Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

As you may know, Nintendo is working on a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Nintendo 3DS. It’s going to be called A Link Between Worlds, and it’s due to be released this November. With that in mind, I thought this would be a great time to revisit A Link to the Past on SNES. It’s my favorite Zelda game, and I’ve played through it multiple times before. But classics like this are worth playing over and over again, especially when a number of years have passed.

So I started up a new game, with my character named Link, of course. The game has a memorable opening scene, which takes place on a stormy night. Link seemingly receives a telepathic message from Zelda, who is being held as a prisoner in the castle. Link’s uncle, after warning Link not to leave the house, sets off to the castle.

zelda lttp-dont leave houseLink, after collecting all the goodies from the house, also heads off to the castle. After stumbling into a secret entrance, Links finds a passageway to the courtyard. There, he sees his dying uncle, who gives Link his sword and shield, and tells Link to save the princess.

zelda lttp-uncleLink then enters the castle and makes his way down to the dungeon. After defeating a mini-boss, Link rescues Zelda.

zelda lttp-big keyThe pair then make their way to the throne room, where a secret passageway can be opened.

zelda lttp-shelfAfter fighting through dark, rat-filled sewers, Link and Zelda end up at the sanctuary.

Zelda Link to the Past SanctuaryZelda stays at the sanctuary for now, while Link  seeks out the village elder. One interesting thing about A Link to the Past is that Link receives items, such as the boomerang and bombs, very early on. Most later Zelda games have you playing for many hours before you acquire weapons like that.

In Kakariko village, Link finds that not all of the villagers are on his side.

zelda lttp-wanted manBut Link does receive information about the location of the elder. That’s where Link will be heading next.

zelda lttp-elder grandpaTo be continued…

Here is a video showing the beginning of the game, up to the sanctuary:

Super Mario Bros. 3 – Memorable Levels

Today, I’m taking a look back at my favorite video game of all-time, Super Mario Bros. 3. In particular, I’m revisiting three of my favorite and most memorable levels. Just a note, though: Even though SMB3 was first a NES game, the videos included here are from the SNES version as seen in Super Mario All-Stars.

First up is World 6-5. Located midway through the ice world, this level seems to be an endless loop of Buster Beetles and ice blocks initially. Those ice blocks are ultra cool though, in more ways than one, as you can pick them up and throw them at enemies. Even if you miss, they keep sliding until they hit something and break. But still, the numerous Buster Beetles can be tricky to deal with in here. There is a small room that has renewable power-ups, and it’s there for a reason: You need to be raccoon Mario (or have other means of flight) to finish the level. A lone Koopa Troopa must be stomped on and his shell flown up through a certain hole in the ceiling to clear a path to the ending. This was the type of level that may have been confusing at first, but it’s very rewarding when you figure it out.

Next up is World 5-3. It is the only level in the game that has a rare power-up known as Kuribo’s Shoe. Some Goombas in this level will be wearing the powerful shoe, and you have to hit the blocks they’re standing on from underneath to defeat the Goombas. Once you do that, you’re free to hop right into the shoe and get stomping! With the shoe, you can jump higher and safely walk across Munchers. Not only that, but you can stomp on Spinys and piranha plants to defeat them! How cool is that? Kuribo’s Shoe makes this level unique and lots of fun. Unfortunately, once you clear this level, you’ll never see it again for the rest of the game.

And last but not least is the first fortress in World 7. The main point of interest in this level is the huge room made up almost entirely of gold bricks. Hidden amongst them is a P-switch that turns all those hundreds of gold bricks into coins! You can run and jump through them for lots of 1-ups! Even better, the room resets when you leave and re-enter it! So you can rack up tons of extra lives by doing this over and over. And if all that wasn’t cool enough, a secret door revealed by the P-switch leads you to a room where you can grab a Tanooki Suit!

So those are three of my favorite and most memorable levels in Super Mario Bros. 3. What are yours?

Final Arkham City Blog Entry

It’s been quite a while since I last updated my progress in Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition for Wii U. I beat the main story mode back in April, but I’ve still been playing the game off-and-on, trying to grab more of the collectibles in the game. Soon after starting up tonight, I switched to Catwoman to collect some of her items.

batman-6713-1I went down into the sewers to grab some of her Riddler trophies and of course, beat up some thugs along the way. When I was done, I switched back to Batman.

batman-6713-2I scoured the city for Riddler trophies, riddles, and anything else I could find that still needed to be done. I also went into the steel mill to destroy a bunch of those talking Harley Quinn statues. Even though they had shown up on the map as destructible items, I previously didn’t know how to destroy them. Punching them didn’t work, Batarangs didn’t work, even explosive gel didn’t work. But I figured out you have to use the remote electrical charge on them.

batman-6713-3At this point, I think I’m pretty much done with as much as I’m going to do, and this will probably be my last blog entry about the game. I’ve actually only completed 64% of everything altogether, but a lot of the remaining stuff is either quite tricky to accomplish (like some of the later augmented reality training tasks), more trouble than it’s worth, or in modes that I don’t really enjoy playing (Riddler’s Revenge). But I did complete 9 of the 12 side missions, I collected 282 of the 400 Riddler secrets, and I got all of the WayneTech upgrades.

According to my Wii U daily log, I’ve put a total of 62 hours into Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition. It’s been my most-played Wii U game, and I also consider it the best Wii U game I’ve played so far. But I think it’s time to move on to something else. There is another Batman game, Arkham Origins, coming out in October. Depending on how it turns out, I may buy it as well.