25YEARLEGEND reinterprets memorable tunes from all across the franchise including some of Link’s less covered, portable adventures like Link’s Awakening and Oracle of Seasons. It’s a loving tribute to the music of a series that inspired each of the indie (and not so indie) game composers involved. Disasterpeace (Fez), Laura Shigihara (Plants vs. Zombies), C418 (Minecraft), Souleye (VVVVVV), and Big Giant Circles (Mass Effect 2) are just a few of the talented contributing artists.

Will this music unlock any secrets if played in the right place? You’ll never know unless you grab your horse, boat, train, or goofy looking bird creature and ride on over to the official site to grab the album.

Back in my younger days, I swore by genre definitions. I had a very clear idea in mind of what I thought classified a game into each genre. Any deviation from those rules outlined in my head required a subgenre. But as time marched on, I’ve come to realize how incredibly ridiculous all this is.

While genres are a nice way to quickly identify what to expect from a game, I’ve run into quite a few issues with the concept. For one, different people classify genres differently. There’s also the issue of the increasing trend of blending genres. And what about the literal names themselves? Some of them just don’t make sense any more.

Different strokes for different folks

There is no master list of what each genre means and what games they apply to. Because of this, everybody has different definitions of genres. For example, I’ve always considered The Legend of Zelda series to fall under Action/Adventure. Action is self-explanatory enough, and Adventure games (especially of the point and click variety) are known for their puzzle solving and interaction with NPCs.

Yet I’ve heard Zelda referred to as a Role Playing Game or “RPG” countless times by a wide range of people. I suppose you play the role of Link. But in that sense, it seems like every game with a main character would become an RPG. In Super Mario Bros., you play the role of Mario as you attempt to save the princess from Bowser’s castle, yet many years later Nintendo and Square released Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The title suggests, unsurprisingly, that previous Mario games were, in fact, not RPGs.

Where do these names come from and what do they mean?

In Super Mario RPG, you again play the role of Mario. So what makes it an RPG? The answer lies in the Role Playing Games of long ago. I refer to the pen and paper RPG. In a pen and paper RPG, you often create a character and develop their skills, usually fighting as a group or “party”. It’s also common to have a heavy focus on gathering new equipment and items. Finally, the combat relies on a lot of statistics and a bit of chance which is determined by dice rolls.

Similarly, Super Mario RPG features a party of heroes, skills that develop as you progress, equipment and items, and combat based on statistics and dice rolls (in the form of behind the scenes, randomized calculations rather than actual dice). But unlike the Pen & Paper RPGs of old, you don’t create your character (or role) and you don’t forge your own path through the story. Instead, you play a predetermined character in a linear story that you can’t change.

Most Japanese RPGs or “JRPGs” similarly follow a linear story with predetermined characters. Western RPGs or “WRPGS”, however, often feature character creators, branching dialogue and morality choices, as well as a generally less linear structure (to an extent). It’s for this reason that many gamers bother to make the distinction when discussing JRPGs and WRPGs instead of just RPGs.

For the record, this is not a discussion of quality, but of classification. I personally prefer the guided experiences often found in JRPGs. Also, I’m not saying there aren’t very linear WRPGs and very open JRPGs, I’m merely mentioning what’s seen most often in both subgenres.

We’re half-way there…

So it seems that JRPGs commonly fit only half of the definition pen and paper RPGs laid down. Lately, I’ve been putting a lot of time into a game that features the other half. That game is Mass Effect 2.

In Mass Effect 2, you start by creating your character or bringing over your created character from the first game. Aside from your appearance, you’ll also decide on one of several origins for your character and a class with it’s own unique set of skills to build up as you see fit. Throughout the game, you’re presented with countless dialogue trees that allow you to forge your own version of the story and main character, though the overarching narrative will always follow the same direction.

The combat, however, has more in common with a third-person shooter. Your shots aren’t based on digital dice rolls (as they were in the first game). Instead, you rely on the mechanics found in all cover based shooters, supplemented with your characters’ skills.

And yet, Mass Effect 2 and Super Mario RPG are both RPGs. If somebody who lived in a cave all their life, never hearing any of the names or applications of our genre labels, were told to group games together into the genres they came up with, I doubt the two games would be next to each other.

Will it blend?

It seems like every other game that comes out now has “RPG Elements”. It doesn’t matter if it’s a first-person shooter or a 2D platformer, they sneak these aspects in everywhere. What we’re left with is a lot of unique and satisfying combinations that, despite being a blast to play, are simply maddening to try to classify.

Take Valkyria Chronicles. The back of the box assures you it is a “Simulation RPG”. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen that genre before or after that game’s release. I don’t think that label caught on.

Since the words Simulation RPG mean nothing to anybody except for people who have already played Valkyria Chronicles specifically, I’m often left trying to explain it to people as a Strategy / RPG / Third-Person Shooter hybrid. Frankly, that just leaves people confused and with misconceptions of just how those existing genres are combined.

What are we going to do about it?

Nothing. There’s never going to be a master list of genre definitions and as games get more and more complex, they’re even more likely to combine existing genres and make new ones in the process. This is only going to make games even more difficult to classify.

But genre labels are still a nice crutch to have. While they may often fail to represent what a game really entails in detail, they at least give us a starting point that helps us find the games we’re looking for.

That being said, it’s not very useful to argue about which games fit into which genres. People are naturally going to think about different aspects of a game with different levels of importance which could alter which genre they feel they go in.

So the next time somebody tells you Game X fits into Genre A, politely discuss with them why you feel it might better fit in Genre B instead of telling them they are wrong. Because with the lines of genres as blurred as they currently are, it just isn’t worth it to argue.

E3 is finally over. Lots of exciting announcements were made as well as some not so exciting ones, WingDamage actually had somebody providing coverage this year, and people made fools of themselves dancing in front of cameras from the future. But what of our predictions? Did any of them come true?

Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory

What will really happen:
3DS shown alongside some games making use of the new tech. Will be playable on show floor.

The 3DS was indeed playable on the show floor. In fact, Adam got some hands-on time with it himself! While most of what was shown consisted of tech demoes, there were a few playable games such as Star Fox 64 3D.

3DSWare Shop will be revealed as well as video streaming or downloading and publication reading features. Music streaming and other DSi features will all be included, too.

Online features were not discussed in detail. However, 3D movies were shown on the system with great results.

Zelda Wii will be shown, but won’t be playable on the show floor afterall.

Actually, it was playable just like they said it would be. But it did get delayed to 2011 unsurprisingly.

New F-Zero game to commemorate 20th anniversary of series

While many other Nintendo franchises received a glorious return to form, F-Zero was completely absent from E3.

Some sort of Vitality Sensor related software

The Vitality Sensor wasn’t even mentioned.

Nintendo manages to not show a new Wii peripheral (crazy, I know)

It’s true!

New Wii Motion+ Software besides Zelda Wii

Not much, but Conduit 2 and Fling Smash will both use Wii Motion +.

WiiParty will make people ignore anything good coming out of the Nintendo conference in favor of making fun of another minigame collection

While WiiParty was shown, Nintendo showed so many titles people wanted to see that it actually satisfied the majority and people were able to put their cynicism aside.

Capcom announces sequel to a major franchise handled by a Western developer: Resident Evil 6, includes moving and shooting at the same time

Capcom did announce a new RE game, Resident Evil: Revelations, but details on who is working on it are unknown.

PSP Resident Evil spinoff shown

The PSP Resident Evil still hasn’t been seen mentioned since E3 2009.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 playable on Show Floor

Indeed it was. In fact, Adam got some hands-on time with it.

Actual gameplay of The Last Guardian shown

Sadly, no. Maybe at TGS?

Lots of Natal and Move info, including actual retail software from third party developers (but probably nothing groundbreaking)

Multiple dancing games (yay?), and Children of Eden. Some others, too.

Halo: Reach campaign shown off

Yup, and it includes space dogfights.

First glimpse of Metal Gear Rising

A trailer showcased the game’s focus on being able to “cut anything”.

Wishful thinking:
OMG MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3!!!1!!

Keep dreaming!

Capcom’s new Western Developed sequel is Strider

Nope.

Treasure to work on next Star Fox game

No, sir.

New Zone of the Enders finally official

You wish.

Jonah “spambot” Gregory

Nintendo will show off several cool looking, core games, including Pikmin 3. The internet will say they are shocked to see a non-casual game on the Wii and that the graphics look good, to which they will quickly add “For a Wii game” so as to maintain their “street cred”.

Pikmin 3 was not shown. Many cool looking, core games where shown, though, and many people were genuinely surprised and impressed.

Sony & Microsoft will try to convince us that motion gaming is going to revolutionize the industry (again); especially because of (wait for it) new 3D technology that they will both introduce at the show. They will try to play it up, but it will be either impracticable for home use or technologically underwhelming.

Sony & Microsoft did have a huge emphasis on motion gaming. However, only Sony made a big push for 3D which, after Nintendo’s glasses-less 3D, was met with a lukewarm response.

The most talked about game at the show will once again be something creative and interesting from a 3rd party or indie developer that no one has ever heard of; probably involving cute characters and a concept that, when you try to explain it to your peers, makes you sound like a crazy person.

While they may not be the “most talked about”, Rock of Ages and Journey certainly fit the bill as games by independent developers with unique premises and some definite buzz surrounding them.

Stuff I Want to See Announced

Borderlands 2. Addition of character creation, addition of armor loot that shows on character models. Guns that shoot guns that shoot armor onto your allies?

Sorry!

Pac-Man CE 2: Pac-Harder. They already said there is some new big surprise in store for Pac-Man. I want another game as amazing as Pac-Man CE.

Actually, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is coming this fall. Looks like you got your wish.

Mass Effect 3. We all know it’s coming. A tease from Bioware would not be unexpected, nor unwelcome.

All in due time.

PSN Download service for PS2 games. It seems inevitable because of the lack of backwards compatibility, but Sony has still never done anything with it. Now is the time, Sony.

Just Dreamcast downloads for now.

Dave “shaolinjesus” Corvin

Riding off the success of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar will announce GTA 5. When asked about the setting and story for the game, Sam Houser, President of Rockstar, mumbles something about stealing cars and goes back to swimming in a pile of money, Scrooge McDuck style.

It will probably still happen, but at a later date.

In a move that surprises exactly no one, Capcom will announce Super Street Fighter 4 Tournament Edition.

Close! Super Street Fighter IV 3DS was revealed, adding yet another system the game can be found on that isn’t the Wii.

Following in Killzone 3‘s footsteps, a 3D Resistance 3 will be announced featuring 16-player co-op.

No-go for now.

In an effort to compete with Apple, Nintendo’s 3Ds will pack some unexpected power. The system will be twice as powerful as an N64 with a much larger hard drive.

The 3DS did pack quite a punch. While we don’t have details on the internal storage, the graphics look stunning.

EA announces a new freakin’ Burnout. Sadly, it won’t be developed by Criterion since they are busy working on the new Need for Speed game.

Nope.

With the OnLive gaming service launching during the show I expect a full on Rex Ryan style media blitz.

OnLive was definitely there, but the appearance didn’t garner much attention.

Wishful Thinking:
In a move that brings tears to the eyes of gamers everywhere, Capcom and Nintendo partner up to bring the world Capcom vs Nintendo.

Someday… someday…

Nintendo realizes there is a dump truck full of cash to be made and decides to make New Super Mario Bros. 2.

The made New Super Donkey Kong Contrio Bros. instead.

Fans of Giant Mechs and EXPLOSIONS rejoice as Microsoft announces Mechassault 3.

Negatory.

Probably won’t happen, but:
Microsoft brings back some of their forgotten franchises: Bloodwake, Quantum Redshift, and Blinx. Voodoo Vince is seen crying in a corner.

They’ll stay forgotten for now.

——–

Well, it looks like we did manage to get some things right. We also got a lot of things wrong, though. Better luck next year, I guess!

If Zombie Shakespeare were to sit down and compose a love letter to old school Legend of Zelda, he wouldn’t come close to capturing the nostalgia and joy that 3D Dot Game Heroes manages to convey.

3D Dot Game Heroes is an homage to classic Zelda. You and your fairy companion set off to save the kingdom of Dotnia by recovering six orbs and the power of the six sages. To do this, you’ll need to recover a legendary sword and then set off into various dungeons filled with monsters, traps, and puzzles. If it sounds like something you’ve been doing since 1987, well it probably is. However, 3D Dot feels more like a Zelda game than the last couple of actual Zelda games.

While hearkening back to old school 8 and 16 Bit titles, 3D Dot manages to create a unique spin that makes it more than just a straight-up Zelda clone. One reason the game succeeds is the graphics. They are strange and unique while somehow still capturing that old school flavor. All the sprites have been converted into dots (think Lego blocks.) This gives the game a feel that is unlike anything else on the market.

As you fire up the game, you have the option to create your own hero or pick from the dozens of pre-made characters. With the ability to fully customize the appearance of your character, you can save the day as an 8-Bit style Spider-man or Mario, if you take the time to craft him. You can also customize the pre-loaded characters, so you can add stylish sunglasses to Santa Clause or a viking helmet to a dragon. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and your level of effort.

Whenever I am given a character creator to play around with, I always make The Incredible Hulk. The green skin and the ugly purple pants always seems like a pretty good indicator of an editors flexibility. I am happy to say that I was able to construct an Incredible Hulk. Although it looked like something a 5-year-old would draw with crayon, this was due to my shortcomings as an artist rather than the games tool set.

Filled with dozens of jokes and references to other games, 3D Dot kept a smile on my face for a good portion of the quest. If you pay attention, you’ll find references from old school Dragon Quest to Demon’s Souls. They are witty without coming off as shameless parody; think Son of Frankenstein rather than Meet the Spartans.

One old school reference that would make Sephiroth and Cloud feel inadequate is your sword. Remember in the original Legend of Zelda, when you had full health and your sword shot beams? This mechanic is taken to an almost absurd extreme. When you have full health, your sword can literally take up the whole length of the screen.

This makes taking out enemies way, easier. Lose even a tiny chunk of health and your sword shrinks to regular size. So with full health, you can power through most areas, but lose even half a heart and you’ll be cursing as enemies that couldn’t get within 20 feet of you are suddenly right on top of you.

The difficulty level was a little uneven. There were a couple dungeons that I powered through no problem while others seemed to delight in confusing the heck out of me. One boss in particular mopped the floor with me repeatedly. I probably spent more time on the dragon than all the rest of the bosses combined. If you are daring, a special Hard mode opens up after you beat the game. I don’t even want to imagine the curses that would come out of my mouth trying to fight the dragon on Hard mode.

In the end, the game was a blast, but doesn’t quite measure up to the Legend of Zelda. The music is catchy, but doesn’t quite reach classic status. There is nothing wrong with it. But just as there are no songs that I really hated, I can’t hum a single one as I sit here at the computer. The controls work well, but I found myself switching back and forth between digital and analog control.

My only major complaint was that the small pause as the game loads a new screen would make it so I am unable to use my sword. When a tiny chunk off your life makes you lose your screen filling sword, these small hits were a major annoyance. These little complaints add up to the point that 3D Dot is just shy of true classic status.

I still heartily recommend a playthrough. The game is a delight. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the kingdom of Dotnia. If you liked the old 8-Bit Legend of Zelda games, you owe it to yourself to give 3D Dot Game Heroes a whirl in your game tape playing machine.

This review is based on a copy of  3D Dot Game Heroes provided to us by Atlus.

This years Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is just around the corner! Just like last year, we here at WingDamage are going to throw down some predictions. Will we make total fools of ourselves? Will we make people suspicious that we have psychic powers? Only time will tell!

Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory

What will really happen:
3DS shown alongside some games making use of the new tech. Will be playable on show floor.

3DSWare Shop will be revealed as well as video streaming or downloading and publication reading features. Music streaming and other DSi features will all be included, too.

Zelda Wii will be shown, but won’t be playable on the show floor afterall.

New F-Zero game to commemorate 20th anniversary of series

Some sort of Vitality Sensor related software

Nintendo manages to not show a new Wii peripheral (crazy, I know)

New Wii Motion+ Software besides Zelda Wii

WiiParty will make people ignore anything good coming out of the Nintendo conference in favor of making fun of another minigame collection

Capcom announces sequel to a major franchise handled by a Western developer: Resident Evil 6, includes moving and shooting at the same time

PSP Resident Evil spinoff shown

Marvel vs Capcom 3 playable on Show Floor

Actual gameplay of The Last Guardian shown

Lots of Natal and Move info, including actual retail software from third party developers (but probably nothing groundbreaking)

Halo: Reach campaign shown off

First glimpse of Metal Gear Rising

Wishful thinking:
OMG MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3!!!1!!

Capcom’s new Western Developed sequel is Strider

Treasure to work on next Star Fox game

New Zone of the Enders finally official

Jonah “spambot” Gregory

Nintendo will show off several cool looking, core games, including Pikmin 3. The internet will say they are shocked to see a non-casual game on the Wii and that the graphics look good, to which they will quickly add “For a Wii game” so as to maintain their “street cred”.

Sony & Microsoft will try to convince us that motion gaming is going to revolutionize the industry (again); especially because of (wait for it) new 3D technology that they will both introduce at the show. They will try to play it up, but it will be either impracticable for home use or technologically underwhelming.

The most talked about game at the show will once again be something creative and interesting from a 3rd party or indie developer that no one has ever heard of; probably involving cute characters and a concept that, when you try to explain it to your peers, makes you sound like a crazy person.

Stuff I Want to See Announced

Borderlands 2. Addition of character creation, addition of armor loot that shows on character models. Guns that shoot guns that shoot armor onto your allies?

Pac-Man CE 2: Pac-Harder. They already said there is some new big surprise in store for Pac-Man. I want another game as amazing as Pac-Man CE.

Mass Effect 3. We all know it’s coming. A tease from Bioware would not be unexpected, nor unwelcome.

PSN Download service for PS2 games. It seems inevitable because of the lack of backwards compatibility, but Sony has still never done anything with it. Now is the time, Sony.

Dave “shaolinjesus” Corvin

Riding off the success of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar will announce GTA 5. When asked about the setting and story for the game, Sam Houser, President of Rockstar, mumbles something about stealing cars and goes back to swimming in a pile of money, Scrooge McDuck style.

In a move that surprises exactly no one, Capcom will announce Super Street Fighter 4 Tournament Edition.

Following in Killzone 3‘s footsteps, a 3D Resistance 3 will be announced featuring 16-player co-op.

In an effort to compete with Apple, Nintendo’s 3Ds will pack some unexpected power. The system will be twice as powerful as an N64 with a much larger hard drive.

EA announces a new freakin’ Burnout. Sadly, it won’t be developed by Criterion since they are busy working on the new Need for Speed game.

With the OnLive gaming service launching during the show I expect a full on Rex Ryan style media blitz.

Wishful Thinking:
In a move that brings tears to the eyes of gamers everywhere, Capcom and Nintendo partner up to bring the world Capcom vs Nintendo.

Nintendo realizes there is a dump truck full of cash to be made and decides to make New Super Mario Bros. 2.

Fans of Giant Mechs and EXPLOSIONS rejoice as Microsoft announces Mechassault 3.

Probably won’t happen, but:
Microsoft brings back some of their forgotten franchises: Bloodwake, Quantum Redshift, and Blinx. Voodoo Vince is seen crying in a corner.

"An improvement over Phantom Hourglass, but by how much?"

For the most part, I love the Zelda franchise. The portable titles in particular have a history of getting on my good side with Link’s Awakening being my second favorite title in the whole Game Boy catalog (next to Tetris). That being said, I was shocked when I didn’t fall in love with 2007′s Phantom Hourglass.

While Spirit Tracks looked disturbingly similar to the object of my disappointment, the Zelda fan in me was determined to give the game a fair shake from beginning to end.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks takes place about 100 years after Phantom Hourglass. As somebody who’s dabbled in writing Zelda continuity theories in the past (nerd alert!!), having a well defined place in the timeline is something I can really appreciate. There are direct references to the characters of the last game and even some clever nods to the heroic deeds of the previous Link. For example, you will start the game in your engineer clothes (you know… because you ride a train), but end up with the iconic, green tunic by disguising yourself as one of the castle guards whose uniforms now resemble the famous hero of old.

The story of Spirit Tracks is very quirky and lighthearted. The new mythos explaining the trains, as well as sages known as the Lokomo is very silly. Fortunately, the game never takes itself very seriously, so this actually works to the game’s advantage. Due to various circumstances introduced in the beginning of the story, Zelda follows you around throughout the game as a ghost (it’s no longer a spoiler when it’s on the game’s cover in certain regions). Since she’s present for the whole game, they actually made her into a character with a personality. Her dialogue is often genuinely funny and one of the game’s highlights.

"The graphics look a little better this time around, but the changes are subtle."

If you played Phantom Hourglass, you know exactly what to expect from the mandatory touch-screen controls in Spirit Tracks. You’ll be dragging the stylus around to make Link walk, double tapping to roll, and so on. Though I prefer the button setups of the earlier games, the controls are bearable… most of the time. In certain instances, I longed for the precision buttons provide. I can’t count how much health I lost from failing to adequately compensate for the slipping caused by icy floors or how many times I had to restart a long sequence during one of the final boss’ last forms due to a dodge roll that I accidentally performed in place of a slash. Knowing that my failures were caused by imprecise controls rather than level or enemy design are what had me cursing at my DS from time to time as I played the game. Also, be prepared to blow into the mic a lot; both to use one of your items and to play your magical pan flute.

Like Phantom Hourglass before it, Spirit Tracks abandons the series’ staple of an overworld for a vehicle mechanic. Given the nature of how trains work, you won’t be drawing paths every which way this time. Instead, you’ll be tracing along preexisting tracks which will increase in number as the game progresses.

Your train can move forward in two different speeds, but you’ll soon wish it had a third. There are occasional enemies, but most of the time you will simply wait to reach your destination. While there are a few teleports unlocked as you progress, they are very inconvenient. Traveling by train is often so uneventful that it feels like an interactive loading screen. Sometimes there will be invincible, evil trains traveling on certain tracks that you’ll have to avoid. But rather than adding a much needed spice to your travels, this just temporarily shifts the trip from boring to downright annoying. In what I can only assume is some kind of sick joke, you’ll sometimes be forced to take on passengers that will force you to slow down during certain parts of the track.

"I'm not sure what feels slower: Zelda's Phantom body or the train."

Between dungeons, you’ll mostly travel back and forth to towns. These sections drag on. Anytime I wasn’t in a dungeon I was wishing I was. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are the only games in the series that have made me loathe not being in dungeons. The continued removal of the overworld in the DS entries is nothing short of baffling to me. The overworld is a vital staple of the franchise. Removing it is like taking jumping out of Mario. Without it, much of the joy of getting a new item is diminished since you won’t be using it to advance between dungeons. One of my favorites aspects of Zelda is exploration, and it pains me to see the developers toss this aside yet again.

The items you collect in Spirit Tracks are a mixed bag. The first two you acquire are literally Twilight Princes’s Gale Boomerang split into two separate items in two separate dungeons. I don’t mind them reusing items (the series does it all the time), but splitting an existing item’s abilities into two separate items, stripping the possibility of another unique item, just feels lazy. On the other side of the spectrum, one of the game’s last items, a rod that lets you control sand, feels very fresh and innovative.

Spirit Tracks has two sets of dungeons. First, you have the standard dungeons that provide you with your new items. Second, you have the Spirit Tower. Unlike Phantom Hourglas’s Temple of the Ocean King, the Spirit Tower never forces you to repeat floors you’ve already completed. It also has no time limit. These are welcome improvements over the last game.

The Spirit Tower is where Zelda will be able to occupy the bodies of Phantoms (the large knights) after meeting certain conditions. You can have her follow you or draw direct paths for her to follow. This leads to some pretty clever puzzles, but like the train she is incredibly slow. In fact, she is so slow that I’d often reach for my phone to keep myself occupied while I waited. There are different types of Phantoms Zelda can control, each with a different power. But this led to more moments of impatience as, for example, I walked a few steps at a time to allow a fire-based phantom to light the way in a pitch black level. As I neared the end of the game, I started to resent the Phantom almost as much as I resented carrying Princess Ruto through Jabu Jabu’s belly in Ocarina of Time.

"Download play was a great idea. Too bad they forgot to make the multiplayer fun."

Spirit Tracks also features a multiplayer mode, but it really feels like an afterthought. You and up to three friends can battle (without swords) to collect the most force gems as you try to trigger traps to disrupt your opponents. Jonah and I both agreed the mode was a disappointment, but at least your three friends don’t have to buy their own game cart to find that out.

I’m sad to say that The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is more tedious than fun. While it manages to fix some of the problems I had with Phantom Hourglass, it adds a few new ones and retains some of my most glaring gripes. If you were a fan of Phantom Hourglass, you’ll most likely enjoy Spirit Tracks. If not, though, this isn’t a better enough game to win you over.

"The Legend of ChooChoo: Phantom, the Friendly Ghost"

There’s something we all need to come to grips with right now: Link rides a train. Why does Link ride a train? I have no idea, but let’s just get past that for now.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks demo was divided into three sections. Each one had a different focus. The first one put you in a dungeon with your new Phantom pal. The other scenarios showed off a boss battle and Link’s latest wacky vehicle, the train. Thanks to multiple visits to the Nintendo booth, I was able to try out all three.

I selected the dungeon scenario first. Controlling Link is identical to how it was in Phantom Hourglass. Dragging the stylus around will make Link walk and drawing a quick line will have him perform a slash. What made things interesting was Link’s new Phantom friend.

Controlling the Phantom is done indirectly. If you put your stylus on the Phantom and draw a path, he will slowly follow it. Clicking on objects will have him interact with them, whether that be hitting a switch or an enemy. Thankfully, there is a call button to command him to follow you so that you don’t have to constantly be drawing paths while you move around the dungeon.

The Phantom appears to be invincible. Because of this, you have to use him to get past obstacles that would normally harm our fragile hero, Link. One example is lava pits. Disregarding all empathy, you can send the Phantom into a pool of lava, jump onto the safety of his head, and tell him where to go. Another part of the dungeon required me to have the Phantom walk across one path to block streams of fire while Link walked across a lower path. This also caused me to be separated from my ghostly chum temporarily before solving another simple puzzle. Other uses of the Phantom were pretty predictable, such as having him stand on buttons or hit switches.

The item I found in the dungeon allowed me to shoot tornadoes by blowing into the microphone. It’s similar to the gale boomerang in Twilight Princess, except without the boomerang. I’ve never been fond of blowing into the microphone to perform actions, but it seemed to work well enough.

The boss scenario was everything you would expect from a standard Zelda boss fight. I had to use the dungeon’s item  in a two-form battle with a giant beetle. Much like Phantom Hourglass, the battle took place on both screens.

Now what you’ve all been waiting for: the train. If you thought the boat in Phantom Hourglass was boring, I have some bad news: the train isn’t much better, if at all. In fact, a few of the train’s controls are lifted straight from the boat. Tapping the screen will shoot bombs out of your cannon, breaking rocks and destroying enemies. The right side of the screen has your throttle. There are two different forward speeds, stop, and reverse. Finally, there is a rope you can pull to sound your horn.

To allow you to still control where you are going, there is a switch at the bottom of the screen that controls which track to go on in conjunctions. One thing the train has over the boat is scenery. Looking at a lot of flat areas covered in blue gets old really fast, so it’s nice to see some landscape. I even had the pleasure of going through a tunnel with enemies crawling on the walls and ceilings.

I’m disappointed that Nintendo still feels that we need a vehicle to traverse the overworld map. The horse featured in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess was a fine addition as it was fun to use and didn’t impair your freedom to roam the world. Both the boat and train feel like a chore, dumbing down the very thing that made me fall in love with the series in the first place: exploration.

Fortunately, I had a lot of fun playing the dungeon scenario. In fact, controlling the Phantom was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. When I played Phantom Hourglass to completion, my enjoyment started high went downhill by the hour. I can only hope that Spirit Tracks doesn’t suffer the same fate.

"...and it only took me 5 years!"

Aside from being a writer here at Wing Damage, I like to spend my time making electronica music (hosted at MainFinger.com) in my home studio. As I’ve mentioned in the past couple podcasts, I have been very hard at work, both finishing up my new album and building a completely new site. I’ve finally launched the site with the new album on it, available for download and streamable, absolutely free! I do, however, accept donations via PayPal if you feel so inclined. The donation button is located on the sidebar of my site.

In case you’re wondering how this relates to Wing Damage, a majority of the songs on the album are videogame remixes. The tracks range from well known series’ such as Zelda, Metroid and Sonic the Hedgehog to lesser known titles like Section Z. Each track differs greatly in style so there’s a lot of variety to enjoy.

Mode7 has, by far, shown the largest improvement for me in quality between albums. This album is 5 years in the making. It was slowed down by being mixed mostly on a computer that was almost a decade out of date.

During that time, I’ve read up on Sound Engineering. This has greatly increased the clarity of my mixes. On top of that, I’ve acquired a lot of new software and hardware since the last album. This allowed me to include fairly believable orchestral sounds, 8bit sounds, and more powerful drum tracks than ever before. I’ve taken this album much more seriously than any album before it. Click on the links below to download individual songs, click here to download the whole album in a zip file, or visit MainFinger.com to stream them right in your browser.

01. Unpleasant Noise (A James Brown Tribute) [3.33meg - 2:38] This song is made using a sample from Godzilla vs. Monster Zero and samples from as many different James Brown songs as I could cram together. I’ve been wanting to use that Godzilla clip for a long time and finally got around to it. I’m a huge fan of James Brown’s music and wanted to pay my respects in song.

02. Carnival Cave (originally from Sonic the Hedgehog 2) [4.64meg 3:11] The Mystic Cave Zone is quite possibly my favorite song from the entire Sonic series. I’ve attempted to remix it several times and failed. Finally, I was able to make a remix of it I was truly happy with it. You might notice a certain homage to a famous song in the solo.

03. Doomsday Village (originally from American McGee’s Alice) [3.31meg 2:37] The soundtrack to American McGee’s Alice is largely ambient. Village of the Doomed was definitely the standout track for me. Even before the album’s release, this song started to get a bit of a cult following.

04. Relaxin’ in Hyrule (originally from Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link) [2.99meg 2:25] This song contains a guitar sample of Mountain Con’s “I Woke Up and the Morning was Grey”. In fact, when I listened to that song, I immediately thought of the House music from Zelda 2. Right then, I knew I wanted to make a remix of it using the sample. Though the song starts with vibraphones, it evolves into Chip Hop midway through.

05. Passion (Punch Drunk Mix) (originally from Kingdom Hearts 2) [8.78meg 6:34] I got the soundtrack to Kingdom Hearts 2 before the game came to the states. In fact, the original version of my remix came out long before the game released here. It’s a trance mix of the opening/ending theme. The American version is labeled Sanctuary, but since the Japanese version that I remixed is labeled as Passion, I went with that name instead.

06. Don Your Armor, Armadillo (originally from Mega Man X) [4.57meg 2:49] This song starts with a triumphant orchestral intro leading into a fast-paced drum ‘n bass frenzy. I actually ripped the SPC guitar from the original SNES audio, layered it with effects, and used it to make both solos featured in the song.

07. Beware of the Stalker (originally from Castlevania & Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse) [5.90meg 4:06] This is actually a combination of many different Castlevania songs. The most dominant are Stalker (hence the name) and Evergreen. At many points, riffs of different songs from the series are overlapped to create some interesting combinations.

08. Dentists Unite [3.33meg 3:10] There is an interesting story behind this song. I am a web developer by trade and many of the sites I’ve worked on have been for cosmetic dentists. A lot of these sites have background music. What I did here is took several of these dental website loops, sliced them up together, and added my own instruments on top of it all.

09. Enter the Shrine (originally by The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening) [3.37meg 2:30] Even using the GameBoy’s crude sound chip, the Face Shrine in Link’s Awakening had a tune that gave me the creeps. It was eerie, but addicting. My remix is much faster than the original, reducing a bit of the creepy factor, but giving it my own unique take on it.

10. A Timeline Eliminated (originally from Chrono Cross & Chrono Trigger) [4.18meg 3:03] Interestingly enough, this remix started out double the speed it is now. Part way through writing it, I went to half speed for some reason and liked the way it sounded much better. This is a combination of The Dead Sea and Sealed Door with a little bit of Schala mixed in. I’m happy with how well all 3 of these songs meld together into one. I don’t believe it even feels like a medley, though technically it is.

11. Balance of Power (originally from Metroid Prime 2 & Metroid) [3.99meg 3:04] The rhythm distortion in this song is actually my keytar ran through a distortion pedal with some effects layered onto it. This made for a rather interesting sound. It combines the intro tracks from both Prime 2 and the original Metroid.

12. Shootin’ Both Ways (originally from Section Z) [4.29meg 3:01] The stage music from Section Z has been a favorite of mine since childhood. This started out as an original song until Geoffio pointed out the disturbing similarity to Section Z in what I had written so far. Rather than get disheartened at the work of my subconscious, I decided to go along with it and evolve it into a full blown Section Z remix.

13. Doomsday Village (Thin Sliced Mix) (originally from American McGee’s Alice) [3.23meg 2:36] Because of the popularity of the preview version of my original Doomsday Village, I was reluctant to change it too much when revising all of the tracks. I had ideas I wanted to try, but didn’t want to upset the people who had already become so attached to the original. My solution was to create an alternate remix. This way, I would be free to make as many changes as I wanted, no matter how radical. This version is full of hip hop beats and lots of slicing.

14. Requiem of Lost Beats [4.55meg 2:57] When I first purchased Miroslav Philharmonik (my orchestral VST of choice), I felt the need to make an original song that used it heavily. It’s a mix of heavy beats, synth arpegios, and digital orchestral performances done via my MIDI keyboard.

15. The Brink of Time [1.70meg 1:33] This is a bonus track only available on physical copies of the album. This was the first thing I did to test out my new orchestral plugin. It’s a fully orchestrated rendition of The Brink of Time from Chrono Trigger. All of the tracks (with the exception of a few minimilistic ones) were played by me on my MIDI keyboard. In fact, several of the instruments were played simultaneously and simply assigned to different hands. I chose to do this song since I already knew how to play it on piano by memory.