Nintendo taking Zelda online for another missed opportunity.
The more I read about the multiplayer game in the upcoming Nintendo DS game Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the more confirmed my initial impression of “total ripoff” is.
You see, back in 2003, Nintendo popped out a little game with Namco called Pac-Man Vs. The game did pretty well in the reviews, was bundled with a couple of different Namco games (on a separate disc), namely i-Ninja, Pac Man World 2, and R: Racing Evolution, none of which were particularly stellar titles. Or it was available on its own for 20 bucks. Nowadays, you can find the disc all over the place for ten bucks or less. I’ve considered picking it up, in fact, but as with Crystal Chronicles, the logistics of multiplayer would be prohibitive.
It was a Pac-Man game that was intended to be played multiplayer, with up to four people, all of whom used Game Boy Advances linked up to their Gamecube. The first player was Pac-Man, and the others played three of the four monsters in the maze pursuing him. Pac-Man got the whole maze on his handheld screen, the other three only got a short distance around their monster, so were encouraged to shout things like, “I found him, he’s in this corner”. Sound familiar?
This is basically the same game as the multiplayer game in Phantom Hourglass. Now, of course this is added-value, because it’s not the only game you’re getting for your 35 big ones. And this is online. But it’s really just Miyamoto’s favorite game, Pac-Man, all over again.
I don’t want to play Pac-Man online. I never have wanted to, and I don’t think anyone else does, with or without touch control.
What I do want to play online is Four Swords. The Gamecube game Four Swords Adventures was fantastic. Even two player, which was how I played it, was worth the extra effort of stringing together GBAs and cables to make it all work. I never got to play it four player, which I regret, and putting an episode of Four Swords on the DS and making it online makes more sense even than the single player Phantom Hourglass game itself. Better yet would be having Four Swords as the multiplayer game in Phantom Hourglass, but it seems in the end Nintendo’s missing another opportunity.
See also:
Aonuma and Kondo to join Miyamoto at GDC 2007
Wind Waker to Wii, Phantom Hourglass interacts?
Wii Oozing With Missed Opportunity
New Console, Old Tricks
-
Heckler
