The Soul of a Game

a part of The Missing Link series of articles

Article By Hylian Dan

Will video games as a medium be forever relegated to the pop cultural ghetto? Or will they establish themselves alongside such revered media as film, literature, and music? Designer Chris Hecker tackled this question in a keynote address covered by Gamasutra. As I reviewed his points, they strengthened my conviction that the game industry could learn a lot through a closer examination of Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series.

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Here at ZU, we have started a little thing called the ZUHC (Zelda Universe Holiday Cards), but in order to keep this project going, we need your support. The project was started to spread holiday cheer to the people of ZU. The cards are designed by ZU’s very own members, and are based on the suggestions other members have submitted. So far, the ZUHC team only has three members and only has the support of five. But five people are not enough to keep this project going, so this is where you guys come in! At the moment, we have no choice but to ask the people of ZU what they might want on the cards. Guessing can only go so far, so we need your suggestions. If you would like to support the ZUHC, then you can visit the public thread here. Community Coordinators can also visit the main ZUHC thread in the CC board if they want to help with this project.

There is one more spot if you would like to be an artist for this project, but we would like you to have some experience with graphic programs on the computer. If you would like to become one, just Private Message the ZUHC manager, Zien.

So, support the ZUHC!

Hello, Liquid here; one of the new Site Staff on ZU.

Hey there everyone. Matt here. You all know me as Μαtt on the forums. Let’s get started.

On December 17th, 2008, Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance issued a lawsuit against Nintendo of America. The company asserts that a fire that destroyed a Kentucky house was caused by a faulty Nintendo DS AC Adapter.  The lawsuit demands $236,304 USD be payed in damages to a Mr. French Harmon.

One of the many charges against Nintendo in this lawsuit is that Nintendo failed to “adequately, properly and safely design, manufacture, assemble, inspect, and test” the Nintendo DS AC Adapter.

Nintendo has recalled DS Adapters in the past. The reason being the apparent risk of overheating and fire.  However, these chargers were only recalled in Japan. The lawsuit is against Nintendo of America only.

Source: Nintendo World Report (Thanks to Bradley for the tip!)

Retrospective Remembrance: The Ocarina of Time

10th Anniversary Special Extravaganza
By Power Shot

Link decides to reveal a surprising retro look for the decade celebration.

So I’ve been asked to do this now. I’ll be writing this in a completely different format from my usual reviews, partially because of the significance of the game I’m being asked to review, and partially because I only have two days to get this out. In case you couldn’t tell, November 21st is the tenth anniversary of the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Regarded as one of the finest games ever designed, it has sold 7.6 million copies of its original N64 release, and has spawned almost half a dozen re-releases. It was also the first game to ever receive a perfect score from Famitsu, which in itself is regarded as the most respected video game reviewing magazine available. Yes, even I liked this game as a child, and I still do as an adult, so it’s incredibly difficult for me to say anything negative about this game. So, instead of all of that, we’re going to take a look at this juggernaut of gaming and see exactly what made it tick back then, what makes us remember it now, and how it came to be classified as one of the greatest, if not the greatest games ever made.

Incidentally, this remembrance will contain more spoilers than a review of the new Saw film. But if you’re wary of spoilers of this game, then you clearly have no idea what I’m talking about, so give this review to someone who does.

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The Difficulty of Ocarina of Time

A 10th Anniversary Article by lftenjamin

Ladies, gentlemen, and muffins, today I saw a very interesting statement made by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, whom you might all know and recognize as the Golden Boy of Nintendo as well as the creator of our beloved Zelda series. In the interview, Mr. Miyamoto wished to inform the public of his preferential expertise at hardcore, or traditional, games rather than the recent stream of casual games that have been so dominating the industry.

Now, this comes as no surprise to me personally, but it’s also a very important thing to say now, at a time when casual Zelda is threatening to tear apart the community. As Mr. Miyamoto is always involved, on some level be it a designer or director or producer, with each Zelda Nintendo makes, I believe that this statement reassures me as to the new Zelda games in development still being hardcore, even if they shall be trying to appeal to both crowds of gamers.

Oh, and perhaps even more important than the new Zelda game retaining traditional game play elements, Miyamoto indirectly announced Pikmin 3. Excellent.

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It is well-known that Nintendo enjoy making things smaller. When the GBA came out, it was only two years before the SP showed its tinier face to the world, and yet another two before the Micro appeared. Even the DS has had the same trend, with the original being released in 2004 and the Lite in 2006. Now, in 2008, it seems that we might be downsizing yet again to a smaller, more portable system. I guess Nintendo figures that our waistbands are getting tighter, so we can’t jam our bulky portables into our pants like we used to.

The reputable website, Kotaku, has just released information that, according to Hirokazu Hamamura, head of Enterbrain (which, if you don’t know, is the big daddy of Famitsu, one of the best gaming magazines of Japan) we might just be due for another handheld: a DS even “liter” than the current DS Lite. Hamamura stated that Nintendo might be unveiling designs for this alleged new DS at E3, 2008.

Personally, I still have an original DS, and have never really felt the need to downsize, but I guess size does matter to other denizens of Nintendo’s fanboy kingdom. And the rule in the handheld world is the opposite of the automotive industry. Smaller is sometimes better.

Source (Kotaku) >>

ZU has an incredible designer. His name is Anton Wiklund, and he created most everything you see here today. A bunch of smaller images on the site were derived from his work. But we feel that you didn’t really get to know him at all – you know me and Scott, but for one reason or another this beautiful temple seems like it came out of nowhere.

But Anton deserves more than your absolute devoted attention. Which is why ZUBC and ZU want you to send in your questions, so that our podcast team can interview him video and audio style. If you’ve ever been curious about the new layout in the last two days – its development, progress, why we chose what we did and how Anton Wiklund worked with our comments and directions – now is the time to send it in. And thank him for this beautiful layout, because it wasn’t myself or Scott that made it – it was Anton. A round of applause for him!

You can send in your questions anytime in the next week or so. After that, the podcast staff and I want to begin speaking with Anton and assembling the awesome video interview

Hit the jump for a contact form. Simply fill it and hit send. We’ll take the best questions we get and use them to fuel the interview.

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On the occasions when I can wrangle my brother away from playing Brawl I have found some time to myself to review this game. For those of you who have been living in the dank cave I refer to as the “Sony Fan Boy Fortress of Death” the Mario Kart series are racing games set in an alternate universe where blue shells are deadlier than lightning bolts. Despite its popularity over the years, the series’ most recent installment Mario Kart Wii picked a rather bad time to be released due to more interesting games like Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Grand Theft Auto IV being released in the same time constraints. I myself didn’t even know it was coming out until a month before its release. However, for this installment Nintendo has made the Mario Kart magic strike in a rather unique way, creating a game that deviates from the others in the series in the same manner that I deviate from behavior considered polite by my mother. Bearing all of this in mind, I’d like to take time out of my busy schedule to rant a little on the nuts and bolts of Mario Kart Wii to help indecisive folk who require professional assistance from published reviewers like me to decide if they like the game. Now that that’s over with, start your engines and prepare to be force-fed turtle shell!

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