The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker (2003-2013) (GameCube/Wii U) Review

April 21, 2015 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

The Legend of Zelda the Animated Series……… Wait no its not

The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker is one of the most beloved games of the Legend of Zelda franchise and is often considered to be a masterpiece to gaming, but it never used to be looked at in such as positive light as upon the games release it was hated amongst fans due to its less serious plot and characters and its new cheerful and brightly coloured visuals.

Before just a few weeks ago I had only played this game once while I was visiting my cousins back in 2003, even though I only played the game for a short time the memories I had playing have treasured me for many years and I always intended to return the game hoping to have as much fun with it as I did back then I have now played through both the HD remake and the original thanks to my very same cousin kindly lending me the very copy we played those many years ago.

this is a comparison review so I will be using screenshots from both versions of the game.

So how did it hold up?

You play as Link an adventurous young lad who lives with his little Sister Aryll and his Grandmother on Outset Island, its Links birthday and as a gift his Sister lets him borrow her special telescope for one day, while testing the telescope out Link notices a giant bird carrying a girl and dropping her into the forest of fairies which is located on a hill above Outset Island, Link runs into the forest and to his relief the girl is absolutely fine and she introduces herself as Captain Tetra and at the same time she introduces her crew of Pirates, Link and the Pirates decide that its time to leave the forest of fairies but unfortunately as they do the same bird snatches Aryll and takes he away to the Forbidden Fortress.

The Pirates agree to help Link rescue his sister by escorting him to the Forbidden Fortress and after an intense mission impossible style journey to top of the fortress, Link finally reaches the top only to find out that the evil mastermind behind all of the previous trouble was none other than Ganondorf who has much bigger plans for the fate of the world other than simply kidnapping young girls and its up to Link the Hero of the Winds to stop him.

As I mentioned above Wind Waker didn’t do so well upon release due to its change in graphics and visuals but another reason for this is its game play, Wind Waker is the most interesting Zelda title I have ever played because unlike most other games in the series that mostly focus on a serious and dark plot with side missions and other objectives thrown into the mix as a bonus, Wind Waker does the very opposite because it has a big focus on exploring and discovery and less of a focus on the main quest, at the time a lot of Legend of Zelda fans didn’t like this new change of pace and they labelled the game as being a wannabe Zelda title, personally I really like the idea that the game wants players to create there own adventures as these days I feel that most Zelda games don’t have a massive emphasis on adventure which was originally the staple of the franchise.

Instead of a horse this time we are given a boat called the King of Red Lions, the King of Red Lions is one of the most useful characters in the game because not only does he help guide you towards your main quests goals but he is also the only way you can travel between towns, islands and dungeons, if you haven’t already guessed the majority of the game takes place in the ocean meaning that most of your objectives and goals are spread all across the world on different islands.

This is a Zelda game so there is a couple of dungeons that you need to complete in order to beat the game but like I said there isn’t many dungeons as the main focus here is side questing, the idea of exploration is really cool and I appreciate that they made this the main focus but unfortunately the map for the ocean kind of sucks due to there not being much indication of where certain areas are on the map, some of the main towns are drawn on the map but the rest is mostly blank and this makes exploring extremely difficult, frustrating and not fun.

There is a way that you can easily indicate where certain areas are situated on the map but from my experience the only way to do this is to feed your bate (red berries) to certain fish in the ocean, I found a couple of these fish and they did help me with mapping the coordinates of certain islands but I only found a few of them so they actually weren’t that much help.

I feel that this issue could have been fixed in a couple of ways for example how about nothing is indicated on the map but once you discover a new area or island it is automatically added to the map for you.

If you go on-line you can find coordinates to the different areas an example would be that the private cabana is situated on E5 this makes it much easier to traverse the vast world of Wind Waker so they could have fixed the map problem by giving you the opportunity to purchase the coordinates to certain areas in shops or from travelling merchants in the game.

The most obvious fix to this would be to simply provide the player with a physical map of the ocean packed in with the game that has all of the coordinates written onto it (Similar to the Grand Theft Auto games).

Finally for Wii U players the map is seen on the game pad so it would have been cool and useful if we could have drawn our own coordinates on the map using the stylus and the game pad.

This is the the only thing about the game-play that I really dislike so lets now talk about the more positive aspects of the game

With Link being a being a master swords man you are going to be doing a lot of sword fighting in the game and a new attack introduced in Wind Waker is a timed button command, this new attack can be triggered by the player targeting the enemy and not taking damage for a few seconds, then once the command appears they must hit the button before it disappears and if they are successful they will take hit the enemy while dealing some major damage.

Another staple in the Zelda franchise is that in every game a new item is introduced and this time around we got the deku leaf, the deku leaf essentially allows Link to float through the air until his magic meter runs out this is useful for when you are trying to reach far away ledges and platforms, another use to this item is you can blow gusts of air with it which is mostly used to power certain mechanisms in the game luckily this particular use of the deku leaf uses no magic.

This wouldn’t be a Wind Waker review if I didn’t talk about the Wind Waker, the Wind Waker is essentially this games version of the Ocarina, through out the game you will learn new songs you can play using the wind and to the usual Zelda fashion some songs are needed in the game when others are not so important but still useful, for example if you are using the original sail while sailing you will need to sail in the direction of the wind and if you play the Winds Requiem you can change which way the wind is travelling making sailing to your destination much faster and easier, another example is the Ballad of Gales which allows you to warp to previous locations you have already visited.

Since the game mostly focuses on everything beyond the main quest you would think that the Side Quests would be very creative and unique compared to side quests in other entries of franchise, but this really isn’t the case as some side quests are genuinely a lot of fun and really stand out such as the Pictograph Quest which has young Link taking Photographs for an aspiring photographer on Windfall Island but apart from the few like this most of the Side quest are generic fetch quests having the player collect 20 of a specific item to be rewarded with rupees or heart pieces, one of the most awesome rewards for completing one of these quests is that Link gains his own Private Cabana which was an unexpected treat.

Both the Gamecube and the Wii U version of Wind Waker have very tight and responsive controls which are expected from a Nintendo Title, the Wii U version is the most beneficial version to play if only for the player not having the need to pause the game in order to switch between items and treasure charts due to the quick and easy access to these menus on the Wii U game pad.

The Wii U port also has a less aggravating final fetch quest at the end of game due to Nintendo kindly removing the majority of the Triforce charts allowing players to only collect three of them compared to the original which made the player collect eight.

The most unique aspect to the Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker is its visuals, Nintendo decided to steer away from the realistic and dark visuals which had become the staple of the series and decided to go with something much more happy which gave more of a childlike and innocent vibe which produced some beautiful final results.

Here are a few screen shots I found of both versions of the game.

Wind Waker is a very lively and well animated game, the game itself looks like an artist has gone absolutely nuts with colours and detail, this is also the first time we have really seen Link have a personality as he clearly shows his feelings and emotions using facial expressions through out the game and by using these facial expressions Link can take some magnificent selfies using his pictograph, the graphics are outstanding and are what help make the game really stand out as a unique title in the series.

Wind Waker also has an amazing sound track that really suits the games atmosphere and charm, what makes Wind Wakers soundtrack really stand out is that it always remains fun no matter what situation it is presenting itself too, for example most of the music in the game is fun happy and cheerful but even when the game gets to its more serious moments such as dungeon crawling and emotional scenes the music changes to suit these new environments but it also keeps its fun and cheerful presence as if its reminding you not to take the game to seriously and this is a game design choice that I really enjoy.

The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker is one of the most amazing entries in the franchise due to how unique it is, it was the first game in the series to have a less serious plot, feel and pace which is a touch that I believe only this game could pull off, the game focuses more on adventuring than it does the main quest which is something that I believe Nintendo should implement into future Zelda titles, because Wind Waker chose to focus more on side questing and exploration I wish that the game had more interesting side quests and better map system because personally this left me very disappointed, the graphics are an interesting and risky choice but they work really well and honestly help give the game more personality, the music also carries this same risk but the final result really works in this type of game.

I will probably be crucified for saying this but I don’t think Wind Waker is one of the best Zelda titles although I believe I could have been if certain aspects of the game were executed better.

I may not have enjoyed Wind Waker as much as many of its fans but I do believe that it is a very unique entry to the franchise due to its personality and its charm.

Wind Waker 6.8/10

Wind Waker HD 7.2/10

Thank you for reading my review of The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker for the Gamecube and the Wii U

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Also me and some friends have recently started playing games together so please check out our YouTube Channel Hoenn Rangers, We haven’t played Wind Waker yet but I’m sure we will at some point whether we play the Game Cube or the Wii U Port.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmN8F6Q-eGOD0gp0anCdcQ

Top 5 DS Games I want on Wii U E-Shop

April 18, 2015 ragglefragglereviews5 Comments

So a few weeks ago Nintendo released a press conference where they talked about new content in upcoming games as well as announcing some release dates for big Nintendo titles, one of my favourite announcements from the conference was that you can now purchase N64 and NDS games on the E-shop for the Wii U, I’m not too interested in the N64 virtual console as I do prefer to get most of my N64 as physical copies but the realisation that I can now play NDS games on my TV literally made me squeal like a little girl who got given a kitten covered in candy floss for Christmas and I just want to hug Nintendo into eternity right now, at the moment there is only two DS games available on the E-shop Mario Kart DS and Wario Ware touched and I was a little disappointed with this considering that the USA got Yoshi’s Island DS while Europe has to wait until May.

I may have been a little disappointed but I am still super hyped for what DS games Nintendo will bring to the E-shop and in celebration of the announcement here are my top 5 DS games I want to see on Wii U E-Shop.

5. New Super Mario Bros

As some of you may know New Super Mario Bros is one of my favourite Mario games of all time, it is essentially a remake of the original Super Mario Bros but with a few changes the most obvious change is the more modern graphics, the game also has a variety of music tracks, new power ups and a well detailed over world similar to Super Mario Bros 3, the reason this is so low on the list is because it honestly isn’t that exciting compared to my other choices but needless to say I think this game would look awesome on the Virtual Console.

4. The Professor Layton Series

The professor Layton games are these surprisingly in depth puzzles games made by Level 5 Studios, the games follow the adventures of Professor Layton and his side kick Luke Triton, each game has our two protagonists working together to solve the hidden mysteries of different towns and villages, you slowly solve these mysteries by finishing many puzzles and answering many riddles through out the games, the Professor Layton series are great games to play by yourself on a handheld but I think it would be interesting to play them on the TV because with a bigger screen you and your friends can try to solve to puzzles together which seems like it would be a lot of fun also the games have fully animated cut scenes which I’m sure would be a real treat to watch on a larger screen.

3. The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks

A few weeks ago I finally finished playing through Wind Waker and I had a lot of fun with it but I didn’t enjoy it as much I have enjoyed other games in the series which is why its two sequels are only at the number three spot on this list, these two Zelda games are very unique as they are controlled completely with the touch screen which is a concept I find very interesting as I believe it will add more of a challenge compared to how easy Wind Waker was, this is also the main reason why I want to play the two DS games as I want to see how the challenge differs as well to see what happens next in Wind Waker’s story.

2. Mario and Luigi Partners in Time/Bowser’s Inside Story

I recently downloaded Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga for the GBA on the E-Shop and boy am I glad I did, the Mario and Luigi games are these surprisingly hilarious and well written RPG’s from Nintendo, the plots are always silly and the games are full of interesting characters and clever jokes, Super Star Saga is slowly becoming one of my favourite RPG’s of all time as it reminds me a lot of Super Mario RPG for the SNES, these games are charming, very challenging but fair and full of that Nintendo flavour so I really hope that Nintendo put these games on the E-Shop as I cant wait to play them all.

1.Any of the DS Pokemon Games

Seriously Nintendo this needs to happen because not only would it be awesome it would also be extremely useful, I know many people who like to play the Pokemon Game Boy games using their super game boy’s and the Game Boy Advance games using the Game cube GBA adapter, the Pokemon series is a lot of fun to play on the move but personally I always have more fun playing them on the TV and I’m sure a lot of other people do too.

three reasons why Pokemon on the E-Shop will be useful

1. TV’s don’t have a battery life so you can play Pokemon all day without having to charge the console every four hours, the pokemon games are really long and require many hours of grinding so his will help.

2. Your friends dont need to climb all over you to watch you play the game, Pokemon games can get pretty intense and if like me you have friends who get overly excited when you find a shiny you will most likely have 10 different people crowding around your DS at the same time and with a TV this is not such a huge a deal as all of your friends can watch no matter where they sit on the couch.

3. Save States, there is no denying that the Pokemon games are tough and require a lot of patience the only way to retry a battle or a puzzle if you mess up is to either lose or reset the game which is extremely annoying , playing a Pokemon game on the Virtual console will allow save states which are going to be very useful as it make the whole experience less stressful and the best part is that you don’t have to use them so any hardcore Pokemon players wont be disappointed

The only problem I can see people complaining about is the lack or online battles and trading as it seems that this feature will be unavailable due to the original Nintendo Wifi Connection being shut down, but I have a feeling that Nintendo might be able to use their magic to some how make the online capabilities work.

Thanks for reading my top 5 DS games I want on Wii U E-Shop I realise that most of these are Nintendo titles but I cant really help that I’m a bit of a Nintendo addict, although my number 6 spot would go to the Drawn to Life games which I also hope get ported to E-Shop soon, what DS games would you like to see on the E-Shop?

thanks for reading this blog

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Also me and some friends have recently started playing games together so please check out our new YouTube Channel Hoenn Rangers, We haven’t played any DS games yet but I’m sure we will some time in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmN8F6Q-eGOD0gp0anCdcQ

Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii) (2010) Review

March 25, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

With his never ending smiles and insane levels of adorableness Kirby has always been an extremely lovable video game character, so when people heard that Kirby was going to be made out of yarn in his 2010 Wii game meaning extreme levels of cuteness people couldn’t resist picking it up, I also couldn’t resist grabbing a copy but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little concerned with the new visual style.

So was everyone’s favourite pink puff ball just as lovable as a pink fluff ball?

One day in the magical world of Dream Land Kirby is super hungry and is looking for some food to eat and he eventually comes across his favourite snack a metamato, this particular metamato looks very unusual and unlike anything Kirby has ever seen but Kirby is so hungry that he eats it anyway, this metamato belonged to Yin Yarn the sorcerer and after eating it Kirby is banished to another world called Patch Land, here he meets Prince Fluff who explains that Yin Yarn has taken over Patch Land and has hidden the seven pieces of magical yarn that hold Patch Land together, Prince Fluff asks for Kirby’s help and they both travel across Patch Land looking for the seven pieces of magical yarn.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a 2d plat-former but it has a very different feel to most Kirby games this is because Kirby cannot eat things to steal their powers and he cant even fly, this is due to him now being made of yarn so he has lost most of his original abilities but he has gained many more in their place.

With his new light and flexible body Kirby is able to transform into small objects and vehicles when he is in certain situations or when he genuinely feels the need to do so, for example this game does not have a running function but Kirby is able to transform himself into a car giving him twice as much speed , another cool transformation is that when Kirby goes underwater he transforms his body in a submarine using his feet as the propellers to help him keep a steady pace under the water and finally another one of my favourite transformations is that he can transform his body into a parachute when he is falling from great heights and this helps him to reach some of the more difficult platforms as well as too help him find hidden treasures and collectables.

There are also many different opportunities for Kirby to transform into some bigger and more complicate transformations, he can only transform into these other forms if he finds a magic warp circle, these circles of yarn can only be found in certain parts of the game but its worth the wait to find these because the results are really awesome.

My favourite three special transformations are

3. Spin Board

After using the Spin Board transformation Kirby turns into what seems to be a penguin riding a hover craft, this transformation is super fun as its usually used in levels which consist of down hill slopes and fast rushing water, Kirby keeps at a fairly quick speed but he can also jump on enemies which causes him to spin in mid air this tactic is useful as Kirby can bounce off of enemies to reach higher platforms.

2. Dolphin

Being a big fan of the Ecco the Dolphin games on Sega Genesis really helped me get super excited when I discovered a Dolphin transformation in this game, as a Dolphin Kirby can swim quickly and easily through strong under water currents and he can even dash into enemies to defeat them, I love this ability because its really cool and it controls extremely well even though we are only playing using the Wii Remotes D-Pad.

1. Star Ship

This is by far my favourite transformation because I love space shooters, its really fun to become the Star Ship as you can fly through space destroying all enemies and obstacles in your path, I also really enjoy this transformation because it reminds me of games such as Galaga and Life Force.

Kirby can use all sorts of different abilities while on his adventure through Patch Land but in my opinion its not the abilities that make this game stand out but its the artistic visuals that really make game very special, I have not played a video game that has been this creative in a very long time, everything in the game is made of yarn and other fabrics, its really rather beautiful and its a good reason to take your time to explore every stage from top to bottom because you just never know what creative things you may find.

The amount of detail in the game is also quite amazing, almost everything in this game is sewn into the level in some way or form and you can actually see the stitching, the amount of detail in the game also helps to really enhance the game play as some times you will find loose pieces of string or zippers that you can pull to uncover secret areas, you can remove some objects from levels completely by peeling them away as if they are stickers and another really cool ability is that you can unravel your enemy by turning them into balls of yarn and you can then throw them back at other enemies that are in your way.

A lot of people complain that the game is much too easy with no challenge at all, I do agree that it is very easy but saying that there is no challenge does not seem fair to me, the game itself is fairly simple and you wont have any trouble getting through the game as Kirby cannot die, each stage has you collecting beads and depending on how many beads you have collected will determine what medal you will receive at the end of each level, no matter how many beads you collect you will always get a wooden medal but in order to receive a bronze, silver or gold medal you will need to collect various amounts of beads, this may seem simple but be careful because every time Kirby falls out of the stage or if he gets damaged he will lose beads and will need to look for some more.

Another challenging aspect to this game is the challenge modes, through out the game Kirby is able to help the manager of a block of flats build different rooms to inspire new residents to rent the flats off of him, these residents soon become Kirby’s friend and they each have a different game for Kirby to play, whether that’s playing hide and seek, collecting a certain amount of beads within a time limit, carrying some one through a level, killing a set number of enemies or beating someone in a race throughout various stages the challenge modes have a lot to offer and near the end of the game they start to get a really tough.

Don’t worry Kirby also has his own flat which you can decorate to your hearts desire, you decorate your apartment with the various collectable items that you find in each of the stages and you can also buy some of them from the store, you can also change the wall paper in your apartment and again you need to collect these, you collect the wallpaper by completing the challenge modes and again you can buy some of the wallpapers from the store.

Each world is themed and has a set amount of levels for you to complete before you can take on the worlds boss, the boss fights are fairly simple and quite easy to learn but again there is a challenge for you complete, you will notice that as well as the usual medal system the boss fights also offer a prize higher than a gold medal, this prize is a patch and if you manage to collect enough beads to earn the patch you will be presented with two new secret levels that you can complete.

The entire game is based on collecting things which is why the game is not too difficult, the developers want the player to explore each level taking as much time as they want, pulling every piece of string, unzipping every zip, peeling off every sticker and genuinely exploring this incredible fabric covered world and in my opinion that’s fantastic game design, the only complaint I have regarding the game play is that you don’t get anything for 100 percent completion of the game which really sucks considering the game tries to push you too fully complete it.

Just like the rest of the game the music is rather relaxing and it really suits the atmosphere of each world, for example in the snow world the music is cheerful and sounds like Christmas, in the cake world the music is a bit more up beat and fast but you can still tell its having fun its almost has the vibe of a child on a sugar rush, in the cave levels the music is slower and more dark but it also has an adventurous feel to it, the music is just another aspect to this game which really helps it to stand out from the crowd.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is an amazing game and a wonderful experience, with its mind blowing visuals, very memorable sound track, extremely responsive controls, fantastic game play which can be played both alone or with a friend, creative characters and story line and its incredible game design which is only held back by having no completion bonus, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is an artistic masterpiece and its not only one of the best Wii games but also one of the greatest and most inspirational games of all time.

9.8/10

Thank you for reading my review of Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Nintendo Wii

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Birthday Cake M and M’s Review

March 18, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

When I saw that you could get Birthday Cake flavoured M and M’s I was immediately confused because birthday cake is not a flavour, yeah you eat it on someone’s birthday but the cake is always a certain type of cake such as chocolate, sponge, carrot etc, at least that’s how things tend to work in the UK.

One Pack of Birthday Cake M and M’s has

190 calories

70 fat calories

8g total fat

5g saturated fat

0g trans fat

5mg cholesterol

30mg sodium

28g total carbs

1g fiber

25g sugar

2g protein

Vitamin A

Vitamin C

4 percent calcium

2 percent iron

You may not be able to notice in the above picture but compared to original M and M’s the Birthday Cake M and M’s are almost double in size and they only come in a variety of three colours Red, Yellow and Blue

underneath the shell lies the usual Milk Chocolate that you will find inside of any other M and M’s candy but what surprised me the most was the flavour of the chocolate because it legitimately tastes like chocolate cake, the chocolate cake flavour is actually quite amazing because you get the obvious taste of chocolate but you also get a surprising fruity flavour that tastes very similar to the jam that you find in between the layers of most cakes.

Birthday Cake M and M’s really surprised me, I expected that they would have hardly any cake flavour at all and that they would be nothing but a cheap product that M and M’s put together to make a quick buck, but too my surprise there was a large quantity in the single packet I bought and they legitimately taste like chocolate cake.

Birthday Cake M and M’s are great and I really wish that they were sold in the UK 10/10

Thank you for reading my review of Birthday Cake M and M’s

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Taz Mania (Genesis/Mega Drive) (1992) Review

March 14, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Cool a game based on Taz Mania, this is gonna be great………right?

Taz Mania was a popular cartoon series based on the Tazmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes shorts, the show was about Taz and his family and the crazy antics they would get up too, I watched this show as a kid but I wasn’t a huge fan of it and unlike some other shows such as Ducktales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers I dont have many fond memories of watching Taz Mania.

Taz Mania was fairly popular and just like many other cartoons of its era, video game developers started to create Taz Mania video games to make a quick buck but unlike Ducktales and Rescue Rangers whose games stayed on one system Taz Mania had a video game on a whole bunch of different systems including the Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Super Nintendo and the Nintendo Game Boy, unfortunately I haven’t yet gotten around to playing most of these but as a kid I used to play the Genesis version a lot and I remember really enjoying it, but was it good as I remember?

The games plot is simple and straight to the point, Taz and his siblings are told a story about giant sea birds that used to rule over Taz Mania, the birds were so big that if someone was to steal one of their eggs it would feed that thief and his entire family for one whole year, talk of these giant eggs make Taz hungry and he soon leaves on an adventure across Taz Mania to find one, like I said the plot is very simple and straight to the point I don’t mind this because firstly I was not expecting some epic storyline for a video game based on the Tazmanian Devil and secondly this honestly seems like something that Taz would do because at the end of the day he’s a wild animal who loves to eat so the thought of a giant egg is immediately going to get his attention.

The game looks pretty good for a licensed Sega Genesis game, the graphics are not very realistic looking which isn’t a problem because they actually look a bit like the cartoon which is a nice touch from the game developers, it shows that they did research of the original cartoon and as a result both the genesis game and the show have a similar art style which is an aspect that many fans of the show will appreciate.

Graphically the game is very impressive but the level design is awful, the biggest problem is the plat-forming because a lot of the platforms you need to jump to are off screen meaning that you need to takes risky jumps and leaps of faith hoping that you don’t fall to your death, another problem is that sometimes its very difficult to figure out what objects you are able to jump on, this gets very confusing because sometimes you are able to jump on platforms that are either in the background or the foreground while at other times you cant so its not easy to identify what is an actual platform and what is just there for scenery, speaking of scenery there really isn’t a lot of it and because of this all of the levels are very bare with just a few things pasted into the backgrounds, its really not that interesting to look at and its a shame considering all of the effort that went into the games art style.

The game has very tight controls which are easy to remember, you control Taz with the D-Pad while the three other buttons are used to perform the games actions, such as Jumping, Spinning and breathing fire when its available.

The most important ability in the game is spinning, Taz can spin really fast allowing him to knock enemies off of the screen but you must be careful because you are also able to get rid of special items such as lives and health if you accidentally spin into them.

Taz will eat everything in his path and this can be very useful as he can eat enemies, lives and food but you must not eat any of the bombs, if Taz eats a bomb it will explode inside of him causing a considerable amount of damage, these bombs can be very annoying especially when they have been placed unfairly, for example a lot of the time the bombs are placed at the bottom of small ledges and you cant see them until you jump off the ledge and sometimes the bombs are placed behind foreground objects so they are impossible to see which makes it very unfair on the player.

This entire game relies on the player memorising which platforms are safe and where the bombs are located, if the game had unlimited continues this wouldn’t be as big of an issue but unfortunately the game does have very few continues (not including the ones you can find) making the entire experience of playing the game very stressful and annoying.

The levels are very difficult due to bad game design but ironically the boss fights are really easy, this is because when Taz is spinning any enemy that hits him is immediately damaged and this is the same for the boss fights, if you keep spinning into the bosses you are going to defeat them very quickly and very easily, there is one boss fight near the end of the game that is so easy too beat that you can defeat him while taking no damage by just spinning in one spot until he dies.

The music is not memorable at all most of the songs are just loops of very short tunes and the biggest problem is that you can hardly hear the music over the games terrible sound effects, the sound effects literally sound like they came from a cheap collection of Royalty Free sounds and nothing about them or the music is very creative at all, the most unusual sound choice the developers made was that every time Taz takes a step a music note plays as if the entire game is a piano, this sound choice makes very little sense and it gets annoying very fast.

Taz Mania was a very disappointing game, I used to love this game as a child and I remember having a great time playing it, the game has tight controls and sticks to its source material with its very simple plot and and its art style which represents the original show quite nicely but unfortunately bad game design, terrible sound and music choices and for the most part awful game play makes Taz Mania for Sega Genesis a very bad experience and honestly I am relieved that I never have to play it again.

3.4/10

Thank you for reading my review of Taz Mania for the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

A Goofy Movie (1995) Review

March 6, 2015 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

A lot of Disney shows from the late 80’s and early 90’s were very well written and this usually resulted in those shows being turned into a movie at some point a classic example is Duck Tales, Duck Tales was an extremely popular cartoon back in the 90’s and it still is very well known today the show its self was about Uncle Scrooge and his three nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey looking for ancient treasures so they can become rich and the movie followed this same premise making it less like a movie and more like an extended episode of the show.

I watched Goof Troop growing up and it was literally about Goofy being a goof ball, his son Max being in High School and the antics of his grumpy neighbour Pete and his crazy family, so I expected the Goof Troop movie to be the same but longer and yeah it has most of that but it also sends a very important message, the importance of family bonding.

The movie is essentially that Max is a Teenager who wants to move on with his life making his own decisions and learning from his own mistakes, but his Dad Goofy doesn’t want to lose his son so he keeps being over protective while at the same time constantly trying be with Max, Max manages to get in a lot of trouble at school while trying to impress a girl and not long after this the principle calls Goofy and this causes him to organise a camping trip for himself and Max so that they can bond, but the problem is that Max is supposed to be going to a party with a girl he really likes.

Obviously the camping trip Causes Max to have to cancel the date which results in him disappointing the girl, this causes Max to lie to the girl telling her that he is going to be on stage at the rock concert that’s being streamed live over television at the party, the rest of the movie is just a road trip where Max and Goofy attempt to bond and at first things don’t go too well because Max is still mad that he has to cancel his date, throughout the movie this slowly changes and both Max and Goofy start to get along more due to them sharing time together during activities that they both enjoy for example Goofy sits through a vehicle stunt show which he doesn’t like and Max visits a yarn museum which he finds boring but his Dad really enjoys.

things seem to be going really well and then both Max and Goofy fight again, which is great because it shows that these things take time and a few days away together is not going to immediately fix what started off as broken relationship, there’s a really well directed scene near the end of the movie where Max is reading the map and has to decide if he wants to tell his Dad to take a left or a right at a junction where left goes to LA and right goes to the camp site this leaves Max in a difficult situation where he needs to decide what’s more important his relationship with the girl he likes or the relationship between himself and his father, this movie is kind of deep which really surprises me considering that this movie is about Goofy.

I think the plot and the message of the movie is brilliant its not often that we get a Disney movie that isn’t talking about some great danger that’s going to happen, or the murder of someone’s parent or how to become a hero but instead shows an issue that is a reality between a lot teenagers and parents and for that alone this movie deserves a gold medal.

The animation is nothing spectacular but I don’t really expect much considering that this is not a Disney Classic and I don’t think it even went into theatres so this doesn’t bother me too much, the best way I can describe it is that the animation is very similar to that of the original show but with a bit more polish, more vibrant colours, added shadows and shading, more artistic detail and it genuinely just looks better.

Goof Troop

A Goofy Movie

I couldn’t really get into any of the musical numbers as they generally just weren’t that interesting and I don’t feel that this movie needed to be a musical because apart from in the final song where Max and Goofy discuss each others true feelings about their relationship none of the songs did anything to progress or benefit the movie, also I kinda wish that more of Pete’s family were in the movie as they are by far my favourite characters from the show and I always felt the Pete and his family were the cause of a lot Goof Troops greatest moments, apart from that this is surprisingly a really good film that spreads a very important message that I believe will benefit both adults and their children.

If you haven’t yet seen A Goofy Movie go give it a shot as it may leave you pleasantly surprised.

Thank you for reading my review of A Goofy Movie

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Versatile Blogger Award: Seven Facts About Padawan

March 3, 2015 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Big thanks to Tea Tomorrow for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award

Check out Tea Tomorrow here http://teatomorrow.com/

THIS IS AWESOME!!!

Those who read my Blog know that I am a reviewer of media and other random things, by doing this I am able to give my opinion on these products as well as occasionally giving you random facts and trivia about those products, but I bet no one has ever wondered about the person sat behind the keyboard and until now I haven’t had a reason to share some personal facts about myself as well as some facts about myself that are a little bit crazy.

Just like most other challenges the Versaltile Blogger Award does have rules that need to be followed

1) Thank the person who gave you this award, and leave a link to their blog

2) Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself

3) Select some Blogs/Bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly

4) Nominate those Bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award

with rules now out of the way lets begin

Fact number 1 – The review which took me the longest to write was Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 which took me a total of 8 days to finish

Fact Number 2 – I often suffer from writers block which is why some of my reviews take a long time for me too finish

Fact number 3 – I am very clumsy and through out my life I have broken almost every bone in my body

Fact number 4 – One of my talents is singing

Fact number 5 – I studied ICT while I was at College

Fact number 6 – I enjoy listening to audio books, my favourite book is Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M Barrie

Fact number 7 – I commit to a lot of charity work and I love to help others.

Thats seven random facts about me, I nominate

Milk Bubble Tea http://milkbubbletea.blogspot.co.uk/

Loony Literate http://www.loonyliterate.com/

Happy Indulgence http://www.happyindulgencebooks.com/

Thanks for reading this article, I hope you enjoyed reading some random facts about myself and Blogging

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

New Super Mario Bros U (Wii U) (2012) Review

February 27, 2015April 3, 2016 ragglefragglereviews6 Comments

The New Super Mario Bros Series first originated when New Super Mario Bros was released for the Nintendo DS in 2006, old school Raggle Fraggle readers will recognise that I mentioned this game in my top 5 Mario games of all time back in 2012.

I love the original New Super Mario Bros it felt just like Super Mario Bros 3 but with a more modern twist, it had newly improved graphics, more power ups and most importantly a save feature.

Super Mario Bros 3

New Super Mario Bros (DS)

The Original New Super Mario Bros game was fantastic and I still love playing through it today, but I was never able to get into the other games of the series because they felt boring to me and I haven’t looked forward to the series for a good couple of years.

Ever since I got a Wii U I kept getting recommended that I pick up the latest New Super Mario Bros game, obviously I argued that I wouldn’t buy the game but I just kept getting told to play it and it wasn’t until I saw Jirard the Completionist Review the game telling me that its actually good that I gave in and got myself a copy.

The first thing that really stood out to me was the plot, yes it was still the usual Super Mario Bros formula where Mario needs to rescue Princess Peach from the claws of Bowser, but this time there is a slight twist because instead of kidnapping the Princess, Bowser has taken her hostage within her own castle and at the same time he manages to toss both Mario, Luigi and two Toads to the other side of the Mushroom Kingdom, what makes the plot different this time around is that now our heroes need to adventure back towards Princess Peaches castle instead of the usual formula of them heading towards Bowser’s castle, apart from that the plot is still very standard but this does not bother me because I never expected anything more in a New Super Mario Bros game.

Just like the other games in the series this particular title is also a side scrolling platform adventure, in the single player story mode you take control of everyone’s favourite Italian plumber Super Mario on his quest to save the Princess from the infamous Bowser and in the traditional Super Mario style you will be dealing with common enemies such as Goombas, Koopa Troopa’s, Para Troopa’s and Cheep Cheep’s, but don’t be put off by the lack of new enemies to fight because the game really shines when it comes to Power-up’s sure you got the usual Fire Flowers, Power Stars and Mushrooms including some Power-ups introduced through the New Super Mario Bros series such as the Ice Flower and the Mini Mushroom but this time around we are also given a new type of power up the acorn, acorns turn Mario into an adorable flying squirrel allowing him to glide freely across levels with ease.

Mario’s lovable side kick Yoshi returns to help him on his quest, Mario can ride Yoshi which allows him to gain more air as well as being able to take an extra hit, Yoshi can also eat apples that he finds on bushes and after eating enough of these apples the player will be presented with either a power up or an extra life.

Its not just ordinary Yoshi that’s helping Mario on his adventure this time around because you can also get help from Baby Yoshi’s, the Baby Yoshi’s are these adorable little chubby Yoshi’s which come in three different colours Red, Blue and Yellow, each of these Baby Yoshi’s have a different ability which they can use to help Mario get through different situations.

The Red Baby Yoshi can inflate into a giant balloon lifting Mario up into the sky allowing him to float over difficult platforms and too avoid some of the more dangerous enemies in the game.

The Blue Baby Yoshi has the ability to shoot bubbles out of his mouth trapping enemies into bubbles and successfully turning them into coins.

Finally the Yellow Baby Yoshi can be used to light up dark caverns as well as temporarily stunning enemies.

I really enjoy the introduction of the Baby Yoshi’s as they add more flavour to the game and are genuinely very useful, the best part is that they sing while you are carrying them and trust me its very adorable.

This is the first entry of the series that is on a system that uses a HDMI output so it is expected that the game will look fantastic in HD and for the most part it looks really good the graphics are very colourful and genuinely nice to look at, the textures are smooth and the game in general is very nicely presented, the visuals look good but with this being a launch title they should look amazing because this game is supposed to be showing off the capabilities of the Wii U and having visuals which literally just look like the graphics from New Super Mario Bros Wii but with more polish is not going to make the game a system seller.

New Super Mario Bros Wii

New Super Mario Bros U

All of the music in the game is super fun to listen too, it’s essentially the same music from the old games with a more modern twist as its more engaging and upbeat, this kind of music is perfect for this type of game because due to this being a standard Super Mario plat-former using standard Mario music is fine and honestly I am a happy with Nintendo keeping the epic orchestrated Mario music in their larger and more serious games such as Super Mario Galaxy.

There are 8 worlds in the game and each world has a various amount of levels for you to complete, the worlds them selves are nothing new just the basic over world map for a 2D Mario plat-former you’ve got the grass area, the desert area, the water area, the ice area and so on, this does not bother me in the slightest because the levels themselves are really fun to play and honestly I had blast running through all of them, however one world really stood out to me and that is the Jungle Area the levels here are really fun but the back grounds are really awesome and very well detailed, about half way through this world you get to a haunted section of the Jungle and the stages have painted backgrounds which genuinely look really beautiful and this really helps show how creative Nintendo can be.

I was pleasantly surprised with how difficult the game was because in my opinion we haven’t had a very challenging Super Mario game since Mario 64 and I honestly thought that we would never get a very difficult Mario game again, but that’s all changed now that I played New Super Mario Bros U because this game is really tough, I believe this due to the game having genuinely difficult game play but also due to the fact that the player has limited chances to save their progress, this is because just like in the older games the only way to save your progress is too beat a mini boss tower and if you game over before you do this then its back to the beginning of the world.

I am very happy that this game was hard and it felt almost as challenging as the Mario games from back in the day, personally for me it genuinely made the game very nostalgic to play through, the controls are perfect I had no trouble playing this game with the Wii U game pad as it was very comfortable to use and I found the controls to be very responsive to my actions which is great because that means that even though the game is very difficult the controls are not too blame for me losing lives meaning that my only cause of death was own mistakes.

If you do find the game tough then do not worry as Nintendo has added a small mini challenge to the game, a new character has been introduced called Nabbit the Bandit Rabbit, Nabbit has stolen a new type of power up called the Super Acorn from Toad and its your job to run through previously beaten stages as fast as you too catch Nabbit, doing this will reward you with the Super Acorn which allows you to fly as much as you want during one stage but after you have used it you are left with the abilities given to you from the normal Acorn power-up, this new item is very similar to the Super Leaf from Super Mario Bros 3.

As well as Nabbit you can also find the usual Toad Houses which can be used to help you gain more power up’s and lives.

In every stage there are three star coins for you find and collect, if you mange to collect all of the star coins in the game you will get access to Superstar Road which is essentially a bunch of new very challenging levels for you too complete, in order for you to collect all of the Star Coins you will also need to find secret exits in some of the levels of the game, finding these exits will present you with a new path and a new level on the world map.

Multi-player is loads of fun in New Super Mario Bros U, it is essentially the same as the single player mode but you can have up to five players, four of the players will use Wii remotes to control Mario, Luigi and the two Toads while the fifth player will use the game pad to create platforms for the other players and they can also help defeat enemies by tapping them.

From the Main Menu you have various options for extra modes in the game these modes are called Challenges, Boost Rush and Coin Battle.

Challenges- Just what it sounds like you have a bunch of different challenges you can play and unlock, some of these challenges include racing against the clock in time trials, jumping on enemies to gain lives, finishing stages with a certain amount of coins, avoiding fireballs for a set amount time and some challenges require you to create platforms on the game pad while controlling your character with the Wii remote or the Wii U Pro Controller.

Boost Rush Mode- This mode gives you various packs to choose from and each pack contains a certain amount of levels from the game, these stages are now different because they have now been turned into scrolling stages and your tasked with getting through the levels quickly so that you don’t get crushed by the other side of the screen that is coming towards you, as you progress further in each level the faster the screen scrolls making this mode very challenging but also very fun.

Coin Battle- This mode is super fun you and your friends must run through multiple courses and the idea is you want to collect as many coins as you can in the level, you can attack your friends to make them lose coins which you can then try to collect and the overall winner is whoever reaches the flagpole with the most coins in their pocket as you can tell this mode can get a little crazy.

I was very sceptical of whether this game was as good as everyone made it out to be, sure I had few personal complaints about the game but it was still loads of fun to play and it brought a lot of new things to the table such as the Baby Yoshi’s and the challenge modes, New Super Mario Bros U is loads of fun to play and even though it is very challenging this game is a great time for the whole family, but I wouldn’t go out of your way to buy a Wii U just to play this particular title.

Check out the Completionists Review here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmCQ5ZSdShk

I give New Super Mario Bros U a 7.4/10

Thank you for reading my review of New Super Mario Bros U for the Nintendo Wii U

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Grape Kool Aid Review

February 24, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

OH YEEEEAH !!

Grape Kool Aid is just one of the many Kool Aid flavours available, for those of you who don’t know Kool Aid is a very popular American Beverage and is something that I have always wanted to try.

Ingredients

Citric Acid, Maltodextrin, Calcium Phosphate, Salt, Artificial Flavour, Ascorbic Acid(Vitamin C), Red 40, Blue 1

From looking at the ingredients Kool Aid Grape isn’t actually that bad for you, the only things I would really worry about if I was giving this to child would be the artificial flavouring and the Red and Blue dyes that are used.

Kool Aid Grape is not very nutritional it has zero fat, carbs and proteins but it does contain 10 percent Vitamin C and 10mg of sodium, on the bright side it is caffeine free.

I was very surprised to read that there are no calories in the beverage, I’m not sure if the ingredients and nutritional facts are the same for each flavour and I probably wont know until I try another type of Kool Aid.

Making Kool Aid is really easy, the instructions say to pour the entire sachet into a pitcher, add one cup of sugar, add a gallon (four pints) of cold water and stir, however it is possible to make one single pint size glass and that is what I did.

The first task is to add the Kool Aid, I added about 1 and half tea spoons

Next add 1 table spoon of white sugar

finally fill your glass with water and stir the mixture.

Grape Kool Aid is a dark purple coloured mixture that was so dark that I could not see through it at all, the taste didn’t surprise me the best way I can describe it is that it tasted like grape flavoured sherbet mixed with water, the grape flavour is very artificial and a little sour to the taste

I would have preferred real grape flavour as I’m not a big fan of artificial grape but if you like the artificial stuff and are a big fan of grape sherbet then I am sure you will love Grape Kool Aid.

Looking forward to the next flavour

7.2/10

Thank you for reading my review of Grape Kool Aid

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64/3DS) (1998-2013) Review

February 21, 2015February 21, 2015 ragglefragglereviews4 Comments

HEY HEY LISTEN !!!!

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time is the fifth game of the series, it was released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64

People were very excited for this games release due to it being the first Legend of Zelda game to have 3D visuals, when the game got released it was extremely popular among previous Legend of Zelda fans and new comers, Ocarina of Time was known by many as the greatest game of all time and even today 16 years later it is still often considered to remain in the number one spot, it is so popular that it was remade in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS and it was given an upgrade in graphics, general game play and audio, this is a comparison review so I will be using screenshots from both versions of the game.

I love this game, but can I honestly say that its greatest game ever made or even the best in the series?

You take control of Link a 10 year old boy who lives in the Kokiri Forest, the other Kokiri are also children and they are looked after by the forests guardian the Great Deku Tree.

Every resident of the Kokiri Forest will some day get their own fairy, as you may have guessed Link is the only child who does not yet have a fairy, but one day a fairy does come to him bearing message from the Great Deku Tree who has summoned Link to ask him to perform a very difficult task, the Great Deku Tree is very sick and he needs Link to defeat the monsters that live within him so that he can die in peace.

Just before his passing the Great Deku Tree tells Link that he does not carry Kokiri Blood but that he is Hyrulian, his mother was murdered by an evil man and in her final breaths she brought her new born son to the Great Deku Tree and asked him to raise her baby.

After a cutscene explaining how the land that surrounds Hyrule was created as well as the origins of the Legendary Triforce, The Great Deku Tree gives Link the Spiritual Stone of the Forest and then he sends link to go and visit a very young Princess Zelda, when Link arrives she explains that the Triforce can grant a wish of the holder, a good person will make a wish that will bring peace to the land of Hyrule and an evil person will bring chaos and destruction to the land of Hyrule.

Princess Zelda had a nightmare that a man in black armour (Ganondorf) is trying to get hold of the Triforce but a hero in green saved the day, the Princess foresees this dream as a vision and she wants Link to make a wish to prevent Ganondorf from bringing evil to the land, the Triforce is sealed within the sacred realm which is located in the Temple of Time but in order to pass the barrier that protects the entrance to the sacred realm, Link will need to locate the other two Spiritual Stones (the Spiritual Stone of Fire from the Gorons of Death Mountain and the Spiritual Stone of Water from the Zora’s of Zoras Domain) and he will also need to bring along the treasure of the Royal Family The Ocarina of Time, by bringing the three Spiritual Stones to the Temple of Time he can open the barrier by playing the Song of Time.

Once you have collected the three Spiritual Stones and you bring them to the Temple of Time, you will find the Master Sword if you take it you will be transported to the Sacred Realm, when you arrive you are greeted by a sage called Rauru who tells you that Ganondorf planned for you to open the Sacred Realm so he could get hold of the Triforce before you, Rauru also explains that you are now 17 years old and the reason that they kept you here for seven years was to protect you from what has become of Hyrule until you were a good age to take on Ganondorf and to eventually save Hyrule from the chaos he has caused.

Now your new quest is to find the 5 secret Temples (Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow and Spirit) and too defeat the evil within them by doing this you will also find the five other sages that represent the element of each Temple, these sages are important because they will eventually help you in your final battle.

There is a lot to do in Ocarina of Time, the main objective that you have to finish in order to beat the game requires you to get the three Spiritual Stones, beat the two mini tasks,conquer the five hidden Temples, fight your way through Ganon’s Castle and eventually defeat Ganondorf

Each of these tasks is unique in game play and level design

Inside the Great Deku Tree

First dungeon of the game, very easy to get through its not too complicated and the enemies are simple to defeat, puzzling aspects help teach the player basic game mechanics such as setting fire to things and jumping.

Dodongo’ s Cavern

A little more difficult this dungeon requires the player to use bombs in order to destroy fake walls, you will also need to activate switches and use some quick firing sling shot skills to get though fiery sections.

Inside Lord Jabu Jabu

By far the coolest of the child dungeon’s, you are swallowed by a giant fish and your mission is to find the missing Princess of the Zora’s ,the problem is that she makes you carry her throughout the dungeon so the puzzles in this dungeon require you to throw the Princess on to switches and on to high ledges which you will then climb, another puzzle aspect is the boomerang you receive it in this dungeon and it is very useful item because you need it in order to get past certain sections of the game.

Forest Temple

The first of the adult Temples, the Forest Temple tasks you catch and defeat four Poe Sisters, you defeat them by pulling them close with your hook shot and then slicing them with your sword, each Poe Sister has a unique way for you to find them,the first two require you to shoot paintings that they are hiding in with the bow and arrow, the green Poe makes you complete a block sliding puzzle before she will let you fight her and the purple Poe will create copies of its self and its your job to memorise her movements and attack her real form.

Fire Temple

In this Temple you will need to have a very good memory as its very large and is quite complicated to get through, the objective here is to release the captured members of the Goron Tribe who are to be fed to Volvagia the Dragon, this Temple is fire based so you will need to wear a heat proof tunic so you can resist the hot temperatures, by using the hammer you must smash sections of the floor to make them drop to lower areas, you will also need to use bombs to destroy fake walls and in order to free the Goron’ s you must find the switches to open the cage doors, this Temple is quite challenging and may be difficult for new players.

The Ice Cavern

The first of the mini dungeons, the ice cavern takes place in a cave above the now frozen Zora’s Domain, in the cavern you will need to collect blue flames in your empty bottles, these flames can be used to melt the red ice that blocks your path, other puzzles require you to use quick responses to avoid giant blades of ice, defeating new enemies that can freeze Link causing serious damage to your health and a puzzle that requires you to push a giant block of ice across the icy floor in order to reach new areas.

Water Temple

Easily the most hated part of the game, the Water Temple is the first Temple that needs you to use your trusty Ocarina, by playing Zelda’s Lullaby to the stone tablets on the walls you are able to raise and lower the water level, this is a very important aspect to the Temples puzzles because some puzzles can only be solved when the water is at a certain height and lets not forget a fight with someone that old school Zelda fan’s may recognise, since you will be spending a lot of time under water you should wear a special tunic that allows you breath under water. Honestly I don’t think that this dungeon is that complicated but due to you having to constantly switch between your normal boots and your iron boots it does make this Temple very tedious and slow to finish.

Bottom of the well

Another child dungeon, the bottom of the well can be finished very quickly if you don’t intend to finish the game 100 percent, the only objective here is to find the eye of truth (an item that allows you to see through hidden walls and to see items that appear invisible to the naked eye), the eye of truth can be found very early into the dungeon and if you know where to go you can finish it in under 10 minutes, one thing this dungeon does introduce is the Dead Hand which is a horrifying fleshy zombie creature that grabs you with his many hands and then proceeds to bite at you with his sharp teeth, I am sure this gave nightmares to children all over the world because Dead Hands are absolutely terrifying.

Shadow Temple

My personal favourite Temple, the Shadow Temple has the player using their newly discovered eye of truth to help them solve puzzles and to help them make their way across invisible paths and platforms, other puzzle sections include the player having to swap between the three types of boots in the game so that they can get past some of the more difficult obstacles that can be found in this particular Temple.

Spirit Temple

This Temple is very interesting because you need to complete it as both and adult and a child, being the final Temple in the game before your final encounter with Ganondorf it is very difficult, you will need to fight these very powerful enemies called the Iron Knuckles they are huge and attack at you with a giant axe players must be careful because one hit takes away three hearts from your health, the majority of the puzzles require you too reflect light from the sun in order for you too hit these sun switches on the walls, floor and ceiling, you do this by using the Mirror Shield and ordinary mirrors to bounce the light from one place to another eventually hitting your target, this is in my opinion the most complex Temple but it is also one of the coolest.

Ganon’s Castle

So you’ve beat all of the Temples and now your ready to take on Ganon’s Castle and the final part of the game, I’m not actually going to explain too much here just to avoid spoilers for people who have not yet gotten this far, but what I will say is that it’s not that difficult to beat, you will be required to finish trials based on each of the Temples you have already finished these trials are quite complex but not too difficult to figure out, getting to Ganondorf is quite easy because its all one straight path so you wont get lost and all enemies that you encounter are enemies that you have defeated previously, the final boss is very cool and fun to fight and again I wont say much here but I will mention that the final boss has three sections for you to beat before you finally finish the game and the final fight its self is really awesome and one of my favourite final bosses in video game history.

When your not tackling the games main quest there is plenty of other things to keep occupied, you can win a horse called Epona if you win the horse you are able ride it across Hyrule Field and other outdoor areas and you can also shoot your bow and arrow while riding, you can go fishing and certain fish that you catch at the fishing pond you are able can cash in for some really cool prizes, as a child you can help a mask sales man to sell his masks and if you finish this side quest you get a really cool mask that allows you too read peoples minds.

Of course you get the usual Heart Pieces that are in all Legend of Zelda games but collecting them in Ocarina of Time is really fun too do as some of them require you to win mini games or to discover secrets.

Some of my favourite mini games include Hyrule’s Famous Shooting Gallery which requires a good aim and fast reflexes to shoot rupees before they disappear and another favourite of mine is Bombchu Bowling which has the player setting off Bombchu’s (Essentially Bombs that move in the direction you face them at) to hit targets while avoiding obstacles.

One of the creepier fetch quests in Ocarina of Time is the quest to collect the 100 Gold Skulltula Medallions, a family in Kakariko Village has had a curse put on them which has turned them into Skulltulas and the only way they can be freed is if some one brings them Gold Medallions left behind by Gold Skulltulas, these creatures are hidden throughout the entire game and some are much easier to find than others, even though this side quest is not a requirement it is really fun and rewarding because every now again after you have collected a certain amount of Gold Medallions you will be given some sort of prize.

One of the most useful side quests in the game is finding the hidden Great Fairies, these fairies will help Link in certain ways, sometimes they will give you enhancements or spells that can help you on your quest and sometimes they will upgrade your magic meter allowing you to cast more magic before you need to replenish it.

That’s only a few things you can do in the game but I assure you there is a lot more, I have been playing this game for about 11 years now and I am still discovering new secrets and cool little Easter eggs that I never found previously.

The most important aspect to this particular Legend of Zelda game is music and that’s where your Ocarina comes into play, throughout the game you will learn many different songs and by playing these songs you can trigger certain events, six songs in the game are warp songs playing these will warp you to certain locations throughout Hyrule, the only two other songs that are important are Zelda’s Lullaby and the Song of Time as most temples and dungeons have puzzles which require you to play these particular tunes, other really cool songs include the Suns Song which allows you to switch between day time and night time as often as you want and Song of Storms which makes it rain

For a lot of people the games biggest flaw is Navi the Fairy, fans often complain that she is much too annoying and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t agree, the problem with Navi is that her only real purpose is to constantly remind the player of their current objective which can get annoying especially during side quests, she may be annoying but her being there isn’t technically a flaw since you don’t have to listen to her since she will only speak too you if you press the button to allow her too speak, she will alert the player that she wants to speak to them by speaking her famous line “Hey, Listen” but she only does this once each time so its not a huge problem.

With a game this big the controls are a very important aspect and for the most part they are fantastic, with the game being in 3D Link now has more free range when it comes to fighting compared to the original 2D games, Link can now roll, dodge, stab, slice, cast magic and leap into the air to slam enemies with his blade and genuinely the battle system is much more complex here than it was in the older titles, a new mechanic introduced in Ocarina of Time is Z-Targeting (L-Targeting on 3DS) this allows the player to lock on to enemies while fighting this makes the fight more cinematic and genuinely easier to handle, the controls are tight and very responsive to the player, the only real issue with the game play is the camera and this is a problem seen in a lot of N64 games, sometimes the camera goes behind a wall or an enemy and due to this the player cannot see Link which is obviously a big problem however the 3DS version still has this issue but not as much, something I really hate about the 3DS version is the Sheikah Stones these stones allow you to crawl inside of them and they explain how to solve puzzles and they also tell you where to go if you get lost, I can see how this may help a very young player but for me it takes away the sense of adventure and that really sucks.

Visually I think its fair to say that the 3DS game is superior but you also need remember that the original came out in 1998 and for a game that was on the N64 it looks beautiful, personally I don’t mind which version I play because I can appreciate the visuals of both versions but I do feel that the younger generation of gamers will appreciate the more modernised graphics of the 3DS port because at the end of the day they are cleaner, smoother, more colourful and genuinely better looking, also in game text scrolls faster on the 3DS version which is great because a problem I have with the original is that the text scrolls too slowly.

The music is incredible and there is plenty of it, one of my biggest issues with the original Zelda was the lack of music tracks so having lots in this game is much appreciated, every song suits the area you are in and it really enhances the already fantastic experience this game has to offer, my favourite music in the game is the music that plays in Gerudo Valley, I found the audio to be very similar between both versions obviously the 3DS versions was more cleaner and genuinely sounded better due to it being on a newer gaming system but its not so different that I can say its better than the original.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a fantastic game no matter what system you play it on, but I don’t think that its a masterpiece the game is great but it does fall short in some aspects for example the original suffers from slow text and camera problems and the 3DS version has those Sheikah Stones that I really dislike, overall as much as it pains me to say the 3DS version is the better version of the game plus it does also give you Master Quest for free which is something you cant get with the original game.

Ocarina of Time is a great adventure that has warmed the hearts of millions, Including myself

Original 9.2/10

3DS remake 9.6/10

Thank you for reading my review of Ocarina of time for the N64 and the 3DS

By Padawan

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