Added: 03.05.2015 2:17 | 7 views | 0 comments


NWR: Nintendo was in the middle of an almost undeserved bravado during E3 2005. While their E3 2004 press conference brought the house down with Reggie Fils-Aimes ass-kicking debut and the reveal of a realistic Zelda for GameCube, Nintendos latest home console was solidly in third place and the recently released PSP was a significant threat to the well-being of the Game Boy line, even with the successful launch of the DS. As Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said, though, actions speak louder than words, and Nintendo acted like they were the kings of the industry. In retrospect, E3 2005 is the middle chapter of the near flawless turnaround from GameCube to Wii, and while it might seem to be pedestrian now, it was effective at the time.

Added: 03.05.2015 0:17 | 2 views | 0 comments


Hey Poor Player's Francis DiPersio writes - "While beloved in Japan since its inception on the PC Engine, Nihon Falcoms Ys series has often struggled to find relevancy in the western market. With Nintendos phenomenally successful The Legend of Zelda series claiming the action-adventure throne, the Ys series has largely gone unnoticed by generations of console gamers, and thats a crying shame."

Added: 02.05.2015 17:00 | 4 views | 0 comments

How would Nintendo solve that? How would they create a consistent story but still allow non-linear exploration? I have an idea, and it's pretty simple: they could decouple the narrative progression from the item and dungeon progression. Look at The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for an example: the Zora storyline is a self-contained arc which unfolds primarily in the Great Bay. The Gorons' snowy plight is resolved by completing tasks within Snowhead itself. These "story pockets" often required certain items to resolve, and you could bookmark them and return to them if you did discover where that item lay. However, access to those pockets was still restricted by the hub and spoke approach to its world, as in Ocarina of Time. Resolving these narrative events with items is far more satisfying, and feels far less artificial, than opening a new route to travel through, or overcoming a physical barrier to exploration. When exploring an open-world Hyrule, I shouldn't run into those barriers. But if I want to progress the narrative? That's when a hero like Link should run into problems to resolve.

Added: 02.05.2015 17:00 | 4 views | 0 comments

How would Nintendo solve that? How would they create a consistent story but still allow non-linear exploration? I have an idea, and it's pretty simple: they could decouple the narrative progression from the item and dungeon progression. Look at The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for an example: the Zora storyline is a self-contained arc which unfolds primarily in the Great Bay. The Gorons' snowy plight is resolved by completing tasks within Snowhead itself. These "story pockets" often required certain items to resolve, and you could bookmark them and return to them if you did discover where that item lay. However, access to those pockets was still restricted by the hub and spoke approach to its world, as in Ocarina of Time. Resolving these narrative events with items is far more satisfying, and feels far less artificial, than opening a new route to travel through, or overcoming a physical barrier to exploration. When exploring an open-world Hyrule, I shouldn't run into those barriers. But if I want to progress the narrative? That's when a hero like Link should run into problems to resolve.