Zelda fans will have to do a halt, stop and wait … no, run to the nearest video game retailer if this information leak is true: on Black Friday (in the States), GameStop will be selling a Tri-Force branded 3DS XL. The clamshell will be painted gold, and if you’re a Zelda fan like me, I’ve often thought about customizing my aging regular 3DS with a Zelda logo. The only reason why I bought the 3DS to begin with was to collect all the Zelda games available to this one unit and play it when the urge to go retro hit me.
The big news is that the next Zelda game available for the portable market is The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It will be included in this bundle. The only shame is that the XL is not getting any technical facelifts. While the bigger screen is nice and the device feels more compact (even though it’s hardly lightweight), the fact that the cameras are so low-end (they create 640×480 megapixel images), experimental filmmaking or photography in 3D is nigh impossible. Nintendo can easily have a winning piece of tech if they updated the camera to at least five mega pixels!
Fans curious in what products are available to load on to the Nintendo 3DS only have to look at what the Nintendo E-Store has to offer. On my unit are The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, LInk’s Awakening, The Minish Cap, and Four Swords Anniversary. It’s been a long while since I last checked the e-store, and hopefully there’s more. I bought Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks to include in my collection. Even though I have gaps in my collection because a few titles are Wii only (I decided not to own the console), in due time the entire library may become available to an all-in-one device.
I am excited for A Link Between Worlds though. The teaser trailer suggests some interesting 2D and 3D game play elements. I can certainly say it brings new meaning to walking between two and three dimensions. While some of it looks like they are crucial to game play, most of what’s offered is eye candy. True 3D interactivity really needs to be figured out. No game developer has learned how to effectively take advantage of the third dimension to make game play truly challenging. They have always come close with creating interesting eye-popping visuals but as for truly making platform games stand out may require getting the player in the game than navigating the avatars found within.
It has been a long time since I played the original ’94 game, A Link to the Past. I’m thinking of revisiting this game again and the only shame is that I’ll have to find a Game Boy Advance and the game again. Parts of my childhood, namely all the toys I once had, are missing. I think a trip to Fan Favourites is in order…
