Link's Wonderful Reawakening

I know I keep mentioning that February Nintendo Direct, but it was a really freaking awesome direct, man! Demos dropped that day, the Astral Chain reveal, and Tetris 99 for Nintendo Switch Online owners made it one of the best reasons so sign up for the service. Nintendo ended that direct with the divulging of a remake to the fan beloved The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

You have no idea how happy I was to see that Link's Awakening was getting remade. Like many a fan of the game, I love Link's Awakening. It was the first Zelda game I owned, bought with money from my own allowance. I never beat the game, but I still loved it to death for a myriad of reasons that still apply to this splendid remake. We'd seen remakes and HD versions of Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. I'd think that if any of the first four Zelda games needed a remake, it would be The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. I greatly enjoy Adventure of Link but that game could certainly be improved and suffers from some bad design choices. Ditto for the very first Legend of Zelda. It amazes me how much BS fans and critics let that game get away with  either due to nostalgia or because it was "one of the first". As much as I love Link's Awakening, it was not without faults.

Anyone that has played the 1993 handheld or the 1998 DX version knows that as outstanding as the game was, it was limited by the hardware it was on. In this case, I'm talking about the two face buttons on the Game Boy. Being a Zelda game, you amass a lot of items and you could only map them to either the A or B buttons, which included your often needed sword and shield. What this meant was that you often had to hit up your inventory and swap items. Earlier this year I was playing Link's Awakening DX on my 3DS and the constant stopping to change items was very cumbersome. I was reminded how irritating this was once more when I recently began playing Final Fantasy Adventure via Collection of Mana. I had no idea you would have to switch out weapons, magic and items so frequently. Link's Awakening on the Switch has no such annoyances. Link always has his sword and shield equipped and once you get the Power Bracelet, it is always used by pressing the A button. Pegasus Boots are always mapped to the ZL triggers. You can map two items of your choosing to the X and Y buttons so while there is some switching involved in this remake, it isn't anywhere near as bad as the GB and GBC versions and that alone could be enough to elevate it above the '90s versions. Thankfully, the improvements don't end there.

When the game was revealed back in February, opinions were split on the art style. I don't think it was as bad as that of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (a game that has since been praised by both fans and critics for the gameplay and unique cel-shaded visuals), but just as it took time for people to warm to Wind Waker, the passage of time could be needed for people to view Link's Awakening's. Or maybe not because I cannot stop hearing how adorable Link's Awakening on the Switch looks and I wholeheartedly concur: Link's Awakening is disgustingly cute. If it is possible to die from cuteness overload, Link's Awakening could very well be what triggers it. The claymation art style, which is very much in line with the stop motion classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, feels like a natural evolution of the original game's sprites. All of the game's human/human-like characters had black eyes with no pupils and chibi designs and those appearances are perfectly replicated here.

As nice as the more anime-like art style from A Link to the Past is, I think it would have been a great disservice to the game if the gameplay of Link's Awakening went with that style. Besides, even with the chibi characters, they still manage to pull of of myriad of emotions. The shocked look on Link's face when he wakes up in Marin and Tarin's home is but cute and funny. Marin now shows a look of concern on her face in the opening cut scene when shakes Link to wake him to no avail, a look that was not present in the original game. That stupid, goofy smile on Link's face when he catches a fish never gets old. Richard strikes a pose and glows every time you speak to him, giving you a bit further insight on what type of character he is in the Japan only For the Frog the Bell Tolls. Grandma Yahoo smiles as she sweeps and even pulls off a Link when she gets a new broom, holding it proudly overhead. That the developers at Grezzo went that extra mile really makes these characters all the more lively.

Link's Awakening's outstanding visuals are accompanied by a wonderful musical score and sound effects. You may have expected orchestral music for this remake but the game's arranger, Ryo Nagamatsu decided to go a different route. Even without orchestral treatment, Link's Awakening music for the Switch sounds amazing. I've caught myself humming tunes at home and at work. Some tracks even have the original chiptune songs tucked inside of the arranged tracks. It may not stand out as much as the music but the small addition of character voices is one of my favorite additions to this remake. Link's grunts when he pushes blocks is almost as precious as Marin. She is now cuter than ever with the best giggle you will ever hear. (Please forgive me, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Zelda)

In case I have not made it abundantly clear, I love The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on the Switch. You can buy the original game on the 3DS eShop for $5.99 or you can spend $60 to get the definitive version of Link's Awakening. It is a wonderful showcase of how a remake can and should be done improving upon the original in every aspect. If this is your first Zelda game or your first time playing Link's Awakening, please, don't watch any walkthroughs unless you get stuck and do your best to avoid spoilers.

Til next time, kids.

Nintendo Music and the Future of Favorite Tunes

About a month ago, Nintendo started bringing down the copyright claim hammer on some popular YouTube music channels. Among the affected channels were GilvaSunner, who had tons of Nintendo music uploaded to his/her channel. Another channel that was hit hard was BrawlBRSTMs3, a channel that hosted tons of extended versions of game tracks. Said channel has been terminated, much to the dismay of game music lovers the world over.

I'm sure some people saw this coming. GilvaSunner and other YouTubers have had Nintendo music uploaded for years, some even dating back more than a decade. Then, Nintendo comes in and is all like "Can't let you do that, Star Fox." Yeah, yeah, Nintendo owns the music so they in the right here. At the same time, they have not made it possible to listen to many of their soundtracks. Yes, there are soundtracks that can be purchased for Splatoon, Splatoon 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Kirby Star Allies, some of their most recent games and that's cool and all but there are still a plethora of game soundtracks that don't have official releases. Some of the older games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past got soundtracks released that have long been out of print, which brings us right back to square one.

As great a game company as Nintendo is, they still insist on being out of touch with the modern age. Want to listen to music from Taito games from the awesome ZUNTATA sound label? Head on over to Spotify where you can legally stream tons of their game music albums for free.Square Enix has also jumped on that same stream train. This is 2019 and Nintendo still wants to lord their ownership over their properties without giving consumers a way to legally have their stuff. It is so infuriating.

This brings us to Favorite Tunes, a (usually) weekly feature on the blog where I highlight six game tracks and link them via YouYube. Favorite Tunes has been MIA for a while now and that is partially due to Nintendo claiming music on channels. I cannot state how much I love Nintendo music. From the NES era all the way up to the Switch, Nintendo's games have some of the best music in the medium. If Nintendo is going to mass copyright claim YouTube videos that have their music, or in the absolute worse case, have videos deleted, it makes me wonder if I should feature Nintendo music in Favorite Tunes at all. I honestly feel that omitting Nintendo music from Favorite Tunes would be a huge blow to the feature. Nintendo music is used in Favorite Tunes regularly, often times, multiple Nintendo songs. I would hate to do Favorite Tunes without Nintendo Music.

Despite the title of this editorial, Favorite Tunes isn't the only thing that could be affected by Nintendo going after YouTube channels that use their music. Any type of music feature on my blog would be affected such as S3: Sensational SNES Soundtracks, Essential NES Soundtracks (I assure you, those are coming back, don't worry) and other music features that have been spinning around in my head for years.

Nintendo's recent actions also make me concerned for gaming music based YouYube channels. What if Nintendo starts claiming videos that simply use arrangements of their music? There are also channels like 8-bit Music Theory and Scruffv that do videos that go into intimate details about Nintendo music such as What does Mario Music Sound "Fun"? and What Makes Mario Music So Catchy? I don't understand every single thing those videos talk about but I found them to be very fascinating watches and would hate to see Nintendo claim their videos or for them not be able to put out content with Nintendo music.

In his video on the topic of Nintendo going after YouTube channels with their music, Arlo pointed out that The Big N could be doing so because they maybe plan to upload their music on YouTube officially. If they do this, great, I'm all for it. However, since this is Nintendo we're talking about, I expect a lot of music would not be featured. Oh, sure the popular stuff like Mario, Zelda and Splatoon music would be there. The lesser known jams from games like Joy Mecha Fight, Marvelous: Another Treasure Island Adventure and For the Frog the Bell Tolls, all games that were never released outside of Japan? We'd be waiting for Hell to freeze over before Nintendo uploads the soundtracks to those games.

Again, Nintendo is within their right to copyright claim the music they own on YouTube. But Nintendo isn't uploading the music on YouTube themselves nor are they giving us any sort if means to buy their music digitally outside of Pokemon soundtracks.

At the time of this writing, there is still a ton of Nintendo music up onYouTube. How long it stays up there remains to be seen.

In Defense of Game Overs: A Response to RelaxAlax's "Game Overs Need to Die"

The game over screen is the definitive sign of failure. The price you pay for failing to succeed is not only starting a level over from scratch, but before doing so, you're greeted with those two oh-so-familiar words.

YouTuber RelaxAlax, puts out some quality content. If you aren't familiar with him, he's got a whole series called Know Your Moves that dives into the history behind the moves of characters in the Super Smash Bros. series. He and his cat are a hoot. Those videos are the ones that really made him blow up, but that isn't all he's known for. He's also got some well made videos that aren't Smash related. I don't always agree with Alax, and one of his latest videos, Game Overs Need to Die is one of those times where I find myself respectfully disagreeing with him.

Game overs have been a part of gaming since forever. If you didn't get a game over on that arcade machine, how else would they get more quarters out of you? When gaming shifted from arcades to homes, much of the arcade design philosophy was brought to home gaming, including that freakishly hard difficulty and you guessed it, game overs.

Gaming has changed significantly over the decades. Some games don't even have game overs anymore and some don't even bother with the life system. I'm perfectly fine with some games choosing to omit game overs. My enjoyment of Rayman Origins and Super Mario Odyssey was not impacted negatively in the slightest just because I didn't see a game over screen. However, I don't feel that game overs should disappear entirely and the very thought that they should seems very extreme to me.

If you haven't watched the above video, Alax compares the restart time after dying in Celeste and Super Mario Maker 2. Celeste is a room based platformer that relies on quick reaction time and serves up more player deaths than there are blades of grass in your back yard. Because of the design of Celeste, you're thrust back into the action very quickly. The game is a fast paced platformer. Having game overs, a life system and slow respawn time would be counter intuitive to the game's design. Super Mario Maker 2 is a level editor in the numerous Super Mario game styles, which are slower paced games. Yes, you can go fast and some levels can be crafted around speed running and moving at a brisk pace. At the end of the day, while Celeste and Super Mario Maker 2 are both platformers, they are very different platformers,

From the video, it looks like the issue he has isn't with game overs per say, but the time it takes to get back to the game. In most games, you die, several seconds pass and you resume from either the start of an area/level or a check point. Add in a game over to that and that's more time taken up. It isn't hard to see why Alax appreciates how Celeste is always speedy with getting the player back to platforming after a death. Many of the examples he gives in his video of Celeste's brilliance are the reason I enjoyed the game so much, quick restarts included. At the same time, I don't think all games should bring us back to the action within the speed of a finger snap.

When Madeline dies in Celeste, her death is so fast it may was well be instantaneous. The girl doesn't even have time to suffer. When Mario perishes in most Super Mario games, he falls off the screen and a few seconds pass before you get to resume.

Instantaneous death in all video games would rob us one of the medium's best little touches: death animations. Mario has one of the most iconic death animations in all of gaming. His hands are up as he falls off the screen and one of the numerous death/failure jingles plays. Classic stuff and he isn't the only one with a memorable animation. Mega Man explodes into dots when he dies, and that death is so famous that it was replicated in the Super Smash Bros. games. Some game get really creative with character deaths. Take Crash Bandicoot for example. Depending on the situation, he'll either break his spine, burn up, drown, get electrocuted or explode. When I was playing the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, I chuckled at the many ways Crash met his demise and the game had me wondering just how many death animations he had. Sure, seeing Crash swell up by bee stings in Bee-having drove me insane after dying in that level over and over again, but I certainly wouldn't want his death animations to go away completely.

It is true that unique death animations and longer restart times do tick more seconds out of your life but I feel that they give you time to let failure sink in. In the case of Super Mario Maker 2, where there are all kinds of ways to die, one of my greatest joys is seeing YouTubers and streamers react to how they died. Two of my favorite Super Mario Maker 2 videos from Alpharad are Salty Mario Maker and Salty Mario Maker 2: The Terminator. These videos show him trying and failing over and over again to clear some brutally hard levels. His frustration and disbelief over what killed him is hilarious and this is made all the better with Mario's (or in this case, Toad and Toadette's) death animation. I can't help but feel part of the Super Mario games charm would be lost if instantaneous death replaced that loved animation and Super Mario Maker 2 would be a poorer game for it.

The removal of game overs as a whole would strip games of another important puzzle piece: the game over screens, especially those that go above and beyond two words. Who can forget Friday the 13th's "You and your friends are dead."? Or the Grunty taking Tooty's beauty and becoming a mega babe in Banjo-Kazooie? I could go on and on, but I'll stop there. (Read up or more game overs in my ongoing Game Over feature #shamelessplug)

They say that patience is a virtue, but people are not the most patience of creatures. We want everything to come fast and now. However, things don't always work out that way and timing in video games is no exception to that. Do I believe every game should contain game overs? No, of course not, but they should not be eliminated entirely, certainly not just to save us several more seconds.

The Astral Chain Hate Train

I remember that February 2019 Nintendo Direct like it was yesterday. Super Mario Maker 2, Tetris 99, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake. So much good news was dropped in that direct, including the reveal of what looked to be a stellar cyber punk action game, Astral Chain, developed by the action wizards at PlatinumGames. Well, the game has released and the general consensus is that the game is a smash hit. However, everything is not sunny in paradise with.

This isn't the first time Astral Chain has been caught up in a storm of negativity. Why, not long before the game released, the game came under attack by some that hated the fact that you played as cops in this game. Yes, really, that was actually a thing. Because, you know, screw the police and all that, right? As long as the game delivers a dang good time, I could care less whether I'm a cop or a crook. We aren't here to talk about outrage over portraying cops in a good light. No, we're here to talk about outrage over Astral Chain being a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Yes, sadly, this is regrettably a thing.

You may find a few negative reviews from those that have actually sat down and played the game out there on the net, but for the most part, Astral Chain has received overwhelmingly positive marks from fans and critics alike. For those butthurt players that don't own a Switch and wish so badly that the game was on their gaming platform of choice, Astral Chain sucks. 

PO'd gamers have taken to metacritic to review bomb Astral Chain in hopes of driving the game's overall positive user review score down. It really does bewilder me that one would give a game a negative score just because they don't own the system to play it on. I don't own a high end PC nor do I own any version of the Xbox one. Cuphead was one of the games I desperately wanted to play in 2017. In 2019, Hell froze over and Cupead ended up coming to the Switch. Now, granted all cases don't work out like that, but I saw zero point in giving Cuphead a bad review just because I couldn't play it.

Hideki Kamiya, co-founder of PlatinumGames, chimed in on Astral Chain's Switch exclusivity, responding to a Twitter poster wanting the game to come to the PS4 with the following:

Well... it would be great if Mario, Zelda and Metroid came out on PS4, too, but do I hate PlayStation? I'm just a developer who fulfills my contractual obligations, so I don't know, maybe you should try asking my publisher or Nintendo's investors.

With the business of Epic Games and how they've gone about obtaining exclusives, there is no doubt a sour taste in gamer's mouths over that E word. Exclusives games are just one of those things gamers are gonna have to learn to deal with. You aren't always gonna be able to own all of your games on one console or PC. Sure, some games will be timed exclusives, but some will not, especially when it comes to those Nintendo IPs.

As the case was with Bayonetta 2, Nintendo helped fund Astral Chain. Not only that, they helped with the development. It looks to me like Nintendo and PlatinumGames have a very good working relationship with one another. Heck, it was Nintendo that told Platinum to crank Bayonetta's over the top sexual charged antics up to 11. Do you think there is any way the Big N is gonna allow a game they helped fund/develop exist on rival systems? To quote Mighty Keef, boy, that's just crazy. This whole exclusive/review bombing is sure to crop up again when Bayonetta 3 drops.