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More of the same, or is it? That was one question that popped into my mind as I sat down to play this game, hoping that I would be given a rich and new experience in the dungeons. The basic gameplay was the same, but the dungeons had been reworked to be much harder with tougher puzzles. The bosses were still the same, and some of them were hard enough to deal with, so for that I was pretty grateful. All of the rooms in all of the dungeons were changed just a little bit. It might be an extra enemy, or a different puzzle, but it was different. Most of them required you using your eyes to do all the looking and all that. I viewed this game as an old friend who had a few extra tricks up his sleeve for me. For that, I was ready.
The story hasn't changed one bit. You still have Link travelling through time, trying to stop the evil Gerudo King and sorcerer Ganondorf from obtaining the triforce and turning the entire world of Hyrule into a land of monsters. I am glad that nothing was changed because it would have been hard to imagine this aspect of the story any other conceivable way. For that, I applaud Nintendo.
Graphically, not a lot has changed for the masterpiece. The only thing they really did was clean up the grahpics and give them better texturing and a better look. For a game like this, you wouldn't dare change the art form because you would be taking away its soul. Mario All-Stars was a rare exception. Nintendo just decides to clean the game up a little bit before sending it off to the reception.
Controls were different, at first, but I quickly got the hang of it in no time. The only real problem I had was aiming the slingshot and bow, but those issues were so minor that they barely even affected me, so I paid little attention to them. Nintendo did a very admirable job of moving the controls from the N64 to the GCN. They are similar in many ways, but the button placement is very different and it was good to see them get it right.
The music is still the same ol' stuff that we all know and love. They didn't need to add anything here, and I will do the same, as well.
The gameplay dynamics haven't changed a bit and it really shows when you are playing this game. The game hasn't gotten worse, but it has actually gotten better by age, truly making it one of the five best games ever and a real tour de force and one of the few masterpieces of gaming from every end of the spectrum. The dungeons are trickier and they will give you several surprises, but they are managable and can be beaten. You don't get that experience very often these days, but you sure as hell savor it when you do. This is to you, old friend, thanks for the tricks and for the experience that you gave me once again.
-- Chris Vavra, PGNx Media
---- Mar 9, 2003
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