played longer games or did other things more often. I seemed to focus on playing Wii and DS games, with some new 3DS games and cracking some PS3 games too. Only 1 Wii U game (Yoshi’s Woolly World), which is a little sad… but blame Nintendo for not releasing compelling games! Mainly RPGs and platformers, as to be expected of me, but I think I ventured into a few other genres like 3D action, FPS, and racing too.
But let’s cram a few “Game of the Year” awards into this post too. By which I mean arbitrary prizes for games I played this year. Again, fuzziness… I won’t count games replayed or Rayman Origins and DKC2 would get in there easily, and Chrono Trigger and Majora’s Mask are good remakes… so many good ones to choose from.
Multiplayer Powerhouses: Yoshi’s Woolly World and Excite Truck (special mention to the Gen 3 Pokemon remakes, since my wife and I completed our Pokedex)
Hidden Gems: Lufia: The Legend Returns (also wins most played soundtrack on my phone), Rayman Raving Rabbids GBA, and the pinball mode of Kirby Mass Attack
Surprisingly Compelling: Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Rayman Arena (race mode anyway), and Rayman Raving Rabbids (Symbian version)
Solid Choices: Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Paper Mario. Gosh, lots of good choices this year.
The Smiling Poop Emoji Award for a game that turned out to be crap: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. There might be more games in this category but for my low expectations and mostly playing nothing but Angry Birds on my phone.
That’ll do! Hakuna Matata! Tonda Gossa! Banana Slamma! Thank you so much to anyone who’s stopped by my blog this year for any of my content. It really does help my brain to see people appreciating my stuff, and I love to do it as it helps me to appreciate the stuff I talk about. Who knows what I’ll get up to this year. Not me, I don’t have a big plan like Rayman for this year. My game plan is to keep loving, playing and yakking about games!
I wanted to show off some of the exciting things I picked up on my Japan holiday. These are the video game-related ones, which formed the majority of my purchases.
-A Dragonite evolution model kit. I loved putting Zoids together with my brother, this is the same thing. The Dragonite evolution set was the best of the Pokemon kits available, and fairly cheap too.
-A set of mini Hyrule Warriors figures from a gachapon machine. They’re reasonably detailed for their size and I just love this game and these designs.
-A cute Nausicaä figure, a nice Peach & Toad figure, and the awesome and huge robot & Lupin figure set. The robot design in Laputa: Castle in the Sky was originally made for an episode of the Lupin III show that Miyazaki had directed. What a find that was. That one’s my favourite, although its game connection is tangential (there’s lots of Lupin games…?).
-A Pokemon hanafuda set. Everyone knows that Nintendo makes hanafuda cards, and even ones with Mario characters on them, but this Gen 1 Pokemon deck was a pleasant surprise. The game is complicated though!
-Other cards. A Pokemon arcade game awarded me a few trading cards, and I also got some vintage Dragonball Cardass cards from a gachapon. I didn’t play Dragonball Heroes but I got some cards from it, they’re pretty cool.
-Super Mario-kun. I picked up every volume of Super Mario-kun that featured a Donkey Kong game, as well as a couple others that seemed interesting. I also saw three volumes of its spin off I Am Wario! so nabbed those too. SMk and the Corocoro Kirby comic are very common in second-hand bookstores.
-Other books. Corocoro comics have a lot of fun comics for kids based on video games. I got one of their Kirby volumes, a Layton one, and volume 1 of the Chocobo comic and the Animal Crossing New Leaf comic. I also found a volume of the other Super Mario-kun, a Mario 4koma book and a Kirby Canvas Curse 4koma; these ones took some searching but I wish I’d looked more for similar books. Finally, a retro strategy guide for DKC1 with full colour maps.
-Retro games. I bought a few Gameboy games because they were real cheap, except for the sweet Genjin Collection (the three BC Kid/Bonk GB games on one cartridge). X, Picross 2, Kururin Paradise, and the Zoids game were exclusive Japanese releases. I’ll certainly play through Picross and X, but Zoids and Kururin Paradise were just for curiosity. Good thing too because those carts are kinda broken and don’t work. The Tamagotchi game is just like the real thing, which is fun. And I now own the superior GBC release of Donkey Kong Land 3, this version of which was only in Japan (but check out the fan translation!).
-Newer games. Electroplankton was cheap, and I was curious about this experimental musical playground game. I’ve watched enough Game Center CX now that I’m really interested in the games they made, so that should be interesting to play. And finally the second, Japan-exclusive Tingle game for DS! Oh man, that one was expensive but I just couldn’t resist the siren song of that green bodysuit. OK, thanks for indulging me bragging about the cool and/or questionable things I bought!
The last few games I played in Japan that I haven’t already mentioned are related to Mario, so I’ll put them in one last post here. I already talked about the SMB3 pinball and the two medal games, but there were more. Most of the Nintendo merchandise available from gachapons and cranes was also Mario, regrettably, although Splatoon had its fair share of tat.
Mario Kart Arcade was fairly common, one of the three released versions anyway. Even though we have a unit of the second game here at home, we ended up playing that in Japan anyway. It’s not great, but DX (the third one) was more fun; the controls felt better and the track designs more interesting, not to mention looking nicer. But despite this and its bizarrely large selection of items (although you are randomly assigned only 3 per race), it feels lesser than the home versions. Of course, the full-body experience with the wheel and pedals is a novelty, but on the other hand the running commentary I could do without.
Luigi’s Mansion Arcade feels like a pretty standard arcade co-op light-gun shooter, but with a charming layer of Luigi’s Mansion theming over it. You get to hold a vacuum cleaner and try sucking everything in sight, but it skewed quite difficult so we didn’t play long. I guess it turns out we sucked at it. That was a vacuum cleaner joke.
Mario & Sonic at the Rio Olympic Games has an arcade version that’s already out apparently. It has a selection of events that use its unique input system which involves you running on the spot and two movable joysticks with buttons. It’s all a bit unwieldy; I tried the hurdles and did pretty poorly. I didn’t get anywhere near the full grasp of the game though, since your credit only lets you into one event and there were around six or more.
And that’s it for my experiences in Japanese arcades. Stay tuned for another post on my game-related purchases, and then finally I can get around to 2015 look-back stuff.
Another difference between Japan and Australia is gambling laws. In the arcade close to us in Kyoto, there was a bank of slot machines right next to the kid’s section. However, my understanding is that any form of gambling cannot deal directly in money; rather there’s a system where you exchange money for medals and win or lose them. The medals can then be exchanged for prizes which in a loophole can be exchanged for money. Don’t quote me on that.
Anyway, it’s also a common sight to see pachinko halls in big fancy buildings. They certainly look striking but you can’t forget how sleazy they are, or how they’re filled with smokers (indoor smoking is another thing that’s tolerated more in Japan). I was tempted to check one out to see the new Castlevania pachinko slot machine thing but the thought of going in felt a bit gross. But it’s not limited to these establishments; medal games or straight up slot machines can be found in most arcades.
As you can see from the Castlevania machine, these can be quite flashy and involved, or tied into other video game or anime IPs. So it’s not like they have no value as a video game machine. I didn’t play any myself but I wanted to highlight a couple of Mario-related ones I saw. Capcom has since 2004 been making large Mario Party medal games. I spotted in our local arcade a 4th one that I hadn’t known about, Mario Party Kurukuru Carnival. As part of researching Donkey Kong games I’d learned about the previous 3 and how they’d grown larger and more elaborate; the Carnival one is actually a little smaller with less stations but it sure has Donkey Kong.
You can see what I mean by elaborate in the picture; Korokoro Catcher (the 3rd one which was in the same arcade as well) has UFO grabbers, a medal shelf, prize balls, and other contraptions in addition to a small screen showing a simplified Mario Party-like experience. Carnival loses the grabbers but has these movable coin insertion dealies. To me it seemed a confusing and contrived way to squeeze money out of you, but then isn’t that what all arcade games can be summed up as? In fact I regret not giving it a go, but you have to admit it’s a little intimidating.
Another interesting thing I saw in another arcade was a setup with multiple stations with individual screens, all facing a large wall-mounted screen that was showing a virtual horse race. Punters sit at these stations and place bets or what have you, then watch a simulated video horse race. Bizarre. The actual horse betting shops I passed were also bustling. My point is that the Japanese culture seems fascinated by luck-based games and events; gachapon machines, pachinko, even getting your fortune slip at the shrine. And knowing these things and seeing them first-hand helps my understanding of certain design choices I observe in Japanese-developed games; think about the trophy dispenser in Smash Bros. Melee as an example, or the giant pachinkp machine in Mario Sunshine. These sort of things are prominent in their culture which can cause some dissonance unless you view them with some perspective. Anyway I’ll stop pretending to be insightful now.
At the time I went, there are certain games that I could expect to see everywhere. The most popular ones, you’re almost guaranteed to see them in any reasonably-sized arcade. There’s a few rhythm games of this kind, with a big ring of lights or a row of buttons, but I generally walked past them. One rhythm game we did try was Taiko no Tatsujin. Of course we were familiar with the giant drums, they really stand out. But they’re updating this game all the time, and it’s just so fun; but it can get tiring and the timed song selection always cuts you off while you’re searching. So we decided to bring it home with us in the form of one of the DS conversions; drumming the touch screen, genius!
The hot big-name games at the moment are Pokken Tournament and Dissidia Final Fantasy (not to be confused with the PSP game). Pokken seems kinda like Tekken I guess but with more freedom of movement maybe? I’m pretty fighting game blind so even though I played it I can’t be relied upon to make an assessment. I will say that it needs a few more characters but they are planning that before the home release. It sure looks nice though. Dissidia is a very cool concept, it’s a 3-on-3 3D action game where you get matched up with other human players and um, try to beat them. The character roster is a step down from the PSP games but will be expanded, I hear. It’s a weird new world of updatable arcade games; even in that setting they’re releasing unfinished games and patching them, as is the style at the time. Well, even though I had no idea what I was doing it was good fun, and I hope it sees some kind of release outside Japanese arcades.
Towards the more kiddy end of the spectrum, games that use a physical component are popular. Well, lots of other ones including the two I just mentioned have a system where a player can scan a card and have individual progress, but I’m talking about ones where you have a collection of cards or discs that you can’t play the game without. Pokemon Tretta is one, or Dragonball Discross and Dragonball Heroes. Even tiny game corners will probably have Dragonball Heroes. They’re usually accompanied by gachapon machines where you can get a random disc or card, and many hobby shops also deal in these items. I didn’t play any but I like the look of the Heroes cards and bought one I liked, and also got one as a prize from a bag of snacks.
In the Decks mall in Tokyo’s Odaiba area, I knew that there was a retro-style arcade with lots of vintage machines. What I discovered there was that the whole floor (the second floor I think, on the left side; not the side with the Lego place and Madame Tussaud’s) was filled with shops and candy stores of the same type. But the arcade alone is worth visiting. You will likely find a few ageing machines in various places, but this place really goes all out with it, it collects them, it’s got vintage posters on the wall. I don’t know its name; you can see it on the sign in this photo but I think it’s more useful to know where it is: Decks Odaiba.
First of all, it had lots of pinball machines. Some dated back to the 50s, while others were clearly 80s classics like Star Wars pinball, and this Gottlieb one based on Super Mario Bros 3. They also had my old favourite Lord of the Rings pinball, which I’d played many times. You just can’t beat a good pinball table, that tactile sensation. It’s too bad they’re more and more rare these days.
There were some old video machines too: a Pac-man cocktail cabinet, some Nintendo Vs. Systems, Outrun. I had a go on Super Hang On; is the bike supposed to be that loose? I almost fell off! Maybe I’m too big for it… They also had plenty of mechanical games filling up the space. Whack-a-mole, the same whack-a-crocodile game that I’d played in my hometown days, a couple of kiddy rides, prize games. I won a cheap little car from a ChoroQ/Penny Racers machine which vibrated a table surface to move a car through gates in a maze, a little thrill and something to take home. There was also one of those coin-flicking games that Arino is always playing on Game Center CX’s Tamage segments: even with ten goes we couldn’t get the hang of it.
There are other arcades that are simple, with a variety of old-to-oldish video games in rows of cabinets (Super Potato’s Akihabara branch has a floor of them). But the fun theming and the variety of kitschy machines here make this one really stand out. There’s lots of other things to do in Odaiba too so it’s worth checking out.
There are some game corners/game centers/arcades that are nothing but tightly packed rows of crane games, but every arcade will have some. You’ll see those pincer-like ones and also three-clawed grabby ones, with prizes ranging from snacks and small toys, to expensive gadgets, premium figurines, or giant stuffed cats. I generally see these as a bit of a scam, but was tempted to try every now and then. When my wife noticed ones based on the hit iPhone game Neko Atsume which she has become enamoured with, I had a go and managed to win a pouch with a big adorable cat face on it. But it’s all too easy to come away from one feeling cheated.
Gachapon on the other hand guarantee you to get something. You might run into the commoner ones again and again but it’s worth checking whenever you see a big bank of them to see if there’s something that grabs your fancy. And you will see them; in department stores, outside many kinds of shops, in arcades, even at the supermarket. Not as ubiquitous as vending machines but close. Japan loves gachapon. They cost generally between ¥100 and ¥300, and you’ll get a plastic ball containing… well, as an example we found: an Animal Crossing stylus, a fake cactus, Hyrule Warriors figures, a replica casette tape, an LED candle, trading cards, etc. Some even have food!
The most common thing to get is themed phone or bag charms, but they will always show you on the front what you can receive, and it can be fun just to see what’s available—and you just might find yourself blowing a few notes on trying to complete a set (Ganondorf!). On that note, I found several shops in Akihabara (in the building opposite Super Potato) selling specific prizes or sets of them, mostly character figures, which is how I eventually got Ganondorf. Similar shops may also exist elsewhere.
I’ve just got back from a trip to Japan, and one of the distinctive things about their culture as compared to the modern West is their still-thriving arcades. Some are all crane games and UFO catchers, some are all pachinko, slot machines, virtual horse racing, and other gambling. Some collect retro machines or have retro games on those generic white cabinets, while others have the latest popular things. Often it’s a mix of all of the above, as well as purikura, many odd rhythm games, other prize games, and even one popular among my co-travelers where you can choose designs to be printed on nail stickers. I’m going to do a little series for a bit about the different kinds of games I encountered.
This infamously bad Brazilian comic is possibly my favourite Megaman-related work after the Zero games. Besides being an interesting take on that series, its sheer craziness and wild inconsistency in art, tone, and pacing make it a fascinating train wreck. The attempts to shoehorn in Brazilian pandering, the first editor’s plans (stated in the comic itself) to derail the plot and have his own character take over, the fact that characters’ outfits will change from issue to issue… well, mainly Roll, hence my bonus picture of almost every costume she wears in chronological order. Not only does the comic get basic facts about the series plain wrong, but it amusingly takes inspiration from the Ruby Spears cartoon, before introducing both dark themes and goofy undermining of characters like X.
The whole comic revolves around Roll, which gives us a couple of atmospheric issues that focus on her past and her thoughts. This is my favourite Roll; smart, brave, taking initiative, overcoming hardship. It’s too bad this is undone by the editors and artists sexually objectifying her constantly. It’s also got complex motivations for the villains but unfortunately they’re never explained and I lost count of the number of plot threads or issues that are completely unaddressed by the time of the spectacular ruin of a non-ending, which introduces both aliens and voodoo magic. Basically, it’s “so bad it’s good” and I love it.
Roll, Megaman/Rocky, Karinka (the overtly communism-espousing Kalinka mysteriously non-aged after 30 years), Nástenka (Karinka’s robot bodyguard), Megaman X/Xizinho/Xis (this comic and nicknames), Slasher (it’s actually Bass, they just call him that), Protoman (I thought the bare skeletal arm he has in the early issues looked cool), Zero, Édouard/Maurice, Celina, Alan, and Otto (the human faction… one of them has the wrong name and hair for one issue), Princess (the would-be story hijacker), Dr. Willy/Willie/Wily (just inconsistency), one of “the Six” “Neo-Mavericks” (one of the villainous factions), Holzenbein (the plutocrat/voodoo practitioner, heads yet another faction)
More information: go here or here. These folks have translated the whole run into English.
The ludicrously overstuffed Real True Zelda Timeline, mark 5.
Since my last update, in addition to a few small tweaks I’ve added Tri Force Heroes and Hyrule Warriors Legends (assuming there’s no more surprises before its rapidly-approaching Japanese release). Also, thanks to an anon, I added the planned Link cameo in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.
As the story goes, the developer of the Wii version, Vicarious Visions, wanted to add Samus and Link as playable characters. When they demoed the concept to Nintendo, they were refused, either simply because Nintendo didn’t like the concept or perhaps they were offended to be shown this demo running on PS2 hardware (the Wii and PS2 shared this build of the game). But like other unused content that I’ve thrown in here, why not include it? Since it didn’t make it to the finished game there’s no known in-story justification for this, so let’s make one up. Judging by a brief plot synopsis I read, the most likely party responsible for bringing heroes from another universe is this Uatu the Watcher guy; apparently he has the ability and inclination. As for which Link, the model shown in a beta screenshot resembles Link’s appearance in Smash Bros Melee, which was based on the adult Hero of Time.
The only change with adding Hyrule Warriors Legends to the timeline is including a new link (haha) to the Era of the Great Sea in addition to the ones already established. Of course this messes with my headcanon, since previously all the time portals went back along the same branch that I’d included the original game on: the Child Era branch, and stretching back to the unified era. Now it’s breaking the internal logic that I assigned to it. Oh well, no biggie.
As for Tri Force Heroes, “the developers” have stated that one of the Links is the same one from A Link Between Worlds, in a flimsy “disguise” for no adequately explored reason, and the other two are essentially “who the heck knows”. A quite unsatisfactory little explanation for a thoroughly inconsequential game, but it gives it a place to slot into.
Now to wait for more news on Zelda Wii U. To stay up to date on any new additions to this project, check the Zelda Timeline tag on this blog. You can also check back on past posts to see my justifications for my various placements and inclusions in previous updates.
