Portfolio: Geek Squad: 25 Legendary Years Part 2

Geek Squad’s back from Spring Break with even more Zelda-mania! Last issue I talked about two of my favorite underrated Zelda games (The Minish Cap and Spirit Tracks) with the promise of one more on the way. Well, I may have stretched the truth a bit, because this week I’m doing it like Billy Mays and doubling that offer! Why? Because it’s almost impossible to talk about just one of these two games without mentioning the other, so let’s get down to it!

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages (GBC)
First, a little behind-the-scenes information: these two games stand out from most other Zelda games in that they weren’t actually developed by Nintendo. No, the Oracle games were instead created by Flagship, a subdivision of Capcom, who also went on to make The Minish Cap. Because of this, these three games are the only ones in the series to have not been developed by Nintendo (there’s also the three games that appeared on the Philips CD-i, but I try to forget those ever existed). Another fun little tidbit is that Flagship intended on making a third game along with Seasons and Ages, but the linking system (which I’ll get into later) proved too difficult. But enough about all that, let’s jump into these two awesome games!

Both games start the same because the idea is that they’re supposed to happen at the same time in two parallel universes – weird, I know. Link goes to check out the resting place of the Triforce, approaches it, and gets magically whisked away to some far-off land where surely something sinister is afoot that he has to take care of.

If you’re playing Oracle of Seasons (my personal favorite of the two), you get dropped off in the land of Holodrum, where you meet Din, the titular Oracle of Seasons. Enter Onox, the General of Darkness (quite the title), who kidnaps Din and sinks the Temple of Seasons underground, causing all of Holodrum’s seasons to go out of whack. It’s your job to retrieve the Rod of Seasons (which allows Link to change the seasons at will), traverse eight dungeons to collect “Essences of Nature,” save Din and kick Onox’s dark booty.

If you’re playing Oracle of Ages, you get dropped off in the land of Labrynna, where you meet Nayru, the once-again titular Oracle of Ages. Enter Veran, the Sorceress of Shadows (really now?), who kidnaps/possesses Nayru, causing the time flow of Labrynna to go out of whack. It’s your job to retrieve the Harp of Ages (which allows Link to travel 400 years into the past), traverse eight dungeons to collect “Essences of Time,” save Nayru and kick Veran’s shadowy booty. Seeing a pattern here?

Okay, so the storylines of both games are pretty much the definition of cookie-cutter, but it isn’t really the story you should be looking at. Both of these games struck a brilliant balance of old and new – these were Zelda games through and through, but at the same time they introduced a whole slew of new characters, features, items, game mechanics, and more. There’s a ton of stuff unique to these two games. You’ve got the ability to befriend one of three animal buddies, who you can then ride around on and thoroughly stomp face with. There’s a ring collecting system where you obtain rings from a number of different methods, get them appraised, and wear them to give yourself new abilities. Items like the Roc’s Cape or Switch Hook expanded on old favorites while introducing new challenges.

Point being, these two games are massive. We’re talking a whopping sixteen full-length dungeons between both games.

And while they are indeed two separate games, they were always meant to be played together, as evidenced by a robust linking system via password. On top of using passwords between the two games to unlock new items and quests, beating one game and using its password on the second unlocks the true final boss, a certain villain that usually ends up behind most of these evil plots.

As separate games, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages stand as full-fledged entries to the Zelda series, each with their own merits. But when you take full advantage of the password system and play the two in sequence, you’ve got what’s easily the biggest and most diverse Zelda adventure to date.

Portfolio: Geek Squad: 25 Legendary Years

It was February 21, 1986 that Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda for the Famicom Disk System, Japan’s version of the NES. Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, The Legend of Zelda was developed at the same time as Super Mario Bros., though the two were meant to be quite different – while Super Mario Bros. was completely linear and action-oriented, The Legend of Zelda presented the player with a wide open world that was meant to be explored in whatever way the player wished, and though the game definitely had its share of action, it also challenged players to use their brains in order to solve puzzles and explore the world even further. With The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo broke immense ground in the adventure genre of gaming while also laying down the foundation for role-playing games with its compelling narrative. Last but certainly not least, The Legend of Zelda was the first of many, a starting point to a much-beloved series that spans over fifteen entries.

Of course, it’s hard to mention Zelda without thinking about the fond memories that come with playing a Zelda game – the freedom of sailing for the first time in The Wind Waker, the fear of the moon in Majora’s Mask, the awe of, well, pretty much everything in Ocarina of Time – it’s just so easy to wax nostalgia for each and every game in the series, and yet it’s only a select few that people really talk about. So what of the rest, the ones that didn’t make waves in the industry like the original or A Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time? I think it’s about time that some of the less talked about Zelda games got a taste of the spotlight, so in honor of The Legend of Zelda’s 25th anniversary, I’m going to show some love for three of the most underrated Zelda games!

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA)
I don’t know if this one just got overshadowed by the A Link to the Past remake that came out on the Game Boy Advance, but Minish Cap is up there as one of my favorite Zelda games. Unlike most of the games in the series, the main villain of Minish Cap isn’t that lovable power-hungry pig-beast we all know as Ganon. No, Minish Cap falls in line with the Four Swords games, where the resident bad guy is a power-hungry big-dark-eye-orb monster by the name of Vaati, who turns Princess Zelda into stone. As most Zelda games have a central gimmick that sets them apart from the rest, Minish Cap’s gimmick (as well as both the Four Swords games) is the ability to clone Link up to three times over. Link can also shrink to the size of a jellybean thanks to the help of his magical sorcerer-turned-hat companion named Ezlo, but we don’t need to get into that. Anyways, Minish Cap retains the spirit of the series with its inspired dungeon design and nifty items, not to mention that the art style is vibrant and lively. And yes, while it may be on the short and easy side compared to other Zelda games, Minish Cap’s greatness is in its charm and general fun factor. It’s a short ride, but one that you’ll most likely end up going through multiple times – I know I did.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (NDS)
This one’s actually the most recent game in the series, and I feel like it just slipped under the radar for most gamers, which is really unfortunate. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks took the formula of its predecessor, Phantom Hourglass, and greatly improved upon it – I like to think of it as Phantom Hourglass’s mulligan. This time around you’re not sailing across the ocean like in Phantom Hourglass or Wind Waker, but instead you’re chugging along the great plains of Hyrule in your own magic train, which admittedly is a little more restrictive in its control, but it’s just so damn cool. And while Spirit Tracks has a central dungeon that’s traversed through sporadically during the game like in Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo has gotten rid of the hassle by eliminating the need to go through previous floors as well as that pesky time limit. The main baddie of Spirit Tracks is the demon king Malladus, a power-hungry spirit-train-beast. Yes, spirit-train-beast. You fight a train in this game. Anyways, Spirit Tracks is one of the few Zelda games that I’d consider to have a memorable story that stands out from the others, and the game’s cohesive soundtrack goes a long way to intensify the experience. I know, the 3DS is just about to be released next month with promises of a 3D remake of Ocarina of Time, but until that comes out later this year, Spirit Tracks is more than a worthwhile cartridge to stick in your handheld.

As for the last game, well, you’ll just have to wait until my continuation in the next issue! That should give you enough time to go back and power through these two classics and be ready for my last pick for the most underrated Zelda games!

Because I could use the extra credit.

Enjoy.

I'm not big on blogging. I should be, but I'm not.

Lemme drop a few facts on you: I'm a writer. Not only that, I'm a journalist. I'm a journalist who works for a quasi-top tier video game website. I own two blogs, this being one of them. I should be a blogging maniac, right?

Wrong.

It's a conundrum. Back when I was in Los Angeles for E3, my (now former) editor in chief and I were talking while dining on some sushi. We got on the subject of writing, and there was a clear difference between the two of us - he writes for fun, writes to excel, writes just for the hell of it. Me? I write when I need to. Write a news post, write an essay, write an article. I just can't see myself writing solid chunks of text unless it's to satisfy some requirement or deadline. That's just how I function. But as I contrasted our two writing methodologies, it got me thinking: am I a bad writer? Am I even a writer? Am I doomed to dissatisfaction if I continue down this path? Yeesh. Inner dilemmas ahoy.

I mean, don't get me wrong - I do enjoy the act of writing. Or, I'm good at it (to some extent), at the least. But then again, writing doesn't take any effort for me - it's just like pulling thoughts straight out of my head and slapping them onto paper (or, in this case, a monitor). I just can't help but feel like I don't have the time to sit down and write blog posts. Either that or I feel like there are better ways to spend my time. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, anyone?

Maybe it's true that we're all starting to lose our attention spans for reading/writing long strings of text and I'm just falling in line. I mean, I do still write, it's just on more rapid means. And social means. You know, like Twitter. I guess writing articles for The Foghorn counts as writing for fun, but even then I only manage to gain up the motivation to write the articles out of the desire to meet a deadline.

I guess it all just comes down to my lifelong lack of motivation. But I think that's a story for another time. Bottom line: blogging just isn't for me. I'll blog sometimes if I feel like, I'll blog if I have to for an assignment (hey, like this one!), but when it comes down to it, I just don't have the motivation to become a frequent blogger.

USF Human Rights Film Festival 2009: Taxi to the Dark Side

After attending the student film section of the festival, I decided to head to the cafeteria to curb my hunger pangs, making sure to get back to the theater in time for the screening of Alex Gibney's 2008 Oscar winning film for "Best Documentary Feature," Taxi to the Dark Side.

When I think about that movie, I don't even know where to start... probably because it was so long and there was so much information crammed into it. But the main focus of the movie was the story of Dilawar, an Afghani taxi driver who was wrongfully captured by the US military as a terrorist and eventually killed during his detainment. This story served as a frame to discuss the various US detainment camps, the torture methods used within them, and the political aspect to it all.

Truth be told, it was a gripping documentary. Audience reactions were heard left and right, from gasps in disgust at the gruesome imagery of the Abu Ghraib scandal to the rare laugh when a political figure's stupid decision or dialogue was mocked. The documentary lived up to its award-winning acclaim, though I must admit that it was a tad too long. Yes, there was so much information on the subject to convey, but you can only hold an audience's attention for so long. Perhaps it was my lack of sleep from the night before, but I found myself dozing in and out of sleep at around the hour and a half mark. Other than that, the film was a highly interesting watch that exposes a great atrocity in how the US military goes about its business "protecting America".

A candid picture of the director himself, Alex Gibney (on right):



And here's a link to the main page of the Human Rights Film Festival:

http://www.usfca.edu/mediastudies/hrw/films.html

More information on Taxi to the Dark Side:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_to_the_dark_side

USF Human Rights Film Festival 2009: Student Films

Ouch. The only thing worse than a tough crowd is no crowd whatsoever.

Okay, so people didn't exactly flock to the student film portion of USF's Human Rights Film Festival - there was an audience of less than twenty. But I like to think of it as intimate. You know, an intimate group of people willing to devote their time to learn more about the various violations of human rights that plague our world today... and then there was me, a journalist in a Digital Media Production class who was only there because it was part of an assignment. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy myself and learn quite a bit. You know, because I did.

First up on the block was a film made by Kate Elston called "Presente". It was a short, focused piece that revolved around one particular part of the protests held at the School of the Americas - a person calls out the name and age of a person killed by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas and the crowd (which lies in the thousands) responds together with "presente," or "present" in Spanish. I was surprised by how short the film was and, to be honest, I kind of expected more information to be given on the situation, though I can understand that it would have ruined the focus of the film. Nevertheless, "Presente" fulfilled its role well as both an artistic and informative piece.

Next up was a film created by Alexandra Platt & crew called "Soy Niente," or "I Am Nothing". It documented the growing problem of gypsies in Italy not being recognized as Italian citizens or having the ability to obtain work permits in order to assimilate into Italian society, thus being perpetually pushed to the outskirts of Italy, diminishing in status even as their numbers grow. This film was definitely longer than the first one and had more of a traditional documentary feel to it. It left me interested in the situation even after the film was over, and I could tell the audience felt the same with the questions that were raised after the screening. Platt noted that the film is somewhat outdated as the situation has grown larger recently, so I would love to see a follow-up on it.

After that was... nothing? That's it? No more student films? Lame. I expected something like 4 or 5 quick-fire short films. Oh well.

You can check out the main page for the film festival here:

http://www.usfca.edu/mediastudies/hrw/films.html

I'm pooped. I think I'll go to bed.

After that little splurge of posting, I think it's time to call it a day. I wonder how I'll be able to run on about 5 hours of sleep. I mean, I've been productive on much less.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz...