Thursday, July 17, 2008

Better Late Than Never



I think that of all of Nintendo's franchises, The Legend of Zelda is my favorite. I remember being around 8 years-old, this would be '88 or '89, and going over to my older brother's friend's house, where they were playing the first Legend of Zelda game. Just watching them play was enough for me. I was hooked and I wanted more.

I played the second Zelda game, Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, but after that I pretty much stopped playing. I didn't get a Super Nintendo when it came out, only much later from a friend, I missed all the Gameboy and Gameboy Color Zelda games, I was in college during the N64 Zelda years so I wasn't playing many games (unless they were of the drinking variety), and then I missed the Gamecube because by that time I was a Playstation fan through and through.

Not until recently with the purchase of the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii, both presents from my mom because I'm her little baby boy even though I'm pushing 29, and got the Phantom Hourglass for the DS and Twilight Princess for the Wii. Along with the Wii, I also got the Gamecube Zelda game I missed (the Windwaker) and I also got the Gamecube disc that has both N64 Zelda games on it (Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask). All that leaves now are the Super Nintendo game (A Link to the Past) and the couple Gameboy and Gameboy color games.

Well, since I got the DS I picked up the port of A Link to the Past, which is actually a Gameboy Advance title, but since the DS plays GBA games, I'm good to go, and just recently as in today at work (don't worry, the boss is away) I finally beat it. A game that came out in 1991 for the Super Nintendo, I've finally beaten 17 years later. That's just crazy.

I'm pretty happy with the accomplishment and I'm looking forward to playing all the other Zelda games I missed throughout the years. I should let my nephew know I beat it, but since he's only 8 years-old now, I doubt he even knows what the Super Nintendo even is, let alone that there was a Zelda game for it.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

I'm not sure how to take this. Am I cool, or not?



My godson/nephew called me early this evening with a question. Apparently, while playing The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on his Nintendo DS, he came to one of it's many puzzles and got stuck without being able to solve it and move on in the game.

The puzzle is this: On the lower screen of the DS is a crest, just an image of a symbol or something. On the upper screen is your "Sea Chart", i.e. just a map of the ocean with some random islands on it. The riddle reads something along the lines of, "To find out where to go next, press the crest across your Sea Chart to find your way."

So he was stuck. He had no idea what he was supposed to do and he just couldn't figure it out. So what does he do? He calls his Uncle Pat and asks him because, well, Uncle Pat has a Nintendo DS and, and get this, not only does he have the Phantom Hourglass game, but has beaten it. This last fact astounds him to no end.

Anyway, he calls me and of course, without having to look it up and having beaten the game more than half a year ago, I tell him that to solve the puzzle, all he has to do is close the DS. When the DS is closed, the two screens particularly rest on each other. It was so simple, but yet, everything about using the DS tells you you're not suppose to goes it while a game is playing or else it "goes to sleep".

Now the problem as I see it, does this make me extremely cool, or extremely lame? Yes in the eyes of my nephew I'm the coolest adult around, but does that, at the same time, make me pretty lame that 8 year-olds think I'm the bomb (and yes, I realize that saying I'm the bomb make me sound very uncool, but whatever, I do what I want, and doesn't that fact make me cool? Oh whatever).