The GHZ Forum

So, apparently, Nintendo held a keynote at GDC today.

Joystiq's Coverage

Highlights:

• New cel-shaded Zelda game "Spirit Tracks" for the DS. Features trains. Yes, trains. OK...
• Wii System Menu 4.0, includes SD Card menu for running stuff off of the card by temporarily copying it over to the Wii flash memory. Available now.
• Rock and Roll Climber revealed (new Wii game)
• Final Fantasy: a sequel to My Life as a King, a port of the cellphone game Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and Virtual Console versions of old FF games.
• Virtual Console Arcade: No, not as robust as Xbox Live Arcade, it's simply arcade titles available on the VC. Gaplus, Mappy, The Tower Of Druaga, and Starforce all available now.

I got System Menu 4.0, and of course there's no real differences. However, they've finally added the "Move" option to the memory management screen, so you don't have to copy and erase all of your unused VC stuff.

I'm definitely willing to give Spirit Tracks a go - I'm not a real hard-core Zelda fan (I've always liked Link's Awakening, though), and perhaps this gimmick will be somewhat interesting...

Rock and Roll Climber is a WiiWare title, thank god.

As for Train Zelda:

I actually like this concept a lot. I like trains more than boats, and the main gameplay gimmick seems to be Link having a golem Darknut sidekick he can direct - which is pretty cool. Also, while I loved the WW style, I couldn't stand the goddamned ocean, while this train traveling minigame actually looks like fun.

Also, I'm really looking forward to Excite Bots. It looks like someone took Excite Truck and Stunt Race FX and mixed the best parts together.

boooooooooooooooooooooring

Out of all the Zelda iterations to date, they just had to milk Wind Waker.

Yeah, I've got to second that. While I have no major problem with the design style, it was always nice to see each new Zelda game having a fresh art direction. "Toon Link" is starting to outstay his welcome a little.

Right then. Steam engines in Zelda.

Being a WoW player (fuck right off, don't even start) I've heard countless arguments against the inclusion of "choppers" (motorcycles) in a game where one of the major playable races are extremely skilled engineers. Besides which, there's all kinds of fucked up dimension-hopping crystal spaceship shit going on so it all seems a bit trivial. I suppose explaining away everything as "magic" is fine but as soon as you progress technology everyone calls the waaambulance. But I digress.

Steam engines in Zelda. I like steam engines. I like Zelda. I will probably like this. The core game looks suspiciously Zelda-like, and to echo Zeta's sentiments, trains over boats any day of the fucking week. I mean, I like sailing as much as the next guy, but Christ almighty.

K2J wrote:Virtual Console Arcade: No, not as robust as Xbox Live Arcade

Maybe I'm being infantile, but surely XBL Arcade = Virtual Console anyway? In which case it's far bloody more robust.

j-man wrote:Being a WoW player

Gay.


I got the last Zelda game on DS and it was way too boring. I had not played a Zelda game since the N64 games and that decent GBA one, so I was expecting better quality than what I got.

Toon Link's design is also stupid, why are his eyebrows a different colour? And riding a boat/train is not fun and the touchscreen stuff ruins it. I would rather something like Link to the Past or Zelda 2.

Everything else they showed looks boring, except arcade games on VC.

Besides which, there's all kinds of fucked up dimension-hopping crystal spaceship shit going on so it all seems a bit trivial. I suppose explaining away everything as "magic" is fine but as soon as you progress technology everyone calls the waaambulance. But I digress.

I know, right. The level of technology on the damn planet has already remained in stasis for about 10,000 years. I think it's about time they let them have a fucking train. Otherwise it just makes everyone in a fantasy universe look like morons.

My thoughts after first seeing a forum post mentioning a Zelda game with trains:
"STEAMPUNK ZELDA!" -> "STEAMPUNK ZELDA IN INDUSTRIAL TERMINA!!" -> "...steampunk Zelda?" -> "Oh, just PH with Link in an ugly uniform riding a wooden train through boring flat green plains. :("

I thought Toon Link stuff always had steam engines and such?

It is not 'steam punk', it is just normal stuff.

I used to have an unhealthy obsession with trains when I was a kid. That being said, it would be interesting to see how this Zelda game acts out. I am thinking how charming/stupid Link would look in an old fashioned conductor's uniform.

Kogen wrote:I thought Toon Link stuff always had steam engines and such?

It is not 'steam punk', it is just normal stuff.

That is my complaint. I was hoping for a steam punk
game but then saw the trailer.

I thought they had a more steam-punk influenced Zelda game coming out for the Wii. But I think that was a hoax. Nevertheless, there was a mention of "Hyrule with trains". This must've been what they were hinting at.

Zelda with trains? I can dig it. I really enjoyed the sailing theme of Wind Waker, but it didn't work well in Phantom Hourglass, which robbed most of the freedom out of it. Essentially you were driving a train in Phantom Hourglass, except you could make your own "tracks". I'm a little worried that their solution to this was to change the context rather than give the player more freedom... but we'll see. Trains are cool.

I hope that doing away with the sea and islands theme means that the overworld will be larger, both The Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass were disappointing in that regard. Still, at least in The Minish Cap the environments had character to them, Spirit Tracks looks like it might fall into the same trap as Phantom Hourglass with bland, repetitive and all too "neat" looking environments. I can't say I'm particularly fond of the "dungeon helper character" thing returning, I'd rather they came up with new things for Link to do instead.

The scene with Princess Zelda makes it look as though this is a new generation in the Zelda mythos, which is always interesting, but I kind of wanted to see what the Wind Waker Link and Tetra got up to next (Phantom Hourglass was a continuation, but seemed like more of a side story than the true next chapter in their journey).

I can't believe there are actually people getting angry about the "introduction" of steam power to the Zeldaverse. What the heck did they think was powering the ship in Phantom Hourglass? Materia?

People are stupid, though.

Trains and steampunk in general would be an interesting direction to take the series. I think that's what I liked about Wind Waker; it wasn't exactly a radical departure from the series in general, but it took it in an unexpected direction and that made me find it infinitely more interesting than Twilight Princess.

But ironically, this seems to be a WW followup with a train shoehorned in. I will probably avoid it like I did with Phantom Hourglass, since Awakening and Oracles pretty much satisfied my desire for handheld Zelda and Minish Cap was a disappointment.

I actually liked Minish Cap better than Wind Waker.

Crazy Penguin wrote:The scene with Princess Zelda makes it look as though this is a new generation in the Zelda mythos, which is always interesting, but I kind of wanted to see what the Wind Waker Link and Tetra got up to next (Phantom Hourglass was a continuation, but seemed like more of a side story than the true next chapter in their journey).

Agreed. I really wanted to see wherever they found land and get the chance to explore a brand new world that was nothing like Hyrule.

Yeah, I would have bought Hourglass if that had actually been addressed in the fucking game instead of them just fapping about in the sea yet again. Even an ending where they found Mt. Everest or something would have done it for me.

As for Steampunk Zelda, a big part of me thought that Bumpy Trot and Twilight Princess would have been a fucking fantastic game if they had been combined together.

Yeah, I put on TP last night and wondered why I've played any other games since or, more realistically, why they haven't got cracking with a new TP-styed sequel instead of farting about with Game Boy gimmickry.

The inclusion of steampunk themes would cause serious spontaneous nut-busting. Get Link in a full suit of armour, fighting clockwork robots in a gothic castle. Zelda's famous for it's dirty great boss battles, why not chuck in a dirty great boss battle with a fuck-off huge steam-driven... thing? Some kind of animal. I dunno.

Did the camera in WW not bother anyone? Especially with the color upgrade it's a little more high tech than burning some coal.

Yeah, I put on TP last night and wondered why I've played any other games since or, more realistically, why they haven't got cracking with a new TP-styed sequel instead of farting about with Game Boy gimmickry.

They have been "cracking" on the next console entry for quite some time now. Nintendo's doesn't reveal games 2 & a half years before release anymore.

Crazy Penguin wrote:
I can't say I'm particularly fond of the "dungeon helper character" thing returning, I'd rather they came up with new things for Link to do instead.

I was actually pleasantly surprised the first time you got the helper in TP, and I thought it was a shame that it was only involved in one dungeon. But I can see how that gimmick might get repetitive if he isn't constantly put into new situations.

j-man wrote:Get Link in a full suit of armour, fighting clockwork robots in a gothic castle.

The Magic Armor in Twilight Princess was almost a full suit, and one of the bosses in Phantom Hourglass was a robot covered in thick layers of rock.