This is one of two Zelda games that were made for the Game Boy Colour. In this game Link finds himself in the land of Labrynna where time itself has been messed up by an evil force. As such, Link must go through various dungeons to collect magical artifacts which will help to restore things.

This may sound like it’s a rather run of the mill Zelda game, and it really is. It borrows a lot from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and is kind of like a rather inferior version of it; several characters from that game return and the idea of visiting the same areas in two different time zones is also reused. Having said that, I do enjoy the time travel features and I am pleased that it is played around with a little more than they had done before.

I think the biggest problem this game has is the fact that you often have to do things that are really tedious. At one point you have to spend ages making your way around the maze-like Goron city and you have to keep taking part in a particularly un-fun Gordon dancing game too. I was stuck at one point because the names of items are not made very clear. The puzzles in the dungeons are rather unimaginative too: there is one puzzle where you walk across tiles and have to change their colour without touching the same tile twice, it takes a long time, it’s quite hard and it appears so many times.

Even the items you collect in this game are weird. In other games in the series, you get useful and interesting pieces of equipment which are fun to use and that make it possible to reach new areas of the map. In this games you get things such as the Cane of Somaria which magically makes blocks appear and does nothing else, Then there’s the Switch Hook, an item which, if you fire it at a diamond shaped block, it will make you switch places with it. You also get a Mermaid Suit, which Link puts on so that he can swim underwater, it gives him a mermaid tail and makes everyone think he is a mermaid (not a merman). While weird, I did find this last item quite funny though.

On the upside, this game was released at the same time as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and the two games can be linked together in order to unlock new items in both of them and also to add a nice extra part onto the end of the story. This is done through a password system where you’ll find a character in one game who will then give you a code to enter in the other game which will then bring you to a secret area or give you a secret item and I found this to be a very welcome and rewarding feature

But sadly, this has been the weakest in the Zelda series yet, though it still has its charms.

Rating: 7.9/10

This is one of two Zelda games that were made for the Game Boy Colour. In this game Link finds himself in the land of Holodrum where the seasons have been thrown into disarray by an evil force and the local oracle has been kidnapped. He then must travel through various dungeons in order to collect magical items which will restore order, as is often the case with the Zelda series.

While it may sound like a run of the mill instalment in the series, there’s actually a lot to this game which makes it both unique and very enjoyable. The changing seasons mean that you can be in one area and it’ll be a hot summer’s day and then walk to another and find the place covered in snow and eventually you get an item called the Rod of Seasons which allows you to change the seasons by yourself. Every time the seasons change, the map changes quite a bit too, which essentially means that there are four different versions of the world map!

By this point it had been established that Link sometimes rides a horse named Epona to make travelling around hazardous areas easier. While Epona does make an appearance in the opening sequence, in the actual game, you get to ride three rather more unique creatures: Ricky the Kangaroo (who wears a pair of boxing gloves, perfect for fighting enemies), Dimitri the Dodongo (who can swim and, rather humorously, eat enemies) and finally Moosh the Flying Bear. They do give the game a more childish feel, which might bother some people, but for me they’re very welcome additions.

Another big appeal of this game, for me, was the fact that Holodrum was a very interesting world full of memorable characters. There’s a village on a river, a lava-filled underground world inhabited with mysterious Subrosian people, an ancient abandoned castle (with amazing background music) and a huge desert, to name just a few of the interesting locations. In these wonderful places, you’ll meet the likes of a crew of skeleton pirates, the bumbling king of the Moblins and many other quirky individuals.

Furthermore, this game was released at the same time as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and the two games can be linked together in order to unlock new items in both of them and also to add a nice extra part onto the end of the story. This is done through a password system where you’ll find a character in one game who will then give you a code to enter in the other game which will then bring you to a secret area or give you a secret item and I found this to be a very welcome and rewarding feature.

On the whole, this is a charming and unique addition to the Zelda series. Rating: 9.1/10

Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii U has not been doing terribly well, sales-wise. I think this is quite a shame, because it seems to be awfully good to me, so I’ve decided to write a blog post explaining the upsides of the Wii U and why I think you should buy one.

While a lot of people complain that it’s overpriced, it is still about two hundred pounds cheaper than its competition (the Xbox One and the Playstation 4). Furthermore, while the improvements to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One over the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 seem to be rather minimal, the Wii U makes a lot of big changes and improvements from its predecessor (namely, the HD graphics, Miiverse integration and gamepad controller).

The gamepad in particular is a feature I am very fond of. I’ve read complains that very few games make any real use of it (even though Nintendo Land makes excellent use of it) but I think those complaints are missing the point of it. I don’t think the gamepad was designed with the idea of bringing an innovative new way of playing in the world of video games, but rather as an object of convenience. Often I’ll come downstairs, hoping to play a game, only to find that the television is already in use, meaning I will have to do something else instead. But with the Wii U, that does’t matter because you can just play the games on the gamepad without needing to see it on the television screen. Since I’ve gotten it, whenever I want to play one of my Xbox 360 games and the television is not free, I find myself wishing it had the gamepad, because it is just so incredibly useful.

And other than that, the console has quite an excellent selection of games. I can only personally vouch for Nintendo Land and New Super Luigi U (the two games I have so far) but there are an awful lot of games I am very keen to try: ZombiU, Rayman Legends, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Super Mario 3D World,  Pikmin 3, Sonic Lost Worlds, Lego City Undercover and Scribblenauts: Unlimited, to name a few. Plus, there’re so many good games on the way too, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. for Wii U, a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover, a Zelda and Dynasty Warriors crossover and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (I’ve preordered this and am very excited for it to arrive!). So I have to say, from my point of view, the Wii U is the most appealing of the current generation of home consoles.

Buy a Wii U right away!

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)