The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening started out as an idea for a modified version of A Link to the Past for the Game Boy. In the end though, that never came together. Link’s Awakening was ultimately born from, as Game Informer puts it, “an unsanctioned after-hours passion project for members of the Link to the Past team.”
Director Takashi Tezuka told the site:
“The main programmer wanted to challenge himself to create a Zelda experience on a portable system to see what he could do, and I was into the idea. We just had a passion to try and do something interesting. We didn’t really have permission to do it necessarily. We were just playing around.”
“Once we got it to a certain level of creation and completion that we wanted to show, then we took it to the company and got permission to continue developing it. But initially it was just a little pet project of ours. Because we started it that way – just making a game we wanted to make – it may defy Zelda conventions. It might have interesting characters and situations we may not have had otherwise.”
During an Iwata Asks discussion for Phantom Hourglass, Tezuka made a comment about how the experience of creating Link’s Awakening was similar to “making a parody of The Legend of Zelda.” He clarified these comments with Game Informer, in which he said:
“When we say parody, I’m not sure where that word comes from because maybe there are translation issues. With Zelda games we usually plan them out, every detail is considered. With Link’s Awakening, we were working on that after our other work was done. Kind of like a club of people who loved Zelda and got together to make it. It has a different feeling for that reason.”
A few months ago, it was looking like The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth wouldn’t be on Nintendo platforms. That still holds true for New 3DS, but it seems that the Rebirth expansion will be on Wii U after all.
Nicalis’ Tyrone Rodriguez just sent out several tweets stating that The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth is wrapping up on consoles, and the goal is to have it released next month in both North America and Europe. The subsequent message listed Wii U as one of the included platforms.
The tweets are as follows:
Final submissions for The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth on console are end of next week. Hope to have it out next month NA+EU
— Tyrone Rodriguez (@tyronerodriguez) March 8, 2016
PS4, Wii U and Xbox One
— Tyrone Rodriguez (@tyronerodriguez) March 8, 2016
Daily Runs between console and PC Afterbirth will be the same exact seeds
— Tyrone Rodriguez (@tyronerodriguez) March 8, 2016
Leaderboards between console/PC Afterbirth can't be shared because different 1st parties. Ask @eur0pa_ to make a new https://t.co/TNXsiz96ui
— Tyrone Rodriguez (@tyronerodriguez) March 8, 2016
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth is the biggest expansion for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. You can see what it looks like in a previous trailer below.
We haven’t heard much about AcroStorm in recent months. Despite that, the project is still in the works, and Blue Comet Games passed along some new screenshots to show off its latest efforts. There’s still nothing in the way of a release date, but the images below will hopefully tide us over a bit longer.
Amazon and GameStop have opened up pre-orders for several titles featured in last week’s Nintendo Direct. The full lineup is below.
Amazon (20% off with Prime)
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Mario & Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games
Kirby: Planet Robobot
Disney Art Academy
GameStop
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Kirby: Planet Robobot
Disney Art Academy
Over the past couple of weeks, Witch Beam has shared a few developer diaries for Assault Android Cactus. Three of these can be seen below.
Another video from GameXplain contains 7 minutes of footage from Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Take a look at it below.
Witch & Hero II is coming to the North American and European 3DS eShops soon. Circle Entertainment is preparing for the release with a new story introduction, which you can find below.
Nintendo has put out another Yo-kai Watch commercial showing how the collectible medals can be used with the actual game. Check it out below.
Nintendo has gone live with a new North American Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 3DS commercial. View it below.
Super Mario Maker hasn’t received too many discounts since launching last September, but it’s currently on sale over at Amazon. You can save $13 on the title bringing it down to $47. Place an order here if interested.
