The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

 

Last february, Majora's Mask was finally enhanced and re-released, fifteen years since it first appeared on the Nintendo 64 and when I was 12 years old. Packed with touch controls, an improved interface as well as visuals, it is unmistakenly the best version available.

Having only beaten the game twice before, playing through it for a third time is of course both a nostalgic ride, but also a refreshing experience. A few differences such as an extra empty bottle, a new Twinmold battle and a more convenient map system make this an easier yet a more enjoyable experience.

Of course, I already talked about Majora's Mask with much love previously five years ago(http://flow-rush.blogspot.nl/2010/12/retro-blog-legend-of-zelda-majoras-mask.html), and pretty much all of what was said there still applies over this new edition.

This time, I once again got all of the masks, the best sword, all of the faeries in the 4 dungeons and did pretty much everything except for several heart containers/pieces which I wasn't bothered to collect this time because frankly for me the game isn't difficult anymore.

I still am dissapointed that Nintendo didn't have the time during this longer development period of certainly 3.5 years to include at least a bonus dungeon of some sorts instead of fishing spots, similar to A Link to the Past's GBA version.

Because out of all the Zelda games released, Majora's Mask could benefit from one more. And I don't really count Ikana Kingdom or the Pirate Fortress either way.

Now that Nintendo has more or less remade Ocarina of Time, the Wind Waker and Majora's Mask, alongside rumours that Twilight Princess could be getting a New 3DS version, I wonder what's next for Zelda as far as handheld gaming goes.

Cinema of the 70's

The seventies of the last century have in my opinion some of the most interesting cinematic experiences in all of it's history. Many favorite movies of mine hail from this decade, and I'm sure that I will discover more sooner or later.

Critical acclaimed titles such as The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars and Apocalypse Now filled the decade so that at least every year in it, one would be released. And of course these titles remain highly watchable, are memorable and simply defined generations of fans.

One of my most liked genres also simply had some of the best movies released here, which is the horror genre. Examples like The Exorcist, Black Christmas and Alien fill up the 70's with brave new directions for the genre to take, and the transition from the styles of the 60's and before to the 70's and beyond is stunningly visible.

Experimental movies in the sense of trying out new idea's and directions such as Taxi Driver, The Holy Mountain and Eraserhead also make it a decade of pretty much a zone of weird pictures whereas anything can happen on the silver screen.

Bruce Lee, James Bond, Dirty Harry and other famous franchises are also present, and the blockbuster phenomena was created in 1975. What I really like whenever I revisit this decade is noticing that distinguished style of the 70's that simply sees to be all over the place.

Things like cultures, behaviors, clothing, acting and even experimenting is what keeps this all fresh despite that we are halfway into the 2010's now, or twenty or two thousand ten's both can also work.

It's just wonderful to be able to jump into any previous decade or film generation and see all of these different kinds of movies. I'm glad that I started watching black and white movies back when I was really starting to dig into this industry while I was 18.

Cinema of the 70's remains the stand out decade for me, however. I guess that in the future, I will talk a bit about other decades as well, or in the end all of them will be briefly written down by my typing hands.

BioShock Trilogy

Amazing immersion is the greatest thing BioShock has to offer for gamers. BioShock's second great feature is the player's activity with Rapture and its many, many objects to collect and manage. It reminds me in a way of Metroid Prime's scanning mode, but this is even more fun in my opinion. Next to these incredible things are the enemies and weapons which both are above average. In overall, BioShock is a modern classic PC game.

The iconic Big Daddy and Little Sister combo alongside the special currency known as ADAM made it all even more memorable, and added towards the game's overall lore and underwater setting. All of those special powers like freezing and flaming up enemies, setting traps and deflecting and moving objects added to the entertainment factor.

Alongside those delicious ingredients, BioShock also had fun hacking puzzles to solve so that you could turn turrets and flying bots towards your side. And I always was interested into picking up those audio tapes and listening towards those citizens about the stories they had to share.

Rapture is an underwater city with extreme capitalisic ideals as foreseen by it's founder Andrew Ryan, and BioShock is simply unforgettable because of this setting which pretty much never had been done so effectively in video games as before.

The high production values continue to uphold here, as BioShock 2 looks and plays even better than before, and this time, the story takes a new opposite direction in regards to the central antagonistic view of Sofia Lamb's communisic family ideals, instead of Ryan's capitalist stance.

With a different new protagonist as well in the form of a prototype Big Daddy, you are equipped with a very satisfying drill arm, allowing you to kill enemies very smoothfully. It's still Rapture you are residing in, only ten years later and arguably even more worse and insane than before.

Rapture is even more delightful to explore, with new strong enemies, more items to collect and manage, a better puzzle game and still the amazing atmosphere and detail to the underwater world, including great dialogue. 

I have  respect to the developers regarding the polish of these two titles. It also has multiplayer for the first time but I am easily satisfied with the single player already. A new remote hacking tool is also introduced allowing the player to hack from indirect distances.

Out of this trilogy, BioShock 2 is my favorite for the more personal story between Lamb, Eleanor and Delta as well as the gameplay and level design being the most fun to experience.

With a new setting, storyline and events, Infinite does many things right, but is becoming weary when looking at the mechanics that haven't changed much, making the game feel repetitive at the basic layer.

Booker DeWitt is on a mission to rescue a girl from a prison tower high in the sky at the floating city of Columbia, where the American vision continues to give rise to exceptionalism. The Founders follow the prophet known as Comstock, who rules over them.

Promoting ultra-nationalism, jingoism, militarism and xenophobia, The Founders are on top of Columbia and are besides hunting down the False Shepard(Booker) also having a war against the Vox Populi, a resistance group of common folks with a political position of anarcho-communism.

Rather than being insane like the enemies found in the previous games, the enemies are this time are more fanatical and full of bigotry, for they would gladly sacrifice themselves in order for destiny to come upon them all.

For the first time in the BioShock series will you have an A.I. partner to support you through the game. Elizabeth, an important character, will look for loots to throw at you, help with lockpicks, offer her role into the overall story and most interesting is able to open up tears.

Tears are like mini wormholes, spontaneously letting you warp back or forward into time, or during combat sequences, objects or even people who aren't present in present time, are able to be "brought" into the current age by the strange quantum powers of Elizabeth.

These include tear covers for you to hide behind, tear turrets for assistance, tear hooks for additional mobility and supply tears such as medkits, ammo and several more.

Next to the tears is another innovative feature found back into the skylines. Not only do they provide for more exciting sightseeings of the city of Colombia, as well as adding a large chunk of transporting, they are also tactical and essential into gaining victory over the most difficult battles.

Vigors and Gears are replacements for getting equipped with magical powers and skills enhancing you at certain levels. These range from crow attacks to inflicting more critical hits at your opponents. The A.I. of the enemies is pretty straight forward.

The enemy design is impressive and fitting for Columbia. Aside from your average police men, soldiers and civilians, there are Firemen, pyromancers armed with armor suits and explosive attacks, Crowmen, capable of warping and pesking you, Patriots, spitting out propagandas with his mini gun and Handymen, the most challenging enemy.

Facing these last guys was a pain on Hard Mode and even worse on 1999 Mode, but you are able to exploit them. I's okay, otherwise these guys have way too much stamina, agility and strength for you to handle.

I was expecting Songbird as a recurring enemy, but it turns out he is exclusive towards cut-scenes instead.

The ending towards BioShock Infinite is a clever one, although not the most mindblowing as other certain videogames or movies, but it added more depth and afterthoughts after finishing it. I won't talk about it, but I can tell you that it has to do with the theme of time.

As far as the future of the BioShock franchise goes, it seems that it will continue at some point despite the departure of Ken Levine and his team of developers. There are enough stories to explore in either Rapture of Colombia, or they could always introduce towards us a new subterranean setting.