Excellent Skyward Sword Cosplay!

Check out this excellent The Legend of Zelda cosplay by deviantART member Malindachan. 

Modelled on the Skyward Sword version of Link, every detail is spot-on! I especially like how that Link wig has turned out. 

Music Monday: Inside A House (Zelda)

Today's Music Monday track appears in several Zelda titles, although it has differed ever so slightly in some. 

As many of you will know by now (I harp on about it enough!), I am a huge fan of the Zelda series. Link's Awakening started off my love of gaming, and I've been a dedicated fan ever since.

So, as I have before, here is a Music Monday feature dedicated to a Zelda track. Now I could have gone for one of my all-time favourites, but I thought I'd go for a different one this time. I hope you all enjoy "Inside A House." Let me know what you think in the comments!

My Top 15 Zelda Songs

To all who know me well, The Legend of Zelda series is by far my favourite game series. Link's Awakening happened to be one of the first games I actually remember when I first started to get into gaming as a child. Ever since then, I've played through almost every title, sat through (and enjoyed) the Zelda 25th Anniversary concert, read the mangas, laughed through the so bad-it's-sort-of-good cartoon series, and much more. 


I've always loved the music in Zelda games, so join me as I count down my top ten favourite Zelda tunes in the series so far. 


15. Knight's Academy (Skyward Sword)
Like many Zelda tunes, especially at the beginning of the game, Knight's Academy from Skyward Sword is a cheery one. I cannot help but smile when I hear this!




14. Deku Palace (Majora's Mask)
I love the stomping sound to this one, plus I love Deku's, so this one is a winner!




13. Ballad of the Goddess (Skyward Sword)
Skyward Sword's orchestral score is a brilliant accompaniment to the game. Sweeping, adventurous and bold...the "Ballad of the Goddess" works perfectly!




12. Hyrule Field (Twilight Princess)
Whenever I hear this song, I always picture Link, atop his trusty steed Epona, as he gallops off into his next adventure. Good times.




11. Fairy Fountain Theme (Multiple Zelda Games)
There is no denying that the music in the Zelda series often carries a lot of beauty. The Fairy Fountain theme is definitely an example of this. 




10. Main Theme (Multiple Zelda games)
No "favourite Zelda tunes" list is complete without one of the most famous of them all-the main Zelda theme. Used in so many of the games in the series, this is such an adventurous, sweeping sounding piece. Go Link!




9. Zelda's Lullaby (Multiple Zelda games)
Zelda's Lullaby is a beautiful, peaceful and harmonious sounding piece that brings back a lot of fond memories of playing through the Zelda series.




8. Saria's Song / Lost Woods (Ocarina of Time)
This one never fails to put a smile on my face. It's so upbeat, and definitely one of the more memorable of Zelda tunes.




7. Dark World (A Link to the Past)
Another fan favourite, the Dark World theme is definitely worth a listen!






6. Title Screen (Wind Waker)
Wind Waker's main theme has a sort of Celtic sound to it, which works well with look and feel of the game. 




5. Ballad of the Wind Fish (Link's Awakening)
We first hear "Ballad of the Windfish" when island dweller Marin is singing it near the Rooster weathervane. However, the majesty of this track is realised fully at the end of the game (spoilers!) when Link awakens the Windfish by playing the ballad with the full set of instruments. 




4. Song of Storms (Ocarina of Time)
Anyone who has ever played Ocarina of Time may remember the first time they encounter the music man inside of the Windmill who is playing "Song of Storms". It's a memorable tune!




3. Dragon Roost Island (Wind Waker)
I love the music in Wind Waker, and this is my favourite from the game! A great piece that takes me back to all the traversing around the sea the game gets you doing.




2. Gerudo Valley (Ocarina of Time)
I am sure that many of you Zelda fans agree with me when I say that Gerudo Valley is definitely one of the most loved tracks in the Zelda series. Just listen to this, it's a great one!




1. Tal Tal Heights (Link's Awakening)
Of course, my favourite Zelda track had to come from my favourite (and first played) Zelda game! I never forget the excitement I felt when walking up the steps on the way to entering the Wind Fish's egg. This music has stuck with me ever since!

Check Out This Link Figure!

Comic's Alliance have posted up some shots of this brilliant Link figure, which is due to be released this October. 


Based on The Legend of Zelda's hero, toy manufacturer Max Factory have based their figure on the style of Link in the latest Zelda instalment, Skyward Sword. The figure includes a Master Sword, sword sheath, Link's ever-so-familiar Hylian Shield, and some plastic clip on pieces which simulate sword slashes. The figure also comes equipped with another face for different expressions. 


The figure will be available to buy in Japan for ¥3,800, or $48 in North America. Hopefully this will be coming to the UK! I'd love to pick up one of these!

NintyFans '8-Bit Heroes' Contest Details Announced

My deviantART Nintendo art group, NintyFans is now running a competition on it's page for all our members to participate in.


The contest is called "8-Bit Heroes" and the aim is to create a piece of art that celebrates the retro days of Nintendo. This means fans of the older consoles, such as the Game Boy, Nes, SNES etc should have plenty to think about here!


For those who decide to enter this, you should try to create an entry that somehow celebrates/displays these retro days of Nintendo. We want you to give your favourite Nintendo character a retro theme, for example.


You can even give one of the more recent Nintendo games a retro overhaul. Eg. fancy seeing Girahim from Skyward Sword back in the old days of pixels and chiptune music? 


There are plenty of prizes up for grabs (although I would love more of you to donate prizes, so please get in touch if you're interested). 


More details can be found on the NintyFans page. Good luck, and enjoy!

Art Feature: gwendybee

Check out these two pieces of Zelda fan-art created by deviantART user gwendybee. 

This artist took inspiration from the latest Zelda title, Skyward Sword for the Wii. Here you can see Zelda looking graceful in her Skyloft get-up, whilst Link's doing a perfect "death glare" expression. 

Thinking of Him

Fighting For Her

New Zelda Game in the Works

It looks like another Zelda game is in the works already. Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma confirmed the new game in the new Hyrule Historia book, but did not confirm if the game will be for the upcoming Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS. 


Official Nintendo Magazine published this quote from Aonuma: "The long sailing time of creating Skyward Sword, a game to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series, has just come to an end. The voices of those who've played it from around the world reach us. We hear their admiration, comments and their criticism too. All those voices become energy for the next voyage. Well, to tell the truth, we've already set sail in a new voyage."


No other details have been announced as of yet, but we do know that it will not be a follow on from Skyward Sword, which Aonuma has confirmed is a stand-alone adventure which starts off the complex Zelda timeline. 

New Skyward Sword Manga Emerges

There are several Japanese Zelda manga's available to read (personally, the Ocarina of Time manga's are some of the best), and now there's a brand new one to peruse.

Based on the series most recent addition, Skyward Sword, the first ten pages of the Skyward Sword manga has been translated from Japanese to English, and scanned over at GlitterBerri. The site promises that they will continue to translate and scan the rest of the manga, so keep checking back for a new page!

Click here to download the Skyward Sword manga at Glitterberri.

Nintendo To Patch Bugged Skyward Sword Saves

It seems a there have been quite a few bugs in major releases as of late (I'm looking at you, Skyrim), and Nintendo's latest Zelda title, Skyward Sword is part of this crowd also. 

Players had reported that a bug was present in Skyward Sword that prevented the game from being saved properly. Frustratingly, this meant that many players experienced ruined save files, and were unable to progress further in Skyward Sword. 

The good news is that Nintendo are aware of this issue, and have set up a webpage that gives tips on how to avoid this issue. Be aware that this page is completely in Japanese, so get your Google translator working on it if you're unable to read Japanese fluently. If these tips do not work however, Nintendo is offering to fix your corrupted save file for you. Fans can either send in their SD card or Wii console to Nintendo, where they will patch up the issue then send it straight back to you in around a week. However, with Christmas just around the corner, it is likely to take a bit longer than this at the moment. 

Nintendo are currently working on a downloadable programme to patch the save file, and Nintendo Japan's website will announce it's release as soon as it is ready. This seems all well and good for Japanese players, but fingers crossed us over in Europe will be getting some help too. 

Perfect Scores for Skyward Sword!

Skyward Sword is due out on the 18th November, but reviews have started trickling in. Thankfully for Zelda fans, they've been really positive. In fact, Skyward Sword is being billed as the best game in The Legend of Zelda series. I managed to grab a go at the demo when I was covering the MCM Expo, and I'm pleased to say that the praise has most definitely been justified. 


Games website IGN have awarded The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword an amazing 10/10.  They state that it is "the greatest Zelda game ever created and one of the finest video game accomplishments of the past 10 years." 


Edge Magazine and The Guardian also gave it a perfect 10/10. Official Nintendo Magazine gave it a respectable 98%, which is their highest review score ever, beating the previous highest rated Zelda game, Ocarina of Time.  


A few gamers felt that Skyward Sword justified a slightly lower 8/10 rating, but this is still an excellent score. With so many big name reviewers holding the game in the highest regard, it is hard not to get excited.

Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses Tour Begins in Dallas

Today the first date of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses world tour was announced. The tour will kick off in Dallas, America on the 10th January 2012, whilst the rest of the dates will be announced in 2012. 


The Zelda world tour follows on from the positively received Zelda Symphony Concerts which took place in October 2011. Some of you may remember that I was lucky enough to grab tickets for the London date, which you can read about in my review and photo posts. 


The world tour will feature a four-part symphony, two of which were heard in last month The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony concert. The world tour will feature Eimear Noone as the conductor once again, whilst Nintendo have teamed up with John-Paul Productions for the arrangement of the shows. The concerts will feature a variety of music from the classic Zelda games, as well as the newest title, Skyward Sword.


Being English, I'm hoping that the world tour makes it's way to the UK once again. We'll just have to wait and see.

Hands On: Zelda-Skyward Sword

I helped to cover the Mcm Expo for MCM Buzz on the 29th October. Thankfully, most of this responsibility sat in the video games section of the convention, and I was pleased to play a few of the games that were demoing during the weekend.


One game that I was anticipating greatly (and queued up for a good deal of time for) was The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.


Please go through to this link to check out my review of my time on the demo!

Hands on: The Legend of Zelda-Skyward Sword

Zelda Symphony Concert: Review

The third and final date in the 2011 Zelda Symphony concerts hit London on the 25th October, and I was fortunate enough to attend.

Mingling in the Foyer

Myself in the foyer.

Each level of the Hammersmith Apollo was lined with official Zelda artwork for each game in the series. Underneath each framed piece was a copy of respective game, combined with the Nintendo console for which the game played on. 

Playing a bit of the Skyward Sword demo.

Also dotted around was several large television screens in which fans could play a demo of the upcoming Skyward Sword. The graphics were impressive, and the game plays fluidly. It appeared that those fans who tested out the game were rather impressed with what Nintendo had to offer this time around also, which bodes well for the game upon release.

An example of the Zelda display cases.

As with most concerts, the merchandise, comprising of merely posters or a choice of two t-shirts was rather overpriced, therefore I made a beeline for the Skyward Sword and Nintendo time line instead. 

The Symphony Concert Review

The concert spanned 25 years of the popular The Legend of Zelda series, covering familiar tracks from the majority of games in the series. A huge emphasis was put on A Link To The Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess in particular.

The concert opened with a brief introduction from Eiji Aonuma, with the help from a Japanese translator. Aonuma mentioned that this is the third and final concert to commemorate the games 25th anniversary, apologised for the absence of Shigeru Miyamoto, and then introduced the composer (Eimear Noone) and The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. 

With pleasantries out of the way, the orchestra opens the evening with the Hyrule Castle Theme, a rousing, majestic song, that while rather short in length, made for a superb opening. The end of this opening track signalled this London shows special guest presenter onto stage-Robin William's daughter, Zelda Williams. Whilst clearly suffering from a bout of nerves, Zelda Williams went on to become a great, cheerful host, who definitely shares the audiences love for the Zelda series (she got rather emotional in her closing speech). 

The music begins once again, first with the ever-so-familiar Princess Zelda's Theme, which brought back a lot of great memories of playing through the Zelda series. The orchestral arrangement was not only note perfect, but performed with so much passion too. For me, the best song of the night has got to be this next track, The Wind Waker Symphonic Movement. This medley combines ten of the songs from Wind Waker into one movement, and, I am not ashamed to say, it actually made me feel rather emotional (Wind Waker was the second Zelda game I played to completion, and it still holds a lot of great memories for myself). This movement is set to clips of Wind Waker in chronological order, and the music told the story of the game from the beginning until the end. The happy, folk-like music really emphasises the passion, love and enjoyment that so many fans have had whilst playing Zelda.

And so it begins...

The Ocarina Melody Suite served as an introduction into the different parts of the orchestra. Each section played a snippet of one of the ocarina songs in the game, and ended with the whole orchestra joining in together in a quick tune full of the ocarina melodies. The Boss Battle Medley followed afterwards, which, accompanied by a compilation of boss battles on the big screen provided one of the most enjoyable moments of the evening. The Kakariko Village theme from Twilight Princess came along next, bringing sweeping but rather tranquil melodies into the Hammersmith Apollo. 

The medleys were definitely some of the highlights of the evening, with The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Medley helping to prove this. This medley combined five songs from A Link To The Past, Spirit Tracks, Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker. Personally, I was pleased to hear that Dragon Roost Island from Wind Waker had made it into this line up (a personal favourite). 

No Zelda celebration would be complete without some focus on Link's long-running nemesis, Ganon/Ganondorf. Ganondorf's Theme makes an entry into the setlist straight after the 25th Anniversary Medley is finished, and highlights Ganondorf's transformation into Ganon, with the help of specially selected game clips. This song is intense and riveting, and definitely is a welcome addition into this evenings ensemble. With Ganondorf's Theme checked off the list, it seems right to include Gerudo Valley, arguably one of the Zelda series most loved themes, into the set list. This version of Gerudo Valley swaps the spanish sounding guitars for a sweeping violin-heavy orchestra, which seems to only heighten the magnificence and boldness of the song.

Me holding the excellent concert booklet.

Next up was another fan favourite, Hyrule Field, a grand and cheerful song which definitely was one of the best songs in the concert. Another stand out moment for myself came when Great Fairy's Fountain Theme played. This is definitely a memorable Zelda track, and I am sure many Zelda fans agree with me that it is also one of the best. This performance mainly focused on two harps, leaving this feeling a little more personal and relaxing than the previous intense Ganondorf theme. I closed my eyes throughout a lot of this track, as it seemed to heighten the magical feel that was being conveyed. Brilliant stuff.

The concert closed with two grand movements, the Twilight Princess Symphonic Movement and The Legend of Zelda Main Theme Medley. The former, with help from the video clips, moved the audience through the entire Twilight Princess story. The Title Screen section at the very beginning of this song actually gave me goosebumps-especially when Wolf Link is howling at the moon in the video above the orchestra. The latter highlights the original Zelda theme which so many of us know and love by now. It made for a fitting end to the set-list.

The complete set-list.

Or so we thought. As soon as this "final" track ended, the composer introduces us to the one and only Koji Kondo, the man behind so much of the Zelda music over the past twenty-five years. Koji Kondo then performs "Grandma's Song" from Wind Waker, a beautifully played piece on the piano. After finishing this, Koji briefly thanks all of the fans for their support, before leaving the stage. Before the end is signalled, Aonuma walks back on stage to offer his appreciation, and to provide some information on the latest Zelda game, Skyward Sword. It was a shame that the concert did not include some tracks from my all-time favourite Zelda game, Link's Awakening, but there was so much on offer here that I did not leave the venue disappointed.

Aonuma highlights the importance of music in the Zelda games, and states that the "songs link with memories" which plays an crucial part in the new Skyward Sword gameplay. This upcoming game will see players moving their bodies to control the game, with Aonuma adding that different songs will hold different body movements. Aonuma says that "songs resonate with  the movement of the body, so when you hear it, you'll remember the moves."

One of the great pieces of art in the concert booklet. 

Aonuma then plugs the special edition release of Skyward Sword, and announces to a rather excited crowd that the CD packaged in with this special edition will be the recording of the London Symphony concert. With Skyward Sword plugged, and thank you's shared, there is only one more thing left that Aonuma has to announce-the final secret track-the Skyward Sword theme. Aonuma exits with his translator at this point, leaving the audience to experience the latest theme, and to view the Skyward Sword clips on show.

After an impressive standing ovation, the concert is over, and what a good experience it has been too. With a four-symphony world tour announced for next year, there is no doubt that I will be attending once again. I cannot wait. 

Skyward Sword "Weapon Upgrades" Trailer

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword hits stores in November, and plenty of details have already been released, as well as some brief trailers showing off the games new style. The latest trailer showcases the new weapon upgrade system, and you know what? It looks pretty damn good.

The trailer shows Link collecting a few items from each enemy he defeats-an amber relic, ornamental skull, monster claw and a jelly blob. Collecting these pick-ups can be combined to upgrade Link's weapons, as shown in the trailer where Link, after taking a glorious looking ride on his bird, enters a store in Skyloft to upgrade his wooden shield. 

This new weapon upgrade system adds a new element of gameplay to the series, which is great, as a little bit of refreshment in a well-established series is not a bad thing every now and then. Miyamoto also recently hinted in a press conference that Skyward Sword could be up to "100 hours long", which I am sure many Zelda fans will be pleased about.

You can view the trailer below:

Being a huge Zelda fan ever since Link's Awakening, I am proudly anticipating my Special Edition copy of Skyward Sword coming through my letterbox. This trailer only further adds to my excitement, and I am sure many Zelda fans feel the same way.

How do you feel about this new weapon system? Let me know in the comments section!

The Latest Zelda News

Zelda fans, rejoice! It appears that Nintendo's favourite green-capped hero will not be taking a hiatus any time soon. The re-release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 3DS has been out just over a month now, and now Nintendo have (finally) put their Zelda energy into celebrating Zelda's 25th anniversary which occurred a few months ago. As well as this, a new trailer has been revealed at Comic Con for the next Zelda title, Skyward Sword. Read on for more info!

The First 25th Anniversary Celebrations Are Here!

A series of Legend of Zelda: 25th anniversary symphony concerts will be taking place, with the first commencing in Los Angeles in October of this year. A full tour is scheduled to continue sometime at the beginning of 2012. Fans who caught the introduction to the Nintendo section of E3 should expect the concerts to sound just like this. Nintendo have released an official video to confirm the news, and this can be viewed below:

More details can also be found at the Zelda Symphony website.

Also, check out this video celebrating this brilliant series:

New Skyward Sword trailer released!

Released at this week's Comic Con in San Diego, the new trailer for Skyward Sword confirms the speculation that Link's old buddies, the Gorons will be making a return in this title. Although most of the action has been seen before in the trailer revealed at E3, this new trailer displays a bit more of the flying sequences on the birds around the new fictional Zelda world, Skyloft. Also shown at a greater length is the action sequences, with a new spider boss being briefly shown.

The game promises for a greater sense of control via the motion-control WiiMote, which is great to hear, as although Twilight Princess was excellent, the controls on the Wii versions were at times a little clunky. Skyward Sword will have a lot of flying sequences-another refreshing aspect for the series, and Zelda this time around will not be a Princess. 

You can watch the new trailer below:

Are you excited about the 25th Anniversary, and are you anticipating Skyward Sword? Leave your opinions in the comment section below!