Weekly Poll: Ahead Of The 3DS Game
February 28, 2011
There's a lot of love out there for Ocarina of Time as the most favored Legend of Zelda title, but I'm more partial to A Link to the Past. That game was mind-blowing at the time (in some ways, it still is) and I think it's aged better than Ocarina. When I think back on Past, I think of escaping from Hyrule Castle with Princess Zelda, climbing Death Mountain, cracking the Helmasaur King's helmet with the hammer, discovering the secret of Blind the Thief, completing the fifth and sixth dungeons in reverse order to make things much easier, opening Turtle Rock, and exploring Ganon's Tower. When I think back on Ocarina, I remember the Water Temple and that damn owl that never shut up. Here's hoping the Nintendo 3DS remake of Ocarina fixes those problems. Some of my other favorite Zelda titles are the original game (of course) for its unique presentation and the outside-the-box thinking required to get anywhere with it, The Adventure of Link for its platforming elements and catchy palace theme, Link's Awakening for its surreal qualities and quirky humor, and I've already explained why I have a soft spot for The Wind Waker. Oh, and Spirit Tracks has that awesome train-based overworld theme. Getting back to the poll results, there's no love out there for Phantom Hourglass, it seems. Considering all of the slams it took for its radically un-Zelda control scheme, maybe that's understandable. Perhaps it was unfair to put minor Zelda games like Hourglass up against powerhouses like Ocarina and Past, but that's Hyrule polling justice for you.
Moving on, we're just about a month away from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS in North America. Have you preordered a system yet? Are you planning to preorder at all? Are you sitting this launch out? Maybe you went the extreme route and snagged a Japanese 3DS (assuming you don't live in Japan, natch). What are your 3DS launch plans? Let's hear your thoughts.