MUSIC MON! CARBOHYDROM'S THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST "UNSEALED"!

CARBOHYDROM'S THE LEGEND OF ZELDA:

A LINK TO THE PAST "UNSEALED"!

I just got A Link Between Worlds.

Link to the Past is, personally, my favorite Zelda. Part of the reason I love LttP, and the series as a whole, is the music. And, contrary to many people associating most Zelda musical cues with Ocarina of Time, many of the most beloved songs really got their established components from the 16 bit Link to the Past.

On a personal note, one particular song, the Fairy Fountain theme, is the song I would want played at my memorial service. That is how much the series soundtrack means to me.

And if you like Zelda or would like to get into more detail, you should check out my past Zelda articles (which I actually dedicated an entire week to back during the release of Skyward Sword) by hitting the link below.

I LOVE ZELDA.

"TOTALY NOT MONDAY" MUSIC TUESDAY! GET DUNKED, GET OCARINA, GET REVOLUTION!

FALCONSHIELD: GET DUNKED! (LOL)

Falconshield puts out excellent content on a weekly basis that supplies with me plenty of music to listen to when I play League and I have been playing a lot of league lately. In fact, as I sit here typing on my new Razor Black Widow keyboard (loudly), I am excited to get back on the rift tonight and continue improving my ADC game so I can climb out of Bronze this season. Hopefully, I won't get dunked in the process.

P.S. Vi is still one of my favorite champs.

brentalfloss & Dave Bulmer: 

ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME W/ LYRICS!

brentalfloss thinks Ocarina of Time is a flawed and overrated title that changed one of his favorite video game series for the worse. This is a fairly unpopular but growing more popular by the day opinion. Dave Bulmer is in the majority, though, and thinks Ocarina of Time is one of the best games, if not best, of all time.

I don't have a strong opinion on Ocarina but, I'll admit, it is the only Zelda game that I have never finished and I only got a few hours into it...

FALCONSHIELD: GLORIOUS EVOLUTION! (LOL)

This is different. I like different.

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/10/14!

SEQUELITIS: LINK TO THE PAST VS. OCARINA OF TIME!

sequelitis [see-kwel-ahy-tis]
noun
1. The tendency of a well-received work to spawn sequels and spin-offs, with, more often than not, increasingly inferior results.

EX. Egoraptor has opinions. Some of his opinions in the Sequelitis Series come off as the rantings of a biased critic complaining that modern games aren't the same as the games he grew up with as a kid.

After all, he has a tendency to not appreciate the competent elements of a game that he doesn't like and write off entire series or even genres if they don't fit into his cookie cutter definition of "good games" (which only include broken NES games and circle-jerking indie games that are "cool" to like). On the other hand, he has some pretty decent insights into game design that come from taking a critical eye past the surface elements (this game sucks) to the mechanic and design decisions that make a game (this game sucks because...). This means his videos are worth watching for some good points about how sequels tend to constantly recycle design elements from the previous titles in the series, to the point where those design elements are inbred and unnecessary, and basically how game designers often sacrifice good design for making sure the game hits all of the notes that the audience expects. This sequelitis can either lead to fatigue, even if the sequels are somewhat well-designed (looking at you Assassin's Creed), or quickly become a broken series (Sonic the Hedgehog).

Ultimately, while Sequelitis is a good series, just be weary that Egoraptor is the sort of gamer that doesn't like any amount of tutorials (leading to some frustrating experiences for his Let's Play audience when he blames a game for being "poorly designed" instead of blaming himself for being too lazy to pay attention when the game tells him how to do something) and just expects every game to be designed to teach you play like Mega Man X without appreciating that, as games become more complex than X, tutorials are sometimes necessary.


If I'm just ranting, I apologize. You can thank Ego (or my own ego) for my pontification.

SEQUELITIS: MEGA MAN X!

SEQUELITIS: SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV!

WORD OF THE DAY! 6/23/13!

tumbling [tum-bling]
noun
1.  The act, practice, or art of performing acrobatic moves, usually on a mat or the ground.

EX. Since the introduction of skills into Dungeons and Dragons, there has been a disconnect between players and the mechanic. Redundancy and over-complication of the skill system is mostly a problem because, with nearly 30 skills, it is easy to overlook or misunderstand the use of these would-be simple abilities. One skill that is particularly overlooked by all but rogues is tumble-- there is a reason that in other games they rename the skill dodge or consolidate jump and tumble into acrobatics--because a) most people don't know, at a glance, what tumble does, b) you would think that someone good at tumbling would be good at jumping, and c) dodge is a skill that immediatly gets across the message and is clearly useful.

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/14/13!

masochism [mas-uh-kiz-uhm]
noun

1. Psychiatry. The condition in which sexual gratification depends on suffering physical pain or humiliation.

2. Gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc., inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one's own actions or the actions of others, especially the tendency to seek this form of gratification.

3. The act of turning one's destructive tendencies inward or upon oneself.

4. The tendency to find pleasure in self-denial, submissiveness, etc.

 

EX. Who knew that Link was into masochism? I wonder what his safe word is? Probably, "HYAEH!" 

He does seem to like abusive relationships...

WORD OF THE DAY! 3/10/13!

beeper [bee-per]
noun
1. A pager; a pocket-size electronic device whose signal notifies a person of an important message, sometimes displaying the telephone number to be called.

EX. You guys know what makes video game sidekicks, especially the ones in Legend of Zelda and especially Fi, so obnoxious? Unlike the obnoxious bleeping noises that Link hears when he is low on health, these sidekicks put a face to the annoyance of having characters patronize you with information that nobody would need to have explained to them at every turn or annoying calls just for the sake of it. Having a Legend of Zelda sidekick is like having a beeper in 2013-- it's unnecessary and should be thrown out ASAP unless you're a frickin' video game surgeon or drug dealer.

Also, speaking of beepers:

BIG BOB'S BEEPERS!

SIDE NOTE: I'm sure everyone else realized that Bob Pataki was emotionally abusive & Miriam was a drunk.

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/8/12.

water temple [waw-ter-tem-puhl]
noun
1. The Legend of Zelda. Although there were such temples before it and such temples after it, the Water Temple from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) is widely considered to be one of the most frustrating and/or broken levels in the history of the series. The level's unpopularity has reached such a wide audience that, amongst games, the term "water temple" has become synonymous with a broken or frustrating level.

EX. I decided to go a little awry today and give you guys a meme that is a little bit obscure with a joke that's a little hard core nerdy. I've never played Ocarina of Time long enough to actually get to the Water Temple-- in fact, having tried to play it on the 3DS, I had trouble getting into it. I would like to try it again sometime...or just watch Hook for the thirtieth time. SCHMEE!

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/24/12.

acardia [ey-kahr-dee-ah]
noun
1. Congenital absence of a heart.

EX. I guess its lucky that none of the beasts in Legend of Zelda suffer from acardia or Link would never progress.

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/23/12.

damsel [dam-zuhl]
noun
1. A young woman or girl; a maiden, originally one of noble or gentle birth.

EX. Nintendo doesn't really like to take risks anymore. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that with the DS and the Nintendo Wii practically printing money like some magical boxes that the Sneetch salesman presented us (get the reference and you get a star) and, therefore, we've just been getting new slightly updated iterations of the DS every year and as for their next console, the Wii U, the tablet could be innovative but, with the console's power only comparable to that of the Xbox 360 and other worrying factors, hardware innovation seems fairly unlikely. Then again, that's not a big deal- right? Nintendo's biggest innovations have always been in the creative use of their hardware with software that has the edge on the competition in fun and accessibility.

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/20/12.

groundskeep [groundz-kee-per]
verb
1. Taking care of and maintaining a track of land for the use an estate, school grounds, a sport stadium, cemetery, etc.

EX. Being a groundskeeper in Hyrule is complicated and so is carrying barrels up to the roof of a construction site.

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/10/12.

skulltula [skuhl-chuh-luh]
noun
1. Video game. A common enemy in the Legend of Zelda series, first appearing in Ocarina of Time (1998), these large spider creatures exist in dark places, such as temple and caverns, inhabited by other malevolent creatures. A marking on their abdomen representing a skull probably serves as a warning to most creatures to avoid it.

EX. My experiences in Ocarina of Time are pretty limited, but its quite difficult to forget the more disturbing moments in the title. And, honestly, the House of Skulltula family in Kakariko Village is one of the most disturbing places/scenarios to discover; a family cursed to live as Skulltulas until some hero can save them from their nightmare.

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/6/12.

Gerudo [geh-roo-doh]
noun
1. Video game. A race of humanoids introduced in the Nintendo 64's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), their most prominent trait is that the race consists almost entirely of females and a male Gerudo is only born about every hundred years. They are talented warriors, fear and respected, and known throughout Hyrule. The most infamous member of their race is the villain Ganondorf and, arguably, for this reason they could appear in almost every Legend of Zelda game.

EX. Link should be using his time with the Gerudos to discover some weakness in Ganondorf...but, instead, he is much more interested in the timeless question of "Where do babies come from?"

WORD OF THE DAY! 8/2/12.

flipper [flip-er]
noun
1. A broad, flat limb, as of a seal or whale, especially adapted for swimming.
2. One of a pair of paddlelike devices, usually of rubber, worn on the feet as an aid in scuba diving and swimming.
3. Theater. A narrow flat hinged or attached at right angles to a larger flat.
4. Slang. The hand.
5. Someone or something that flips.

EX. You gotta get yourself a pair of Zora's Flippers.

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/26/12.

cataphract [kat-uh-frakt]
noun
1. A heavily armed war galley of ancient Greece.
2. A suit of Roman scale armor for a man or horse.
3. Biology. The bony plates or scales covering the body of certain fish and reptiles.

EX. A cataphract of cuckoos are more than sufficient to hold off the Moblin hordes.

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/8/12.

wail [weyl]

verb (used without object)

1. To utter a prolonged, inarticulate, mournful cry, usually high-pitched or clear-sounding, as in grief or suffering.

2. To make mournful sounds, as music or the wind.

3. To lament or mourn bitterly.

4. Jazz. To perform exceptionally well.

5. Slang. To express emotion musically or verbally in an exciting, satisfying way.

verb (used with object)

6. To express deep sorrow for; mourn; lament.

7. To express in wailing; cry or say in lamentation.

noun

8. The act of wailing.

9. A wailing cry, as of grief, pain, or despair.

10. Any similar mournful sound.

EX. Gotta give a special shout out to OMOCAT , whom I've gone to as a source for awesome Zelda  fanart this week. Enjoy the wailing Zelda above and the various moppets below. Expect to see a piece of her art headlining my review of Skyward Sword today.

NERD CULTURE SMACKDOWN! I LOVE LEGEND OF ZELDA! PT. 2

11 Specific Reasons I Love The Legend of Zelda 6-1

CLICK HERE FOR PT. 1 (11-7)

6. BEING THE HERO OF TIME

At number six, we're getting a wee bit personal and a wee bit interesting. The reason that the series is called "Legend of Zelda" rather than "Legend of Link" is that, besides in the TV series and CD-I games, Link is just the default name of the hero of time. In fact, as far back as I can remember, at least as far back as Link to the Past, which is the only game with a pink-haired Link, you can pick a name for your hero. I usually name my characters Sean, Imple, or Imple Jr.

Anywho, the cool thing about being the hero of time is that you get to go on this big adventure, explore this big world, wield the Master Sword and other awesome gear (will get back to the gear in a second). Wielding the Master Sword is especially cool, whether it be from the ability to shoot lasers in the early titles, or in the latest title being used with wii motion plus to give you the closest thing to a sword fight you could experience in a video game.

MIYAMOTO SHOWING OFF SKYWARD SWORD E3 2010

NERD CULTURE SMACKDOWN! I LOVE LEGEND OF ZELDA! PT. 1

11 Specific Reasons I Love The Legend of Zelda 11-7

 11. SOUND EFFECTS

Yup, while some of the sound effects like Navi yelling "Hey! Listen!" at you or the dreaded sound of your hearts blinking in the top left corner of your screen might be annoying, it doesn't mean the sound effects are bad. If anything it lends to my argument that Zelda has some of the most effect use of sound effects in video games.

After all, in a game without voice overs (the CD-I games had voice overs and we know how "wonderful" of an idea that was), then Nintendo has got to use their amazing power of sound design to try and create something that is as pleasing to the ears as it is to the eyes. A short list of my favorite Zelda sound effects:

3. Link Grunting Sounds

2. Finding a Secret Sound

1. The Item Found Sound

CLICK HERE FOR LINK'S BARREL BEAT!

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/5/12.

animism [an-uh-miz-uhm]

noun

1. The belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls.

2. The belief that natural objects have souls that may exist apart from their material bodies.

3. The doctrine that the soul is the principle of life and health.

4. Belief in spiritual beings or agencies.

 EX. I am sorry. I am really sorry. But I just don't like the subject for today's word of the day. There have been some annoying companions in the Zelda franchise, but not sidekick has pushed harder to be disliked while simultaneously doing nothing to make me care either way. The idea of the Master Sword having a persona? Potentially brilliant...the outcome is how the animism of Fi, rather than inspire me to enjoy the sword work better in the classic idea of singing sword, she drove me to dislike her...more than Navi.

Today's subject is...

FI

SWORD IN THE MUD

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/3/12.

timeline [tahym-lahyn]

noun

1. A linear representation of important events in the order in which they occurred.

2. A schedule; timetable.

EX. Click the image above for a break down of the Zelda timeline in diagram form before I get into a heavy discussion on the matter and sum it up for you in linear a model as possible. A lot of confusion is possible because a lot of names are reused a lot in the series.

WORD OF THE DAY! 5/9/12.

reincarnation [ree-in-kahr-ney-shuhn]
noun
1. The belief that the soul, upon the death of the body, comes back to the Earth, or perhaps another plane, in another body or form.
2. Rebirth of the soul in a new body.
3. A new incarnation, or embodiment, of a person.
4. The rebirth of an idea, organization, or regime.

EX. The transformation of Zelda, throughout twenty-five years and over a dozen titles, has taken interesting twists in turns. From the innocence of the original title to the more romantic arcs of A Link to the Past and Ocarina to the cartoonish characterizations of the Wind Waker titles to her nearly absent presence in Twilight Princess to the far better nuanced best friend turned true love in Skyward Sword, Zelda's characterization seems to have reflected the tone of each title.

Meanwhile, Link is a grunting dope.