h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The title? Oh, that!
It struck me as funny that an X-military sergeant and his daughter, Y---, enjoy playing the Legend of Zelda games so much.

The whole Zelda craze kicked off after I married A---, and her boys had a Nintendo 64 system. When they weren't clobbering each other or yanking the spines out of their friends while playing Mortal Kombat, they'd dig out "Link to the Past" and spend hours looking for the treasures and collectible items. This one was a 2D top-down 4-way scrolling map screen with the character of Link always in the center. He had a trusty sword and useful shield, and he could use certain items lying about to complete a puzzle or fight against a monster. Hefting rocks overhead and tossing them at creepy things became a staple attack for the boys. They were also in it for the money: they took every opportunity to gather rupees and exchange them for better equipment and other power-ups. I appreciated the built-in story that had Link moving between two time-lines to fix problems affecting each era. I joined in the adventure, alternating turns with my sons, and made it a point to be there for the "endgame" when they finished. That was when we still lived in Florida; it was before we went to Iceland, where Y--- was born.

There was a hiatus of quite a few years in our gaming after our sons moved out to start their adult lives. It wasn't until the GameCube hit the market, bundled with the first 3D/360° representation of the Link character and the land of Hyrule, title Ocarina of Time. By this point, my daughter, Y---, was old enough to follow along the story line and enjoyed telling me where to go and what to do. We had the majority of the world explored and collected most of the main items to aid in the adventure after we'd played for six months, however it took almost another year for us to finish the story. My daughter and I both found Link's transformation into a Deku Scrub (a wooden plant-like creature with a propeller on its head and able to shoot deku nuts from his mouth) as an endearing little character that extended our adventuring abilities. Her favorite thing for Link to do, though, was to play the Ocarina and call Epona (his trusty horse) so he could ride instead of walk. The vastness of the various map regions and the variety of challenges kept us engaged with the story all the way to the final battle sequence. My daughter did find some of the Boss creatures too scary to watch, and she waited patiently while I dispatched them, then she came back to the room. All-in-all, this adventure game gave us a lot of time to bond and work together on puzzles in an amazingly detailed world to progress through an enchanting story.

When Majora's Mask came out several years later, we dove right into it. The game seemed at first like an extension of Ocarina of Time, because it was equipped, but then the story took a turn for the bizarre. The Skull Kid manages to snatch away an artifact call Majora's Mask and causes the Moon to start descending upon Termina, the town where Link was visiting. By using the Ocarina of Time, Link begins his own version of a hellish "Ground Hog Day" scenario, reliving a three-day period again and again, in an attempt to recover the mask and prevent the destruction of the town. This game offered up a surprisingly wide array of additional powers for Link, by finding other masks, and my daughter loved the Deku Scrub's ability to launch high into the air from certain large flowers. There were two other main masks we used frequently, the Goron Mask that allowed us to become a stone-skinned creature who could roll like a bolder, and the Zora Mask that allowed us to take the form of an aquatic humanoid. The game had plenty of opportunities to use the Ocarina to solve puzzles, open passages, impress other Non-Player Characters, and move back-and-forth in the flow of the three-day time constraint. This was particularly important because Y--- was learning to play the piano and the harp, and this even got her to pick up a recorder (flute) for a while to try to mimic the tunes in the story. We found the game a bit frustrating for having to live through certain events so many times, and the timing could become crucial to success or failure. Progress was slow and we didn't think to use on-line resources for hints and cheats, so this one fell by the wayside. We may still go back to finish this tale after we work our way through Skyward Sword, if we find the time.

I don't recall how we got a chance to preview Wind Waker, but I initially thought this version of Link as a young boy (still in 3D/360°) was too cartoonish, because it uses cel-shaded graphic representations of all the characters and the environment. Once we got into the story, though, all that prejudice disappeared. We found the interplay between Link and Tetra (the captain of a pirate ship) to be the amusing adolescent posturing of two people who will eventually come to like one another and we laughed at the built-in humor (both slapstick and low-key puns). Link collides with, dangles from, slides down, tumbles off, and otherwise flounders in a variety of situations; and who can forget the little kid with the runny nose who follows Link around like a little lost puppy? Once Link begins his quest in earnest, he receives the aid of a sentient boat called the King of Red Lions, and he's given control of the direction of the four winds by use of a wand called the Wind Waker. Both of these are imperative in this story's time-line because Hyrule has flooded to the tops of all the mountains, leaving only scattered islands and archipelagos above the surface of the water. There's lots of sailing involved, with options to do some deep-sea salvage work, once you outfit the boat with the claw. One interesting aspect of the GameCube was its ability to pair with a GameBoy Advance, so we were able to use the sea charts on the GameBoy and still watch the real-time action on the main screen. If I recall correctly, a silly little character named Tingle (an elf-wannabe) gave us lots of map info to further the quests, which was ported to the GameBoy for display. There were a number of very interesting side-quests, one of which entailed using a Deluxe Picto Box (a camera) to take photos of various in-game characters and then commissioning a recluse named Carlov to make sculptures of each of the 134 available. The story itself took some interesting twists and turns along the way, and the final successful battle against the evil Ganondorf resolved the time-line for Zelda and Link. And there was much rejoicing!

Y--- and I have been pottering around with Twilight Princess on the Wii for over a year and some change. The very first thing we noted about the story is that Link is now a bit older, more a young man than an adolescent, and the overall story line is a bit "darker" in some of its contexts. It's odd to see how he's "grown up" and the determination on his face. I wonder if it's a natural extension of the developer's changing outlook over the years? So, the premise of this game is for Link to find a way to repair a dimensional rift that's allowing scary creatures from the Twilight Realm to encroach upon Hyrule and the surrounding lands. The sequence where Link battles one of these beasts, is defeated and dragged into the Twilight Realm, was disconcerting for my daughter, even though she's in her teens now. It did, however, make us want to help link all the more, especially since he became imprisoned in the alternate dimension in the form of a wolf. Instead of a fairy called Navi as a companion, this time he's aided by Midna, one of the Twilit folk. She guides him about, and goads him often, while riding astride him. In his canine form, Link does have several interesting skills available. He can track things as if following a spoor scent by using his "wolf sense." Another is being able to jump large chasms, with Midna flying across first, then drawing him to her. The last is a wide attack whereby Midna generates a large ectoplasmic hand that swings out and pummels all targets within reach. We eventually helped Link traverse back into the Realm of Light and regain his human form, though every time he crossed the threshold of the Twilight Realm he turned back into a wolf. The traps and challenges in this game have been more elaborate and involved, and there's been lots of back-tracking once a particular artifact is added to Link's arsenal that "could have been used" in a different area. The character development is much better than all previous titles in this series, and the graphics are more detailed. We didn't buy the Wii version, but rather continued using the GameCube software, so I don't know how much better or different the controls handle between the two system types. Perhaps we'll eventually replay it with the Wii controls.

Y--- and I are looking forward to Skyward Sword, which is available for the Wii as of this month, so we are hurrying to finish Twilight Princess before we jump into the new adventure. I understand Nintendo is planning to upgrade the Wii system hardware to a 1080p graphics engine, so future Zelda adventures will be crisper and more detailed still. I've even been assured Skyward Sword is built for the 1080p system, though its release means players will get the lower resolution 720p output until the new Wii hits the market. Well, Hyrule in HD will be worth the wait…