Legend of Zelda: A Look at the Past

By @hmsbeefnuts

When I looked at the best Mario Games last week, I realised that if I didn’t write something about the other Nintendo superstar, Link, I would not be able to sleep at night. Well, I would obviously, I’m not that bothered really, but, it felt like it should be done anyway. I thought instead of just writing a Top 5 games, I would shift focus and do a Top 5 Moments. Ahhhh I bet you didn’t see that coming did you? Flipped it on you. Moments are what the Zelda games are made of. There are moments in the game that stand out as not only the best bit of the game in question, but stand out as some of the best moments in gaming as a whole. Now it must be remembered that this is a personal blog, filled with my opinions, and surely you will not all agree with my choices, I’m sure you will have some of your own, but I think we could all agree, if you have played it, that these moments are some of the finest in gaming history. So without further ado, here they are…

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS: LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST

This was the first Zelda game I played. I can remember opening the box and looking at the colourful map that came with it. This was a new type of game for me, in many ways it was everything that I had wanted from a game, but didn’t, at that point, know was possible. As I loaded the game into my SNES, I was excited as the title screen came up, as the preamble took place, and the game proper began, I was blown away. Link (I always called him Link, or Conan) was trying to sleep in bed, his Father suddenly has to leave, and an adventure begins. There was so much promise in this beginning, the rain, the lightening, the music, all played their part. No one did games like Nintendo back then, and this is still, to this day, one of my favourite moments in gaming.

THE LOST WOODS: LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST

Another moment from one of the greatest games of all time. For me, this is all about the music, I loved the lost woods theme, and would wander there just to hear the music. The mysterious fog, the secret paths, and of course, the Master Sword. Pulling the Master Sword from it’s pedastal for the first time was a great moment, one that would be repeated later in other games. It is the music though that is most memorable for me here though, Zelda music is always great, and this is one of my favourite tunes.

GROWING UP: OCARINA OF TIME

Ocarina of Time was the first forray of the Zelda franchise into 3D, and it was a spectacular first attempt. Now usually in the top 3 of any Best Video Games of All Time List, Ocarina is a game filled with moments, and the best moments of gaming history. You start the game as a child, three quests later, and you are ready to step into the body of adult Link. But how is this achieved, well, by heaving the Master Sword from it’s stone plinth in the Temple of Time. This is the Sword in the Stone myth, the King Arthur Myth, and it was a genuinely thrilling moment, even though in practice I just pressed a button. Suddenly Ocarina of Time felt like a different game, a more adult game, all with a simple press of a button. What a moment.

RIDING EPONA: OCARINA OF TIME

This has to be one of the greatest moments in gaming history, and one that I had been waiting for,for seemingly ages. Link on horse back, was my Knight fantasy in a game. Riding over Hyrule field on your noble steed, what a rush. I don’t think I need to say too much more about this one, it’s a simple pleasure, but a pleasure none the less.

TITLE SCREEN: WIND WAKER

I was initially a bit sceptical about The Wind Waker. Why did it look so weird? Boy was I wrong. Wind Waker now looks just as amazing as it did back then, and I started to realise this from the moment I popped the disc into my Gamecube. That title screen, the Disney level visuals, and the music. The music was unbelievable, this is some of my favourite game music to this day, so relaxing, so cheerful, so full of the promise of sea based adventure. No one does this stuff as well as Nintendo, sit back, and take a listen, I bet you play it more than once.

There we are. My favourite Zelda type moments. I’m sure there are a million more I haven’t included, and if you feel I have been lax, please feel free to tell me about your favourite moments in the comments below. Until next time HEY LISTEN!!!

ALL GEEK TO ME’S CELEBRATION OF MARIO

By @hmsbeefnuts

Oh Mario, you have been around seemingly all my life, providing some of the greatest games known to man, inventing numerous genres and sub-genres and killing literally thousands of turtles and mushrooms by jumping on their heads. I love Mario, I love Mario games, and it occurred to me that I haven’t really written a great deal on plumbing in general, and Italian Plumbers specifically. Now it must be said, in recent times I haven’t kept up with the adventures of Mario. I don’t own a 3DS, although I really want one, and thanks to the fact I fell out of love with the Wii, the last Mario game I played was New Super Mario Bros, which I absolutely loved. Time then to write a little something something about Mario, and what better way than a Top 5 Mario games? Before we start, how about we step back in time with a look at the intro to the Mario cartoon, good times…

SUPER MARIO BROS

Not the first Mario game, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros had come before, but this was the game that revolutionised platforming as we knew it. A magical world, of pipes, killer mushrooms, turtles, toadstool people, a beautiful Princess, and dangerous fire breathing monsters, and of course, a portly Italian Plumber called Mario Mario. Created by the great Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario Bros is a stone cold classic and is the first game I played on a Nintendo Console, and put every game I had thus played in the shade.

Jumping, running, smashing turtles heads in with your feet, or burning mushrooms to death with the fire flower power up, Mario is fun for all ages, and is still fun, the first, or thousandth time you play. Do you know where the warp pipes were? Where the secret extra life was in the World 1-1? Then there was the music, what amazingly catchy tunes, it is no surprise my message and email tones on my phone are all Mario sounds. This game established Nintendo as place where dreams and adventures could come true, in your living room or bedroom, and you could play them, and it was awesome. Save the Princess, win the day, oh what’s that? Your Princess is in another castle? Good, more levels to explore and turtles to smash.

SUPER MARIO BROS 3

The first Mario was genius. Read about it above, but what started as a fine idea, and a fine game, was perfected in this sequel. Super Mario 2 was a bit of a departure for the series, as it was based on a game called Doki Doki Panic with altered sprites. SMB3 was a return to form and a game so bursting with ideas I can barely conceive of a way they managed to cram it all on to the humble NES. For the first time, Mario was able to fly, unaided by transport, by use of a leaf, which obviously turned Mario into a part plumber, part raccoon hybrid, that could obviously fly by running fast and wagging his tail, perfectly sensible.

The fire flowers and mushrooms were back, but now we had frog suits, that made swimming a breeze, or the hammer suit, that turned Mario into a hammer throwing maniac, dealing death to all enemies that dared defy him. Also, Mario could ride around in a gigantic green clockwork boot, mental, but in a way that was genius, like Batman. This game was simply the best thing on the NES, and that is saying something. It defined Mario as the leader and innovator for all video games, and proved that blue hedgehogs absolutely suck, no matte how fast they can go. The finest 8-bit platformer there will ever be, and one of the finest games committed to cartridge, you must play it.

SUPER MARIO WORLD

With the dawn of a new console generation, a new era of Mario began. How could Nintendo top the amazing success and quality of SMB3? Well, make everything bigger and better, with better graphics and sound, with more power ups, secrets and surprises, and one more thing… you can ride a bloody dinosaur, that can eat all enemies. Yoshi was a stroke of genius. The sexually ambiguous green dinosaur was a whole host of fun, gulping enemies, spitting fireballs, or even growing wings like some sort of lizardy pegasus.

Bowser was back, and once again had taken Peach, and that son of a bitch was going down, if it was the last thing Mario did. The game was a whole lot bigger and better, with genius level design, fiendish secrets and a map world that was almost as fun as the actual levels. The power ups were down significantly in this game, however, al the favourites reappear. Leaves are out, feathers are in, and this time, Mario has a cape, like Superman, but yellow. SMW is one of the best games ever made, and is as fun to play now as it was back in the day.

SUPER MARIO KART

Mario has appeared in countless different genres in his time, but this game was the one that convinced me that he could do far more than just murder mushrooms mercilessly. Mario Kart on the SNES is one of the greatest multi-player games ever made. Countless hours, and days, and probably weeks have been spent playing Battle Mode, or trying to beat a time trial time, or racing the Grand Prix a few hundred times. This game brought the good guys and bad guys together for a few races around the mushroom kingdom, or a friendly game of battle mode.

A great racing game, with great power ups, who hasn’t thrilled to a brilliant bank shot from a green shell? Or a last second shot from a red homing shell, separating first and second? Tactical and fun, Mario Kart is a great way to pass an afternoon, or a morning, or all night. There have been other iterations, but this is perhaps the purest and as the first, it deserves its place in the annuls of history.

SUPER MARIO 64

I simply could not believe that Nintendo was going to allow me to play as Mario in a 3D environment. Until I played it. Then I couldn’t believe how amazing the game was. This is in my top 10 games of all time, no doubt. Everything that made Mario games so awesome and magical in 2D, was transferred perfectly into 3D worlds that, although a bit blocky now, were amazing back then. From the first few minutes running around Peaches’ Castle, to the last epic showdown with Bowser, this game was one of the most fun games out there.

I still enjoy a little run around every now and then through my favourite worlds, shell surfing, cannon firing, riding on the back of gigantic plesiosaurs, this game has a little something for everyone. Still, in my view, the greatest 3D platformer ever, you must play this game.

So there we are, 5 of my most favourite Mario games, that everyone should have a go at, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

SUMMER KNIGHTS: BEST BAT VIDEO GAMES

By @hmsbeefnuts

 Lets face it, video games based on licensed properties are usually a big bag of dog vomit. There are exceptions of course, for every piece of shit like Superman 64, we have a Goldeneye 007. As we are knee deep in the glory that is AGTM’s Summer Knights, it falls to me to write about the greatest Batman video games of all time. Obviously there are two that I could not fail to mention, and don’t worry, they are included, but there are also 3 more on the list, so lets check them out immediately shall we?

BATMAN – NES

 

A  fun  little platformer that I can barely remember, except to say that it was mega fun to play. I never owned this game for some reason, but played it over a friends house a lot. OK so the graphics are nothing to write home about, but nothing looks good on the NES these days. Joker was the main bad guy to take down, and I seem to remember the game reminded me of Castlevania, which can not be a bad thing really, can it?

BATMAN RETURNS – SNES

 

The kind of beat em up that they just don’t make any more. The graphics were beautiful, and unbelievable at the time. The fighting which was fun, especially the grab two bad guys and smash their heads together, was spread out between fun mode 7 batmobile sections. Good use of the grapple gun as well. I don’t care for the movie, but the game is awesome, and I would play it all through right this instant.

LEGO BATMAN

 

You either love or hate the Lego games, as they are all pretty similar, no matter what property they are representing. Batman Lego drew me back to Lego Games after I had had enough of Star Wars Lego. They are basically collect em ups, sometimes are very frustrating, but for some reason, they are quite addictive. I’m currently playing through Lego Batman 2, and the added Justice League members have made it a little bit more exciting. At the very least, these games are dripping with Batman-ness.

BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM

 

The best Batman game released at the time, Arkham Asylum wasn’t just a great Batman Game, but a fantastic game in its own right. What Rocksteady managed to do was finally get Batman right. The combat was awesome, but they also got Batman’s brain. As the worlds greatest detective, Batman isn’t just a meat head who punches people, this game got it so right. Just bashing bad guys with fists won’t do you much good anyway, even Batman can be shot, or overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Luckily then that Arkham Asylum got the fear of Batman right, keep to the shadows, take out bad guys stealthily and sneak around being a stealthy ninja, and Arkham Asylum was simply the best Batman thing outside of comics, well until the sequel arrived.

BATMAN ARKHAM CITY

Arkham Asylum was great, I liked the fact it was kept in the sprawling grounds of the Asylum, but how to make it better? How about turning a large section of Gotham into an open prison? That’s a start. The open world of Gotham was stunning, there was so much freedom, yet things were kept tight by Rocksteady’s brilliant story telling ability, thanks Paul Dini. What the Arkham games have got so right is the mix of Batman elements that they used. The realism of Nolan, the voice cast of Batman: The Animated series, a whole host of villains and a story that escalates to brilliance. If you haven’t played this game, you must, you really must. It is the closet thing to being Batman, without having to have your parents killed, leaving you millions of pounds/dollars in order for you to disappear for a few years, learning to become the ultimate badass, and then swearing revenge on crime, dressed as a flying rodent. Probably easier you just play the game really.