Celeste: Farewell – Sub-Chapter 9

Anyone who’s played the B-Side and C-Side levels of Celeste knows the amount of precision platforming required. Farewell, the post-launch ninth chapter, is no exception, providing numerous new objects and challenges over the span of its numerous sub-chapters. It all culminates in the ninth sub-chapter – a single continuous screen of parachutes, spikes, feathers, springs and much more, with one mistake requiring a do-over.

Nemesis – Resident Evil 3

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that the redesign for Nemesis in the upcoming Resident Evil 3 is pretty twisted. While the original looked frightening enough, the remake stretches its lower jaw skin further while resembling the T-103 more (which itself very much resembling Mr. X). It’s a natural evolution and reflects the extreme nature of the Pursuer.

The 3DS is on its way out, which means Nintendo is finally dropping the price on some more of its games. Today, Nintendo announced that three more 3DS games will be joining the Nintendo Selects range, which is Nintendo’s label for price reduced titles. From today on, they will be $20.

The three games joining the range are The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, Super Mario Maker for 3DS, and Star Fox 64 3D. Of these, Majora’s Mask at that price is a steal, and if for some reason you have a 3DS but not the game, now is the time to jump on it. Star Fox 64 3D is a good port, but the port itself is eight years old now (the game it’s a port of is over 20 years old), so the fact that it wasn’t at this reduced price until now is a bit ghastly. Super Mario Maker is utterly trash on the 3DS, and deserves no consideration from you.

At this rate, we can probably expect a permanent price drop for ARMS come 2027, right guys?

The NPD report for March 2015 is in, highlighting sales from the month before across various platforms. Nintendo’s games figured as a large part of that list and there were some significant stand-outs for the company as a whole.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D sold 184,000 units last month with a lifetime sales total of 730,000 units. Mario Party 10 has already sold 290,000 units while Mario Kart 8 has a lifetime sales total of 1.9 million units. However, perhaps the most successful franchise for Nintendo has been Super Smash Bros. It sold 110,000 units in March on the 3DS and notched up 2.4 million units in its lifetime for the handheld. Meanwhile, the Wii U version managed nearly 1.6 million units across its lifetime.

Keep in mind that these are sales figures across the United States and do not account for the significant success each game has seen in Japan. In other good news, hardware sales for the Wii U and 3DS saw a 60 percent increase in the past three months compared to the same period in 2014.

Over the years, Majora’s Mask’s stature has grown. It might in fact have been gaming’s very first cult classic, as those that had ventured into the dark and disturbing depths of Termina grew up, and looked back fondly upon the oddest, saddest, darkest Zelda title. Majora’s Mask began to be seen as a high mark for the series, a reminder of the times it had dared to be different and think outside the box, even as in the present day, it began to grow increasingly more formulaic, and the answer to all those critics who contended Zelda needed to grow darker- here was Majora’s Mask, one of the most legitimately disturbing and moving games ever made, and it was a Zelda title, a game mature far beyond its years, too mature, perhaps, for the gaming industry.

15 years have passed since Majora’s Mask first released- the release of its remake is not a curiosity, like the release of the original game, but a long anticipated event. Majora’s Mask’s 3DS remake has been one of the most anticipated game of all time, and the internet’s collective reaction when it was finally announced was one of unanimous joy. Its release has been marked by fervor and hype, and it has been chosen as the flagship game to lead the launch of Nintendo’s newest contender in the hardware market.

A lot, in other words, has changed, since the release of the original game.

Some things have not. Majora’s Mask was an anachronism then. Majora’s Mask is an anachronism now.

"15 years have passed since Majora's Mask first released- the release of its remake is not a curiosity, like the release of the original game, but a long anticipated event."

Of course, if you are new to Majora’s mask, there is perhaps one question still lingering on in your head- just what is Majora’s Mask?

Majora’s Mask is an action adventure game. The fifth mainline entry in Nintendo’s long running Zelda series, the game was an immediate sequel to Ocarina of Time, but in every way possible, it went the exact opposite direction that Ocarina of Time did. Instead of focusing on a huge, sprawling world filled with secrets, it gave you a compact town and its immediate surroundings to explore. Instead of focusing on a grand and epic quest, the game focused on the small and tender, with the bulk of the game emphasizing the characters built up via sidequests, rather than its four (wildly variable) dungeons. Completing a sidequest netted you an item that would surely aid you as you approached your final task inexorably.

The game was also marked by its persistent world- time was a constant thing in Termina. The game takes place over the course of three days, repeated over and over again, with one real world minute corresponding to one in game hour (you can learn to slow and quicken the pace of time later in the game). Everybody and everything in Majora’s Mask has a schedule- it’s a world that is real, living, breathing, persistent, and dense, and it exists independently of you. To master your way through Termina, you must learn to respect it and its inhabitants as real people.

There is also the fact that people’s responses to you will change based on your appearance. The other central mechanic of Majora’s Mask is the masks themselves- over the course of the game, you gain up to 24 masks, which change your appearance, give you abilities, transform your body entirely. Each mask has special uses (the Goron mask can withstand lava and extreme heat, the Zora mask lets you swim forever), but how people respond to you also changes based on what mask you are wearing. Wear the mask of a Deku scrub, and you will be encountered with racism and persecution in Clock Town.Confront a crying Goron child as yourself, and you get nothing, you just agitate him more; but wear the Goron mask and talk to him, and you calm him down. Wear the mask of a person who has mysteriously gone missing in the town, and speak to the innkeeper, and you learn that he has run off on his engagement with her daughter.

"Termina is full of these situations and moments- and you use your masks to don various personas to resolve them all. More than the dungeons, the people, and their problems, are the crux of the gameplay. "

Termina is full of these situations and moments- and you use your masks to don various personas to resolve them all. More than the dungeons, the people, and their problems, are the crux of the gameplay.

But the dungeons are there, and you can focus on them too. You can choose to ignore the human side of Majora’s Mask entirely. The game will be shorter and poorer for you for it (not to mention significantly more difficult, especially at the end), but it can be done.

And what of the dungeons? On he whole, they represent a mixed bunch. There are only four of them, and only one of them is truly exceptional (the last one). The very first dungeon suffers from serving as a tutorial dungeon, while the second and third dungeon are tedious and just poorly designed respectively. On the whole, the dungeons and the combat play out largely as they did in Ocarina, with the former being worse in Majora, the latter being refined and better. But between the masks, the standard series’ items, the combat, the dungeon, and the navigation, Majora’s Mask is filled with staggering gameplay variety.

The argument of gaming as art has been made multiple times. I won’t revisit it here, but I will state that I believe games can genuinely transcend their medium to become art, and that Majora’s Mask is one of the few games that has legitimately achieved this. The entire game is so surreal and bizarre, so open to interpretation, providing such a concrete framework, but only the vaguest of details to fill it in, that it is entirely open to interpretation. What is Majora’s Mask about? As many theories exist in the fandom as there are fans, and there really seems to be no one correct answer- as a story, Majora’s mask could be about anything. What you take away from it depends entirely on you.

"As a game, Majora's Mask works in such a way as to ensure that its story could only have been told as a game- in any other form or format, Majora's Mask would lose its meaning and motive."

But there is one constant throughout the experience that is immediately evident, one constant that will surely color your reading of the game- Majora’s Mask is about the darker side of human psyche. The game is about loss, separation, anguish, failure, agony, heartbreak, disappointment, fear, envy, jealousy, lust, denial, suspicion, mistrust, abandonment, and yes, it is, most of all, about death. As a story, Majora’s Mask delves into the deeper recesses of the spectrum of human condition and emotion. As a game, Majora’s Mask works in such a way as to ensure that its story could only have been told as a game- in any other form or format, Majora’s Mask would lose its meaning and motive.

The game delightfully constructs and weaves its dark yarn around us. Termina is a world doomed to failure- in three days, the moon will crash into the earth and destroy everything, no matter what. This fact is inescapable, and there is nothing Link can do to stop it. Indeed, he is forced to relive the same three days over and over again, in a futile attempt to try and prevent the calamity, but resetting his progress each time he warps back to the beginning of the cycle, with whatever he accomplished having been erased and forgotten. Link is not a hero- he is a kid desperately struggling to prevent the destruction of this world, even as its inhabitants continue on their merry lives, denying the reality of what is about to happen until it is too late. And as he, and by proxy, you, repeat the same days over and over, you come to be close to the characters. Each character in Termina has a story- as in, they literally have a story. Each character is associated with a quest, a quest that must be completed. Why must it be completed? Because even as Link struggles to save the world, even as he fails to save humanity, he can bring a few precious moments of peace, happiness, and contentment to people. He can have the satisfaction of knowing that on some, small level, he has succeeded, and this knowledge gives him the motivation to push ever on, trying to save the world.

The game is marked in its use of a darker palette as well- colors are more subdued, and everything appears darker than the bright, lush green fields of Hyrule. This is a darker place, and the game makes sure the tone of the story is always known. In contrast, the music weaves a slow, melancholy, soulful, and surreal web and cocoon around you, enclosing you into the game’s dark world, in what has to be one of the most outstanding soundtracks in a series that is full of great soundtracks.

Considering this is a remake, however, what has changed from the original release?

"Amazingly enough, because it is still ahead of its time, even today, even with the new release. "

A lot, actually. Unlike Ocarina of Time 3D, and even Wind Waker HD, which represented relatively modest remastering, Nintendo went all out with Majora’s Mask 3D.The graphical update is stunning, and the game may feature some of the best visual use of 3D I have ever seen in any game yet, on 3DS or otherwise. The quality of life changes they have made, mostly via enabling inventory, menus, and maps on the bottom screen, have a profound effect on one’s enjoyment of the game, and additions like the gyroscope are tactful and unobtrusive.

That said, they have also made a fair few structural and mechanical changes, and not all of them are good.

The biggest issue is in the masks and how they play- Nintendo has, for some unfathomable reason, changed how the Goron and Zora masks control, making Goron and Zora Link harder and a pain to control. coupled with the 3DS’s less accurate analog stick, the masks are hell to handle in some spots- particularly in already poorly designed dungeons like Snowpoint or Great Bay, where both these masks need to be used extensively.

On the other hand, other such changes have been for the better. The most notable one is the Bomber’s Notebook, which now acts as a dynamic quest log, keeping track of rumors and information you have gathered, collating each townsperson’s routine in one place to make it easier for you to track them down when necessary. It even lets you set alarms and reminders.

Meanwhile, there are other changes too, mostly relating to the flow of time- The Song of Double Time, which let you skip ahead 12 hours in the future in the original game, now lets you control time in a more granular manner, choosing a specific hour you want to skip ahead to. Meanwhile, the save system has changed so that you are now allowed to hard save at any time you see an owl statue in the overworld. This means you no longer have to worry about completing an entire three day cycle in one go or risk losing your progress (because of failure or a discharged battery)- your last save counts as a hard save.

So, given all of this, why is Majora’s Mask an anachronism? Amazingly enough, because it is still ahead of its time, even today, even with the new release. In some ways, gaming has caught up to Majora’s mask, and its age shows (such as in the bulk of its dungeon design). But in most other ways – its story, its emergent storytelling, its artistic vision, its persistent world, its quest structure, and the themes that it tackles, and the deft maturity that it tackles them with – Majora’s Mask is, amazingly enough, still unmatched, fifteen years after its release.

Fifteen years have passed, then, and Majora’s Mask is still a highly progressive game. It goes to show you just how far ahead of its time it originally was, and how slow and stagnated game design progress has been since then- both within and outside Nintendo. A game that was misunderstood, but revered, a game that is never of its time, but a game that is a brilliant game regardless: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a work of art, working fundamentally as a game, and achieving what it does because of it, and not in spite of it.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo has struck gold again with The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D. According to Media Create sales charts for last week, the 3DS port of the N64 classic managed to sell 230,065 units in the first few days of release.

The next big new release was Koei Tecmo’s Samurai Warriors 4-II which sold 44,574 copies on the PS3 in its first week, followed by The Seven Deadly Sins: Unjust Sin with 33,270 units sold on the 3DS. Yokai Watch 2: Shinuchi continues to sell well, as its on the way to crossing the 2.5 million copies mark with 23,844 units sold in the past week. Koei Tecmo experienced good sales for Samurai Warriors 4-II on the PS Vita and PS4 as well, selling 23,519 units and 22,468 units respectively.

Nintendo’s other reasons to smile are from Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire which sold 12,922 units (lifetime sales of 2,513,921 units) and Super Smash Bros. 3DS which sold 9,532 units (lifetime sales of 2,149,794 units).

Nintendo released the newest refresh for its Nintendo 3DS line on February 13 worldwide; it’s called the New Nintendo 3DS (or the New Nintendo 3DS XL, assuming you go for the larger model), and it features the most dramatic overhaul of the 3DS line yet, featuring increased processing power (thanks to an extra CPU core), super stable 3D (meaning you no longer need to hold the handheld in a sweet spot to maintain the 3D effect), additional controls in the form of two more shoulder buttons, and a second analog stick, called the C stick, and some smaller improvements overall.

Alongside the New 3DS models, they also released Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, the fourth installment in Capcom’s action franchise, as well as the long requested remake for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D. And now, it appears that all three of these products are officially a hit.

The New Nintendo 3DS sold 175,000 units in NA, and 160,000 in Europe in the first three days of availability- for those keeping track, that is 335,000 units sold in three days, which is incredible. For context, the Nintendo 3DS XL sold 50,000 units in NA, and 60,000 units in EU, for a total of 110,000 units in the first three days of availability.

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D has sold 350,000 units in the US, and 220,000 units in Europe, for 570,000 units sold in just these two territories, also in three days. For context, the excellently received A Link Between Worlds sold 190,000 in NA and 150,000 in Europe for a total of 340,000 units, in the first three days after launch.

For Monster Hunter, we only have numbers for Europe, as that is the only region where Nintendo published it (Capcom handled the title’s publishing in NA and Japan), but the game has sold 110,000 units in Europe in this time period, compared to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate’s 40,000 in the first three days of availability; that said, coupled with its recent performance in the UK charts, as well as Capcom’s confirmation of the game hitting 3 million units in sales worldwide, I think it’s safe to assume that the game is officially a hit.

You can check out our review of the New Nintendo 3DS XL right here; for reviews of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, stay tuned, as we will have them for you shortly.

After weeks, months even, on top in the UK, Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was finally unseated from first place by Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve. The current gen-only co-op player saw equal sales on both the PS4 and Xbox One when it debuted according to the latest sales charts from Gfk Chart-Track.

Perhaps most interestingly are the other new releases, primarily on the 3DS. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate both debuted in the UK at second and fourth place respectively, helping the New Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL’s launch by boosting sales by 57 percent.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare still maintains a decent spot at third place with Grand Theft Auto 5 moving from second to fifth overall. FIFA 15 is at sixth place, followed by Far Cry 4, Minecraft: Xbox Edition, Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Destiny.

What are your thoughts on Evolve? Let us now in the comments below and stay tuned for more details.

It’s a big day for Nintendo fans, and particularly owners of the Nintendo 3DS, as two very long awaited games finally launch today- the long awaited The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, which is an enhanced remake of one of the most beloved games of all time, and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, the fourth generation of Capcom’s long running co-operative action series, both hit the 3DS today, and the latest eShop update is headlined by both of these games.

These aren’t the only big games coming to the eShop this week either- it’s a pretty big and good haul. The full list is provided below:

eShop 3DS

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D – available February 13
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – available February 13
• ACE COMBAT Assault Horizon Legacy +
• 3D Fantasy Zone
• Pong Pong Candy

eShop Wii U

• Blek
• Paparazzi – available February 17
• BREATH OF FIRE – Virtual Console

Wii U eShop sale:

• Save up to 75% off Rayman Legends, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and other select Ubisoft titles in the Ubisoft Game Sale.
• Knytt Underground is 50% until February 26.
• Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party is 50% until February 26
• Paper Monsters Recut is 37% off until February 19.
• ZaciSa’s Last Stand is 65% off until February 25.

3DS eShop sale:

• Disney Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay is 33% off until March 9.
• Disney Frozen: Olaf’s Quest is 33% off until March 9.
• 3D Game Collection is 16% off until February 27.
• Funfair Party Games is 12% off until February 27.
• Murder on the Titanic is 25% off February 27.

New 3DS themes:

• NES: Sword-Swinging Link
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: Dire Moon
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: Gold Edition
• Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Gore Magala & Seregios – available February 13 (free with purchase of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.)

Price reductions:

• Battleminer 3DS will be reduced to $7.99 come February 12.
• Jett Tailfin Wii U will be reduced to $12.99 come February 15.

So yeah… that’s a hell of a good week. What are you going to get? Personally, Monster Hunter and Majora’s Mask are the two games that immediately catch my eye, and I will also be looking at some of those themes. How about you?

Tomorrow, the long awaited remake for Nintendo’s seminal classic, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, finally launches on the Nintendo 3DS. Also launching tomorrow is Nintendo’s mid cycle refresh for its 3DS lineup for handhelds, the New Nintendo 3DS and its XL variant. While Majora’s Mask 3D and the New 3DS are heavily being co-promoted, the fact is that any existing 3DS system will play the game without any issues just fine.

That said, Nintendo really wants you to play it on the New 3DS, and according to them, there is a real reason for that:

“The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D is a remastered and enhanced version of the classic that’s unlike any other adventure in The Legend of Zelda series, and New Nintendo 3DS XL offers the smoothest and most engrossing portable gaming experience possible,” they said.

“While the game is playable on any Nintendo 3DS family system, players that pick up New Nintendo 3DS XL can experience The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D with added features, like the ability to control the camera with the C Stick and experiencing the game’s remastered and detailed graphics using the new face-tracking 3D technology built into the new system. Playing The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D on New Nintendo 3DS XL is the best way to experience this memorable adventure.”

Personally, I see their point- camera control with the C stick sounds like it would be helpful, and there is also the simple fact that I am really excited to see Majora’s Mask, which was a psychedelic as hell game, in 3D, meaning that I can see it benefitting from the better 3D as well. All of this said, however, the fact also remains that the New Nintendo 3DS is $200, and I don’t want to spend money buying it to play a game that my existing 3DS can run just fine- maybe when those New 3DS exclusives finally start launching, such as Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, I will jump on board.

How about you guys, are you getting the New 3DS? And if so, what pushed you towards it?