Play ‘Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ on your Wii U

At long last, you can play one of the best Legend of Zelda games (often considered the best) on your Wii U. Nintendo has released a Virtual Console version of Ocarina of Time for its latest TV console on the eShop, giving you an easy way to relive Link’s classic time-traveling adventure without taking your dusty old Nintendo 64 (or original Wii) out of storage. You might not relish the thought of plunking down $10 for a 17-year-old game, especially if you’ve already bought it twice, but it beats watching a groundbreaking title fade from memory.

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Source: BusinessWire, Nintendo

Nintendo includes same-sex marriages in ‘Fire Emblem Fates’

Nintendo has a rocky past when it comes to same-sex relationships in its games, but the upcoming Fire Emblem Fates for its 3DS handheld should change that. There are a few different options to choose from, as Polygon reports. If you want to play as a male character who can marry a male party member, you should grab the Conquest edition of Fates. And if you want to be a female warrior who weds another lady, then the Birthright edition is the one for you. There’s also a third downloadable storyline that’ll let you do both. The marriages don’t come easy from the sounds of it, either: you need to bond with your partner in battle before you can tie the knot.

It’s a rather surprising about-face from Nintendo considering its history, but the company’s statement to Polygon makes it pretty clear that the company’s learned its lesson. Check it out:

“We believe that our gameplay experiences should reflect the diversity of the communities in which we operate and, at the same time, we will always design the game specifications of each title by considering a variety of factors, such as the game’s scenario and the nature of the game play. In the end of course, the game should be fun to play. We feel that Fire Emblem Fates is indeed enjoyable to play and we hope fans like the game.”

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Source: Polygon

‘Yoshi’s Woolly World’ is the video game equivalent of a hug

I am not what you would call a “hardcore gamer.” I don’t enjoy shooters; I don’t have the time for RPGs; and my last dance with open-world gameplay was a 45-minute joyride through the faux-LA of Grand Theft Auto V. But, oh, do I love me some Yoshi’s Woolly World. The upcoming, cutesy Wii U title, due out this Fall, has a shared DNA. It’s a hodgepodge of past Yoshi’s Island games and the Wii title Kirby’s Epic Yarn. That last bit of pedigree makes complete sense when you consider that the game’s being developed by Good-Feel, the very same studio behind the aformentioned Kirby title.

Yes, the beauty of Yoshi’s Woolly World lies in its stunning, yarn-spun aesthetic, but the same can be said for the gameplay. As with most of Nintendo’s beloved franchises, the mechanics feel familiar, though not stale. When I demoed the title at the company’s E3 booth, I was able to immediately pick up and play without any coaching from the nearby rep — a factor CEO Satoru Iwata said the company would be stressing with the majority of its games.

For those not well-acquainted with the series, Yoshi’s Woolly World replaces the eggs that’ve long trailed Yoshi for balls of yarn. With the help of a wandering cursor, triggered by depressing the ZR button, players can set the angle of attack with ‘Y’ and let loose a yarn ball attack. This results in delightful animations, like a thread encircling and sealing shut the mouth of a piranha plant. Of course, players can always default to either jumping atop enemies or using Yoshi’s tried-and-true elastic tongue to suck them in and “transform” them (through digestion) into additional yarn balls.

It bears repeating that the game, unlike Star Fox Zero, is gorgeous. Nintendo’s Wii U may not be on par with the silicon juggernauts that are the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but the art style of Yoshi’s Woolly World more than makes up for it. The environments, characters and enemies all have a storybook quality and truly look as if they were spun from yarn, replete with telltale frayed threads.

The game also includes helpful support in the form of amiibo. By placing the made-from-yarn Yoshi amiibo on the GamePad’s NFC receiver, players can add a duplicate Yoshi into the world; one that’ll mimic your every movement. You can even ingest this amiibo Yoshi for an extra ball of yarn should you need it. What’s more, the game also supports a handful of other amiibo that’ll give your in-game Yoshi a makeover. So, for example, if you tap a Fox McCloud amiibo on the GamePad, Yoshi will adopt a Star Fox-themed look. It’s a thoughtful touch that should lend the game extra appeal and also give amiibo collectors something to do with all those figurines.

Yoshi’s Woolly World’s visual appeal is both a blessing and a curse. It runs the risk of condemning the game to a kiddie corner when, in actuality, the game boasts some difficult platforming elements. If you own a Wii U or plan on picking one up in the near future, you won’t want to miss this adorable spin on the platformer.

[Images: Nintendo]

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‘Star Fox Zero’ will drive you crazy, but in a good way

Last E3, Shigeru Miyamoto, the famed Mario and Zelda creator, made it known that Nintendo was well underway with a new Star Fox game for the Wii U. So when the company kicked off its bizarro Muppets-themed E3 Nintendo Direct earlier this week with the reveal of Star Fox Zero, it wasn’t much of a surprise. The reimagined game, which adheres closely to the initial Wii U mantra that two screens are better than one, is quite simply overwhelming. To say this installment in the Star Fox series requires a steep learning curve would be to grossly understate the complexity of the control scheme. There’s just so much to absorb; so many different controls thrown at you at once.

For anyone that’s ever played any game in the franchise’s history, Star Fox Zero feels immediately familiar. The Arwing’s back and along with it is the anthropomorphic crew of galactic space animals led by Fox McCloud. Corneria, that war-torn planet from the original game, sets the stage for one of two missions Nintendo made available for play on the show floor. The other is an all-range boss battle dogfight that takes place in outer space. But before the rep on hand let me jump into battle, I was entered into a training simulation set within the cockpit of the Arwing.

Before I dive into a rundown of the gameplay, it’s important I start with the ideal “posture” Nintendo recommends for play. On the advice of a nearby rep, I loosely locked my elbows to my sides — just above my hips — and held the GamePad a short distance in front of me. I’ll admit I was initially confused as to what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be looking. The GamePad is pretty much your “turret” and moving it doesn’t translate into moving the Arwing onscreen; you control that with the left thumbstick. Acceleration and braking are handled by pressing up or down on the right thumbstick, respectively. Meanwhile, the ZR trigger fires off a stream of laser blasts and ZL can be used for a loose lock-on that merely shows you where your target is located.

As if that weren’t enough to juggle, simultaneously pressing down on the left thumbstick and up on the right one initiates a somersault that’ll place your Arwing behind an approaching enemy. Additionally, pressing down simultaneously on both thumbsticks will cause your ship to make a U-turn. Both of those actions are also mapped to the GamePad’s lettered buttons; in this case “X” and “Y.” But wait, there’s more: As you can imagine, your reticle will need (constant) recalibration, so a quick press-in of the left thumbstick will do the trick. As a result of this control scheme brain dump, I pretty much flubbed the training. It was just too much to take in while juggling between screens, tracking enemies and recalibrating my reticle. So the obvious next step for was to jump right into Corneria.

Here is where things started to slowly click into place. As this Corneria battle is set in a land-based, sandboxed area, I had more time to practice using the various control techniques and pick off enemies. With each kill, Star Fox Zero became less daunting and more enjoyable. Soon, I was out-maneuvering rogue ships and picking off enemies from a distance. But then the nearby rep threw another curveball my way: By pressing “A,” you can transform into a bird-like land vehicle with the ability to hover. I didn’t spend much time in this form, but it came in handy when taking out targets placed atop spider-like robots.

It wasn’t until the all-range space dogfight that I realized I was having a lot of fun. Sure, I’d been (politely) cursing non-stop while getting to grips with the controls before, but now I was littering the room with expletives from the intensity of the deep space combat. Free of any landlocked targets, Star Fox Zero makes the most sense. I was at liberty to accelerate and brake at will; to initiate constant U-turns, somersaults and lock-ons. And, most importantly, I felt comfortable shifting between the TV screen and GamePad to chase and successfully take out the Piggy boss.

Whether my sudden comfort with Star Fox Zero‘s controls was a result of my extended playtime (about 10 minutes), I can’t say for sure. Though, the on-hand rep seemed to think that was the case. What I can tell you with certainty is that Star Fox Zero will make you mad, and then it will make you wonder why it took so long for Nintendo to get this classic-in-the-making out on the Wii U.

[Images credit: Nintendo]

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All the news you need to know from Day One of E3 2015

So many games. So much Mario. So much to cram into just three official days of E3 2015. We’ve already seen Sony and Microsoft’s opening salvos from Day Zero, but today Nintendo and big-hitting game makers like Square Enix joined the fray. What do you need to know? All this. We’ll be recapping each day, short and sweet… so we can play even more games. All things E3 can found right here. Don’t worry, Slippy’s here.

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