Console Wars IV: Get Portable

Money you don't have can even burn a hole in your wallet. 

I've been dragging my feet, and thinking about the next generation of portable consoles from Nintendo and Sony. I've been looking at both for some time now and I've determined that the only way I'll ever make the jump is if they have enough incentive for me to get one, be it a game, price, or overall experience. Something that I had to have. Both the 3DS and the Vita are pretty slick, and they have some interesting titles, but there are a few things that hold me back from both.

The current 3DS design bugs me because I know they'll just redesign it later. It will look better, have longer battery life and more games. The 3DS already has a long list of games that interest me. Mario games, the potential western release of Monster Hunter 4, Kid Icarus, Zelda games, and a bunch of interesting smaller indie type games. The problem I have is that it is region locked, and I'd like to import all those Japan only games that I know won't come over to the US. Nintendo is dumb about this, which means I'd have to hack the device to find a way around that, or buy a Japanese 3DS. Totally stupid. The price drop made the device a super hit last year, and it looks like the 3DS is here to stay. But Monster Hunter 3G wasn't brought over here, and Fire Emblem probably won't either, and while I find some of the other games interesting, right now it seems like an expensive leap when I know a redesign is coming next year or soon-ish. The special editions 3DS' keep rolling out in Japan and they look awesome. I'd love to have a Dragon Quest or Monster Hunter special edition, but... that will never happen.

Special Editions!

And another crazy Dragon Quest Monsters game is coming out at the end of the Month. This one is called Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D and will be bundled with a limited edition white DQ 3DS. I've never really played the Monsters variant of DQ, but I've heard that it is better than Pokémon. The game play is interesting because it gives proper scale to the monster you may encounter, which hasn't really been done before. Blah. I'm a sucker for this stuff. 

Switching gears...

White Vita coming to Japan next month. 

And then there's the PSVita. It's new, it looks slick, and the demos that I've played have all been amazing. The problem right now are the slow output of awesome games, the prohibitively high price, and the hidden cost of buying a very expensive memory card. I like the design. Awesome games like Gravity Rush has been out in Japan for some time now, but aren't slated for release until what? June? The slow roll out of games is what made everyone hate the 3DS at launch. The Vita is nice, probably technologically better than the 3DS, and will eventually have a nice library of games... but offhand I can't think of one that would make me want to buy it. Phantasy Star Online 2 won't be out until next year, and for whatever reason Capcom hasn't announce a Monster Hunter title for Sony's handheld. That boggles the mind. Then there's this cryptic stuff about a game called Soul Sacrifice. It was announced in Famitsu Magazine with a six page spread, and little to no information about it. A short trailer has emerged which leaves people wondering: is this a sequel or spin off to the popular Sony game Dark Souls? That would be nuts. And probably make me want a Vita more than a 3DS (after the price drop). 

We'll find out more in a few days. I've heard that in the coming months that there will be some awesome game announcements for the Vita, and that all the naysayers will probably shut up. But they're all six months to a year away. That's terribly slow. Now Vita hasn't been selling very well, and it looks like Sony's right on track to mess up their console launch just like Nintendo did with the 3DS. Time to drop the price or do something that will get those Vita's off the shelves. Right now there's little incentive. Nintendo has a smidgen of incentive. 

If I had to quantify my incentive percentage to buy either console:

3DS: 60%

(based on larger First-Party title list, Monster Hunter 4, and eventual redesign)

Vita: 40%

(based on initial price, nebulous title schedule, and promising future)

The Legend of Zelda (Second Quest)

The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite games of all time. I've played many Zeldas, but the first one has a special place in my heart. I don't know if it was the open world style game play, or all the items and monsters. It was a great game because it wasn't burdened with endless dialog or plot lines. You just went around and collected the Triforce. That was it. It has a simplicity that was inevitably lost in later games of the series. It stands the test of time because it is a freaking awesome game.

The game was first released in 1986 on the Famicom Disk System in Japan, and ported to the NES in 1987. It was developed during the same time as the original Super Mario Bros. by Shigeru Miyamoto to be this non-linear adventure type game. The very opposite of what Mario was.

I will attempt to complete the Second Quest. I've never finished it before.

Once you press start, if you enter your name as "ZELDA", you can immediately skip to the Second Quest, which is a much harder version of the Legend of Zelda, and something I've attempted but never finished before. The other way of getting there is by beating the first quest, and I don't want to do that again. So I'm skipping ahead!

What makes the Second Quest hard? Everything gets switched around. Things aren't where they should be... items, labyrinth locations, and enemies. For the most part, its the same game, just a little harder. I've beaten the original game over and over before (maybe twice), but trying to beat the Second Quest is almost cruel. Death is a certainty.

The Art

Once again the box art is different between the Japanese and North American releases. I like the later Famicom reissue box. It gives better detail to the Hyrule Landscape. Inside of the manual we find anime style cartoons describing the game and items, etc.

     Famicom Disk System                       NES                   1994 Famicom reissue

And then there was the gold cartridge. Nintendo made a few of these gold cartridges for various games, but the Zelda series has always had them. Kinda awesome, considering that other games in the US was made of the same gray plastic. Famicom games were multicolored but they never brought that idea over here. Weird.

The manual came with this cool fold out map... it showed most of the world with some areas for the player to draw in when they got explored. I like the low resolution television photos for each item and the monsters.

Here's a Commercial:

I remember watching this commercial. It amazes me that it probably helped sell copies of the game in North America. Let's put a guy in a dark room and have him wig out on hallucinogenics and scream "Zelda!" over and over. To this day if I mention the game Zelda, my mom instinctively says "ZELDA!" with the same tone and inflection as the man in this video.

The Music:

The music was composed by Nintendo sound master Koji Kondo. He's the guy that did Super Mario Bros. and many others for Nintendo. His strength in composition lies in his ability to make repeatable tunes that aren't annoying after they've been looped three thousand times. The music for the game is good, but there are really only five tunes in the entire game. Two of which, the overworld theme, and the labyrinth music that are really played over and over and over.

There are noted differences in sound between the Famicom Disk version and the NES version. The FDS version was able to utilized additional sound chips, making it sound... better. The NES wasn't able to do that, so North American audiences didn't get to hear the full range of sound effects, and other minor sound details that were in the Japanese version. There are millions of remixes, remakes, and symphonic renditions.

The Results:

I started the game and as I entered the first Labyrinth I was surprised. I totally forgot that I was playing the 2nd Quest. Two screens later I was dead. Game over one minute and forty three seconds into the game... Death number one. Some of the early levels pack monsters in there than can kill in two hits. I leave piles of dead Links all over levels one and two.

 My complaint halfway through the game is that it requires more time spent hunting for money because I have to play defensively. I had to spend time gathering up money for the ring, a shield or two, and other items just to be able to survive levels two and three. Not only that, there aren't enough keys in the game, so I come to a locked door and have to shell out another 100 rupees to get past it. That equates to me mindlessly murdering the monsters of Hyrule so I can plunder their corpses.

By level four I've finally started to use maps because my foggy memory can't remember where the levels are and where some important items are located. Even with the use of maps, levels 5-7 were difficult. I changed my strategy from trying to clear room after room, and just relying on avoidance to save my health for the boss fights.

Unbelievably (or not), I am forced to stop what I'm doing and pay the extortion price of a stupid old man, or to feed the appetite of a monster. I have to leave the level I'm working on and go kill more helpless, innocent   monsters for cash. Then I have to battle back to the point I was at just to pay the toll. Totally lame... and kinda funny at the same time.

The final level number nine is the last obstacle. It is a maze of doors that lock behind you, secret passages, and hard enemies. If you can get through that mess and defeat Ganon... you win.

The fight with Ganon is tough because he turns invisible and you have to blindly stab with your sword in the hopes that you'll connect. After doing that a few times he turns awesome brown, which means you have to finish him off with a silver arrow. BAM! He then crumbles to dust and you can pick up the Triforce and go to the next room and rescue Princess Zelda. Victory was mine!

VICTORY

Epilogue: 

I thought that the hardest part in the game was around levels 2 through 5. With the lack of hearts and items there's a strong difficulty curve that you have to get over, and then it tapers off. After I had enough life, the rest of the game became easier because I could literally avoid monsters and walk pretty much to the boss of every level. I did have to use a few maps to get around... so I cheated a little, but I still ended up dying 5 times on the last level. This tactic of avoidance made it almost seem easier than the First Quest, because the levels were smaller. Most of my time was spent killing things for money, which sucked. You get penalized around every corner for not having enough keys, bombs, or money to proceed. I won!

Statistics: 

Deaths: 19 Continues: 17 Saves: 2  Game Overs: 19 Time: Approx 6 hours (whew!)

The Legend of Zelda®, and all associated video games, music, characters, etc. are owned by Nintendo - all rights reserved.