Ég var að lesa eitt Hyrule Time fyrir stuttu og þá tók ég eftir því að þau væru öll insider only. Þess vegna ætla ég að senda inn Volume 1 og gá hvernig ykkur lýst á. Ef þið lesið þetta virkilega og hafið gaman af þessu skal ég endilega senda fleirru volumes :) Þetta er kannski dálítið langt en endilega reynið að lesa þetta :)

Hyrule Times Vol. 1
The return of a long-lost column to celebrate the debut of a new Zelda game.
August 24, 2001 - Welcome home, Zelda fans. It's been awhile. In case you have been reading IGN long enough to remember our original Nintendo site, N64.com, then you probably recognize the title of this story. Hyrule Times was a weekly column I wrote back in the Nintendo 64 days, leading up to the release of Ocarina of Time. The column highlighted specific gameplay elements in the title, new screenshots, and topics that explored the Legend of Zelda series as a whole. With a new Legend of Zelda game now on the horizon – and first details trickling out of Nintendo's Spaceworld Expo – I figured the time was right to resurrect Hyrule Times, exclusively for IGNinsider. This column will appear every week, as long as there is something to talk about. So without much further ado, grab your green tunic, strap on your plastic elf ears, and get ready for your weekly Zelda blast.

Boldly Going…
Consternation, confusion, shock, anger, dismay. These words probably best reflect the majority of the reactions from Nintendo fans yesterday night when the first shots of the new Legend of Zelda game hit the web. Hot on the heels of discussion over whether Nintendo is trying to shed its kiddy image came one of the biggest shocks for the Nintendo fan community since Square announced Final Fantasy for the PlayStation. While many voiced their opinion rather gruffly on our message boards, accusing Nintendo of running “out of the good stuff,” others were hoping that Nintendo's latest Zelda game was nothing but a bad joke – or a mini-game in a more traditional Zelda title. After having seen the very mature and realistic Spaceworld 2000 demo of Link fighting Ganondorf, fans just couldn't believe that this new footage represented the next big installment in the beloved series. It had to be a joke.
 


It's not. The game trailer we posted last night is the real deal. It's an early look at a game slated for release at the end of next year, tentatively titled The Legend of Zelda. Before you jump to conclusions that this means that the game is a remake of the first Zelda title for NES, know that Nintendo says it will announce an appropriate subtitle at a later date. In the same vein, Ocarina of Time was originally known simply as The Legend of Zelda 64 and Majora's Mask was first unveiled as Legend of Zelda: Gaiden (Sidestory). But even though it may not be a remake, you're actually not that far off when you bring up the series' beginning. While it's doubtful that the whole franchise will look cartoony from now on, the new Legend of Zelda game is a return to the more cartoon-like design of the older titles.

Nintendo star designer Shigeru Miyamoto has often commented on how games are becoming more and more realistic, but developers are losing sight of what makes a great game. Whether you agree with Nintendo's design choices or not, it's tough to argue that Nintendo's titles are me-too games without originality. But take Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, for example. Even though the flow of the gameplay and the feel of the game was very unique, many gamers were complaining that its presentation was too close to Ocarina of Time. And whether we older gamers like it or not, Nintendo felt it was time to depart radically from said look and go for a completely different Zelda experience with the next title. Says Miyamoto: “What we are now doing is putting emphasis on making our games better than the others and we are not ignoring the importance of making something different.”
 
 
 Naturally, expectations were flying high based on the realistic and flashy Zelda character graphics Nintendo showed off at Spaceworld 2000. US gamers were looking for the maturity of the story in Majora's Mask coupled with the above detailed grown-up Link model and creepy, realistic dungeons. We were all convinced that the demo was 100% representative of the new Zelda title, especially after games like Wave Race and Luigi's Mansion surfaced at E3, looking very much like the non-playable demos shown at the expo last year. Miyamoto addressed these concerns, which were of course immediately voiced by foreign press during a roundtable conference:

"One thing I'm afraid of is that people who already saw Link in the very beautiful graphics may be looking forward to the much more sophisticated looking version of him [Space World 2000 footage] in the next Zelda,“ said Miyamoto. ”I do not want to betray them or shatter their expectations, so what we are doing now is making Zelda as unique as possible because uniqueness is something gamers are always looking for.“

Personally, the whole affair reminds me eerily of the unveiling of Paper Mario years ago. Gamers expecting a 64-bit update to Square's Super Mario RPG were dismayed when the sequel appeared to be a simplistic, kiddy pop-up book in the vein of Yoshi's Story. But what is it exactly that seems to irk many Zelda fans so much about Zelda's new clothes?

It's what the fan community already refers to as ”Baby Link.“ The new Zelda game's main character shares virtually nothing in common with his predecessors, except his pointy ears and green clothes. Somewhere in between the Powerpuff Girls and the main character from Malice, Link not only looks younger than ever, he doesn't even look like the hand-drawn cartoon artwork Nintendo featured in past instruction manuals and marketing materials.

But admittedly hideous Link model aside, the new cel-shaded Zelda game looks like a 3D rendition of A Link the Past, the now legendary SNES hit that introduced millions to the land of Hyrule.
 

 If you've watched the video clip we've captured, note the stylized look of the plants and trees during the outdoors sequence. It looks as if the designers are reverting back to the hand-drawn classic look, complete with the round trees and bushes and classic enemies like Moblins (and yes, they exhibited the same cartoony ”fall“ routines in the SNES game as well). Considering that A Link the Past is universally loved by gamers and remains one of the best-selling SNES titles of all times, how come that fan response to ”Cel-da“ has been overwhelmingly bad so far? The answer is a word that has been a central theme in more than one Zelda game: time. The same gamers who cherished A Link to the Past and previous Zelda titles have grown up. And the Zelda titles have grown up with them. As the Zelda titles have moved from platform to platform, Link's appearance has changed, not only on the technical side, but on the design side as well. Link has grown up, and even if Majora's Mask didn't allow you to play as grown-up Link, the general setting (not to mention the appearance of the ”special“ playable character at the end) have given the game a much more mature feel than the previous titles. What Nintendo has done is follow through with what it has preached at the last E3 Press Conference: moving away from predictable sequels. The idea is to use existing franchises and create new experiences.

”As you know, if one product receives rave reviews and becomes a hit, then the next year there are a number of similar games following the trend. A look at the movie industry, or animation made in Japan, they are following a similar trend and in the end only the very enthusiastic movie lovers can tell the difference,“ said Miyamoto at this year's press conference. ”But the general public can never tell them apart. And that is what we are most afraid of. So more in detail, what we are now doing is putting emphasis on making our games better than the others and we are not ignoring the importance of making something different.“

 
The question remains of course whether gamers actually want something so drastically different… It's also a question of whether the artist serves the audience – or whether the artist is out to create art for art's sake. But if games like Metroid Prime and Super Smash Bros. Melee are any indication, then Nintendo likes to give its audience what it wants, even if the company is prone to experiments. And if gamers' feedback to the look of the next Zelda game is overwhelmingly negative, you can bet your Master Sword that Zelda for GameCube #2 will go for a completely different look.
 

 
My personal take on the whole cel-shaded Zelda controversy is this: wait till you play it. Part of me is excited that Nintendo is once again exploring new territories. The last couple of times the company did this, the industry ended up with handheld game pads, analog sticks, rumbling controllers, lock-on camera control, and some of the most addictive games to ever grace gaming consoles. The other part of me is severely disappointed that the amazing look exhibited in the Spaceworld 2000 demo won't find its way into the next Zelda game. If I could pick right now which look I'd want for my next Zelda game, I would have gone with the more realistic presentation. But I also wouldn't have picked an Italian plumber to rescue a princess captured by a giant gorilla… And look how that idea turned out.

To give you an idea what the rest of the grew at IGN thinks of Zelda's new look, I've asked them to share their feedback on the short demo clip shown at Spaceworld. Note that only Craig, Fran, and Matt have seen the game footage on the big screen. The rest of us watched it via the same Quicktime movie that we have made available to you.

IGN Opinions

Dan Adams (IGN PC): I'm a little split as to what I feel about the new look to Link and Zelda in general. I've been a fan of the series since the first one came out way back in the dark ages, and have eagerly awaited news of new Zelda projects over the years and this one was no exception.

So on the one hand, I've really liked the way things have been headed over the last couple of games. We'd seen Link grow up a bit in Ocarina of Time and I really liked that side of things. A little more mature while still retaining the some of the fantastic and wonderful fun of the other games and not taking itself too seriously. While the look of the new game doesn't mean that the combat and gameplay will be any less mature, there's just something almost a little too cartoony for me in this look. I was really excited when that tech demo came out for the GameCube and showed Link and Gannon duking it out in some sort of throne room. After I saw that little piece of art, I think that my mind immediately shifted to thinking of a hardcore action game that I could really sink my teeth into with a lot more options on the combat side of things.

So maybe my reticence to love this new look stems directly from the hope of a game that let us see Link grow up a bit. I've grown up playing the games over the years and I kind of want to take Link along for the ride. Playing as a little kid doesn't necessarily do it for me, particularly because I can't really relate anymore. I feel a little silly saying that… it's a video game… and its Zelda…

But on the other side of things, I really do like the art style in the game. I don't necessarily think that it fits the whole Zelda mythology quite as well as something a little more realistic like the new Mario game is looking, but it's still quality art and I look forward to getting a better look at it. If this had been anything other than Zelda, I think that pretty much everyone would be saying that it looks really amazing.

The actual gameplay that was shown in the video certainly looked like a whole lot of fun. The enemies seem to be a little more challenging in their actions, the moves that link was pulling off looked like a whole lot of fun, and you know… it's Zelda… I love Zelda and I'm sure as hell going watching the progress with some bit of anticipation of the final product whether I agree on the change in the look or not.

 
Vincent thinks Kid Icarus would have been perfect for this look.  
 Vincent Lopez (IGN Xbox): Why does Link suddenly look like one of the Olsen twins? I'm a huge, huge, huge huge huge hugehugehugehugehuge Zelda fan, and frankly I'm a little worried. It's not just the graphics, it's the fact that now there's slapstick humor, cartoon skids off of cliffs, and big winks and huge reactions. Maybe I'm crazy, but wasn't the Zelda series getting more epic, mature and magical in every iteration? What happened here. A guy on the boards said it best when he said that this would have been a perfect move for a Kid Icarus remake, not Zelda.

Chris Carle (IGN Guides): The new-look Zelda is brilliant. I love it. I more than love it. I lurve it. I luff it. I don't buy the ”he should look tougher“ routine. He's a dang-blasted kid, folks! I love the super-stylized look, and the cel shading is superior to anything I've seen outside of the movie house.

Zelda has always taken place in a fantasy world. Now they just made it look more fantastic, more unreal, more stylized. About my only complaint is that Link looks a tad bit like one of the characters from Animal Forest (what with the doe eyes and all). But the environments and the interface look awesome. Bottom line: I'm a-droolin'!

David Smith (IGN PS2): Link looks like a ten-year-old boy prostitute from Fort Worth, Texas.

Mike Morrissey (IGN PC): While the new Zelda looks a good deal cartoon-like in its new iteration, that's not all necessarily bad. Watch the footage for a moment, and you'll realize it looks just like an interactive Disney cartoon. In short, it looks amazing. It's not like you're going for ”realism“ in Zelda anyway. I think Nintendo made the right move in going for the cartoony look. It makes the game more accessible, and when it's finished, the game will be amazing

Matt Casamassina (IGNcube): I wanted the Space World 2000 version. I'm all for toon-shaded games, brilliant animation and light humor – just keep it away from my Zelda franchise.

Aaron Boulding (NFLuth): Cartoons are good. Videogames are good. Therefore cartoon-like videogames must be the best case scenario, right? In a nutshell, I really liked the stylized look of the environments and especially the big brown, slobbering enemies. If they end up being that cool looking with that kind of Tex Avery type of animation during actual gameplay, then Gamecubers could be in for a real treat. The promise of the game doesn't lie in its cartoon style graphics, but what a videogame creator like Miyamoto will do with that kind of freedom. Throughout the last 15 years or so, millions of generic melee-type enemies have marched to their deaths under the blade, bullets or butt stomp of the hero. In the brief clips of Zelda Gamecube that we've seen, it looks like there will still be millions of bad guys to chop up, but they'll be uniquely animated and they'll come with loads of personality.

As exciting as that is, I can say that I wasn't too excited about Link's new look. His tiny body and pie-shaped face don't look like they'll lend themselves to any kind of cool animations from our hero. Since he's the one we're going to spend most of our time looking at while we play, it makes sense that he should be at least half as interesting to look at as the guys he's going to be slashing.

It's tough to make a judgment about an entire game based on such a short videoclip, but I know that what I saw leaves me with mixed feelings. If that look and style lends itself to a wide open zany adventure then we're in for a treat. But if Zelda's cartoonish visuals are at odds with the gameplay then Nintendo might be making a leap that we can't follow. I mean this is a next generation game, where the details and emotions are supposed to be richer than ever before. When he enters a scary dungeon or confronts some big snarling spider, how is Link going to paint a frightened look on such a Hello Kitty face?

Fran Mirabella (IGNcube): At first I was honestly shocked at the cartoon look of the game. It was just a huge, huge surprise. I was expecting to see the slickly rendered, semi-realistic Zelda Nintendo demonstrated at last year's E3. Instead we ended up with a cartoon rendition of one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises. As I watched the trailer I almost began to think it was a remake of one of the old games. But, then I saw that look in Miyamoto's eye. This was his new baby and I'm sure he's got some amazing ideas for it.

Once I accepted that it was indeed the true Zelda, it quickly grew on me. The toon-shading is by far the most advanced I've laid eyes on. Characters self shadow in many different layers, and the animation (which I'm a particular stickler for) is breathtaking. There's a few things like facial animations on Link that seems almost too flat, but I'd have to see more. I'm all for the look honestly. I love cartoons and I love Zelda – what a great blend.

Still, as cool as it looks I want to see Miyamoto and his team do things with the toon-shading you simply could not do in a normal, semi-realistic 3D world. Comical animations will surely add to the atmosphere, but they're not going to create a whole new style of gameplay. I'm sure the game will be great as most Zelda games are, but I'm definitely looking for the reasons why Nintendo decided on the cartoon look.

Doug Perry (IGN PS2): Holy smokes, Miyamoto-san. The genius behind Nintendo's game design has once again decided what is best for his ongoing series, and it's a shock to those who thought that Nintendo might actually grow up. It's a shock to me, yes indeed, and I'm haing my fair share of laughs and wide-eyed conversations with the other IGN editors who all have strong opinions about this new Zelda look. David Smith's friend said Link looks exactly like the wanne-be dentist Herme, from the old claymation TV special
Rudolph the Rednosed Raindeer. Link looks hilariously cartoony. Kiddy. Childish.

But after my intitial shock and humor subsided, I realized that Link truly looks different than anything I have come to expect from any game developer. Miyamoto has once again thought deeply and seriously about the Zelda series and the game world around him. His conclusion, which is to take the Peter Pan route (to never grow up), is a strong, visionary,
even bold way of thinking. Nobody else is thinking of making their series look younger right now – everybody is aiming their games toward teenagers and older gamers. If I look through the crinkly cynicism I've acquired over the years as an adult and as seasoned gamer, I can see what Miyamoto has done. He's gone against the societal grain to create something from his heart, from the child in him, as an artist.

And you know what? Miyamoto may be getting older, but his sense of design and what's fun in games has rarely if ever faltered. I trust Miyamoto, and once rest of the world gets over Link's look, they'll probably agree, they should trust his instincts, too.

Jeremy Conrad (IGN Guides): OK, I've been a Zelda fan forever (maybe a bigger Mario fan, but still), and I just don't accept the new Zelda. This is supposed to be The Legend of Zelda, not Looney Tunes: Featuring Link. Sure the cel-shading and animation is great, but the entire look of the game goes against what as recently been established in the excellent N64 installments of the series. Even Zelda II: The Adventures of Link on the NES featured a more ”mature“ look than this atrocity.

Back at last year's Spaceworld and this year's E3, we were shown an awesome teaser video of Link squaring off against Ganondorf in a very moody chamber. I don't know about you, but just about every Nintendo fan I've seen online expected GameCube Zelda to look something like that, not a cel-shaded cartoon that makes Link look like a five-year-old girl. If they at least made an effort to match the art style from the original instruction manuals for the NES games, I probably would have liked it a lot more.

I'll play the game, sure, as it is a new Zelda game. But the entire time I'll wonder what the hell got into Miyamoto's mind to transform the beloved Zelda series into a Saturday morning cartoon. While Nintendo fans have been hoping for a more ”mature“ image from Nintendo, the new Zelda does nothing at all to help that. This change is actually worse, in my mind, than George Lucas naming Episode II ”Attack of the Clones“. At least that title fits the story…

Stephen Butts (IGN PC): Change is good, children. From the second Link draws his sword, I couldn't help but be totally taken in by this footage. I think it's really great of Nintendo to go back to a big-headed, cel-shaded, cartoonish art style. I know some people hate the new direction, but they're just stupid. I mean, look at all the amazing touches – the way Link's hair waves around, his cool little sneaking animation, the pouring rain; it's all brilliantly done.

The fighting footage has me hooked. The low-angle bit in the forest where Link flips over the pig guy is particularly sweet. I'm not entirely convinced that the final game will be that cinematic necessarily, but the way the camera tracks around as Link rolls and jumps and flips is fantastic. The fighting system doesn't seem all that different from the last game – that's a good thing.

I also dig that Link's like a little kid in this one. I really don't understand the objection to this. Sure, the series has matured with each successive title, but I don't think you can equate the cute-factor of the art style with any sort of shallowness of content. I like the little Link; especially that little wink at the end. It totally reminds me of those old Rankin-Bass stop motion animation features – you know, the little round-headed models with the painted-on eyes? I think that's awesome.

The only disappointing part of the screening was the very end where it said the game wasn't coming out until next year. Come on, Nintendo; I know Mario's your money pony but Link'd sell a crapload of Cubes this November.

Oh, and Jeremy needs to chill out

Tal Blevins (IGN Tal): Having played Zelda from day one, I'm a little shocked at the new look. Why change something that's perfectly good the way it is? I liked the way the Zelda series was progressing to a more realistic-look, and this complete 180 turn-around certainly came as a surprise. With that said, the animation does look cool and it certainly has potential, but I for one am not a big fan of the visual changes to the Zelda series. But as we know from the early games, Zelda has always been about gameplay, not graphics, so maybe my opinion will change once I get my hands on it, but this just doesn't look like Zelda to me. I
like cel-shading, but I think it would have been best used on a new franchise than with an old favorite that already had a very stylistic look of its own.

Craig Harris (IGNpocket): The second the new Link model popped up on the screen, I thought it was a joke. I seriously thought that, after a couple seconds, they were going to do something like say ”Ha, ha, just kidding…here's the real game.“ But when the demonstration continued, it was obvious that this new design was the real deal…they wouldn't have gone through so much level and character design for a simple joke.

 
Check out the heavily stylized smoke.  
 That said, it was a shock to see a flat-faced, cartoon-style Link that kicked up sketchy dirt when he ran from orcs that stretched their mouths open like a stunned Wile E. Coyote. But the more I saw what the team has done, the more I grew into acceptance – who's to say what is the real direction Zelda should take? After all, the game started out as an 8-bit sprite-based game with big-headed characters that flashed into puffs of pixelated smoke after being slashed in a two-frame animated move. It's drastic, artistic license, absolutely – and I'm sure Miyamoto and team were biting their nails during the presentation. This isn't an obscure character. This is Link…the main hero of one of the most known and successful videogame series in history. But I'll bet this game will be one that everyone remembers.

David Zdyrko (IGN PS2): I can fully understand the feeling of bewilderment that some Nintendo and Zelda fans are feeling right now with regard to the new cartoon-ish look of the new Legend of Zelda for GameCube. Most people just don't accept change that well and this is a drastic change in direction when
you compare it to what was first shown of the game. However, I personally love the new artistic style and the direction that Miyamoto is headed with this one.

The game looks and moves like a cartoon and, for me, Link has never been a super ”bad-ass mofo“, so him looking younger isn't that big of a deal. He was never in the same league as Solid Snake in the Metal Gear series or someone like Dante in the upcoming Devil May Cry game in terms of being a mature character for ”adults", but that never stopped me from loving the Zelda games. And it definitely won't be any different this time around.

I honestly believe that once all of the initial craziness dies down and the shock of the all-new look fades away, everyone will remember why they've loved the series so much and will get used to ,and even grow to love, the new look. It's a Zelda game by Miyamoto – it's going to be a great game. And if you're an Insider, you ought to show your support by getting one of the new Baby Link icons for the message boards.