Legend of Zelda GC
Preview by Trent Dickerson
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The Legend of Zelda series has been a long and beautiful one (with the exception of
those god awful CD-i games, ugh). Never has there been a greater action/adventure series of
games. One could argue that the Zelda games are better than Mario games. Nostalgic games of
yester-year all have their own followings, more so if the series still continue today.
However, never has there EVER been a such a threat to a Nintendo franchise as there was at
Spaceworld 2001.
I think it's pretty damn obvious that anybody who's anybody has heard SOMETHING about
the Zelda series' "new look". If some for some odd reason you've been living in a cave for the
past 5 months or so without any access to Internet or game mags, not only are you a complete
and utter moron, but you've just missed out on the biggest shock in gaming history since Sega
announced they would no long make hardware and that they would just be a software company from
now on. Then again, if you HAVE been living under a rock, you probably didn't know that either.
The "new look" of course is the hybrid 3D/cel-shaded look of Link in the almost minute-
long in-game footage clip. This single video clip caused so much surprise, awe, horror, and
most importantly disgust that Internet message boards of all kinds would not let the subject
finally die for almost 2 weeks. It took a while, but fans finally started realizing that
Shiggy had a reason for doing this, and they were willing to listen to his personal reason for
the change with open, unbiased ears.
"As we were trying to make an even more adult-looking and even better proportioned,
real, human-like Link than [the one from Ocarina of Time], I started to feel a little strange.",
Miyamoto explained. "Instead, [I thought] we should challenge ourselves to make a new
expression of Link, something really Nintendo-like, [that would also make] use of GameCube's
abilities." (EGM, 146).
It's surprising how much can be told in less than a minute. Gameplay in the new
"Cel-da" was very similar to the past 2 N64 Zelda games, which was extremely unexpected as the
Zelda series is famous for changing drastically from one game to the next. The short clip
showed the inclusion of the ingenious Z-Targeting system integrated in the first N64 Zelda game,
Ocarina of Time, which traveled over to Majora's Mask as well. Also showed in the clip was the
typical block the enemy with a shield, set miscellaneous items to shortcut buttons at the top of
the screen, etc.
Speaking of enemies, through out the clip, strange boar-like villains chased and
atacked Link. It is believed that these creatures are the infamous Moblins, the standard enemy
that has followed Link around since the original Legend of Zelda for NES. They too were cel-
shaded, as was the rest of the environments, which consisted of a forest, a graveyard, and
inside a castle, all of which was cel-shaded. Whether or not Ganon will show up in the game has
yet to be heard, but you can bet your pointy-elf hat that he'll be involved somehow how or
another.
Though less than a minute long, the music actually wasn't half bad. The whole time, a
new rendition of the original overworld theme from the original Legend of Zelda on NES. On an
unrelated note, one of the most interesting aspects of the footage was probably the only one
that intrigued me, which was the use of facial expressions that Link has. Smiling, frowning,
scared, surprised. Something I thought was actually pretty cool. I'm not sure why, but I
somehow get the feeling this one little detail will play a vital role in the game in someway.
In conclusion, I think EGM said it best when they said, "Where exactly did the
inspiration for Zelda's makeover come from? Some might say Disneyworld. Others claim it was
heavy, heavy drugs." Heh, makes sense to me, maybe even a combination of both. Either way, I
won't lie to you guys, Miyamoto showed this footage a little less than 5 months ago and I still
don't know if I'm comfortable with the new concept, mainly because of the cel-shaded look and
that I was really looking forward to the Zelda we all saw at Spaceworld 2000. I don't know,
maybe I'll warm up to the idea once more information has been released about the game.
My Score: N/A
Advantages: It's a new Zelda game.
Disadvantages: Some may not like the new cel-shaded look.
