As a huge Nintendo fan and going to E3, naturally first priority was to get in line for the new Zelda and be impressed but instead of going the first day for a 1 and a half hour queue I thought I would wait for a shorter one.
Last day comes and I still have not played it and have to now accept the mammoth 4 hour wait otherwise I'd of kicked myself.
After waiting and waiting, speaking to guy's who our fluent in French/English and playing plenty of DS (with all the downloads) I finally entered the backstage booth were around 16 machines were all in a row.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y15...Zeldabooth.jpg
Not a very good picture I know but it help's you get a feel of what it was like in there. Decorated just like a forest.
There were 4 demo's each you had 10 minutes to complete.
1st was a setting with Link in a forest which you had to row and save a baby while in your forest gear (not your tunic). It is instantly familiar to any guy who had played Zelda before:
Run, roll, jump left, right, back flip and holding R made you crouch (as you had no weapons). There was plenty of ?staircasing? on the mod's as the screen was so big and it is not a finished game by any means but the detail on link and his surroundings was beautiful. The face's are razor sharp and there was not one bit of frame fluctuation in any of the demo's.
The water effects were brilliant. Gamecube continues to get more squeezed out of it.
After failing to get the baby back on shore I quit and got on with the second demo:
Ahhh, the 2nd my favourite. Horse back riding was the order of the day. As it loads it explains one of Link's younger villager?s has been captured and you have to get him back. At the beginning you see a boar decked out in heavy blue armour and a big dude with armour on top of it holding a stick which has the boy tied to it.
He then blow's his horn and many more boar's and his minions come from the horizon.
Straight away you realise this is going to be a chase and so things get underway. It takes place on a field which is...seemingly everlasting. You are followed by his army and have the classic carrot sign to make the Horse (Epona) go faster by whipping it. It is incredibly fun. The freedom is so satisfying and you have to hurdle over wall's in the field as the culprit tries harder routes.
To hit him you have to get close to the side and slash away (you only had a sword). The more armour that came off the faster he would go and harder routes he would take. A to whip the horse B to swing your sword. Holding B on the horse made you draw back and take one big slash.
The field itself really varies, hills comes from nowhere, as the other enemy's attempt to slow you down. There are great puddles in some of the ditches that you splash/race through as the enemy's behind you fall behind and even fall over the hurdles!
You were able to dismount (which I did) but you are very venerable and get slashed, run over by the boars so I quickly mounted my Horse again.
It does not feel synthetic like WW's Ocean-everything changes as you race. They demonstrated day to night as well.
After you take all his armour off he drops the kid somewhere and leaps over a gate where you now play chicken on a narrow bridge blocked off. The key is to hold down B (for your sword charge), go one way and then quickly the other and slash his side (hitting him head on makes you fall of the bridge and try again). To hit's and he bites the dust. This demo was a great showcase of things to come.
The 3rd was a temple of some sort. I did not complete it (there was a time constraint to how long you played) but spotted many new things. Your dungeon item (the gale boomerang) was an interesting piece of new Zelda inventory. A regular Boomerang when thrown but charge it (naturally by holding down the button) and it carries a gust of wind with it with which you can carry item not just back to yourself but from one place to another. I.E spot a bomb in the distance and blow it over to an enemy either near by it or far away.
The effect it created was spectacular, when fully charged it glowed green and holographic leaves came off it to symbolize wing-when thrown it interacted perfectly with the environment, blowing nut's all over the place and violently parting the long grass.
With the wind and target aspect of the Boomerang it made for some refreshing puzzles as did the company of a wild monkey who inhabited the place-he helped swinging you over chasms.
I first got a taste of one on one combat with meeting up with some Nex-gen Lizalfos. They each had a curved sword and a small round shield. Combat is more intense now. In OOT targeting a Stalfos made the other wait his turn but which ever you have targeted the other is coming for you at another angle in this game.
Link does some flashing combinations by tapping B repeatedly, he still has his classic lunge in by L targeting and pressing A and the WW's parry move is here to although I was unsure when to pull it off. A new edition is the ability to stab you opponent's while they are down to settle the argument quicker but I believe it leaves you open to other attack's.
I did not try everything but it seems combat is at the most comprehensive it has ever been in the Zelda universe in this game.
The 4th and last demo was a boss fight against a huge three headed plant monster. It was pretty darn impressive to look at and the idea was to offer them flower bomb's to eat-nothing new here. A monkey comes to help you against the middle plant (the big one) and things get a bit more interesting-you have to target the swinging Monkey (who has a bomb) with your Boomerang and then target the flower's head to take the bomb into it's mouth. It then repeats a spray attack until dead.
Graphically this is easily the best looking Zelda. It has more going for it than Resi 4 because of the sheer size and amount of enemy's there at one time. It follows the same footpath's as old Zelda and the boss battles/puzzle solving seems a bit 'Zelda' Generic if you will but the integration of the Horse battling (great fun) new gadgets with new consequences, take control of multiples animal's and of course that ability to turn into a wolf (which was not playable) very well may spice things up to a more than satisfactory level.
The predicted 3 times bigger than OOT has yet to be seen and I am not even sure that is a good thing if true (could get boring, might be paced very badly half way through to lengthen etc, etc).
I came away not excited like a little kid (I think I am passed that stage-sad I know) but I came away ultimately very impressed and very satisfied that the Zelda series is still looking to do new things on a BIG scale.
Last day comes and I still have not played it and have to now accept the mammoth 4 hour wait otherwise I'd of kicked myself.
After waiting and waiting, speaking to guy's who our fluent in French/English and playing plenty of DS (with all the downloads) I finally entered the backstage booth were around 16 machines were all in a row.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y15...Zeldabooth.jpg
Not a very good picture I know but it help's you get a feel of what it was like in there. Decorated just like a forest.
There were 4 demo's each you had 10 minutes to complete.
1st was a setting with Link in a forest which you had to row and save a baby while in your forest gear (not your tunic). It is instantly familiar to any guy who had played Zelda before:
Run, roll, jump left, right, back flip and holding R made you crouch (as you had no weapons). There was plenty of ?staircasing? on the mod's as the screen was so big and it is not a finished game by any means but the detail on link and his surroundings was beautiful. The face's are razor sharp and there was not one bit of frame fluctuation in any of the demo's.
The water effects were brilliant. Gamecube continues to get more squeezed out of it.
After failing to get the baby back on shore I quit and got on with the second demo:
Ahhh, the 2nd my favourite. Horse back riding was the order of the day. As it loads it explains one of Link's younger villager?s has been captured and you have to get him back. At the beginning you see a boar decked out in heavy blue armour and a big dude with armour on top of it holding a stick which has the boy tied to it.
He then blow's his horn and many more boar's and his minions come from the horizon.
Straight away you realise this is going to be a chase and so things get underway. It takes place on a field which is...seemingly everlasting. You are followed by his army and have the classic carrot sign to make the Horse (Epona) go faster by whipping it. It is incredibly fun. The freedom is so satisfying and you have to hurdle over wall's in the field as the culprit tries harder routes.
To hit him you have to get close to the side and slash away (you only had a sword). The more armour that came off the faster he would go and harder routes he would take. A to whip the horse B to swing your sword. Holding B on the horse made you draw back and take one big slash.
The field itself really varies, hills comes from nowhere, as the other enemy's attempt to slow you down. There are great puddles in some of the ditches that you splash/race through as the enemy's behind you fall behind and even fall over the hurdles!
You were able to dismount (which I did) but you are very venerable and get slashed, run over by the boars so I quickly mounted my Horse again.
It does not feel synthetic like WW's Ocean-everything changes as you race. They demonstrated day to night as well.
After you take all his armour off he drops the kid somewhere and leaps over a gate where you now play chicken on a narrow bridge blocked off. The key is to hold down B (for your sword charge), go one way and then quickly the other and slash his side (hitting him head on makes you fall of the bridge and try again). To hit's and he bites the dust. This demo was a great showcase of things to come.
The 3rd was a temple of some sort. I did not complete it (there was a time constraint to how long you played) but spotted many new things. Your dungeon item (the gale boomerang) was an interesting piece of new Zelda inventory. A regular Boomerang when thrown but charge it (naturally by holding down the button) and it carries a gust of wind with it with which you can carry item not just back to yourself but from one place to another. I.E spot a bomb in the distance and blow it over to an enemy either near by it or far away.
The effect it created was spectacular, when fully charged it glowed green and holographic leaves came off it to symbolize wing-when thrown it interacted perfectly with the environment, blowing nut's all over the place and violently parting the long grass.
With the wind and target aspect of the Boomerang it made for some refreshing puzzles as did the company of a wild monkey who inhabited the place-he helped swinging you over chasms.
I first got a taste of one on one combat with meeting up with some Nex-gen Lizalfos. They each had a curved sword and a small round shield. Combat is more intense now. In OOT targeting a Stalfos made the other wait his turn but which ever you have targeted the other is coming for you at another angle in this game.
Link does some flashing combinations by tapping B repeatedly, he still has his classic lunge in by L targeting and pressing A and the WW's parry move is here to although I was unsure when to pull it off. A new edition is the ability to stab you opponent's while they are down to settle the argument quicker but I believe it leaves you open to other attack's.
I did not try everything but it seems combat is at the most comprehensive it has ever been in the Zelda universe in this game.
The 4th and last demo was a boss fight against a huge three headed plant monster. It was pretty darn impressive to look at and the idea was to offer them flower bomb's to eat-nothing new here. A monkey comes to help you against the middle plant (the big one) and things get a bit more interesting-you have to target the swinging Monkey (who has a bomb) with your Boomerang and then target the flower's head to take the bomb into it's mouth. It then repeats a spray attack until dead.
Graphically this is easily the best looking Zelda. It has more going for it than Resi 4 because of the sheer size and amount of enemy's there at one time. It follows the same footpath's as old Zelda and the boss battles/puzzle solving seems a bit 'Zelda' Generic if you will but the integration of the Horse battling (great fun) new gadgets with new consequences, take control of multiples animal's and of course that ability to turn into a wolf (which was not playable) very well may spice things up to a more than satisfactory level.
The predicted 3 times bigger than OOT has yet to be seen and I am not even sure that is a good thing if true (could get boring, might be paced very badly half way through to lengthen etc, etc).
I came away not excited like a little kid (I think I am passed that stage-sad I know) but I came away ultimately very impressed and very satisfied that the Zelda series is still looking to do new things on a BIG scale.
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