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"You can't hate Legend of Zelda!" You make a compelling argument, SammyClassicSonicFan, but HaleyTheHedgehog isn't buying it. Maybe it's time to bust out the "pitch-perfect gameplay."Read more...

Come on, Trebek. I mean, I know the specific technical details of Jeopardy answers is important and all, but really? REALLY? Zelda is perfectly fine. Nobody actually calls the game The Legend of Zelda. As Stephen Totilo just said out loud in the office, "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" (Thanks, Alfred!)

For many, Ocarina of Time is the greatest video game ever made or, at the very least, one of the most influential. In this Kotaku feature story we speak to its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, about the making of the game we waited seven years for. “Mr Miyamoto, what are you doing? Why are you here?” 1997. Mid-way through a year of strenuous development, Shigeru Miyamoto finds himself in a strange place; far from home, far from Nintendo HQ where his team is frantically connecting the final pieces of the puzzle that will become known to many as the greatest video game ever made. In the midst of that chaos Miyamoto returns — escapes — to Kanazawa, to make a speech in the place where he once underwent a more personal strenuous development period: his alma mater, his old university in Kanazawa, where he famously took five years to graduate from the art degree that would eventually help him win the job he’s held for the past three decades. Now, as a result of an unplanned stop in a convenience store, Miyamoto is face to face with a very confused store clerk. “Mr. Miyamoto, what are you doing? Why are you here?” he asks. Miyamoto looks up. “You’re supposed to be in Kyoto finishing the game.” The game? Oh. The game. The Blueprint In an age of saturated viral marketing and artificial hashtagged hype, it’s almost impossible to overstate the legitimate level of anticipation gamers had for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Its predecessor A Link to the Past was arguably the most tightly designed video game ever made. In its wake Nintendo had released the Nintendo 64 and Mario 64. They had practically invented how video games functioned in a three dimensional space. Mario always represented the anarchic frivolity of systems firing on all cylinders, but Zelda was the closest thing Nintendo had to the video game as ‘experience’. Back then, the idea appealed. There was a shift in the zeitgeist: an entire generation had played Nintendo and subsequently ‘grown’ into the then successful PlayStation console. We were an army of teenagers in the clumsy process of becoming adults. We had played Final Fantasy VII, we were already plagued with a primitive nostalgia for A Link to the Past and we ached for that next step. A darker, more ‘mature’ Zelda that played out in three dimensions. A Zelda that was all we hoped it could be and more. But in 1995 Nintendo was in the midst of a very different transition: that grand dimensional leap into 3D, a transition that began, of course, with Mario. At Space World, when we had our first glimpse at the game that would eventually become Ocarina of Time, it was merely a tech demo. By that point Mario 64 was at least 50% complete; completely playable, utterly mindblowing. It would go on to completely redefine Nintendo’s approach to development. “Back then we didn’t really have a good idea of how strong the 3D visuals were, how strong they would be and what experience they would give,” says Miyamoto. “As we were developing Mario 64 we were experimenting with what was possible within that space. We tried to apply what we had learned to the next big franchise for us, which was going to be Zelda.” Mario 64 was an epoch-defining video game, but it also served as prologue. Lessons learned during Mario 64’s development process were already being applied to Ocarina of Time in pre-production. Yoshioka Koizumi, one of the game’s many directors, remembers scribbling down ideas for Zelda in a notebook whilstdeveloping Mario 64. It made sense: Miyamoto and his team had no other template. No other template existed. “At that time there really was no blueprint for how to create that kind of game in a 3D space,” he explains. “No-one had done it before. “There were no rules for us to follow.” The See Saw 1977. Shigeru Miyamoto secures an interview with a company flirting with the idea of creating its own video game hardware. Among the many toy ideas he brings as examples of his work is a three-way see-saw. Miyamoto was always interested in bringing hidden layers of complexity to simple concepts. 20 years later he will attempt the precise same trick with Ocarina of Time. Today Miyamoto’s role at Nintendo requires a bird’s eye perspective, but he confesses his true passion lies in the details. Back then, in the mid 90s, Miyamoto played a broad role in overseeing development, but was heavily involved in the minutiae of Ocarina’s early experimentation. It was, he admits, a lot of fun. “It was an era where there was a lot of exploration in development, exploration in general,” he says. “It was quite a bit of fun for us because of the nature of the work.” The nature of Miyamoto’s work involved completely reinventing one of Nintendo’s most important franchises. You’d expect that kind of pressure to be overwhelming, perhaps stifling, but Miyamoto and his team were completely divorced from expectations, creating an environment where no idea was off limits. An example: Miyamoto initially wanted Zelda to be played in the first person perspective, an idea that seems bewildering in hindsight, but outlandish ideas like those were part of the process. “There were lots of challenges in trying to show the game from a third person perspective,” explains Miyamoto. “We had also experimented with moments where the battles were in 3D but parts of the game were on rails. “We looked at the idea of taking a Mario 64 approach where you have a Mario 64-style castle, the equivalent of that being Hyrule castle, and you explore and encounter the gameplay through that central area.” Intertwined in this experimentation was the slow process of prodding at the hardware itself. Many of Ocarina’s early prototypes were the end results of Miyamoto and his team getting to grips with technical limitations; with what the Nintendo 64 was actually capable of. “We really wanted to create a very distinctive world of Hyrule, with changes in weather and things like that,” explains Miyamoto. “We eventually found what the N64 was able to do. It was a system that felt really well designed to bring Hyrule to life.” A Kingdom For A Horse Shigeru Miyamoto grew up obsessed with the Wild West. As a child he’d take aluminium cups from water fountains and batter them against concrete in a clip-clop rhythm. To Miyamoto, and an entire generation of Japanese children, it sounded like a horse galloping across the open plains. Epona was named for the Gallo-Roman protector of horses, but adding her to Ocarina of Time wasn’t Miyamoto’s idea. Initially, Epona was the work of Director Yoshioka Koizumi. The impact was immediate and sizable. “The horse was a turning point,” says Miyamoto. Epona wasn’t the solution to the sheer size of Ocarina’s playable space — Hyrule’s ponderous field was built in her wake. The horse came before the course and it heralded a major developmental shift. In familiar terms Epona was the item Miyamoto’s team held aloft with a triumphant chime. In the parallel puzzle that was Ocarina of Time’s development, Epona was the Master Key. “The moment that we saw you could ride around on a horse in 3D,” explains Miyamoto, “we instantly realised that we needed a giant field that people could ride through.” Everything clicked seamlessly into place. There would be no more on rail sections. Ideas built during the castle phase of iteration would eventually be filtered into other areas of the game. Hyrule’s majestic field, where players could watch the sun set and then rise again, would now be the the grand centrepiece of Ocarina of Time. We would fight duels with skeletons; pierce arrows through the dead hearts of ghosts on horseback. We would encounter strange men running marathons across the plains and it would all be utterly, utterly unforgettable. The Link To The Past “The other turning point,” says Miyamoto, “was Link himself.” Ocarina of Time is the story of a child who becomes an adult; it’s a theme with strange parallels and an intense resonance. An entire generation had waited patiently. We were children when we first played A Link to the Past; when Ocarina of Time was finally released in 1998 we were adults. A seven year gap between games. Seven long years. It felt like providence. A third of the way through Ocarina of Time, in a distant room in the sacred realm, Link’s spirit is sealed for the precise same amount of time. It was a quest Link couldn’t undertake as a child. Neither, perhaps, could we. “It was perfect,” says Miyamoto. “It was the exact same amount of time.” But the connection was accidental, pure coincidence. “We started off creating the more grown up model of Link,” explains Miyamoto. “After creating that model we then asked, ‘well, what if we were to create a younger Link?’ Then we asked, ‘which one should we go with?’ “When we created the younger Link, that’s when we realised we could use both versions of Link and have him grow from being a child to being a grown up.” As someone who preferred the depth of simple ideas, the concept appealed to Miyamoto’s sensibilities. There was a dramatic irony to Ocarina of Time, but it was subtle: one protagonist, two very different time periods. In the beginning we see Hyrule through the eyes of a child; but then we grow up. The world is a very different place. Something is lost and the universe we now inhabit is a persistent, cruel reminder of that. “I wanted to make sure we had something that felt a little bit simpler in terms of the differences between the world that Link experiences as a child, and the world he experiences as an adult,” says Miyamoto. “For example you would see how his relationship to the girls in the game would change from when he was a boy and he was an adult. When you were a child certain characters might have been scary. Or the adults who seemed stupid, how did you see them when you were a child? “It was about portraying the differences between those two to tell the story of a boy growing up.” Upending The Tea Table “What are you doing? “Why are you here.” Miyamoto recalls the story of the boy in the convenience store; how badly he wanted Miyamoto to return to Kyoto. “Knowing that even the clerks in convenience stores were waiting for me to finish Zelda? That made me very happy,” he says, chuckling. In its final year, Ocarina’s development had a strange momentum; a frantic sense of desperate joy. Horizons broadened with each new day. Ideas exploded at a formidable rate as the development team edged closer to completing what would ultimately become one of the greatest creative endeavours in video game history. “We wondered if the game was ever going to get finished,” admits Miyamoto, “ but everyone was having a lot of fun.” There were issues with some of the more systemic facets of Ocarina’s design — Miyamoto calls them “random elements” and uses the example of the game’s Postman. “The team was confused initially, but in the end it was good!” “We had to ensure those random events happened at points where it didn’t cause inconsistencies in the game,” he says. Then there was the moment when Miyamoto suddenly decided there weren’t enough Ocarina songs in the game. As development raced to its conclusion, it was the closest Miyamoto would come to “upending the tea table”. “I decided we had to double them,” he laughs mischievously. “It resulted in a big change in gameplay! The team was confused initially, but in the end it was good!” At this late point the team was in the process of obsessively play-testing Ocarina Of Time’s numerous ‘dungeons’; fine tuning layouts and inserting more fiendish puzzles. Everyone become so adept at zipping through dungeons that they failed to notice when the infamously difficult Water Temple began to stretch the limits of fairness. “It remains a regret for Eiji Aonuma to this day,” says Miyamoto, “mainly because he continually hears from everyone about how difficult the dungeon was! “But he continues to insist that the dungeon wasn’t hard,” he laughs, “it was just a pain because you had to keep taking the boots off and then put them back on He says it wasn’t hard, just inconvenient!” Back In Time And then Ocarina of Time was finished. “I was just glad we could put it out there for people to play,” says Miyamoto. After seven long years, we finally got to play the video game we had waited so patiently for. We’d wake up in a forest; a child amongst children. We’d walk into a field and watch the sun set for the first time. We’d fight skeletons in our nightmares and hurtle across open fields in our dreams. The endless clip clop of aluminium cups on concrete would echo in our subconscious and then we’d awaken; ready to confront the once terrifying burdens of adulthood. Shigeru Miyamoto has a son. By the time Ocarina of Time was finished he was in the upper grades of elementary School. But Miyamoto’s daughter was younger; she was in the middle grades when the game was finally released. “It was the first game that my daughter sat down and played a lot of, and as a result of that she became a really big Zelda fan,” says Miyamoto, “I remember Ocarina of Time as the game that allowed my daughter and I to start having a lot of conversations about video games.” In Ocarina’s final scene Link is sent back in time to relive the seven years he sacrificed to save Hyrule. He places the Master Sword back in its sheath and returns to Kokiro Forest; a village frozen in an eternal childhood. Ocarina of Time will always be a story about a boy who became a man, but it’s also about preserving something. In the final frame Link returns to Hyrule Castle as a child; a mirror image of an earlier scene where he meets Zelda for the very first time. She turns and gasps in surprise. Or is it recognition? It’s almost impossible to say. Mark Serrels is the EIC for Kotaku Australia. You can follow him on Twitter! Republished from Kotaku Australia.

There are no cosplayers or grown men in tights here. Just some incredible stop-motion animation and the best Nintendo action figure ever made. It took creator counter656 over a month to make the 4:51 clip. Totally worth it, though. Zelda Stop Motion - Figma Link and Black Rock Shooter [YouTube]

This is great. It's what Link's home screen would look like, if the Nintendo of the future ditched his backpack/tunic for a more contemporary way of getting stuff done. If Ganon could be defeated via Vines, check-ins and messaging apps, that is. What I like is that it's a pretty accurate conversion! Well, except for the Navi icon. That would probably read "99+". Link's Home Screen [by Sydney Jean, via insanely gaming]

 

As part of the Switch Fringe festival in Ipswich, England, artist The Decibel Kid drew this map of the city to help attendees find their way around and track down shows and events. While most aspects are actual parts of Ipswich rendered in 16-bit style, keep your eyes out for the odd Nintendo cameo, like the King of Red Lions. Map [Switch Fringe, via Slashdot]

Last time, Vinesauce showed us the horrors of Sesame Street games. This time, they're back with a very corrupted version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. They manage to transform Link into an abomination. Like I've said before: glitched out games can be treasure troves. (And the trove is full of horrors....just, FYI.) [Vinesauce] Vinny - Zelda: Ocarina of Death (Corruptions) [Vinesauce]

Nintendo has, smartly, mostly ignored Hollywood following 1993's Super Mario Bros. movie. So we don't have a Zelda movie. Many people think, smartly, that this is a good thing, because there's every chance a Hollywood adaptation would be awful. But there's a small chance it might not be. I mean, if fans (in this case, the super-talented Corridor Digital) can make something this good - seriously, the fight scenes are some of the best you'll ever see in a passion project - why couldn't someone with more money? Link's Shadow [YouTube]

It's always fascinating, as a video game fan in 2013, to pick up old games and see how well they've aged. Sometimes you're disappointed. You discover all the warts and blemishes that somehow looked oh-so-lovely a decade ago. You find that Xenogears, which you consider a masterpiece, has text so slow you'll start thinking about how short life really is. You realize that buying one item at a time in the original Final Fantasy is just as tedious as it sounds. You start to really appreciate just how much user interfaces have improved over the past few years. But sometimes, as I discovered last night while revisiting Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, you'll go back to a game and find it's just as stellar as your memory says it is. Some background. Zelda: Oracle of Seasons is one of two Zelda games designed for the Game Boy Color. The second is Zelda: Oracle of Ages, and although their names share a bunch of words they're actually totally different games. Both are top-down 2D Zeldas in which you get a sword and a shield and bombs and a boomerang and you do all of the things you'd do in any Zelda: explore, slash, solve puzzles, rinse, and repeat. Each game has its own set of unique items, too, and its own gimmick: in Seasons you are given a rod that controls the seasons; in Ages you wield a harp that lets you travel through time. Both Oracle games were released for the Game Boy Color in 2001, and again on the 3DS eShop yesterday. (For the special discounted price of $4.99 each, on sale until June 20 when they revert back to... $5.99 each. Thanks a lot, Nintendo.) I played them both for the first time when they came out back then, and then again yesterday. You can play the two games in any order. When you beat one, you get a password that you can use to switch things up a bit in the second. When you finish both, you get to fight the real final boss. This time I went with Seasons first, because in 2001 I started with Ages, and I thought I'd switch it up a bit. Three dungeons in, I'm sold. The top-down world feels vaguely familiar yet constantly surprising. It's fun to hack away at tiny, washed-out versions of classic Zelda enemies like moblins and Like-Likes. It's even more fun to enter a brand new dungeon and slowly piece together its secrets, letting everything click together one puzzle at a time. But the best thing about both Oracle games, which were developed by Flagship, a former Capcom subsidiary that also made the excellent Zelda: Minish Cap for Game Boy Advance, is that they're just straight-up full of stuff. Walking around the world map for even thirty seconds will inevitably lead you to a kangaroo who lost his boxing gloves, or a palace full of nasty Moblins, or a random encounter with a ditzy witch. Everything is very dense. Compare this to, say, the seemingly-endless oceans of Zelda: Wind Waker, or the vast skies of Skyward Sword, in which navigation feels like an uphill battle and sidequests often make you wonder whether they're worth the time you'll have to spend traveling. In the Oracle games, traveling is a pleasure on its own. Not to say that either Wind Waker or Skyward Sword are bad games: each is excellent for different reasons. But the Oracle games deserve just as much praise. I'll have more to say about both games—which most definitely count as Japanese role-playing games, since they are action-RPGs made in Japan—as I spend more time with them. But for today, if you are wondering whether you should get them on your 3DS, I am pleased to announce that yes, Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Zelda: Oracle of Ages get the official Random Encounters Recommendation. They've aged quite well. Go check them out. Random Encounters is a weekly column dedicated to all things JRPG. It runs every Friday at 3pm ET. You can reach the author at jason@kotaku.com or follow him on Twitter at @jasonschreier.

Sometimes you just want to make a model of Link from The Legend of Zelda, and the only thing you have on hand are some twist-ties. The rest, as they say, is history. At least, that seems to be the approach of Deviantartist JustJake54, who recently made those TMNT twist-ties we posted, and now has shared a ton more garbage-bag-closing art, including Link, Mario, and a few other geeky guest appearances. Behold: (Via Geekologie)

Video games from the 8-bit and 16-bit era mixed with real life environments look awesome, and it's a technique that lets anyone's creativity shine. It's something that Kotaku has covered before but it would be a mistake to not share the new ones. These superb photo edits are the recent work of acefecoo on deviantART. They mostly feature NES and SNES classics with some exceptions like Day of the Tentacle or Pokémon. My personal favorite is the Earthbound image showing Ness & Co. getting into the swampy parts of the world. ~acefecoo [deviantART] To contact the author of this post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

People get gaming-related tattoos all the time; it's not so uncommon. But a gaming tattoo on your crotch? That's intense. Obviously, things are about to get a tad NSFW here—just so you're aware. Redditor hessiface12 has a Zelda tattoo on her crotch, based on a thread she posted on the Zelda subreddit. Here's a cropped version of it, though if you'd like to see the full image—and by extension her crotch—check out the Reddit thread. hessiface21 says she got the tattoo in 2011 over in Austin, Texas. "One sitting, about two hours. The outline was surprisingly easy. I climaxed twice, poor Dr. Bob. The shading was tolerable at first, but towards the end, I had tears," hessiface12 recalled in a comment. The best gaming tattoo? Naw. Heck, this particular tattoo is common...on other body parts. The fact she tattooed this on her crotch of all places is a testament to some serious fandom, though.

Let's say you were in the market for something grandiose and fictional—like maybe The Legend of Zelda's Hyrule Castle. How much money, hypothetically speaking, would you have to drop for a pad like that? Real estate blog Movoto took the time to calculate how much a property like Hyrule castle would cost if it were real. In order to do this, they looked at the three major things that determine property value in this case: location, size, and comparable castles. Interestingly, the only real-life place that comes close to what the land of Hyryle has to offer—with volcanos, deserts, lakes, forests, mountains and plains—is Italy. Really. Here's part of their breakdown to prove it: The Gerudo Desert: This was one of the tricky parts. Sure it was easy to find places with forests, fields, and even mountains—but to throw a desert in there? C’mon, geography! But in Tuscany, Italy there is the Accona Desert. In fact, it even lies to the west, much like Gerudo in the game. The Volcano: Now this was another reason Hyrule had to be Tuscany: Larderello Volcano. Surrounding Larderello volcano is the village of Larderello, aka Kakariko Village from the game. And surrounding the village, mountainous terrain where if you look hard enough, you’ll probably find some Gorons wandering around. Source: Wikipedia. The Lost Woods/Kokiri Forest: Berignone Forest, one of the largest forests and today, natural reserves in Tuscany. Lake Hylia: Lake Montedoglio is nestled in the Province of Arezzo in Tuscany. This lake has been well-known for its fishing for years and years. (But sorry, I couldn’t find a real-life tunnel to Zora’s Domain.) Lon Lon Ranch and surrounding field: The closest I found to Lon Lon Ranch was Podere Palazzone, a famous horse ranch in Tuscany. It is surrounded by miles and miles of green grassland, perfect for Epona to stretch her legs. Hyrule Village/Market/Castle: Finally, the reason we’re all here: The castle. I thought since Hyrule Village is the capital city of the land of Hyrule in the game, it would only do to equate it to the capital of Tuscany: Florence. The Market in the game is the city of Florence, similar to how it actually was around 1400—merchants, mask shops, potions, painters, a large cathedral (the Duomo around 1400 was not the elaborate marble and colorful masterpiece that we see today; it was grey, tall, and austere—much like the Temple of Time.) And if I haven’t already out-nerded myself, one final reason the land of Hyrule must be Tuscany, Italy: The ocarina. The first use of the ocarina in western civilization was in Italy centuries ago. So, going off that information, they drew up this infographic: You can read more about the specifics of these figures in Movoto's post here. Buy Hyrule Castle Before Ganondorf Does [Movoto]

Most janitors are satisfied with keeping things clean. This junior high school custodian might be, too, but also has a hankering to do something else: Draw incredible pictures. Spotted on a school cafeteria whiteboard, these awesome drawings depict things like Link from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Here's Midna and Wolf Link from Twilight Princess. These aren't just eye candy! There's also a friendly reminder about recycling one's trash. Bravo, Janitor Artist. Bravo. You've impressed more than the lunchroom. You've impressed the whole damn internet. This was in the lunch room yesterday [)(-EY GURL] the janitor at the junior high drew these in the cafeteria [Daves of Our Lives via Obvious Winner] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.

In Japan, there are family crests called "kamon" (家紋). They're similar to a coat of arms in the West. One Japanese Twitter user claims to have changed his family's crest to a familiar mark: The Legend of Zelda Triforce. Apparently, the iconic symbol even ended up on the family's gravestone. According to Twitter user @mahosyouzyo, "A relative passed away, and I was asked for an idea for a revamped family crest." The grandfather (I'm assuming the grandfather passed away) had always wanted to redo the clan's kamon for many years, the Twitter user explained. And @mahosyouzyo's design, it seems, was actually used by the family and even apparently carved into the relative's gravestone. "It's like Zelda," wrote another Twitter user. "Yep, what you said, lol", replied @mahosyouzyo, who agreed that it was a Triforce and claimed to be the most surprised about the end result—namely, where the design ended up. "I just kind of randomly drew it, not thinking much about it," added @mahosyouzyo. Other people on Twitter pointed out that this Triforce family seal does resemble another Japanese family crest—the one used by the Hojo clan. Twitter user @mahosyouzyo, however, is apparently not a member of the Hojo family. (Obviously, it's difficult to confirm whether the gravestone belongs to @mahosyouzyo's relative or to a deceased Hojo.) When asked whether or not the Hojo clan could complain about this similar looking crest, @mahosyouzyo replied that it seems to be okay if different crests resemble each other. (Note that people are prohibited from copying the Imperial Chrysanthemum Seal or the seal used by the country's Prime Minister.) With that kind of freedom, it's amazing there aren't more Zelda diehards in Japan with Triforce crests. これで良かったんだろうか [@mahosyouzyo via オレ的] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

These folks are making a documentary about The Legend of Zelda. Check out their website for more details—and a very cool Zelda-like Flash game full of details on the film.

Yesterday, after the Nintendo Direct announced a new Zelda set in the world of A Link To The Past, Kotaku was given a chance to have some hands-on time with the 3DS title. We saw the new wall mechanic, and Kirk Hamilton was able to work his way to a caterpillar boss battle in the demo—you can see that encounter in the video above. Let me tell you, the boss isn't kidding around. Here's some more footage, including the new wall mechanic. So far, the game inspires confidence.

Looks like the newest 3DS Zelda game—announced today as a sequel to Link to the Past—really is set in the same exact overworld as that Super Nintendo classic. Clever message board posters on NeoGAF and elsewhere have pieced together this side-by-side comparison of screenshots from the new Zelda's trailer and the old Zelda's world, and the results speak for themselves. The new Zelda won't be out until this fall, so in the meantime, we're left to wonder just how much of this 22-year-old world we'll be re-exploring. What will be new? What will be different? It'll be fun to see.

You could probably deal more damage with this replica of the Gale Boomerang from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess than the one in the game, which is more a tool to cut ropes and put out fires than weapon. YouTube user Victor Poulin is really into making boomerang replicas, and he's got a really bad website where he sells a variety of return-y stick things, though sadly not this one. REAL Gale boomerang from The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess It really returns EPIC [YouTube]

#mods This is one of those things that seems so obvious, it feels like someone should have done it before. But they haven't. After all, just last week someone finally got the idea to mod a Donkey Kong ROM so that Pauline could save Mario. More »

#zelda According to papercraft-master minidelirium, even with instructions and templates it took more than 200 hours to build this stunning life-sized Princess Zelda. That's a labor of love right there. More »

#showus Water levels can be pain in the ass, especially when unnecessarily complex gameplay mechanics meet blurry, monotonous graphics. But that's not always the case. Truth is, there are water levels (or places where water plays a key role) that look really refreshing, relaxing, and that might even possess a special, eerie atmosphere (several parts of Final Fantasy X come to mind). Now those are fun to explore. More »

#pokemon Artist Finni Chang does what Nintendon't. Pairing the pocket monsters with Nobunaga's Ambition was a total waste when they could have been combined with Zelda instead. More »

#humor Enormous jewels that people have to hide in pots? Or worse, bury in the grass, outside? That's not how you manage an economy, Hyrule. In fact, it's the fastest way to ensuring your Kingdom one day winds up at the bottom of the ocean. More »

#thelegendofzelda This isn't the first attempt we've seen to convince LEGO to make a Legend of Zelda set, but it's easily the most fully-realised, because the builder has gone to the trouble of actually building a prototype unit out of real bricks. More »

#zelda Look, I know if there was a list of the top 100 toughest bosses in video gaming, Minish Cap's Vaati wouldn't make the cut. There are NES games, or games that end in "Souls", that are way harder than any handheld adventure Nintendo has ever conjured for the Hero of Time. More »

#books Barely a week into its western release, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is a New York Times No. 1 bestseller. Shouldn't that designation come with an exclamation point or two? Fine! Here!! More »

#zelda Let's close our eyes and dream that, after post-apocalyptic waterworlds, train rides and gritty cowboy tales, Nintendo gets even braver and pushes the Legend of Zelda series into the future. More »