The SkullBlog

ACTUALLY, IT’S NOT ALL THAT SPECIAL.  I WAS GONNA DO THIS ANYWAYS.  JUST NOW I’M DOING IT IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT’S CAPSLOCK DAY.  SO HOORAY, I SUPPOSE.

THE GAME REVIEW THIS WEEK (OR MONTH OR WHATEVER THE DEVIL IT IS) IS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA OCARINA OF TIME 3D FOR THE NINTENDO 3DS.  SO TO START OFF, I THINK WE’LL GO WITH:

THE NEW AND IMPROVED!

THIS GAME, AS WE ALL KNOW, IS JUST A REMAKE OF THE SINGLE GREATEST GAME EVER MADE.  IF YOU DON’T KNOW THAT, PLEASE GO PURCHASE A NINTENDO 3DS, NINTENDO 64, AND A GAMECUBE, AND PLAY THROUGH ALL THE VERSIONS OF OCARINA OF TIME AVAILABLE FOR THEM.  OR SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT.  YOUR CALL, BUT ONE OF THEM IS A SMART IDEA.

ANYWAYS, AS ANY GOOD REMAKE DOES, THIS GAME HAS NEAT NEW FEATURES!  LET’S PUT THEM IN A NEAT LITTLE LIST SO WE CAN EASILY ACCESS THEM, THEN I’LL GO MORE INTO DETAIL AND SAY WHAT I LIKE AND DON’T LIKE.

NEW FEATURES:

3D-NESS

MOTION CONTROL

UPGRADED GRAPHICS

ALTERED INTERFACE FOR SOME ITEMS AND SOME ITEMS CHANGED FOR LACK OF RUMBLE PACK

UPGRADED SOUNDS

REMOVAL OF GLITCHES

I THINK THAT’S IT, BUT IF I REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE, I’LL PUT IN A FOOTNOTE.  BY WHICH I MEAN RANDOMLY INSERT IT WHILE I’M TYPING.

3D-NESS!  AS I SAID BEFORE, I REALLY LIKE THE 3D EFFECT ON THE 3DS.  IT’S NEAT.  THIS IS THE FIRST NOT-A-FIGHTING-GAME-TYPE GAME THAT I’VE GOT FOR 3DS AND IT REALLY MAKES IT COOLER IN AN ACTUAL 3D GAME.  IT’S COME TO HIT ME IN THE FACE SUDDENLY THAT THE 3D IS DIFFERENT FOR THE 3DS AS OPPOSED TO A 3D MOVIE IN THAT RATHER THAN LOOKING AS THOUGH THE THINGS ARE COMING OUT OF THE SCREEN AT YOU, IT’S MORE LIKE LOOKING INTO THE SCREEN LIKE IT WERE A DIORAMA LIKE YOU MIGHT SEE IN A MUSEUM.  THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SIMILE AND THE 3DS IS THAT RATHER THAN DINOSAURS AND SUCH, YOU HAVE LINK AND SUCH.  THIS GAME IS PROBABLY THE COOLEST 3D ANYTHING THAT HAS EVER BEEN, NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT’S OCARINA OF TIME, BUT ALSO BECAUSE THE 3D JUST SINKS INTO THE GAME WELL AND YOU KIND OF GET USED TO IT AFTER A WHILE.

OH YEAH, FORGOT ONE.  THE ADDITION OF THE MIRRORED MASTER QUEST MODE.

NEXT IS THE MOTION CONTROL.  IT SEEMS A LITTLE GIMMICKY AT FIRST, LARGELY IF NOT EXCLUSIVELY DUE TO THE FACT THAT IT’S A GIMMICK, BUT IT’S A COOL GIMMICK.  I KNOW WE’RE ALL TIRED OF NINTENDO THROWING A GIMMICK AT US AND SAYING, “THIS IS THE NEWEST COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD, JUST GO WITH IT!” BUT THIS TIME, THEY MADE A GOOD THING HAPPEN.  AIMING THE BOW BY MOVING THE SYSTEM ITSELF GIVES IT A NEW FEEL THAT HAS NEVER BEEN EXPERIENCED IN ANY GIMMICK BEFORE.  IT DOES MAKE IT A LITTLE MORE DIFFICULT TO HIT MOVING TARGETS, BUT THE OVERALL NEATNESS OF IT CANCELS THAT OUT AND THEN SOME.

UPGRADED GRAPHICS AND SOUNDS!

I FIGURED I’D SAVE SOME TIME AND JUST MASH THESE INTO ONE.  THE GRAPHICS ARE THE SECOND MOST EPICRIFFICALLY SWEETTACULAR AWESOMESAUCE GRAPHICS I’VE SEEN ON A HANDHELD SYSTEM ONLY TO FINAL FANTASY VII CRISIS CORE ON PSP.  AND THAT GAME ONLY GETS A BETTER SCORE IN FMVS, THE GRAPHICS DURING GAMEPLAY IS ON PAR FOR THE TWO GAMES.  THE MUSIC IS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE IN THE SOUND UPGRADES, AND IT JUST SOUNDS A LOT CLEARER AND MORE REFINED.  NO MAJOR DIFFERENCE, BUT YOU CAN HEAR THE INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE MUSIC BETTER NOW, WHICH I THINK IS A GOOD THING.

ALTERED ITEMS!

REMEMBER HOW ANNOYING IT WAS TRYING TO PUT ON AND TAKE OF THE IRON BOOTS IN THE WATER TEMPLE EVERY FORTY FREAKIN’ SECONDS?  WELL, THEY FIXED IT.  THE HOVER BOOTS AND IRON BOOTS NOW USE THE WIND WAKER STYLE OF EQUIPPING, SO YOU JUST HAVE TO SET THEM TO A BUTTON INSTEAD OF GOING BACK INTO THE MENU ALL THE BLOODY TIME.  GOOD THINKING.  THIS FEATURE GETS A THUMBS UP.  ALSO, THEY CHANGED THE STONE OF AGONY TO THE SHARD OF AGONY.  SINCE THE 3DS HAS NO RUMBLE FEATURE, IT JUST LIGHTS UP AN ICON AND MAKES A SOUND WHEN YOU’RE NEAR THE KIND OF SECRET THAT THE STONE WOULD RUMBLE FOR.  I DON’T REALLY HAVE ANY STRONG FEELINGS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER ON THIS CHANGE.  IT DOESN’T AFFECT GAMEPLAY MUCH, AND THEY NEEDED TO CHANGE IT SOMEHOW, SO I GUESS IT’S AS GOOD AS THEY COULD’VE MADE IT.  WHATEVS.

REMOVAL OF GLITCHES:

I THINK SOME OF THEM WERE A GOOD THING TO TAKE OUT SO YOU COULD NO LONGER GET INFINITE SKULLTULAS, BUT SOME OF THEM AMUSED ME, LIKE PLAYING THE SWORD LIKE AN OCARINA.  HOW DID THAT HURT ANYONE?  I GUESS THERE’S NOT REALLY ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY, JUST SOMETHING I NOTICED IN THE GAME.  MEH.

AND MIRRORED MASTER QUEST MODE!

THIS IS COOL.  REMEMBER MASTER QUEST?  ME TOO.  GOOD TIMES.  ANYWAYS, THIS MODE IS AVAILABLE AFTER YOU BEAT THE GAME ON REGULAR MODE.  IT’S LIKE MASTER QUEST ONLY IT’S GOT ALL THE GRAPHICS FLIPFLOPPED LIKE THE WII VERSION OF TWILIGHT PRINCESS.  IT’S STRANGE TO WALK INTO THE WORLD YOU’RE SO USED TO AND HAVING IT BACKWARDS, BUT WHAT’S EVEN MORE STRANGE IS AIMING A SLINGSHOT WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND.  THIS MODE HAS WON MY APPROVAL, THOUGH, ‘CAUSE IT’S THE SAME THING AS MASTER QUEST ONLY HARDER BECAUSE YOU KEEP FORGETTING HOW TO GET PLACES BECAUSE THE WORLD IS BACKWARDS.

ALL THESE SILLY THINGS MAKE FOR ONE GREAT REMAKE OF ONE GREAT GAME.  A REMAKE THAT ADDS NEAT THINGS TO A GAME WITH A 17 CAN’T REALLY GET A LOWER SCORE, SO THIS GAME STILL HAS A 17 OUT OF 17.  HOORAY!

ALSO, A WORD OF THE DAY!

FORK

–NOUN

AN INSTRUMENT HAVING TWO OR MORE PRONGS OR TINES, FOR HOLDING, LIFTING, ETC., AS AN IMPLEMENT FOR HANDLING FOOD OR ANY OF VARIOUS AGRICULTURAL TOOLS.

SOURCE: WWW.DICTIONARY.REFERENCE.COM

Actually, the third.  Or the fourteenth.  Depending on whether you’re thinking of Dimensions or Dead or Alive.  I’m thinking of both.  Now that my nonsensical intro of doom(TM) has plagued our fine reader, I can actually talk about the game.  RANTIN’ TIME!

Story:

Okay, I beat most of this game while watching baseball, so I’m not really sure what was going on the whole time.  Also, it was kinda boring.  A couple interesting twists, but overall nothing that enthralled me for more than the length of a fight.  Plus, I haven’t actually played a DoA game for like ten years or something ridiculous like that, so I haven’t been following the story of those games, and this one, as far as I can tell, is following the story from at least one previous one, so I’m not really sure what’s going on.  None of the characters really develop at all except for the one that you find out at the end has been kind of more or less the villain the whole game from the perspective of a character you meet in chapter two who doesn’t do anything until chapter four, and that’s not really the kind of story I’m looking for.  I think there were three Dead or Alive fighting tournaments, and you played in one of them from two perspectives in the game, but don’t quote me on that.  It’s hard to tell.  Also, the fights in the story don’t usually have to happen and they just sort of do.  In some cases, there’s literally no explanation as to what possible reason you could have to fight this character who for all you know is just summoned to you for no reason other than the entertainment of Bael, the Lord of Exploding Heads.  Or it could be that he was teleported there by a mistake by Dr. Light trying to put Megaman somewhere and accidentally moving somebody from a different universe to a place that is still wrong.  Thank you, Dr. Light, for inexplicably placing Ryu from Ninja Gaiden into the world of DoA.  Seriously, where’d he come from?  He’s a cool character, but still.  Kinda random crossover.  Almost as random as throwing Solid Snake into Super Smash Brothers.  I don’t think any crossover will be more random than that, though.

Anyhoo, it’s a fighting game, so I hardly give a crap about the story, but it was still strange, nonsensical, and mostly kinda pointless.  6 out of 17.

Music!

I actually noticed the music backing up some of the fights in this game.  It’s nice to have it stick out in a fighting game.  I don’t think I even did any review for Street Fighter’s audio.  There’s a lot of cool tracks if you take the time to listen, and even if you don’t, it melds well into the game.  15 out of 17.

Visuals?

Dear people who worked on this game:

Tanks.

Love Spammy.

I think this is the first game I’ve seen that’s really shown me what the 3DS is capable of graphically.  It’s an early release still, but I think this will stand as the best 3DS graphics for a while at least.  Street Fighter looked cool, but the animation in this game has surpassed my expectations for any kind of handheld system.  I can only hope we’ll continue to see such beautiful graphics in the future of gaming.  Only thing is that the dubbing didn’t usually even come close, and a lot of the scenes had a certain lack of animation.  14 out of 17 overall, 17 when they tried.

Gameplay.

Now the important part.  Fighting games are all about this part!

Overall, the game was pretty easy.  I only had to retry a couple of fights, and most of the time that was because I got kicked down a set of stairs when I looked up for several seconds to watch at an exciting time in the ball game.  I only actually had to retry legitimately on two of the boss fights, but even then only once or twice.

Most of the characters play in a similar style, which is good for button mashers like me.  Still, as you play a particular character more, you get used to the little neat things that are unique to that character, so it evens out.  Also, button mashing is a pretty bad strategy in this game because of all of the quirks to the system.  There’s a triangle of techniques involving holds, throws, and strikes, and I don’t even remember what beats what, but think Rock Paper Scissors.  I also got boned several times because in order to make that kind of system feasible, you have to slow the gameplay a bit, and I just came from Street Fighter, so I was expecting to have constant movement, attacking, blocking, and whatnot with no stopping whatsoever, so I kept hitting the counter combo right as the opponent stood there, and after I was too far into the counter to actually react to anything, they’d kick me in the head.

Despite being slower paced, it is a nice change from Street Fighter.  It’s kind of nice to be able to win a fight for once.  :P

Also, remember when I was reviewing SF4:3DE and I talked about the figurines or trophies or whatever the devil it was?  There’s that.  Um.  Woot?  Whatevs.  And Ryu from Ninja Gaiden.  Whevever that came from.  Again I says whatevs.

So anyway, it’s fun.  15 out of 17.

Overall, it’s a good game with great graphics, marvelous music, and fangorious gameplay.  Actually, I just started alliterating and couldn’t think of a good word that describes the gameplay with a G.  Good and great were already taken, as you can see.  Anyways, I’d recommend it if you’re a fan of the series, a fan of fighting games, or want to challenge me over the internets.  14 out of 17.