The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (2007) Review

November 14, 2022October 11, 2022 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass is the first entry to be released on the Nintendo DS handheld videogame system. It is the fourteenth entry in the series and a sequel to GameCubes Wind Waker.

After the events of the Wind Waker Hyrule is flooded and Link and Tetra are crossing the ocean on their boat, they come across the Ghost Ship and climb aboard looking for treasure. On board Tetra screams as she is stolen and turned to stone, the ship vanishes leaving Link floating in the Sea before he is washed ashore on an island and rescued by a fairy called Ceila.

He finds a ghostly hourglass which holds the sands of time and speaks with an old man named Oshus who sends him on a quest with the help of Captain Linebeck to travel the new ocean, defeat the phantom Bellum and rescue Tetra so they can continue in their adventures.

The gameplay is very similar to the average top down Zelda game with hidden temples needing to be completed, each filled with a numerous amount of puzzles and a boss fight, these are each found on islands which you can sail towards on your boat.

Exploring the Sea in this is slightly lacking when compared to its predecessor due to the fact that while you can technically explore freely you can not physically move the boat but instead you draw a path which is then followed via an on rails segment, you can still jump obstacles and shoot down enemies so there is some entertainment value to these changes.

Speaking of gameplay changes I think the ambition to have the game completely controlled via the touch screen needs to be discussed because I have mixed feelings on this.

The use of touchscreen controls definitely had its advantages when it came to combat, simply tapping or swiping enemies worked really well when combined with using the screen for general movement as well.

My issues with this unfortunately came with swapping between items and drawing symbols.

Symbols are used throughout the game for various purposes, the main function is teleportation between the different areas of the Great Sea and finally for accessing certain parts of temples.

I had a lot of difficulty with getting some of these to work meaning that I had to do multiple attempts, the issue I think lies with how they are drawn, I found that I would draw the symbol perfectly and have no luck but if I drew the same symbol in a slightly different way it would work better.

This issue was so bad that at one point that I literally had to go to google to see if I had missed something but no it was just not drawing the image correctly even though it looked exactly the same as what I was meant to draw!

As for swapping items this worked fine enough but I do wish there was a way to apply some to buttons as near the end game it is necessary to swap items in a shorter space of time.

What caught me by surprise was that the game really focussed on the main story and held back on the side content. This worked so much more in its favour when compared to Wind Waker, this time around a longer campaign with a few memorable side quests was a much more enjoyable experience when compared to the repetitiveness of what we got before.

My favourite side quest involved finding a mermaid for a fisherman which would then end with us being awarded the fishing rod.

Other really interesting side content involved secret puzzles, near the end game a maze island is unlocked which gives you time limits to get through mazes which are full of puzzles and obstacles.

The puzzle on the whale shaped island was really unique having to sketch the islands layout based on clues before finally discovering how to open the doors to the Golden Frog King who teaches us about Golden Frog fast travel points.

Mini games are a staple of the series and here we get the obvious target games and bow and arrow ranges but these games now play an important role in how we explore the open sea.

Fishing allows us to catch fish which we can then take to the fisherman to be rated earning us prizes, I loved this as you needed to physically reel in the rod and pull on the touch screen to make sure you didn’t lose your catch.

The other new mechanic is how we use the salvage arm, here we can use a mechanical device to reach the bottom of the Ocean floor and can pull up lost treasure chests, this will result in either parts for your ship or treasures that you can sell for Rupees.

Customising your ship was a pretty cool new mechanic of the game, it wasn’t anything substantially amazing but allowing us to customize our ship did help me make my game unique to myself.

The use of 3D cell shading helps to maintain the cartoony and more family friendly look of the Wind Waker while also helping to enhance the graphic capabilities of the Nintendo DS considering that it was substantially more limited compared to graphically superior GameCube.

There is a large variety of different layouts and colour choices for the different temples but for me my favourite visuals were definitely the boss designs, each fight was unique and visually memorable my favourite was Gleeok the two headed Dragon followed by Bellum in the end game.

The soundtrack takes heavy inspiration from the Wind Waker it still uses the happier melodies help to maintain the less serious direction this chapter in the series was taking, a lot of the music here is somewhat cheerful but can get a little more intense during temples and boss fights but compared to other entries it always maintains its innocence and sense of wonder and even the re-used tracks from Wind Waker such as Outset Island sound fantastic even with the DS’s barriers when it came to its audio outputs.

Phantom Hourglass is a game I feel is often forgotten about by Zelda fans, Growing up I don’t ever recall anyone owning it and everyone played the Wind Waker.

This was my first ever playthrough of the game and I was left really surprised by it, when I first started playing the touch screen controls definitely took some time to get used too but ultimately worked in the games favour minus the issue with drawing symbols I mentioned earlier.

The plot focussing on the ghost ship was unexpected and introducing a new villain instead of resurrecting Ganondorf again was a really great way of making this game feel unique as an entry to the series.

I loved the introduction to touch screen interactivity with the fishing and salvage arm, it made success feel much more satisfying and rewarding

The visuals and audio are both equally as charming and both used the DS to the best of its capabilities giving us some truly fantastic and memorable musical tracks and creative lands to explore.

Overall Phantom Hourglass is to me what I wanted Wind wWker to be because this game really focussed on that main questline and took on a design approach similar to other 2D games in the series, the few side content that was there was lots of fun but didn’t take much focus away from the main goal, it definitely had its problems but for a game as ambitious as this was its really hard to not recommend it, it followed on from a beloved entry in the series that today is often considered to be a fan favourite and while this one has somewhat been lost the sea of Zelda games not only is it worth playing but I would argue that in a sense and only by a small margin I think this one may just be a little bit better. 7.6/10

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The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 2006 – 2016 Review

March 9, 2021 ragglefragglereviews3 Comments

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the 13th instalment in the Legend of Zelda videogame series, it was both developed and published by Nintendo for the Gamecube and the Wii.

It is a much darker and serious take on the series compared to its predecessors and can technically be considered the third game in the Hero of Time trilogy.

The game was remade in HD for the Wii U in 2016, the three different versions vary, both the GameCube and Wii games are mirrored while the HD remake follows the maps of the GameCube and has slightly improved visuals and Gameplay, the mirrored maps are instead included in Hero Mode in the HD version. I tend to play the Wii version myself but all are so similar any will do nicely just note the original GameCube game can fetch a high price these days.

The plot follows the adventures of a young farm boy named Link who is dragged into a twilight realm after trying to rescue the village children from goblins.

Since he is no longer in the light world Link is transformed into his spiritual counterpart, he takes the form of a wolf and is rescued by a cursed princess of the spirit realm Midna, they escape his prison cell and find Princes Zelda who explains that her kingdom had been taken over by Zant the King of the Twilli and she tasks the two heroes with restoring the light guardians and bringing peace back to the realm.

One thing this game does incredibly well is how after the main tutorial area you have free reign to explore Hyrule to your liking, the Kingdom is quite expansive in this game so the fact that you are given a horse immediately is great, I love unlocking the horse in previous games but I think it was a good decision to just let the players use her immediately to traverse the larger areas.

The game does help you a little bit by trying to point you in the right direction but you are not expected to just follow a linear path, the majority of secrets, upgrades and even additional moves are hidden throughout the world with no hints of their whereabouts, if you want to find them “without reading them up online” then you will have to explore and that is exactly how a Zelda game should be.

The temples and dungeons are very challenging as well, this game takes second place for most annoying water temple in my opinion but that’s not a bad thing, you want to get lost and have to figure out where you went wrong in games like this, the previous title Wind Waker had very linear dungeons and in my opinion that took away from the Zelda experience for me.

For me the issues with game begin with the wolf sections, the majority of time as the wolf is ok, you are able to see spirits that cannot be seen in human form and you able to wipe out groups of enemies in as little as one attack but what I really dislike is when you are forced to collect the light of spirits, while this only needed to access three of the in game temples, the sections feel unnecessary and can affect the games pace, a similar issue can be extended to the entire world map, while it is large and impressive large portions of it are empty and can take a while to traverse.

The temples in this game really stand out not for just being challenging like earlier titles in the series but they are some of the best in terms of creativity, while the majority are quite standard with the themes of forest, fire and water the second half are really memorable for taking place inside of a giant mansion, a city in the sky and an ancient tomb.

The new items in this game are fantastic and in my opinion some of the best in the series, highlights are the ball and chain which can take out some larger and armoured enemies in a single hit, the dominion rod which can control statues for puzzle solving and finally the double hookshot allowing you to easily traverse across large and expansive areas.

The 3D Zelda games are known for having great side content along side the main plot and this is no exception, I never did everything in the game and to be honest I never do with Zelda, I only really stick with what I enjoy and in this one it was collecting all of the bugs, discovering the howling stones to get new moves and funding Malo’s shop. You can also collect all of the Poe spirits but I found this a little tedious so I didn’t bother doing this myself.

I have mixed feelings on the visuals here because while it really cool to see a realistic Legend of Zelda game I feel they could have added more colours while still keeping the realism, the game mostly looks depressing with its muddy colours and dark atmosphere and by giving it a little more life I feel it could make it more pleasant to look at and in turn more fun to see and explore.

The music is outstanding even for Zelda which has always been known to have fantastic melodies for each part of the game, the composer Tori Minegishi did a phenomenal job creating such an atmosphere and choosing to use a variety of different instruments to suit various environments and scenes, my favourite track in the game is near the beginning when Link meets Llia at the water, its a very beautiful song which lifts my heart every time I hear it.

So with all of the praise I have given Twilight Princess it might surprise you to know that it is my second least favourite game in the franchise, don’t get me wrong I do think this is a very good game but I think it takes itself a little bit too seriously, the realism actually takes away from the experience for me because there just isn’t much in the game that is memorable outside of the main quest. Apart from the bugs there are no side quests that really stand out when compared to its predecessors even the characters are quite boring with the exception of Malo and the guy who runs the cannon, everyone else is just cookie cutter normal people, The Goron elders are fairly interesting and of course the Yeti couple at the mansion stand out as some of the best in the game but they are part of the main quest, its everything else which I feel is missing a lot of the charm the series is known for. Apart from this it has an outstanding soundtrack, very cool visuals and a great plot, I do like this game but I don’t ever feel like I cannot wait replay it and that really sucks for me. 6/10

I realise my opinions here are controversial considering how beloved this game is but please remember it only my opinion and is not fact, the amount of fans this game has goes to show that many feel differently than I do so please don’t let my feeling put you off trying the game for yourself.

Thank You for all of your support.

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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages (2001) Review

May 18, 2020May 1, 2020 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons and Ages are the seventh and eight games in the franchise, they were developed by Capcom for the Nintendo Gameboy Colour. These games are very unique entries to the series because they are both heavily connected and should be played one after the other in order of the players choice.

In order to connect the games plots after finishing one game you will be given a code to enter into the other game to get the conclusive experience.

I have decided not to discuss many details of the linked versions of each game because while they have some plot differences and connections, It would be quite major spoilers and for the the most part the base game and dungeons are practically the same with an extended final boss.

If you would like to see all of the details of the linked games use the link below

https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/Linked_Game

In Oracle of Ages the Triforce sends Link to the land of Labrynna, here he meets Impa who asks him to move a boulder so that she can listen to the Nayru the Oracle of Ages sing, unaware of the mistake he has made Link helps Impa to find that she had been possessed by an Evil spirit called Veran, Once close enough Veran leaves Impa and possesses Nayru instead.

With Veran now possessing Nayru, a plan to affect time and bring sorrow to the world is in motion, Link visits the Maku Tree who explains that by collecting the eight essences of time Link will be given enough power to defeat Veran pushing Link to travel through time to discover them and save the Oracle of Ages.

You can find the essences of time by completing dungeons that are hidden across the map, these dungeons are very challenging and are packed with tricky puzzles, personally I would argue that these puzzles may be some of the most challenging in the franchise.

New items in this game are seeds, there are many different seeds in the game you find, each of these allow Link to perform various abilities including lighting fires, attracting enemies towards him, awakening owl statues, running at fast speeds and teleporting across the map to different locations.

The only other new item that is important to the game experience is the Harp of Ages, you able to learn multiple songs in the game which allow Link to alter-time and travel freely between the past and present.

During your adventure Link will come across three animals that need his help, A flying bear, A boxing kangaroo and Dodongo that can swim and climb waterfalls. After experimenting with these animals and testing their abilities you will later on have the opportunity to keep one of them as your main companion, this is done by finding or winning one of three flutes in the game. This is unique to both games and your animal companion will be transferred between the two games.

There are many hidden rings in both of the games, by paying for them to be appraised you will unlock the rings ability, these can either upgrade of downgrade various aspects to Links character including but not limited too strength, defence, speed etc. These rings can be transferred between both of the games.

Oracle of Ages has one of my favourite soundtracks in the Legend of Zelda video game series, the music in this game is a lot of fun and really quite creative, it uses a lot of original tracks that suit the game perfectly but it also uses a lot of bit tunes of tracks from Ocarina of time which is one of favourite games ever.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages can easily be considered an almost perfect game, it has a great plot and a really excellent soundtrack but I feel its held back by how its never very clear where you need to be going and a lot of this is because of the in-game map, its not very clear where things are and it can be a pain teleporting across the map only to find its the wrong area I had a very similar issue with the Links Awakening DX but apart from that I really like this game and I think its only fair that I give it a good rating of 9.8/10

In Oracle of Seasons Link finds himself exploring the Land of Holodrum where he meets Din the Oracle of Seasons and Dances with her, during this time the evil Onox kidnaps the Oracle and the seasons of the Land become completely out of control leaving Link to discover the 8 essences of nature to restore balance to the world.

Right off the bat the over-world map is a lot more interesting here than it was in ages, not only would I argue the encounters are better including the trade sequence but a new puzzle element has been added outside of dungeons in the form of seasons. In the game Link is able to find wooden stumps that he can stand on and use the rod of seasons to change the seasons in game which heavily affects the over-world map in different ways, I found this much more interesting than the time travel in Oracle of Ages.

The dungeons in this game are more focused on combat so they are much tougher with enemy placements and have much more difficult boss fights. I prefer more puzzle based dungeons myself but they were a lot of fun here as well.

The Animal Companions are also in Oracle of seasons and have the same uses as before, the game also uses rings that you can collect to enhance or downgrade Link throughout the game.

The game has a stellar soundtrack which is highly enjoyable to listen too and just like Ages it also uses bit tunes of tracks used in other Zelda games.

Oracle of Seasons is just as good as the Oracle of Ages although they are quite different, this one if more combat based and it was a lot of fun. It is a very difficult Zelda game and is a little unforgiving to its players with how difficult it can be at times but with good practise it can easily be beaten. If i’m being completely honest I seriously think I prefer this game even though it has less puzzles, it handled the characters a lot better than Ages and the majority of them had some importance to the game which made the world a lot more memorable and interesting. It is still very cryptic and the map sucks but that is to be expected considering that Ages had the same issues, overall It is only fair to give this the same score a tidy 9.8/10

I held off from playing these games for such a long time because of how they are connected, I was worried I would be bored playing two Zelda games in a row but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this wasn’t the case and they are very well designed and are great fun. It doesn’t matter which order you play the games in but I do recommend that you use the secret code in the second game you play so that you get the true ending. I wonder if they will ever try something so ambitious with this series again, I really hope so but only time will tell.

Thank you for reading my review of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons for The Gameboy Colour.

Thank You for all of your support.

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Animal Crossing an ever expanding series

February 29, 2020April 12, 2022 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Animal Crossing is a popular social video game series where a human character moves to a town or village inhabited by animals, the games are known to give each player a unique experience with every play-through having different villagers and things to do. Players are also encouraged to be creative in the games and every game is able to be played in real time with the seasons and holidays being accurate to real life because of this each game is intended to be played daily until the next entry is released.

In this article we will be looking at all of the main series entries as well as its spin offs.

I haven’t played these games in a very long time so I will be using images from others peoples villages so if yours is on here and you want it removed please let me know at the email address on my contact page.

Animal Crossing was originally released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan, this version was never released worldwide and the rest of us got introduced to the series through the GameCube version which was enhanced with new features and better graphics.

The main goal in all of the games was to pay off a property that you have on a mortgage with Tom Nook, every-time you gain enough bells by selling bugs, shells, fish and other things you collect, you can pay off your home which will make it bigger, you repeat this process until you have the biggest home available in the game.

On a side note you can also find and collect fossils, bugs and fish which can be sent to Blathers the Owl at the Faraway Museum for analysing.

You can have many villagers join your village, they will either stay or leave depending on how you communicate with them, many of them will ask you do tasks for them, in the first Animal Crossing game you could have 15 villagers in your village at one time.

In the game players could, find, trade and be gifted games for the NES, all of these games were fully playable and this idea was really revolutionary at the time.

Two of these games could only be accessed using e-reader cards, and two more were giveaways to certain players, The Legend of Zelda for NES was in the games code but was never put into the final game.

Some of these games could even be transferred to the Gameboy Advance using the GBA link cable.

Using a GBA Link cable players are also able to access a secret island that a character named Kapp’n can take them too, on this island is a hidden villager and special fruit such as coconuts.

The GBA can also be used to create special clothing designs at the Able Sisters shop.

Animal Crossing on the Gamecube is the version I played and to this day I still think its a great game to play over and over again, there are so many cool things to do, there are the NES games to find as well meeting interesting characters such as Tom Nook, Kapp’n, Tortimer and K.K Slider who have all become fan favourites K.K slider is particularly fun because he plays music for you and then gives you a copy of the track which you can play whenever you want giving collectors another thing to collect. Animal Crossing is a chilled out experience but also a really immersive game that is still one my favourites.

In 2005 we got Animal Crossing Wild World for the Nintendo DS, in my opinion there is not much new material here and this is more of a enhanced port of the original game than it is a sequel.

Because the DS used dual screens the sky above the player would move as the character moved making the game a little more realistic and immersive than the original

The use of the DS stylus made certain aspects of the game such as creating patterns and writing letters a lot easier than they were on a controller.

What is consider to be the best new addition was the ability to visit other peoples villages over the Nintendo WiFi connection, this was really cool but you could only visit villages using someones DS friend code and you were unable to connect to a random village. Online was able to be used in the game until 2014 when the service was closed down.

Apart from this there wasn’t many differences to the game-cube version, there were no retro games this time around and apart from online I cant think of any reason why this version would be superior.

Animal Crossing Wild World is in my opinion the weakest game in the main series, this does not mean that its bad, it just lacked new features and it was missing certain elements from the original game and its for that reason why I think it’s not as good.

In 2008 we got the third main series Animal Crossing game for the Nintendo Wii in the US it was called Animal Crossing: City Folk but over in Europe our version was called Animal Crossing: Lets Go to the City.

The base game of City Folk was very similar to the previous entries and not much was added as new content however for the first time a new area could be accessed without the use of a second games system. This new area was the City, players could access this area by hoping on a bus driven by Kapp’n. In the City you can take part in various activities including shopping, getting your haircut, bidding on items and visiting the local theatre, I really enjoy the city area of the game as its a nice distraction from the regular village.

A new peripheral was available with the game, this was Wii Speak an electronic device that allowed you to talk with other players in real time using voice chat. I never owned one of these myself so I am unable to comment on its quality, other devices that could be used with the game were the Nintendo DS, you could use the DS to transfer you character and other elements from Wild World to City Folk and for easy messaging in the game you could use a PC keyboard instead of the wii-mote pointer.

It should also be noted that using a service called Wii Connect 24 players were able to order special items from Nooks Store, during special events Nintendo would release special clothing and items that could be downloaded into the game, this service was shut down in 2013 upon the release of the Wii U.

Even though there wasn’t many new things added to this game it managed to maintain the charm present in previous games, it never tried to over whelm the player with new content and it was clear that Nintendo knew what the fans wanted, with only few extra additions Animal Crossing: City Folk was a really nice entry to the series it was as good as we expected it to be without it being to ambitious.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 it was the fourth game released in the main series and at this moment it is still the most recently available main entry game, the game also introduced players to new series character Isabelle.

The game came with the usual fare of Animal Crossing game-play such as fishing, collecting shells and bugs and selling items for bells but a major change was the player being mistaken for the town mayor, this opened up many new types of game play.

As the mayor you are now able to modify to the majority of the village, you can add new buildings, you can fund projects and construction jobs such as adding bridges and fountains to the town, also as the mayor the villagers will ask you for help in various ways, they did this in previous games but the jobs were never anything memorable and were usually delivering an item from one villager to another.

Another thing you can do as Mayor is ordinances this works somewhat in a similar manner to legal laws, you can use ordinances to control how certain aspects of your village and residents work, for example you could ask for more trees or flowers to be planted or you could change what time the local shops will open and close.

The special island re-appeared in this game, players could go over to the Island to collect bugs and fish not available in the regular village and some mini games could also be played over on the island.

new mini-games were added to the Island in a free update.

Multiplayer returned along with being able to visit your friends towns, the dream suite feature allows players to visit dream like versions of random players towns over Nintendo Wifi Connection, another really cool online feature allowed you to view players homes that you found via the 3DS street pass, you were even able to buy the items that they stored in their homes.

The last feature I will talk about is the sewing machine in the Able Sisters shop, by using this machine you could create QR codes for the patterns and designs you create, other players can scan these using their 3DS cameras to download the patterns.

Animal Crossing New Leaf is one of the best games available on Nintendo 3DS, it changed up the game play while still remaining respectful of its purpose, it was a nice change of pace and its new features made the game more playable and kept players interested with its consistent game play with plenty of things to do.

Animal Crossing Home Designer was the first spin off game in the Animal Crossing series, the game had players designing multiple homes for villagers and trying to design the decor and furniture to suit their needs. It was released in September of 2015.

In this game the main focus is designing homes so there is no mortgages to pay off, different villagers will hire you to theme there homes on specific things this adds a bit of challenge to the game and also encourages creativity and imagination. The shops have returned from the main series however more items are available from the get go and more can be unlocked as you progress through the game.

The game also incorporated Amiibo cards that could be used to invite main series villagers to join parties in the town, you might even get the opportunity to design homes for these characters.

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival was released in November 2015, it was based on the Mario Party video game series, the goal of the game is to make your villager the happiest in town.

In the game players will roll a dice to move around the board and you will see events, depending on how these events turn out you will either gain or lose happy points and at the end of the game the player with the most happy points wins.

The game gave us animal crossing amiibos, by scanning these amiibos into the game you could then play as those characters, you could also scan amiibo cards to play some minigames with your friends.

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp is a free to play mobile game that was released Worldwide for android and IOS in November 2017.

Surprisingly this mobile version of the series is not much different to the main series games that we have come to love, the biggest difference was that it was based on building a campsite instead of a village but apart from that the core game-play remains almost the same, I personally think that this game had much more memorable events and holidays as some of these were based on other Nintendo series.

Like similar games on mobile, the core game is free to download and play but things take a long time to build and require a lot of patience however if you are feeling up to it you can use real currency to purchase Leaf tickets to speed up the process, the tickets can also be used to build things that you may not have the correct materials for.

The Latest main series title Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released for the Nintendo Switch on March 20th 2020.

In the game players need to choose an Island layout before being shipped to that Island, from here a naming ceremony is held along with a bonfire party, this part of the game is mandatory and is the only time the game is not following real time. Once the player goes to sleep real time and seasons will start and the Animal Crossing experience will begin.

A really fun crafting system has now been introduced to the series, players are able to gather materials from trees, rocks and other things in the game to combine and make furniture, new tools and decor, special recipe cards can be discovered or traded allowing players to add more craft-able items to the list.

The staple Bell Currency is back as usual however this time it is joined with a new type of currency called Nook Miles, Nook Miles allow you to purchase special items and updates to your game, this includes visiting new islands, upgrading item storage and general enhancements to the experience of the game. You gain this currency by finishing special tasks acting in a similar way too an achievement system, along with main nook goals special daily goals are available as well.

Late into the game, players can unlock an Island Designer mode, this mode allows the player to edit their islands by removing specific terrain or creating rivers and cliffs, this allows a serious amount of customisation in the game.

The game can bug although this does not happen, there is a rescue service option available which can help the player in these circumstances by spawning them back at their house, it does cost 100 Nook miles to use.

Swimming was introduced to Animal Crossing: New Horizons allowing players dive for deep sea creatures a new addition to the museum.

The last thing I feel needs to be mentioned here is the lack of Mr Resetti, for those who don’t know, Mr Resetti is a frequent character in the series who would scold a player when they forgot to save their game or when they reset their town, the character has been removed from New Horizons due to the Auto Save system.

In 2021 fans were given a major update to the game which brought back fan favourite characters, Brewster returns along with his cafe.

Cap’n is back and can take players to random mysterious islands where they can find unusual materials that are more difficult to find otherwise.

Harvs Island upgrades to allow us to open stores and make special sets for his photography.

General updates such as new ways to use the camera, group stretching activity were added, new ways to upgrade your home decor and general design and more items have been added to purchase via nook miles. We can now also add lighting and decoration to our roofs and for the first time in the series history we can cook using different recipes.

An finally Gyroids have returned and can now be customised to fit your tastes.

Happy Home Paradise is a new Animal Crossing designer game that was added as a DLC to the base game, this is an entire game on its own but only can only be accessed if you own a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The game is very similar to Happy Home Designer and has a similar premise of creating homes for different animal residents and trying to build the houses to match the required theming for each client.

You do get paid for your work but only in a currency that can be spent on the design island however these furniture and clothing items can be taken to your own island and are each unique to those who own the DLC.

And that is where we are left with the Animal crossing series to date, I find it hard not to love this series for its simplicity, cuteness and relaxed atmosphere, I will update the new horizons segment if major updates are added but for now we will continue this series with the next games release.

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

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Review

July 19, 2019July 15, 2019 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the third installment to Nintendo’s popular action-adventure series of video games. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991 in Japan and 1992 in the USA and Europe.

The game begins with our hero waking up after being communicated to by Princess Zelda in a dream, Zelda tells Link that she has been locked in the dungeons of Hyrule castle.

Links Uncle is preparing to rescue the princess demanding that Link does not follow him to the castle, Link ignores his uncles command breaks into Hyrule Castle where he finds his Uncle mortally wounded, he hands link his sword and shield before he dies and Link is left to rescue the Princess.

After rescuing Zelda and escaping to the sanctuary a priest tells Link of an evil wizard called Agahnim who has taken over Hyrule and is planning to break an ancient seal in order to release Ganon. Link is sent to find the Master Sword and rescue seven maidens who can help him to defeat Agahnim before its too late.

In a similar manner to other Legend of Zelda games, you will need to travel far across the land of Hyrule on your quest, you will traverse many different terrains, discover hidden villages, conquer dungeons and meet many characters along the way.

New items were introduced in this game including the Hookshot, the Pegasus boots and even the Master Sword!!.

In the game Link can travel between two realms, the light world and the dark world, each realm is an alternate reality and they both have unique dungeons and area layouts.

The Puzzles are really fun here and they require a lot of thought to figure them out, the game is also full of really cool secrets and hidden mini-games that you can play. In a way this is the Zelda game that really nailed the formula for what Zelda games would become.

The visuals are outstanding, the artistic realism that was put into the game really helped to make the experience of the game much more immersive, magnificent and in some parts scary.

In general the visuals are some of the best you would ever see on the Super Nintendo and no game in the series was as impressive from a visual perspective as this one was and the only exception in my opinion is Breath of the Wild which also pushed its system close to its graphical limits.

The Super Nintendo had a fantastic sound chip that was able to produce some wonderful and memorable video game soundtracks, a Link to the Past is no exception and its music composed by Koji Kondo is one of my favourites from the Super Nintendo library.

The Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past is one of greatest video games ever made, it by far made up for the disappointment that was Zelda 2 and it helped to shape the Zelda series into what it is today.

The game is fairly flawless, It can be very difficult at times but with enough practice and by finding the many secrets hidden across the map you will eventually survive its difficult dungeons, puzzles and boss battles.

Its one of my favourite Super Nintendo games and while its not my favourite game is the series it is definitely one of the best 10/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Thank You for all of your support.

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

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (1987) Review

November 5, 2018September 24, 2018 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Ooh a sequel to the legend of Zelda, I cannot wait !!

Zelda 2 the Adventure of Link is the weirdest Zelda game I have ever played, it was the second game released in the franchise and is considered to be the black sheep of the Legend of Zelda series, so without further ado lets check out Links second adventure.

After destroying Ganon in the first game, it is revealed by Impa that Princess Zelda has had a sleeping curse cast on her and will only awaken when the seal protecting the triforce of wisdom is broken, Link can only break the seal by placing six crystals into statues hidden in palaces across the land.

The game has an over world which is kind of similar to most of the 2D Zelda games although I wouldn’t expect to be finding too many secrets here if I was you, I found the over world to be quite bare with it mostly being used for grinding Experience Points and traversing between areas..

Zelda 2 an action adventure 2D Plat-former with RPG elements, this was definitely a risky direction to take the series and thankfully it didn’t stick because while this game isn’t necessarily bad, if its game style became the series staple we may not have the amazing Zelda games we have today.

When traversing the over world Link can be forced into action platforming sections which require him to defeat enemies in order to gain experience points which can be used to upgrade his health, magic or strength once he levels up.

Through out the game you can find many towns which can be used to heal, restore magic and to find wizards who can teach you spells, in order to find these wizards you normally have do something for example one wizard requires you to find a magic mirror and another requires you bring the wizards daughter a trophy you can find in a cave at the start of the game.

The palaces have Link defeating enemies, collecting keys and opening doors in order to find the statues however in traditional Zelda fashion the palaces are tricky to traverse but with the platforming game style this feels more like a Metroid game in my opinion, at the end of each palace you must fight one of the very creative and difficult boss fights before finding the statues and handing over a crystal.

Zelda 2 the Adventure of Link is an ok adventure game but it is far from a good Legend of Zelda title in my opinion, the biggest issue I have is that the games difficulty is unfair, there is a lot of grinding to do if you want any chance of finishing it, areas such as death mountain are too long with few power ups to help you survive and every time you get game over you are sent back to the first screen of the game, on a lighter note the game has a nice soundtrack, colourful and fantastic visuals and responsive controls but apart from that this is one Zelda game you could quite happily skip unless you really want to play it. 5.5/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Thank You for all of your support.

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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

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

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 (NES) review

June 19, 2013January 31, 2015 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Before I begin this blog I would like to apologise for my lack of blogs over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot on my mind recently and this has caused me to really not be in the mood or in a comfortable atmosphere to write decent blogs or reviews.

Over the years we have had a lot of very impressive Nintendo titles especially from my personal favourite series The Legend of Zelda. As much as the series is still really fun I do sometimes feel that the games are losing the sense of adventure the original games had to offer and this really sucks because gamers of our generation are not experiencing the Zelda games the same way a lot of us did when we was younger, due to this I feel that most gamers don’t realise just how far back the Zelda video game series goes. So today I want to share my experiences and adventure I had when I first played The Legend of Zelda for the NES.

First of all I think this is a good time to mention that the Legend of Zelda is one of the very few NES games which allowed players to save their data and trust me in this game having the feature is definitely useful as the game can take a long time to beat the first few times. This is due to the massive size of the over world which I find to be very impressive especially for an NES game.

This game got a lot of advertisement when it first came out but the most noticeable advertisement was a rap, this video is hilarious but take note when the cool kid says “Woah nice graphics”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI3rO3PbYOo

Now don’t get me wrong It think the game looks great, there is plenty of enemies to fight and I can happily say that with the NES having a limited colour palette I think Nintendo did a really good job in the colour department. The graphics actually do look smooth in some areas of the game but as much as I really like the enemy colour palettes, I do wish there more variety on colour in the dungeons and over world because this game does suffer from a similar issue to the original Super Mario Bros where the colours and environments do seem to repeat themselves a lot of the time, but that may be because the game is meant to confuse player in order to give them a bigger sense of adventure.

Speaking of enemies some of my favourites include

Darknuts

Ghini’s

Ghibdo’s

Keese

Ropes

And the creepy but very mysterious Pols Voice

A little fact about Pols voice: Pols voice are afraid of loud noises, in the European and USA version of the game nothing could be done to scare the Pols voice but in the Japanese version the player could make a noise into the Famicoms Microphone to stun the Pols voice.

These are just a few of the enemy names, as you can tell it is all a bit weird but Nintendo obviously liked this Idea because they kept the enemy names for future titles.

The music in this game is very good, but I do feel that just like the original Super Mario bros that it lacks music tracks. I may be being nit picky here but I find the music to get very annoying especially the over world music as this is the music you mostly hear in the game. To my knowledge the game only has three tracks not including the end credits the over world theme, the dungeon theme and Ganons dungeon theme.

Throughout the game the player will need to find specific items in order to proceed throughout the world and these items are not always so easy to find because most of them require link to bomb a wall but there is no indication of what walls to bomb so a lot of time it will be trial and error.

The game consists of 8 dungeons before you can finally take on the final dungeon to face the final boss.

As an old school gamer I have played most of the classic Nintendo games but personally I find this to be one of my favourites to play through time and time again. The sense of adventure this game provides is amazing. I highly recommend this one to any old school gamers but chances are that most of you have already played this game and if so why not boot your old Nintendo’s and play it again.

A little Fun Fact: Did you know that The legend of Zelda was inspired by Walt Disney’s Peter Pan. Pretty cool right

Hope you enjoyed this review

This review was written by Dan (Padawan)

Snow Sculptures of videogames

December 18, 2012December 18, 2012 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

With Christmas so close now it only seems appropriate to do some Christmas related blogs. Christmas is quite an amazing day it is the birth date of Christ if you believe in that stuff and it is also a great time to get together with family, Open presents and maybe build a snowman or two. Everyone has built a snowman at least once in their lives but have you ever built a snowman of some of your favorite videogame characters because I sure haven’t. To start off the Christmas blogs and simply because I’m a nerd I have decided to choose 5 video game series and find my favorite snow sculpture I can find (all thanks to Google Images) for each of my chosen videogame series. The series I have chosen are Super Mario, The legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Kirby and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Yoshi

This wonderful Yoshi sculpture was actually part of an entire snow Mushroom Kingdom but I wasn’t able to show the others because they can only be viewed on flikr due to copyright which is fair enough. The rest of the sculptures include a Mario, Toad and a Koopa shell. Since I would have loved to have uploaded all if the images in the blog I will include a link which you will find underneath this part of the blog. I did find that my favourite sculpture was the Yoshi because the detail is almost perfect and you can see that it took the creator a long time to make the Yoshi alone and as well as creating the other sculptures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgosling/4339007247/

The Triforce

These men are geniuses don’t make a snow sculpture of Link or Zelda no make a snow sculpture of the most important thing in the entire Legend of Zelda universe the Triforce. I really like this snow sculpture you can see that a lot of effort went into it and from the picture I gather they only just finished and its night time now that’s some nerd dedication. There is truly nothing off putting about this sculpture apart from what appears to be a dog turd underneath it but that doesn’t count.

Rayquaza

Out of all the Pokémon snow sculptures I could find this one had to make the list because it is the most bad ass and best looking one I could see. This snow sculpture is of Rayquaza one a legendary Pokémon from Pokémon emerald.

Kirby

Ok so maybe this one is not as impressive as the other snow sculptures so far but it is the best Kirby snow sculpture I could find and it’s not that bad they got the body shape and the face right plus they even coloured the eyes and mouth in black to help give it more of a Kirby look and before you say Kirby is meant to be pink Kirby, Kirby was originally white and snow is also white so yeah a white Kirby but it’s still awesome.

Sonic the hedgehog

Sonic the hedgehog was the first video I ever played so only feels right for a snow sonic to be in this blog. I really like this sculpture because even without much of the detail the sculpture still looks really awesome, although it is worrying me that the snow is yellow let’s just hope that it is caused by street lights and not the other cause of yellow snow.

I hope you enjoyed this blog

This blog was written by Dan

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Tag: The legend of Zelda

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