How I’d design the next Zelda game

An open letter to Nintendo: Much has been speculated about the upcoming Wii U Zelda game. No, not The Wind Waker HD – the new one, currently due to be revealed at E3 next year. Current word is that Nintendo would like to make it more open world. Possibly multiplayer. They want to move away from traditional Zelda games and move the series on. Rubbish. What makes Zelda is being Zelda. With the overworld and the dungeons. The “gimmick” changes …

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (360)

I’m torn. On one hand, this a beautiful, heart-wrenching puzzle-platformer. On the other hand, it’s ICO. Now, I sort of liked ICO. I liked the idea. I liked some of the puzzles. I liked the setting and the graphics (although the horrible low-res made my eyes explode). I didn’t like all the dragging Yorda round and stopping her getting killed, though. This doesn’t have a lot of that, and the graphics are several billion times easier on the eyes, but …

Luigi’s Mansion 2 (3DS)

It’s slow going through the Mansions. Not because I don’t like the game – quite the opposite. More the way I’m playing. Since the game is split into missions, each about 20-30 minutes long, I’ve only been doing one or two at a time. Which would still be quite quick, if it wasn’t for the fact that every time I turn my 3DS on, oh look – there’s Animal Crossing. “Just 5 minutes” on Animal Crossing turns into “oh, no …

Bastion (360): COMPLETED!

A beautiful game. Gorgeous to look at. Fantastic music. Fun to play. Somewhat short, and incredibly easy (I didn’t die at all, ever), but really, really good. After a few levels, I’d settled on the Fang Repeater and Machete as my weapon paring of choice. I set my special attack as the spinning shield thing, but frankly, I never needed it. Of course, I’d pick up other weapons along the way, but until I found the Calamity Cannon I swapped …

Bastion (360)

After finishing Rayman, I found myself without a “currently playing” console game. Sure, I have a few that I’ve finished but not 100%ed, that I could have returned to (like Lego Harry Potter 2, Skylanders, or more Rayman), and yeah, I’ve Luigi’s Mansion on the go for “on the go”, and sure, I have The Wonderful 101 sat there unplayed… but I thought I’d play Bastion. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I’d been told it was good, and …

Rayman Legends (Wii U): COMPLETED!

By “completed”, I of course mean, I’ve got to the end credits. See. I don’t have all 700 teensies, or a million lums, or have done all the Origin levels (I haven’t even unlocked most of them) or opened Living Dead Party, but I’ve completed the story. I played about 60% of the game in co-op with my daughter, which was fun. She generally took on the role of Murfy for those levels where he’s a part, and she did …

Need for Speed: Most Wanted U (Wii U): COMPLETED!

I am Most Wanted! As the saucy minx on the game purred to tell me. I beat the Konigseggsegssgg and took it down to claim it as my own, and that was it – fourteen hours of credits, followed by being dumped back in the game to play some more, only in an invisible car. And play some more I did. Firstly, to find all of the remaining jack spots (I had about 15 remaining – only one was difficult …

Things I’ve been playing recently

Roundup time! Need For Speed: Most Wanted U (Wii U) At less than £15, I couldn’t resist this. The best version of essentially the sequel to one of the best driving games ever (Burnout Paradise)? Sold! And, I’ve not been disappointed. Sure, it’s more realistic with the real cars and less arcadey handling, and yeah, the billboards and barriers you have to smash through aren’t all bright red and yellow, and OK, so there are police cars out to spoil …

Skylanders (360): COMPLETED!

Look! Look at that thing in the post title! And the tag list! LOOOOOK!! It says “completed”!! That’s right. About 18 months after starting the game, my daughter and I finally completed it today. We’d been just a couple of levels off the end for months and months, but every time we got a new Skylander we played some earlier levels to level it up a bit and get money to buy upgrades. Today, we went for one final push and …

The Xbox Update; Or Why I Learned to Hate Security

You know there was an update for the Xbox 360 recently? I’ve never enjoyed these updates. They take forever, usually make the console worse and less responsive, and – on one occasion – broke my Xbox. This new one appears to do two things: Replace Microsoft Points with actual pound values, and Make me want to stab people at Microsoft in the face. You see, there’s now a forced “two factor” logon. Which is good, for security. But the way …

Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

And go back for the remaining fruit I did. None of it was that hard to reach, but I did seem to be missing one fruit in the Distant Tundra area. Nothing was showing on the map, but I figured out it was a bunch of grapes I’d somehow not picked up (even though I recall doing so), so headed for where they were. Only to find a single grape was there. Just one. How I missed one, I don’t …

Pikmin 3 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

15 hours, apparently. Which equated to 39 in-game days. That’s how long it took me to find the Cosmic Drive key, best the final boss, and escape from Certainly Not Earth and head home with all the fruit juice and seeds I could carry. Well, most of the fruit juice and seeds. 43 of the 66 fruits available, in fact. And rather a lot of carrotmen died for the cause. Er, about 700, all in. Which sounds horrific, but you …

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS): COMPLETED!

I am not a big fan of the Donkey Kong Country series of games. I didn’t like the SNES ones, I didn’t like the Game Boy ones, and although Donkey Kong 64 started well, the collecting killed it for me. As a result, I didn’t even have a slight interest in the Wii game “Donkey Kong Country Returns”, of which this is a 3D “remix”. So why then did I play it? Firstly, curiosity. Secondly, it was free. And thirdly? …