We’re here again taking a look back at the Nintendo World 2011 Japan only 3DS event. This time, we take a look at Danny’s impressions of a demo version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. He talks booth layouts, wait times, and of course what he thought about the game. We hope you enjoy this blast from the past. Nintendo World 2011 ran during a three day weekend in Japan from January 8 to January 10, 2011.
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Zelda. The meat and potatoes of Nintendo franchises. Ocarina of Time is one of my favorite games of all time. When Nintendo re-releases the title, I buy it. I swear, I have nearly every release of Ocarina of Time. Three copies on the N64 (1 gold US, 1 gray US, and one gray Japanese cart), Ocarina of Time/Master Quest disc on the GCN, the Zelda Collector's disc on the GCN, and of course the Virtual Console release on the Wii. Nintendo relies on suckers such as myself to buy these re-releases time and time again. With the release of the game on the 3DS, this is the first time Nintendo will be giving us something extra in the game since the Master Quest release back in 2003. While there might not be too much extra in terms of new content (at least nothing is confirmed yet), seeing one of my favorite games completely remade and brought into 3D is an exciting prospect and one of the main reasons I made the trek to Nintendo World 2011.
The Ocarina of Time booth at Nintendo World was by far one of the most popular. I think the shortest wait time I saw for the game was 90 minutes. While some of the other big games such as Nintendogs + Cats, Kid Icarus, and Resident Evil had two "booths," for some odd reason, Nintendo limited Ocarina of Time to just one small section. Whoever planned this out should have actually used their brain. Of course Ocarina of Time is going to get a lot of traffic! If they were to have had two areas to play the game, the wait times could have been drastically reduced. As it was, myself and many other gamers had to wait around two hours to get a chance to play. Let me tell you, two hours of waiting seemed like an eternity. Thank God the Nintendo Music Live stage show was going on at the time so I had some cool live Nintendo music to listen to.
After the excruciating wait, I finally got my hands on Ocarina of Time in 3D. There were three different levels in the five minute demo I could choose, but I opted for the Kokiri Forest area. Let me start off by first saying that the 3D effects in OoT are probably some of the best that I saw on the show floor. Everything was just smooth and very well done. The upgraded visuals look pretty fantastic in the game as well. All of the characters and areas have been spruced up significantly and look a lot better than they did with the original Nintendo 64 release.
The controls are pretty straight forward and easy to get used to if you've played a Zelda game in the past. I really like the slide pad on the 3DS and it feels pretty comfortable to move Link around with. One of the new control aspects introduced in this new iteration is while in first person view, you can move around the 3DS unit to control the camera. It's completely optional, as you can of course use the slide pad to move it around as well. Honestly, I really was not too terribly impressed with it. I will cut Nintendo some slack on this, though, as I was tethered to a demo kiosk and had somewhat limited range of movement. It's a cool idea, but I honestly don't see a practical use for it. You can also use it when aiming projectiles, such as the slingshot, but I don't see how this method will work faster and move efficiently than the traditional method. Also, if you are trying to move the camera in this method, it can have an effect on the 3D, causing it to blur if you hold it at an angle. Again, I think that if the unit was not tethered down, this would not have been as much of a problem.
There really was not a lot to do in Kokiri Forest. I wandered around, throwing rocks and cutting down plants and signs with the sword. In the demo, you start out with the sword, but you can still go through the boulder "maze" to get the same exact sword that you are carrying. As I mentioned, the 3D effects in OoT are probably some of the best on the show floor. Aside from the issues that you can potentially have while moving the system around to control the camera, I never had any other issues. The 3D most definitely ads depth to the experience and has the ability to get you more immersed into the world.
Ocarina of Time in 3D is pretty solid. Of course, I wanted to play more, but with the show only being around seven hours long each day, I did not want to spend four hours standing in line for merely ten minutes of game play. It's a pity that it's not going to be a launch title in Japan, as this is the title that I am looking forward to the most.
- Danny Bivens
January 10, 2011
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