Nintendo Power – April 2011

The newest issue of Nintendo Power came in the mail late last week and it is filled with several Zelda goodies. There was updates about Ocarina of Time 3D and Skyward Sword, but the information that they posted was nothing that we haven’t heard already. In fact, most of the material was a look back at what we saw at the Game Developer’s Conference early last month. One thing worth noting is that the writers referred to the Nintendo 3DS version of Ocarina of Time as a 3d reimagining.

I mention this because with many games they refrain from using the term ‘Remake’, but instead use the term ‘Reimagining’, to signify that the game isn’t just a port with updated graphics. A recent game that used this term was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which while it was a retelling of the same story from the original Silent Hill, the game was so drastically different that they wanted to avoid the term remake. Now with Ocarina of Time, it seems much more like a remake, or rather, a ‘3d-port’ with updated graphics. Up until now we have heard nothing new in terms of what additions would be made to the game. As far as we know, it could very well be a direct port with no additional content at all, other than the graphical upgrades. Only time will tell.

This issue of Nintendo Power has also started a new series entitled The Greatest Moments of The Legend of Zelda which we featured in an earlier post. This first segment covers just the two NES Zelda titles, but subsequent issues of Nintendo Power will showcase more of the Legend. If anything, it’s good for those looking to read up about the nostalgia factor, or perhaps for new gamers to get a glimpse of what the games were like. (They are both available for the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console and I highly suggest them). It was a nice read, but it was fairly short and they didn’t dive into too much detail about either The Legend of Zelda or The Adventure of Link.

Shown below are a few scans of some of the pages. Since the magazine just hit subscribers and is on news stands, I can only show a small preview. If you are somebody like me that has to have every bit of Zelda publications, it might be worth checking out. Additionally, since this Zelda Retrospective is going to be occurring over the course of several issues, now might be a great time to subscribe to Nintendo Power. (Really, it is dirt cheap at $19.99 a year or $34.99 for two years).

There were a few other Zelda references throughout the magazine. The Score section of the magazine is where they list poll results from Nintendo fans. This month it was shown that Water Worlds make the hardest game worlds, beating out Fire, Ice, and Sky Worlds. The Cucco enemy from the Zelda series was listed #1 on the listing of ‘Which creature would make the Best Meal’. In the Readers’ Most Wanted, Skyward Sword was listed as the #1 anticipated Nintendo Wii game, while Ocarina of Time 3d is the #4 anticipated Nintendo 3DS title. Lastly, the Community section showcased a Link Pixel Block. This looked very similar to this image, except it had Link swiping his sword.

Related: Legend of Zelda Walkthrough
Related: Adventure of Link Walkthrough
Related: Ocarina of Time Walkthrough
Related: Skyward Sword Walkthrough