Hyrule Historia

While debating on how to tackle smaller NES and Game Boy games on my self-imposed chronologically-correct way my mind works, Nintendo released their Hyrule Historia art book/encyclopedia over in Japan and I can't stress this enough:

This thing has gotta make it out of Japan.

It's not the first time Japan's withheld such Word of God goodness. I've almost gotten over the fact that we'll prolly never get all the Kingdom Hearts Ultimanias, fantastic strategy guides that go super in-depth on the beauty of the Kingdom Hearts universe with interviews, artwork and what-have-you. But it doesn't mean I can't hope.

Mainly posting this week about the fact Nintendo's revealed the official timeline for their The Legend of Zelda series. Whether or not you believe this is a public fragment of Nintendo's alleged and highly-classified document that houses how the games relate to each other doesn't matter to me, since I've lurked around enough comments sections and forums to know this is exactly the kind of thing that can break a fanbase in half (or three!). As far as I'm concerned, this is the official timeline until proven otherwise. And seeing as how this was edited by Eiji Aonuma himself and published by Nintendo, this is all but fact in my eyes.

An illustrated guide to the timeline, with an interesting development:

Most enticing part about this reveal is the existence of a so-called Failure Timeline.

Ocarina of Time was known to have created two timelines back when The Wind Waker was released, resulting in the Adult and Child timelines. This led to us fans to try and compile the then-ten titles released. (No, the CD-i games are not canon and I have no intention of playing them.)

As of last week, I had settled on my version of the timeline after thinking over the series and replaying most of the titles this year, which was as follows:

Metroid: Zero Mission

Man, I completely forgot about actually retro-reviewing every game I care about! Well, no more! Off to continue spouting my opinion in a sea where no one really cares what I think and how I rate things!

There's something about myself I've realized that bothers some people I know - I give most remakes the benefit of a doubt, especially when it comes to video games. For films, it depends if I've ever seen the original or on trusted word of mouth. Modern movie magic can help out a film I otherwise wouldn't've given the time of day to. When it comes to video games, I'm on board a good 95% of the time. Unlike films, a game must be actively played to advance anywhere and can definitely benefit from the advancement of technology and the lessons learned from other iterations of a series and inspiration from other titles to make the experience smoother and enjoyable, as Metroid has.

While I have multiple access to the original Metroid for NES, I prefer and will henceforth be referring to the remake Metroid: Zero Mission for GBA that released back in '04. I find it a much more accessible game than the original, to be honest. It controls a lot better than it did back in '87 (diagnal aiming is a godsend) and is more accessible for it, with more clearly defined goals. Whether or not that's an improvement depends on what you think makes a Metroid game. The extreme feeling of isolation is diluded somewhat with a map and clearly-marked goals, but the original's hidden passages and secrets are nigh-impossible to decipher to the modern gamer if they're not completely obsessed with 80's gaming mentality or have an extremely good memory.

The Legend of Zelda

Man, I seem to be the only one excited to see On Stranger Tides. Stripped free of the Wilizabeth plot that was so neatly wrapped up during At World's End, it's free to be Jack's movie and I admit he's one of the main reasons I love the series. Plus, it has Ian McShane as Blackbeard and has mermaids. French Mermaids. French. Mermaids. 'Nuff said. Also, Deathly Hallows, Part 2 seems like it'll be as great a closer as the book was for me. Still would've liked Harry to get with Luna, though that's a conversation for another time.

Anyway, on to my personal all-time favorite franchise in gaming:

Super Mario Bros.

Because I'm mad, I've decided to run through many franchises and faux-review them, like what I've been doing with Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts thus far, though I realize I'm in terrible need of an editor, so I'm starting over from scratch! For the record, it's because I'm mad and have no social life.

To kick off this project properly, I'm starting with the Mario series, namely the Nintendo Entertainment System classic, Super Mario Bros. along with the sub series that spawned from it, including Kart, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and other side games. In addition, I'm currently running through the Zelda franchise in preparation for it's quarter-century celebration of Ocarina 3D and Skyward Sword, a clearer view on Kingdom Hearts, the Final Fantasy titles I own (ranking the main series being the main priority), the Pokémon series in general, Metroid, Star Fox and maybe more of my favorite franchises.

Now to begin:

New Year Jollies

2011 is turning out to be a good one thus far, and if it weren't for a nasty bout with a cold/fever/flu-like thingy I just suffered through, I'd be a happy panda. Seriously, I can count on one hand how many times I've caught something since graduating High School, and I forget how horrible it is.

To kick off, I've used the Holiday break to catch up on shows via Hulu, to play/watch video games that I wasn't willing to buy at full-price, and watch movies I've missed out on during 2010, each with varying success.

• Turns out Inception was an excellent film (R.I.P., Pete Postlethwaite) and I can see where all the hype came from. I admit I wasn't blown away as most everyone else, but that's prolly due to my love and preparation from the likes of Metal Gear and Eva.
• Force Unleashed 2 has to be my biggest disappointment of the year, for the critics were right about all it's shortcomings. It's criminally short, the plot wasn't really that great, the boss fights dragged on, the level designs, while good and accurate to the source material, were repetitive, some of the enemies are still cheating and/or illogical Force-cancelling bastards, and the impact and importance compared to the original was severely lacking (Don't put Yoda and Boba Fett in a game for 30 second cameos with no justification other than to pander to the fanbase, dammit.). To be fair though, it was pretty, the music was good, and dicking around with Stormtroopers is still as endlessly entertaining as it'll ever be. Make it up to us in the inevitable FU3, LucasArts.
  
• The Expendables wasn't a great film, but I'm a sucker for some Jet Li ass-kicking, explosions, and an automatic shotgun. To hell with those overly critical people who can't have fun with an action flick, I say!
  
• I absolutely adore Princess Jellyfish. This anime is adorable, from it's art style to its zany characters and parodies. Definitely a nice surprise this season and I hope there's a sequel! *crosses fingers*
• Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was as great as I hoped it would be. Plays just as if the series had never been on hiatus for 7 years. Totally sets up for a sequel, and that means 3DS! Think about it: Psynergy in 3D!
• Super-excited for LMS. Got my copy of Killbook of a Bounty Hunter, and it's so sweet. Happy to support Adonis in his efforts, love his work, and glad he's got something big on his hands. Here's to the franchise!
• I'm head-over-heels for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. So. Freaking. Badly. Definitely up there with Gurren Lagen and FLCL in my book. Soundtrack is ace, hilarious in its vulgar and blunt humor, Gainax outdid themselves with this one.

I'll elaborate on some of these later, but the one piece of news that caused many to fangasm:

Star Wars The Complete Saga on Blu-ray.

Bring it on, 2011!