An unexpected surprise this week was finding the Zelda Collector’s Edition in our mailbox. To be honest I’d kind of forgotten about it, as Knights of the Old Republic has a Force Grip of sorts upon me. In addition to the full versions of four classic Nintendo games, it includes a 20 minute playable demo for The Wind Waker with three save games that insert you into different spots in the game. Unfortunately, being a timed demo, just when things start to get interesting it boots you out.

Some initial notes I should make are mostly in reference to Jim Munroe’s hastily written and delusional review. Having only played small portions of the overall game, I can’t comment on story. But for a guy that only played the full version for a few hours more before quitting, neither should he. Jumping, although a bit strange to get used to, is exactly the same as the N64 versions. I think I prefer the Prince of Persia approach, however, where you can jump whenever you want and it’s just the type of jump that is executed will differ depending on where you’re standing. Still, there should be no surprises there. I’m all for improving a game’s design, but when it’s worked for six years, I’d be reluctant to change it. I agree that the in-game dialogue and story presented via text is a bit archaic, and at times can be tedious to read and emotionally vacuous. However as one person commented on Jim’s review, Link is one of those characters that shouldn’t have a voice. Just look at Mario – I love the character, but that high pitched squeal of his is embarassing. Furthermore, would it be that bad to get a kid to actually read? This should be a good thing, in light of conservative media’s belief that the game industry has already got them fantasizing about killing sprees. There are other subtle design changes making Wind Waker an engaging experience, such as the music swelling with each blow of your sword when you are attacking an enemy. Once again I am reminded of watching a movie unfold before my eyes – a colorful, whimsical, and animated movie maybe, but entertaining nonetheless.

I’ve played through each of the included missions, and even though I knew that I would probably like this game, it actually went out of its way to convince me. The cartoony appearance is perfect for the setting, and the controls and interface are exactly like the N64 Zelda games requiring no real learning curve. One thing that some Nintendo-deriding gamers fail to realize is that they have a firm grasp on what it means to make a fun game. Spending these brief but precious moments with The Wind Waker has accelerated it to the top of my “must buy” list for the GCN.

There is also a retrospective on the disc, which I understood as meaning “retrospective documentary”. Settling in for a short film showing interviews with Nintendo’s famous game designers, I was sadly mistaken. It was nothing more than a trip through time to the Zelda theme and watching mini gameplay movies go by. From the Legend of Zelda to The Wind Waker, it’s all in there. I suppose it makes do for nostalgic purposes, but I remain disappointed. And for some reason Nintendo put a separate movie including rougly 2 minutes of gameplay footage from The Wind Waker. Since the disc was free (and by free I mean buying two recently released games), I don’t really mind that the content was so limited. To be honest all I really wanted were the full versions of the N64 Zelda games. Unless you’re buying a Zelda Gamecube bundle in the near future, don’t worry about it.

After messing around with most of the stuff on the disc, I decided to fire up Ocarina of Time, as it was the most recent Zelda adventure that I remember playing. And as many people will tell you, the reason they bought an N64. I don’t even remember time passing during that massive gaming session. The textures are blurry and blotchy, the characters all have low polygon counts, the background colors are extremely bland – traditionally these are all grounds for me tossing a game aside. However I was looking at it through a PC gamer’s eyes. If one looks back to the N64, it wasn’t that great. But neither was the Playstation! And just one generation later (minus the PS2 of course) we are starting to see games on the same level as those you would find on a mid-range PC. This is a good thing, but as more and more console games are ported to PC as an afterthought, it could also spell trouble. I’m not saying that PC gaming is on its way out, but as more North American developers jump on the console bandwagon (Interplay can burn in hell for all I care) we are starting to see a dropoff in both quality and even quantity of PC games.

Silent Storm went gold this week, and hearing that an anticipated game will meet its scheduled release is always good news. I played through the demo and was extremely pleased with the results. It will be gracing the shelves this Tuesday, so watch for it. In the meantime, how about a Q&A revealing some of the game’s peculiarities? All that talk of laser guns, power armour and alternate history is making me nervous. However I’m willing to make the sacrifice of questionable story writing for rock solid gameplay.

Now that the reviews for Sonic Heroes are starting to appear, I’m torn as to how I should handle this title. Mostly relating to my original assessment that heralded the return to Sonic’s roots on the Genesis. Apparently it was all an illusion, as those that have played beyond the demo have made it known. I’m probably going to rent it, or at least get preoccupied with Silent Storm enough to hold off until next month’s big realease: Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

2003 was kind of a shitty year for entertainment for a lot of reasons, so don’t expect it to get off the hook so easily. I have a list of about 20 games I’m looking forward to in 2004, but before I get to those I’m going to lay out the best and worst last year had to offer (games notwithstanding). Well, mostly worst. Because I can’t say I’m a fan of wasting my time on a much-hyped product.

Like a thought brushing up against a sigh