The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons

Preface:
This one is the first - criticisms absolutely and completely welcome. I also wrote this about a week after completion, so everything wasn't fresh. In the future, I intend to take notes during gameplay, as I've started for current games. Also, these are the rating crieteria I've landed on, any suggestions for changes are welcome!

Gameplay 15
Graphics 20+ (For a game using 4 colors to a pallet, I mean, WOW)
Audio 15
Ingenuity 15 (for a classic Zelda game, it was great)
Tilt 20
Total: 80+: Definitely a classic.


You can't play just one. The two together are amazing, and by design 2 parts of one whole game, where you choose your start point. The two games start out with the Triforce thrusting link into either the worlds of Labrynna or Holodrum, the lands of ages and seasons, respectively. Personally, I liked Holodrum more - the seasonal manipulation was a ton of fun.

You encounter one of the oracles in each game, and of course, some magical evil villain comes to capture them. In ages, the villain - Veran, heads on back in time after possessing Nayru, the oracle of ages, and proceeds to mess things up, with time, of course. They ignore the bajillion time paradoxes that come into play, which was something I appreciated - Zelda isn't a sci-fi game, and too much explanation would have just been... well, too much. Like most Zelda games, you complete numerous dungeons and collect items. OoA had some really snazzy items, too. The switch hook was wonderfully innovative, if not quickly reduced to nothing more than a switch-block mover. As you proceed through the game, your ability to head through time progresses from only on top of time traveling portals, to only from the past to the present, to moving freely. In addition to the two entire world maps of both the past and present, there is a huge undersea are present in both the past and present, which was really cool. The seed shooter in this game, being an aimed rebounding weapon akin to yoshi's eggs was really cool, and lent itself to some really rich bossfights, especially the 8th dungeon boss. As a whole, the bosses were pretty awesome in this game, and everything really showed off what the GBC could do - it was beautiful for a 4 colors to a pallet game. In addition to some complex midgame showdowns with Veran, the final battle with the shmuck was really fun. Really having to utilize your entire inventory was something sorely missing in some other top-down zelda games.(I'm looking at you, ALttP)
One of the standouts as pretty funny in this game is some of the goron villiage antics - you spend a lot of time taking things from the future to give them to the past, so they exist in the future. You eventually give a goron some food, who gives you his prized vase, passed down for generations - which you also give to his ancestors, to pass down for generations. The final area was a hair bland, which was a disappointment - a stairway puzzle riddled with wizrobes, and irritation, but no real challenge.
Additionally, a black tower is constructed throughout the game in both the past, and consequently, the present - however, you are unable to actually ever enter it in the present, which seemed both strange and disappointing.

And then there was seasons. When you finish one game, you begin the other, and proceed to transfer "secrets" or game-specific codes that only work for your game between the two. They allow you to unlock hidden items, and huge expansions to your seed carrying and bomb carrying. The biggoron's sword was a cool concept, but functionally stupid in the game - once you obtained the master sword, there was no reason to use it. The presence of the mirror shield was also annoying, as it didn't actually reflect any projectiles. Just absorbed em. As a whole though, seasons was definitely my favorite between the two. You begin the game with minimal control over the seasons, slowly building up to changing them at will. The tower of seasons was plummeted underground by the game's villain, Onox. So you end up going to an underground world, subrosia, which was a ton of fun. The residents are just the right amount of kooky, and occasionally, thieves. Not as annoying as the tokays from ages, either. Those guys pissed me off. That small story section made you re-obtain each of your items obtained up to that point, stolen by the tokay. Anyhow. Seasons. The dungeon design in this game was extraordinary, and a huge throwback - the first dungeons boss was a much more muscular Aquemos. Complete with 3 bullets from his horn. Plus ram attacks, horray! There are numerous old men giving cryptic hints, and a few hidden ruppee rooms, hidden in the "eye" of maps. It was a totally neat addition. Many of the bosses are souped up throwbacks to the original zelda, including a gelatinous manhandla. That was a fun one. There was also a battle with floorface, from link's awakening. Totally neat.
The magical boomerang was one of the shining factors this time around - a remote control, long range boomerang. It really shined with some puzzles, especially in the heroes cave, the linked game secret dungeon. The final boss battle in this one, likely attributed to my high power sword, was more of a disappointment. Or at least, the Onox battle. However, the side scroll fight with the giant onox-dragon was a great effort, and really megamanesque, complete with hand climbing to stab... you guessed it, a jewel on his head. Thanks capcom, for recycling. Still awesome, though.

And one of the points the link system shines - after complete both games, you go to a final dungeon, to rescue zelda, of course, and slay the witches from OoT, Twinrova. After slaying them, they revive a mindless Gannon, who puts up a pretty good fight, and does some crazy stuff for a Zelda game. As a whole, the final battle and dungeon were a ton of fun - one of the maze path puzzles really stumped the crap out of me.

Between the two, the music was pretty good. Seasons again, shined here, but ages had some great stuff, too. Exactly what you'd expect in a zelda game. Not pushing the limits on the GBC by any means, but definitely thematic and well suited.


I hadn't played these two games in nearly a decade, and they definitely hold up today as classics. If anyone is looking for some classic Zelda action, the answer is right here. These games were spectacular, with few flaws to speak of, and really showed that capcom could handle a huge name Nintendo franchise.
In summary - play them. Now.

Whoa, man, like, blogging.

So I have an account just about everywhere now, except for crappy foreign sites I don't care about.

I've decided to use this to host reviews I plan to continue writing, and hopefully use to shamelessly plug for a blogging job. Hopefully that will work once I end up actually getting better at doing this whole reviewing thing.

I'm going for reviews from old consoles to new PC and console games, mostly PC right now, as I'm all out of brand new gen consoles, but not for too long. Frickin' God of War 3 and Kingdom Hearts 3 on PS3.

Here's a partial list of games I've recently completed, excluding the review I'm about to post after this entry:
God of war
Silent hill 2-4
mario and luigi - superstar saga
Megaman X 1-6 (still working on 6, and I'll be reviewing the whole collection)
EVO
Patapon 2
Loco Roco 1 and 2
Crush (finally!)
Half life 2, also ep 1 and 2


So enjoy, comment, subscribe. Plugging, You get it. Make me look good.