An oldie, but a goodie

After a break due to illness I find myself returning to gaming in a bit of a lull. There are no interesting major releases scheduled to arrive in the next few weeks and while I still have games like Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sitting on my drive, uncompleted, I feel like I need a change from the fantasy RPG genre after having been almost completely immersed in it since Christmas. It was a conversation with my lovely wife over the weekend that finally got me settled on what I would play next.

It started innocently with her asking if I had any of the original Sonic games, as she wouldn’t mind playing one of those with me. I was pretty sure I had the first two for the Sega Mega Drive, but after digging out the console I realised that I was severely lacking in the Sonic department. It didn’t really matter though as upon connecting the Mega Drive up to my TV I struggled to get the thing to work. Eventually I gave up, realising that the wire that connected the system to the TV was probably broken. However having seen some of the classic games that I still had for Sega’s console I decided to check out a bit of PC emulation.

Going back a few years I used to have a pretty extensive emulation collection on my PC, but after a subsequent hard drive failure I lost it all. I could still remember most of the sites I used to build that collection, so I set about getting hold of a Mega Drive emulator and some roms of the games I currently owned. After a bit of fiddling with a program called Joy2Key I managed to get Castle of Illusions running with my Xbox 360 pad. This only whetted my appetite though as I started thinking about whether I could emulate a more modern console, namely the GameCube.

I duly set about finding out about Dolphin, which for those who don’t know is a great emulator which allows you to run Nintendo’s finest GameCube and Wii games on your PC. The idea of playing The Legend of Zelda:Wind Waker or Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door in stunning high-res was too good to pass up, so I promptly got hold of the latest version of Dolphin and a rom of each game. After consulting various guides I managed to get the graphical and sound settings just right and also configured the 360 pad to work with the GameCube games.

After everything was set I decided to boot up Paper Mario first and was greeted by a spectacular sight. Everyone knows that Nintendo’s art direction is among some of the best in the business, but due to the antiquated nature of the GameCube tech married with an HDTV, it doesn’t look as good as it could. But when you play the games through Dolphin, the power of modern CPUs and GPUs are brought to bear and the result is nothing short of astounding. Having seen the effect on Paper Mario I quickly booted up Wind Waker and was equally delighted with the result. 

Seeing these classic games in their new clothes made me want to instantly sit down and play through them again. However first I had to decide which one I was going to start with and I also wanted to try and get a better set-up going. I have a fairly decent 21” LCD monitor connected to my PC, but I also have a lovely 26” HDTV sitting only a few metres away, as well as a nice comfy couch. I already had an HDMI cable connecting the PC to my TV and after a few tweaks Paper Mario was now displayed on a nice big screen.

Game wise I decided to plump for Paper Mario as, like many games I brought when I was younger and had more disposable income, it fell by the wayside when other games arrived and distracted me. Yes I know that technically it is another RPG, but it is quite different from the RPGs I have been playing with a totally different setting.

Having got GameCube games working on the PC I am now resolved to also get Wii games working. This will require a bit more work though as getting the Wiimote to talk to the PC is slightly convoluted and requires a Bluetooth connection, something my PC is currently lacking. However I have ordered a Bluetooth adaptor and once that arrives I am hopeful that the added fidelity will get me back into Skyward Sword, once I have completed Paper Mario of course. Right now though, I am happy that I can once again enjoy some of Nintendo’s finest games in a more modern setting.

If you are interested in playing your GameCube and Wii games on a PC here are a few pointers to help you get started.

• Dolphin Homepage with the latest version. 
• A Wiki which will help you with most problems including getting the right settings for each game. 
• A guide to getting the Wiimote to work with Dolphin 
• As for getting hold of game files you can rip the games directly from the discs if you have the necessary hardware, just Google to find out how. If this is beyond your capabilities you can get GameCube roms from the net by searching Google, there are a few sites out there. As for the Wii your favourite torrent site is probably your best bet.

Oh Zelda, Zelda, wherefore art thou Zelda?

I think it's apt that for the title of this blog I have adapted a classic Shakespeare line as you could argue that the Legend of Zelda series has had a similar impact on gaming as Shakespeare has had on literature. The various merits to this argument are maybe best saved for another blog, but suffice it to say my first experience with the world of Zelda was not unlike my first experience of the Bard.

Enough blather lets get to the crux of this blog posting. Whilst I will always revere the Zelda series for its fairytale story, stunningly realised worlds and quirky characters I currently find myself troubled. Since The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening on the SNES I have played and adored every Zelda home console release. Whether it was a console defining game such as Ocarina of Time, an interesting oddity like Majora's Mask or a new direction in the case of Wind Waker, I have enjoyed each and every one. Each game has been hurriedly put into the console and devoured with gusto. Skyward Sword has suffered an all together different fate. You see  for the first time in the series I have found myself not enjoying myself whilst playing and this has to a certain degree horrified me.

You see there is just something about the game that wont sit right. All the usual goodness is there: a beautiful world; interesting characters; challenging dungeons; a malevolent evil that must be vanquished; and for the first time Nintendo have sought to develop the relationship between Link and Zelda. I should be hurrying home each day from work keen to continue my adventure to save fair maiden and the world.  Yet...

Something is missing. At first I thought it was a mainly down to my problem with the heavily integrated motion control. In general I'm a fan of motion control having enjoyed thrashing Rafael Nadal in Grand Slam Tennis, been beaten by my sister at Wii Bowling and rejoiced at the brief resurgence of the light gun genre. I didn't even mind the motion control that was crowbarred into Twilight Princess. So I had high hopes for the sword combat in Skyward Sword and to start with these hopes were met as I dispatched logs with precise strikes. However once I transfered these moves to combat things became a little trickier as some of my movements were not registered and Deku Babas started to munch at my health bar. Things became worse as I faced off against the final boss. As I tried to swipe in the opposite direction to which he was defending I found the Wiimote unwilling to interpret my motions correctly like a nagging spouse who insists that their way is the best way. 'A strike from the right? I think you mean a strike from the left,' the Wiimote seemed to say. Eventually I ended up just thrashing the controller around wildly in desperation. I'm sure anyone watching would have had a good laugh, but it was hardly conducive to an enjoyable experience. On reflection the Wiimote might have needed recalibrating, but I couldn't find an option to do so from the in game options. Once I had defeated the boss I made sure to save my progress, turned the game off and I have had no inclination to turn it on since.

So the erratic behaviour of Wii Motion Plus was what initially put me off playing any more of the game. But on further reflection whilst the motion malfunction wasn't fun I don't think that is the main reason for my reluctance to play. There were other nagging thoughts that had been at the back of my mind and had started to make their way to the surface. Why was the pace of the game so slow, why did it feel like I was playing with training wheels on, and what was with the AI companion Fi. I felt like I was adventuring with a Hollywood Blockbuster writer with an annoying habit of feeling they had to spell every single thing out to me at every turn like I was some kind of child. And then it hit me...child.

Now Nintendo are known for their ability to appeal to generation after generation with their games and always being able to find an audience that is predominantly on the younger side of life. In the past this has never bothered me, but with the Wii there is an added problem. For the first time since the original Legend of Zelda Nintendo is making a Zelda game that the majority of its customers will have never played. I don't know whether this was at the forefront of their minds whilst developing Skyward Sword, but it certainly feels like they believed they had to go out of their way to make sure anyone who picked up this latest Zelda would get a good introduction to the series and at no point would they feel lost.

Having made this realisation everything about what I had played began to make sense. The 3 minute long unskippable video that played at the beginning of the game explaining how to take the Wii Motion Plus attachment on and off, the left hand side of the screen being partially obscured by a button layout guide, the interminably slow pace, and the incessant nagging Fi.

It was this simplification of the series that had really driven me away, the malfunctioning motion control hadn't helped, but for the first time I felt that Nintendo weren't making Zelda games for me any more. Have I finally grown out of my love for all things Ninty or has the company just moved on to a new audience? It's hard to tell right now, I enjoyed Mario Galaxy so I can still enjoy some of the games they make. I don't think I will be able to make a proper judgment until I see the way they plan to go with their next console, but after years of defending Nintendo against the complaints that they were pandering to the masses with the Wii I have more of an idea of where those people were coming from.

I'm sad that it has taken one of my favourite gaming series to make me realise that I might have finally out grown Nintendo. As it stands I'm not even sure I will bother with their next console, sticking instead with my PC and the next Xbox and if you had sat 17-year-old me down and told him that one day he would be considering no longer purchasing Nintendo products he would have given you a look of disdain and turned back to his N64.