Stop your whining! I know you love it as much as I do. As indicated by all the recent articles, it’s top list fever this week! But I promise, this is the last list you’ll be seeing… this week. From me. Maybe.
Villains come in all shapes and sizes, but the greatest ones aren’t necessarily the most badass of them all. It’s the antagonists who somehow found their ways into our memories that stand out among the rest. Like it or not, here’s my top 7 villains of video games. It’s spoilerific!
I know what you’re thinking. How can you kill someone that’s not real? Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, my answer is that it’s just a game in itself, and you’re a pathetic loser. Good to know you only thought the question, right?
One of the best parts of any game experience is the different gadgets and weapons you get to play with along the way. Perhaps no franchise better embodies this idea than the Legend of Zelda series; each dungeon presents a new treasure to uncover and subsequently use to either defeat the boss or reach your next challenge. Since my love for this series is already well documented, we can skip past the praise-lavishing and get straight to the good stuff: my list, in no particular order, of some of the best Zelda weapons and gadgets of all time. I’ll try and forgo some of the more iconic choices, i.e. the Master Sword, on the assumption that you and I both know that the Master Sword owns you.
In honor of Link doing his thing over at the GameFAQs battle today (kicking popular ass, of course), and iPhones being moderately hip, let’s all enjoy a soothing iPhone rendition of The Legend of Zelda theme. Not only does Smule’s app—(aptly titled ‘Ocarina’)—turn your iPhone into its namesake, it also allows you to listen to songs being played on it in real time, worldwide. I’ll be holding off for an iPhone banjo, but you can download Ocarnia for 99 cents and get your own nerd-groove on.
I missed this one on April Fools’ Day, too busy being Rickroll’d by every other site on the web, but IGN’s live action Zelda trailer is worth watching beyond its initial “gotcha!” holiday victory. For a fake, it’s surprisingly high quality, and represents pretty much what every Zelda fan would sell their left, sword-swingin’ arm to get a real taste of–aside from Ganon’s getup, which is probably the funniest part of the entire joke.
It’s been said many times before: video game movies suck. But WHY do they suck? It’s not like there’s no material to work with; it’s usually because a game is popular that a movie is made. While they may fail to satisfy gamers, this isn’t the main reason why these movies fail.
No, this isn’t another internet “top 5″ list. That would imply music is quantitative, and it’s not. But still, how do you choose the best in-game music, when really it can’t all be compared? It’s an apples-to-oranges situation. You may think, “Well, it’s music, and it’s in a game. So, yes, stupid, it can be compared.” But if you do that, you miss the entire point of music not being quantifiable. To be the best in-game music it has to be moving, memorable, and meaningful…and not all good game music has those qualities.