Like many gamers, I’ve held Majora’s Mask on something of a pedestal. I’d borrowed it from a friend back in the day and got all the masks. Revisiting it now it holds up; a true classic, and this is most likely the definitive version. It just didn’t quite fulfil the high view it had been built up to.
In fact, playing it now made me retroactively appreciate Ocarina of Time a little more. I can’t say that MM is strictly superior to its predecessor; it’s very purposefully doing something different, which is especially great in the Zelda series. Of course, it’s divisive: such criticisms as the 3-day system breaking the pace or feeling, when in fact I feel it is fundamental to the pace and mood of this particular game. Or that it’s too short, whereas I appreciate a more compact experience from time to time (I certainly don’t want something that drags like Skyward Sword).
You can’t look at this game critically without considering its origins as a rush job, reusing assets from Ocarina to meet a deadline. The way they twisted it makes this work very well for the story though, especially if you’re familiar with the prequel. Termina can feel very unsettling with its old faces in new roles, and said roles are much richer for the most part.
To elaborate, the minor characters and your interactions with them are deeper due to the sidequest system and the day cycle which gives them routines and events. There are less major characters with emotional impact like the Sages though; and perhaps intentionally, using your transformations and masks often acts as a barrier between Link and other people—I’m thinking especially of how Zoras and Gorons will actively mistake you for Mikau and Darmani when transformed. This gives a melancholy feel to proceedings since you know they’re actually dead.
So there is an emotional depth to the game, and I felt very driven to complete my final cycle after I’d got the Fierce Deity mask “perfectly”, Groundhog Day style. What a great movie. Anyway, I pulled it off for the most part: clearing the dungeons a second time is very quick due to boss warps. I especially wanted to finish the Romani Ranch and Anju sidequests while I was at it; I skipped Kafei’s final task though because he’s a selfish prat and if his pride is too much to go to Anju that’s his own damn fault. Sorry, I’ve got opinions. I’ve also got headcanons that the Hero of Time returns to Termina in his adult years and marries Cremia.
Ahem. As an evolution and expansion on Ocarina, MM is pretty much perfect, much better than Ura Zelda would have been. It’s also great as a Zelda series experiment. Maybe not a great jumping on point though. The additions to this version are also great; the improved Bomber’s notebook, all the little tweaks, the fishing holes. Of course, there’s too many rare fish which makes completion a bit of a chore, and the Zora swimming is severely nerfed. But overall, super nice game. One moon out of one.
Someone urged me that the children’s book Molblin’s Magic Spear really needed a place, so I rushed out a new version of my wacky timeline. I’ve put it in the same vicinity as the comic and animated series. As I said previously, Ganon’s design is sourced from the cartoon while other characters seem to crib from the Zelda 2 manual. This results in a disconnect with the appearance of Zelda, who is captured in this story. It did remind me, however, of the continuity quirk in this era: there would logically be two extant Zeldas, owing to the plot of Zelda 2 involving reviving the sleeping princess of a previous generation. So I figured this event involved that older one, whose likeness is seen in this book.
The other important addition to this version is “The Hyrulean Adventure”, which is the result of an officially-sanctioned message board roleplaying event in 1996. Nintendo Power Source on America Online was the online presence affiliated with Nintendo of America’s official magazine Nintendo Power, and in this early Internet age they encouraged their fans to participate in collaborative storytelling periodically, which also gave us the Metroid-themed Blood of the Chozo. The Hyrulean Adventure is less well documented, but was summarised in Issue 89 of Nintendo Power. Now you could argue that it’s glorified fan fiction, but at least the information provided by the admins (most likely employees of the magazine) on the premise and setting, as well as event updates, can be considered semi-official and hence pseudo-canon. Which is good enough for me!
The Nintendo Power coverage is a little confused on whether it’s “A” or “The”, and also on the spelling of Hyrulean/Hyrulian, but I’m going with the caption on what I assume is a map provided by the Source authorities, which is also what I’ve used to represent the event in the timeline; this was published in the Nintendo Power article. It’s also a little difficult to place in the timeline because of my lack of access to the primary source, but supposedly it’s on an island in “an unexplored corner of Hyrule”. I figured it was safe to place it around the time of the most recent console release at the time, Link to the Past. Done and done.
Apart from a couple of small tweaks, that’s it. But there were many, many things that I considered adding to beef up this timeline iteration. WarioWare and NES Remix, for example, but they’re mere excerpts of existing games and have no impact on the continuity. The Howard & Nester comic for Zelda 2 is just a dream, and the two Zelda-related Nester’s Adventures strips are not quite substantial enough. I really wanted to include some other Japanese book or comic to represent all the material that’s produced there (try browsing some of the pages here) but decided that they’re pretty much adaptations despite their additions and expansions so I had to draw the line. Maybe if I get much more ambitious one day I’ll rework the whole thing to involve adaptations. But not today.
Before you screen-print this awesome timeline onto a T-shirt or apron, remember to first check the zelda-timeline tag on this blog, in case there’s an update published after you’re reading this! http://miloscat.tumblr.com/tagged/zelda-timeline
I’m always on the hunt for rare video game comics. When #20 of the Reploid Research Lavatory asked for help with distributing a manhua (Chinese manga) based on Rockman DASH aka Megaman Legends, I had to volunteer. #20 has highlighted some memorable scenes in their post, but wanted to make the full thing available. I’ve therefore uploaded it to Mediafire so all can see it and perhaps even read it, if you understand Chinese.
I won’t be translating this myself, but I would love for anyone willing to step up and take it on. There is some editing required (unless #20′s other volunteer has done so), as the scans are raw and uncropped. I have run them through imageOptim though, a lossless process to reduce the size by eliminating unnecessary image data.
EDIT: This is now being translated by BluesDriveBuster. Find the ongoing project here.
Hey, you know that dumb Zelda timeline that I made, and then updated with more crazy shenanigans? Guess what, there’s even more stuff in the Zelda series that really should be in the proper timeline you guys. Seriously. (Thanks again to Glitterberri and x7razorback7x for the image that forms the basis of my insane edit.)
So this Zelda timeline release has a few bugfixes and tweaks, such as making a nicer arrow from the Era of Decline to the Silly Era, and moving LttP Link’s cameo appearances before Link’s Awakening where they make slightly more sense (to me, anyway). I also added nifty logos for crossover games such as Smash, Scribblenauts, and Hyrule Warriors next to the games that they draw from.
The main reason for the update though was that I forgot about the Zelda HD Experience from E3 2011. It has Twilight Princess’s Link in the Temple of Time, but without the Master Sword and with a blue fairy who looks a lot like Navi. This plays into some theories of mine and is as much if not more so a canon source than the Spaceworld 2000 video, albeit less impactful on continuity. Cursor Fairy 4 life!
While I had the opportunity to make the update, I added some semi-important entries I’d neglected. The Too Much Tingle Pack made the cut, as did the German official OOT prologue comic, which reveals information about Time-o’s father. Other additions: the appearance by Crazy Tracy of Link’s Awakening in the Japan-only Wii game Captain Rainbow, and two appearances of Link in cut content: the Starbeans event in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (which I have decided is FSA Link, although it could just as easily be Minish Cap Link or Four Swords Link), and the Link sprites in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. I figure if I include the trade show demos as speculative game content, then unused data counts just as much.
Try as I might, I just couldn’t figure out where to place the children’s book Molblin’s Magic Spear, which partially adapts the original game but with character designs drawn from both the Adventure of Link manual and, strangely, the animated series for Ganon’s design. It’s this detail that throws a spanner in the works. It can’t be an event from the Silly Era, or can it? I guess I’ll decide for Mark 4 of my insane timeline. An update will be warranted when Zelda Wii U finally comes out. But for now, this is the “definitive and complete”TM version of the official Zelda timeline, as seen by me. Print it out and stick it on your wall, Zelda fans!
But first! In case I do make a newer one, you’re best off just searching the zelda-timeline tag on this blog, to make sure you’re seeing the most up-to-date fresh to-the-minute Zelda series chronology! http://miloscat.tumblr.com/tagged/zelda-timeline
My pickz for the DK Vine Hall of Fame 2015. Keep in mind the heavy hitters like Roysten the goldfish and Shabunga from off of Starfox Adventures have already been inducted.
I decided to pick some rare art to illustrate each pick. We were allowed one vote per DKU franchise. Naturally my Donkey Kong series pick was Parry the Parallel Bird, as facetiously mentioned to be seen in the E3 2011 Wii U demonstration. For the Banjo series I want Sabreman, Rare’s classic character who you help in Hailfire Peaks, seen here on the cover of the Famicom Disk System version of Knight Lore. Veteran comedian Ryan Stiles appeared in a promotional video for Conker: Live and Reloaded and has recently been lauded on the forum for his collaboration with Conker on the stand-up circuit, which is totally canon. That’s a flashback from the Drew Carey show.
Krystal is an awesome Star Fox character, and would have been more awesome had Dinosaur Planet come to fruition in its original form, as seen in concept art, leaked story notes, and sound files. “You” are a character who’s appeared in any video game where the player is referred to directly as a participant, including It’s Mr. Pants!. Finally, Waluigi is… Waluigi. He almost destabilised the whole DKU, and here he is in a rare non-lanky form, in Mario Party-e for e-Readers.
Maybe next year Lanky Kong or the WarpStone will be recognised. Unfortunately, the Googly Eyed Sweet Corn from Conker’s Bad Fur Day is ineligible.
There are not one, but two sets of characters created to teach you how to play the Donkey Kong Card Game. The starter set’s manual mainly consists of a little story of the three characters on top playing through a game, teaching you the basics in the process. They’re your typical card game anime squirts; from left to right Takashi the generic protagonist, Kenji the generic rival, and Toshiyuki the generic Cool Guy hotdogger (yes he has playing cards tucked into the band of his weird goggles…ok so he’s slightly less generic maybe).
On the other hand, the official website has a series of pages where Takeshi the generic young boy and Hikaru the generic young girl are taught the fundamentals of this children’s card game by Sensei, the generic old man. Note that Takeshi is different from the previous Takashi.
None of these characters are a part of the Donkey Kong Universe.
Get the whole picture by downloading the Donkey Kong Card Game archive here.
Some of the weird and wonderful sound effects in the Donkey Kong Card Game. I’ve emphasised how the original set had a mirrored theme with Kongs and Kremlings performing similar actions against each other. You can see this design in this guide book for the game (scroll down to see more images of the pages). The exclamations are just funny though; “Final Punch” would of course make the sound FINAL when landed, why not? But I don’t think I’ll ever figure out what WASHER means.
Here’s the results of my scanning and collecting of Donkey Kong Card Game assets from various sources. Please enjoy it. All you have to do is click this link and download it:
-Pictures of as many cards as I could find, with varying quality, separated by card type. If you want to read the text on the smaller ones more clearly, use the official website as a resource. These are gleaned from Man-Frog’s scans, my scans, pictures of the official guidebook from an eBay auction, pictures intended for demonstration in the starter set manual, and a few Internet sources.
-Some key art taken from the official website
-A summary flowchart to aid in playing the game, taken from the official website (in Japanese)
-A flyer advertising the card game
-A scan of the box for the 60-card starter set
-A scan of the manual included in the starter set which teaches you to play the game (in Japanese)
-Pictures of some other Donkey Kong-related cards that have been made
Links:
Web archive of the official Japanese website, with card lists for all sets (including expanded rules text), tutorial and reference document for playing the game, release information, and some card images.
DKC Atlas thread discussing this and other Donkey Kong card games, with links to other DKCG errata such as the IGN announcement article and a Japanese Donkey Kong Land III commercial that included bonus cards.
Tangentially related: scans of the two volumes of Corocoro’s manga series based on the animated series, which this card game is also based on. Some special cards have been included in certain issues of Corocoro magazine (PP001, SP001, SP002).
EDIT: I finally did what I had been intending, and converted my personal spreadsheet for tracking card image status to Google Docs. Here you can see all the cards that exist and whether or not an image of them has been archived.
EDIT2: Thanks to a tipoff from the anonymous N.A., I’ve found a few more sources and managed to fill out the image archive a lot more; now ALL but one are accounted for and present in the collection, and many low-quality images have been replaced with better ones. The scans and images may not be perfect in all cases but it’s now much more complete. The spreadsheet has also been updated to reflect this. In addition, I added more supplementary images to the “Misc” folder, such as images of packaging and promo material.
EDIT3: Mediafire is taking down the archive, so please refer to the new Mega link instead.
EDIT4: Calcium has notified me that I neglected to include a scan of the alternate yellow card back in the archive! All character cards have a yellow outline on the back. Until I do a proper update, I’ve just put it here for now.
Playing the original Paper Mario games after all the others was a mistake, I think. All the others build on it so much, but I appreciated its (from my perspective) back-to-basics approach. It’s also overflowing with charm.
First of all, N64 emulation on the Wii’s Virtual Console is not great. Since there’s no control options, you’re stuck with the unique tripod controller’s layout being mapped in unfamiliar ways. The biggest offender is the C-buttons being assigned to pushing a direction on the right stick. Not ideal, and this game uses them a lot. Apart from that the convenience of the system is appreciated, and on a technical level there are only a few issues; I’m sure opening the menu shouldn’t be so delayed, and there’s apparently some extra lag. But considering the cost of cartridges, it’s a great way to play it.
Having played the Gamecube’s Thousand Year Door, I was very familiar with the systems of the game, the structure, the style; the biggest changes for the sequel were in the settings you go to, with mere tweaks to the mechanics and tone. Which is fine, but they’re made to be played in order. Paper Mario forms such a strong foundation for its sequel in almost every way, and in a certain few ways for what many would consider to be spinoffs, Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star. But even though TTYD is more playable with its refinements and extra badge points, it’s worth playing both for the story and locations.
I’d even go so far as to say I enjoyed the locations more in this game; TTYD is more “out there” with its style parodies and attempts to shake up the world while PM is more grounded and Mario feels more natural there. Either way, going from PM to TTYD is, again, probably the best way to enjoy these games.
But have you, reader, ever heard of this game? It’s a simplistic RPG with light action and platforming elements, a strong art direction with cute paper-thin characters in a mainly 3D world, and writing with humour and heart. It also makes good use of the Mario license with familiar and obscure characters, many of them with a design twist (each of your party members is a variation of a past enemy). Unlike many RPGs, your personal progression is very modular, so each extra point of damage is well-earned and satisfying. Battles require both strategy and timing for best results, and grinding is almost never required. Badges act as your equipment and have a range of interesting effects (I almost always electrified myself with Zap Tap and increased the speed of my spin attack for speedy travel, a mechanic that was lost in later instalments).
Sure, it can be slow, battles can become tedious and unrewarding, backtracking is a drag, the environments can seem standard for Mario (I thought the game made them novel enough), you’re not allowed to get enough badge points, the plot’s pretty simple in the broad strokes, and it can be overly wordy. But I felt that the personality in the graphics and writing, and the unique gameplay, were enough to pull me through a reluctance for conquering each big chunk of game. It was also really interesting to see the foundation that the next games were either basing themselves on or subverting.
And Twink alone is worth playing the game for. Among the many unforgiveable mistakes Sticker Star made, not having any characters remotely as memorable as him is one of them. Also no Peach segments, no goofball Bowser, no customisable badge system, no gleefully trolling characters (the game itself just trolled you), no cast of fun partners, no tough but fair boss fights, no Yoshi’s Island references, no farcical penguin-related murder mysteries. All great qualities that this game (and TTYD, come to think of it) have in spades. And best of all, Paper Mario has been announced for Wii U Virtual Console! With configurable controls! So when it comes out, go and play it, and avoid that Sticker Star like the plague.
One of my previous posts contained a link to Man-Frog’s impressive collection of cards which he’d scanned. After checking my new set, I determined that I had 11 cards that weren’t in his set. Here’s the final 5. I hope you like seeing Krusha wrasslin’ with Eddie the Mean Old Yeti!
One of my previous posts contained a link to Man-Frog’s impressive collection of cards which he’d scanned. After checking my new set, I determined that I had 11 cards that weren’t in his set. Here’s the first 6 plus the cards’ back.
My favourite card so far. It’s an illustration with a pose modified from a DKC2 render but with the costume of the animated series’s Dixie. Or maybe I’m stretching with the pose thing… Still, the point is that the drawn style of these cards makes the animated series characters look good, much better than the show did anyway.
Wow, my brief post showing the box of the Donkey Kong card game got a lot of attention! Well, all of you interested, while I’m still working out how to present the cards, scanning the manual, and all that, I’ll give you some more information on it and some links.
According to the box itself, the initial run contained 252 cards, separated into character cards, action cards, and support cards. There’s a fully functional rules system for playing a card battle game with them. A summary of the rules can be found at the official website (in Japanese).
The cards themselves have unique art, although some that represent items reuse renders from the games. The first run is based on the Donkey Kong Country animated series (did you know the 3D character models were also used for a French-language variety show after the show ended?). There’s also cards based on DK64, which I believe came later, and at least one promo card for Kiddy Kong.
Before I post any more pictures of my set, check out these places for some pictures and information:
I will be scanning cards, but only ones that Man-Frog hasn’t already scanned so as not to do work that’s already done. I will also scan the manual and probably all 6 sides of the box. One day you’ll be able to print out a complete set of these cards and play with your friends!
Starter set for the Donkey Kong trading card game, which was mainly based on the animated series (but received a DK64-based expansion the following year). Thanks to my sister-in-law for finding this for me in Japan. Expect more pictures and scans to come.
