The Legend of Zelda – Every Journey Has a Beginning

This year, 2021, marks the 35th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series. Over this time, The Legend of Zelda franchise has spawned twenty-seven mainline games in addition to ports/remakes, an array of spin-off titles, books, manga and even a short-lived animated series. It has become a leading Nintendo franchise, headlining the launches of both the Wii and the Nintendo Switch, finding itself behind only Mario and Pokémon in terms of its popularity as a series. The most recent mainline release, Breath of the Wild, brought us an expansive and wonderfully realised open-world experience which remains one of my personal highlights on the Switch to date. The Legend of Zelda’s origins on the NES were far more simplistic, yet no less ambitious. In this feature, I’m going to be sharing my experience playing through the NES classic for the first time, as well as looking back at my experience with the series as a whole. Read on for more.

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James Moulding

I have been gaming for 30 years, starting mostly with PC Gaming, where I developed a penchant for classic point and click games. Over time I discovered Nintendo, starting with the Game Boy and the Super Mario Land games. Here, my love for Nintendo grew as I discovered many of their other franchises, from Zelda to Pokémon. These days I play a bit of everything but Nintendo and their unique creativity always keeps me coming back for more.

By |2021-02-21T00:46:48+00:00February 21st, 2021|Features, Retro, The Legend of Zelda|0 Comments
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Nintendo Direct – 17th February 2021

It would be fair to say that a new Nintendo Direct has been a long-time coming, with it being a whole five hundred and thirty days since the last full-sized Nintendo Direct took place, a Direct which showed off games such as Pokémon Sword and Shield, Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Xenoblade Chronicles Remastered. Yes, it’s really been that long! Nintendo Direct Mini’s and Partner/Indie showcases have gone some way to keeping fans ticking over, but with this year’s release schedule looking incredibly threadbare it was time to see what Nintendo have in store for Switch owners in the first half of 2021, along with a few possible surprises further down the road. Read on for some of the biggest announcements from last night’s Direct.

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James Moulding

I have been gaming for 30 years, starting mostly with PC Gaming, where I developed a penchant for classic point and click games. Over time I discovered Nintendo, starting with the Game Boy and the Super Mario Land games. Here, my love for Nintendo grew as I discovered many of their other franchises, from Zelda to Pokémon. These days I play a bit of everything but Nintendo and their unique creativity always keeps me coming back for more.

By |2021-02-18T16:00:06+00:00February 18th, 2021|News, Nintendo, Nintendo Direct|0 Comments
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REVIEW – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

With the impending release of the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild still seemingly so far away, fans have been wanting to see more of its world for the past three years since they finished up the original Nintendo Switch launch title. Out of the blue though, Nintendo provided, but this time in the form of a prequel from the acclaimed studio Omega Force at Koei Tecmo with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Set during the build up and climax of Calamity Ganon’s rebirth, established as taking place 100 years prior to the events of Breath of the Wild, Hyrule is now at war against the rising forces of Ganon’s minions as they prepare to counter the great evil. 

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Long time fan of Nintendo and games in general, I always lean on the quirkier and unique sides of things in particular. It all started when I was lucky enough to get a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Yellow for my tenth birthday and it’s been going strong ever since. I’ve always had a need to get my voice heard and share anything I find interesting with the world.

By |2020-12-05T15:46:02+00:00December 5th, 2020|Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Nintendo Switch, Review, The Legend of Zelda|0 Comments
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Cadence of Hyrule: Symphony of the Mask Review

Cadence of Hyrule already made waves for being a totally unexpected crossover between one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises and an indie darling, so it came as a surprise to many of us that even more was planned for the pipeline. The announcement of a season pass came out of nowhere, with a slew of new content being added to the game. The first parts of the pack added new characters and remixed music, but the really exciting bit was the final piece of the expansion, an entirely new story mode introducing a Skull Kid into the game. With a new play style in hand, does Symphony of the Mask live up to the expectations already set by the base game, or does it fall tone death to the melody?

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Long time fan of Nintendo and games in general, I always lean on the quirkier and unique sides of things in particular. It all started when I was lucky enough to get a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Yellow for my tenth birthday and it’s been going strong ever since. I’ve always had a need to get my voice heard and share anything I find interesting with the world.

By |2020-11-10T19:19:54+00:00October 22nd, 2020|Cadence of Hyrule, Cadence of Hyrule, Review, The Legend of Zelda|0 Comments
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Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity announced for Switch

Nintendo stealth announced a new Zelda game today, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity coming to Switch on November 20th.

A prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity covers what truly happened 100 years ago when Calamity Ganon rose and the Champions of Hyrule fought against the forces of darkness.

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Long time fan of Nintendo and games in general, I always lean on the quirkier and unique sides of things in particular. It all started when I was lucky enough to get a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Yellow for my tenth birthday and it’s been going strong ever since. I’ve always had a need to get my voice heard and share anything I find interesting with the world.

By |2020-09-08T18:40:35+00:00September 8th, 2020|Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, The Legend of Zelda|0 Comments
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REVIEW – Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda

We often get plenty of crossover games in this industry, where two companies come together to create something new by combining one IP with another, often leading to a genre blending experience. Nintendo isn’t exactly a stranger to this concept, having done a fair few crossovers over the years, particularly with Super Smash Bros. But they shocked us when they announced that they had partnered with an indie studio with one of their biggest IPs. By partnering with Brace Yourself Games they allowed them to combine the rhythm action of Crypt of the NecroDancer with the tried and true classic formula of The Legend of Zelda, leading to the inception of Cadence of Hyrule.

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Long time fan of Nintendo and games in general, I always lean on the quirkier and unique sides of things in particular. It all started when I was lucky enough to get a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Yellow for my tenth birthday and it’s been going strong ever since. I’ve always had a need to get my voice heard and share anything I find interesting with the world.

By |2020-08-27T21:04:08+00:00August 17th, 2020|Cadence of Hyrule, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Review, The Legend of Zelda|0 Comments
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“Let’s-a Go!” Why are Nintendo games so attractive to speed runners?

My latest Nintendo addiction, in the absence of the ability to afford a switch, has been watching speed runs of Nintendo games online. Something fascinates me about why people feel the need to time trial Paper Mario like it’s Rainbow Road over and over again. It was during my time watching that I noticed something that set Nintendo games apart from most of the other speed running staples.

Nintendo makes challenging games (insert Dark Souls meme here) that somehow consistently manage to strike a balance where good players can finish a game but great players can finish it plus all the secrets and in half the time. Of course, speed running isn’t all skill, the famous Zelda barrier skip is a prime example of the many glitches required to achieve that world record time.

However, even outside of glitch-less runs, the majority of a players time in speed runs is spent showing off their talents. And nothing feels better than blitzing through a level of SMB2 or Metroid. The release of Odyssey has only reinvigorated the passion for Nintendo speed runs.

Let’s get to the important question of ‘Why?’ though… right after the break

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Drew Miller Hyndman

No shame in admitting that I am a huge Nintendo fan. Never played a bad Nintendo game (honest!) and the only thing I love nearly as much as playing is writing about Nintendo.

21 year old Journalism Student based in Bournemouth, dream of games journalism but probably destined to report on school fairs.

Favourite Nintendo game: SMB2

By |2018-07-18T18:02:41+00:00July 18th, 2018|Features, Opinion|0 Comments
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