ZELDA DESTROYED!?

After viewing the latest GameCube shots of Zelda, needless to say I'm peeved, virutally irate that they have done this to Zelda. They have officially shattered my hopes for the series and proven that they are nothing but worthless sell outs looking to cater to small children and only small children. Nintendo took that amazing demo that we saw last year and butchered it into this animated C-quality Disney garbage. Mind you this idea is nothing new, in fact Nintendo reached back into the closet of Zelda and stole this idea from the Phillips CDI, a system that used animated graphics to depict Link the SAME EXACT WAY this does. The games for the CDI were horrible, and thus Nintendo had to bring it back for some insane reason. I could have tolerated cell-shaded graphics if the game starred a character like the Link we saw in the cartoon series that aired in about 1988, but NO they had to render him as a little dorky twerp with a puny sword and sheild verses cutesy Disney-esque "bad guys" to poke in the foot. Screw You Nintendo. I don't have to buy this game, and I won't, In fact I might not even buy the GameCube after seeing this. The GameCube has huge potential and massive capability yet they squandered all that to make this travesy. This puts the Nail in the coffin of Nintendo's potential to redeem itself with the GameCube.

SCREENSHOTS


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HOW DO YOU GO FROM THIS:



TO THIS:

According to Nintendo, they were afraid of scaring away little kids from playing Zelda because it was too violent so they redid the whole thing to look like it's current appearance, a cartoonish romp through a disneylike animated Hyrule. All, I can say is that this is pretty much a sucker punch to gamers over the age of 12 who had high hopes based upon last year's spaceworld that Zelda would be like nothing that came before a true masterpiece in terms of rendering Hyrule and Link in it's truist form. Nintendo has proven that they don't care about anyone outside their niche market of anklebiters, and they refuse to be bold. This game is a sorry excuse for what could have been done with the series of games.

Mind you I'm not against Sprite based animations (Xenogears employed this) in games or full Cel-Type animations either but the quality of what they are presenting needs to represent a more dynamic and cinematic plot, rather than a cheezy child's cartoon. I've never invisioned Link as that, even in animated form. I could have tolerated a return the Zelda Cartoon Series look with Link and Zelda's appearance animated as they were in that but I'm tired of the kiddy link that grows younger and younger with every game. Is it possible for a 5 year old to weild a sword and fight enemies by the thousands? I don't think so. I'm sure there will still be Nintendo die hards that email me saying, how could I say this, how could I turn my back on Nintendo? I can hear the voices saying, "Well, It's being done by Miyamoto so the gameplay will be good." Well, I don't know what kind of gameplay you can have in an interactive FMV cartoon much like the early days of PC-CDROM and defunct units like the Phillips CDI. If you are designing a game for small children in the Barney to Pokemon range it's very unlikely you're going to have very complex gameplay or puzzles or reading for that matter. Kids that young barely know math and for the most part don't know the kind of words involved in telling a very dynamic plot. Many young children (Below 12) I've asked if they played Final Fantasy say that they don't like the game because it has so much reading and it's too complicated with all those numbers. Here's what I have to say to Nintendo. How about I give you the finger for this, and you remake the game people want to see it remade, screw what all the *gasp* parents might think and make a damn epic for a change. Prove that the Nintendo of old can be at the top of their game again.

Until Nintendo ante's up with something that will really make me take notice, I'm going to lay in anticipation for decent well put together games like Shenmue 2, Soul Calibur 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Silent Hill 2, XenoSaga, and of course Final Fantasy X. What System are most of those games appearing on, Playstation 2. Not a surprise PS2's third party games are far more inviting than Nintendo's First Party Poke'mons, Star Foxes, Donkey Kong/Ditty Kongs, Marios, and Zelda. Why did it have to turn out like this? I suppose Nintendo first started down this road when they disallowed blood in Mortal Kombat back in 1994 I believe, when you could always get the Blood in the Genesis version. Guess which game I bought at the time, suffice is to say Nintendo, aside from a few ventures like Goldeneye, Conker, and PerfectDark, are pretty much nowhere in sight for older gamers. I know nobody over the age of 13 that thinks Nintendo is as "cool" as Playstation. Of course in usual Nintendelay style, at SpaceWorld they announced the Delay of the GameCube and Smash Bros Melee. Not a surprise. Very rarely can they get something out on time or at least when they initially say it's going to release.

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