Nintendo Starts Doing It Right

It’s a degree or so chillier in hell today. Nintendo finally got their shit together and made tons of awesome announcements on this week’s Nintendo Direct.

First, that awesome looking Animal Crossing themed 3DS XL is coming to North America this summer. It will cost about $220 and will come with the new Animal Crossing game pre-installed.

Next - and this is the biggest shocker - Earthbound is coming out for Virtual Console. I never thought this would happen. Unfortunately, this will only be available to Wii U owners and won’t be on the Wii’s VC lineup, as far as I know.

A sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was also announced. The game looks like it plays like earlier top-down Zelda games as opposed to something like Phantom Hourglass, which is a good thing in my opinion.

The world of Mario is getting two new additions, too. A third Yoshi’s Island game is coming out. This one’s got some really weird art direction, but I’m excited to see how it turns out. The other game is a new entry into the Mario & Luigi RPG series where Mario has to enter Luigi’s dreams. How Freudian.

Last but not least, Nintendo and Square-Enix will be publishing Bravely Default next year in the US.

That’s a lot of great news for one day. It’s about time, though. When the Animal Crossing 3DS launches, I might just have to pick one up. I’m still jonsing for the mint flavored one though.

Check it: More Nintendo on Albotas

Pre-Order: Shin Megami Tensei IV

Zelda Rupees Re-imagined as Paper Banknotes

Here’s a clever series of paper banknotes that were created to represent Hyrulian currency from the Legend of Zelda series. The rupee bills were imagined by Deviant Artist g33k1nd159153 (really dude?) and show each value in writing, as well as color, true to to the series.

Check it: More Zelda on Albotas
Buy it: The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia

Life-Size Princess Zelda Papercraft

This is a real life-size Princess Zelda papercraft that stands at 170cm (around 67 inches (5’6” ish)), built by a DeviantART user who devoted a lot of time, minidelirium. The original craft was created by PaperJuke here. Feel free to download it if you want to spend a lifetime trying to impress your other gamer friends.

According to minidelirium’s DA post:

the cutting took 88h and the folding and building took 138h. I made a big mistake in the beginning and printed her on 120g paper, so I had to do it all over again in 160g and 200g paper. I’m very satisfied with the result and look forward to giving her to a distant friend. she is about 170cm tall.

That’s a lot of paper and a lot of time.

Check it: Our quick look at The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia
Buy it: The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia Hardcover ($20!)

Cute Legend of Zelda and Adventure Time Crochet Dolls

From Beauty in the Geek shop owner Amanda Laven, these great dolls of Finn and Link would be a fantastic addition to any Adventure Time or Legend of Zelda fans’ collection.

Also, I absolutely love Link’s face. It is quite adorable and brings him into the Adventure Time universe. I’d love to see a crossover episode.

Beauty in the Geek also has a few other adorable pieces including LSP, a Creeper and Pikmin.

Check It: Exclusive Sneak Peak of the New Adventure Time Season
Buy It: Knits for Nerds

How About a Wind Waker Demake?

I know that this would never happen, but I’d much rather have a Wind Waker demake instead of the recently announced HD upgrade. A reimagined Wind Waker with SNES-style sprites and scaling would be pretty cool. And navigating the ocean using Mode 7 would be amazing (think Final Fantasy VI’s airship gameplay). I wouldn’t say Nintendo are averse to taking risks, but they’d never do something like this. And they’d probably squash any homebrew that popped up. Oh well.

Check it: More Zelda posts from Albotas

Buy:  The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia

Wind Waker Is Getting An HD Upgrade For WiiU

And it looks gorgeous! It almost has a claymation look to it. Better yet, Nintendo is finishing it up so we have a Zelda game to play while they work on an all new Zelda adventure just for WiiU!

Check out a bunch of other big announcements below in the latest Nintento Direct vdeo like Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, new Virtual Console stuff like Game Boy Advance games, and an untitled Yoshi game that I’m calling Yoshi’s Epic Yarn.

(via Tiny Cartridge)

Check it: More Nintendo posts on Albotas
Buy: The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia

(Source: )

A Little Bit On The Golden Side: JSalvador’s latest Super Emo Friend is none other than Zelda Link. You can buy one of these limited golden prints HERE.

A Little Bit On The Retro Video Game Poster Side: Creative studio Robotandspark made these Super Mario Land, Legend of Zelda, and Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition posters for the first ever Middle East Comic convention.

We sold quite a few of the prints, but the M. Bison Street Fighter 2 was probably the most popular and we had many requests for other characters from the series, so definitely watch out for the complete line-up featuring messieurs Zangief, Ken, Ryu, Dhalsim, Blanka, E. Honda, Guile, Chun Li, Balrog, Vega and Sagat.

There is a still a small amount of these limited edition prints available, so drop us an email or head to our online store to see if you can pick up a piece of retro inspired video game folklore!

Those Super Mario Land and SF2:CE jumpoffs need to be mine NOW.

Check out Robotandspark to peep the prints in higher resolution.

A Little Bit On The Ocarina Side: Link does not appreciate being left out of the picnic as shown in this comic by OMOcat.

A Little Bit on the April Fools Side: Yesterday was April Fools Day, in case you didn’t know. I’m usually good at spotting April Fools gags. But back five or so years ago, EGM totally got me. An article in their magazine said that anyone who pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would get a disk containing The Wind Waker remade using TP’s graphics engine. I’m not gonna lie. I totally went to the local Gamestop and asked about it. Sigh. I like ‘toon Link, but why can’t this version exist, too?

A Little Bit on the Zelda Model Side: A good part of my teenage years was spent building Gundam models (this one being my favorite). But if I had this kit of Legend of Zelda models, I’d toss those giant robots aside. They look pretty simple - just a few pieces to snap together and a few coats of paint. But c’mon. It’s Zelda.

(Source: ebay.com)

A Little Bit On The Unofficial Zelda Side: By now, I’m sure you may have come across the definitive Legend of Zelda timeline provided by Nintendo. Well excuse me, princess, but Zac Gorman has one of his own.

(Source: idrawnintendo)