Behind nearly every noteworthy accomplishment is a noteworthy story; with Zelda, it is no different. Designer Miyamoto, who is now a living legend in the gaming community (and somewhat outside of it), was inspired to create Legend of Zelda by his excursions to the wilderness as a child. It was through those adventures that he found a love in exploration and discovery. Ultimately, Legend of Zelda encompasses those principles. Yes, there is some fighting and a fairly original plot within the game, but it is the revolutionary concept of open-world exploring that makes the Legend of Zelda memorable. Also, the game gains brownie points in my book for being named after the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, an author I admire.
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. As the photo illustrates, the 1920's were a much happier time period.
While it is true that exploring the game is the central focus of the game, I initially found it difficult to fight the monsters. The control-pattern was different than the one with which I was accustomed, so the first 5 minutes consisted of me repetitious pattern of me dying and restarting the game, dying and restarting the game, dying....
However, once I had a fairly firm grasp on the controls, my enjoyment of the game escalated quickly. Miyamoto did an excellent job, especially for the time period, of creating a universe that belonged solely to Legend of Zelda. It had a "feel" to it that was fun and certainly unique. The wilderness in Zelda is varying depending on the region, as well as the monsters that inhabit those regions. The most interesting monster that I encountered was a bow-firing centaur, and it was guarding a white sword. I was only able to find the centaur and the white sword by watching a video tutorial, and I had been playing the game for about an hour and a half before resorting to the tutorial. As I said, the universe is quite big.
This game houses many other secrets, such as the ability to gain extra hearts, which are akin to the health bars that most games use today, and other surprises. Zelda has truly become a "Legend", and because of this game, I greatly look forward to FINALLY trying out Ocarina of Time in the near future.
Here is another video; this one does not poke fun at anything in Zelda, but instead just introduces an amusing concept.
Ninja Gaiden: Wicked, wicked game
This week seemed to be the week of innovation in gaming. Ninja Gaiden helped introduce a few concepts within the early games with the most notable one being the cutaway scenes. These scenes are responsible for creating the story behind Ninja Gaiden. I might add the music definitely added to the dramatic intensity of the game; indeed, it was difficult to play without moving my body in rhythm to the techno concoction.
Other than those innovating concepts, I could not really enjoy this game. The sad part is that I recognize that I would enjoy it more if I were playing it on the console. A PC using an emulator is not the optimal choice when playing a difficult or fast-paced game simply because the system is not built for that purpose. In some instances, it seemed as though a combination of either acrobatic maneuvers or fighting patterns were nearly impossible to accomplish on the emulator. It is comforting, though, that I understand that it was the emulator, not the game, that caused the frustration. Because of that, I may give Ninja Gaiden another chance (but only on a console) if ever I get the chance.
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