Thursday, May 30, 2013

No Advance Shop or Game Link in the Virtual Console Release of Oracle of Ages & Seasons

Three hours ago the Oracle games were released for the Virtual Console.

While there's still the general dilemma of a missing Nintendo account, which is why you shouldn't buy any games on Nintendo's eShops at all, with this release Nintendo really blew it.


1) No Game Link

The Game Link was a special feature in the original version of the games, which let you connect the two games without any passwords by using two GameBoy Color or Advance systems. Of course the passwords were probably easier to use, so no one really bothered with it. But on the 3DS they could have made it so that the other savegames are automatically recognized. All information is stored on the same drive. You would just select "Game Link" and the savegame from the other game, which you want to connect to. Very simple. I've already dealt with this idea in an earlier article:

Oracle of Secrets

On the 3DS Virtual Console everything Game Link related just does nothing. If you press A nothing happens. You can't talk to the blue snake at Vasu's shop or read the blue book there, which is somewhat confusing. What if someone tries to talk to the blue snake and then just assumes that the red snake also doesn't do anything? It's not even in the manual...

This is a missed chance. With an automated Game Link system the games would have been truly awesome. But so you have to use an ancient password system, which Nintendo even promotes as something truly great.


2) No Advance Shop

The 100 Rupee Advance Shops can't be entered. That way you can get the GBA Time Ring or the GBA Nature Ring and that way fail to complete your ring collection. For 100% completionists this is a real shame. Also, Nintendo edited the game to get rid of all the Game Link functionality. But they couldn't edit it to open the Advance Shops? That's disappointing.



Of course you can still get both rings using passwords. But I will deal with that in a separate post.



This is probably the most disappointing Zelda VC release yet... Nintendo always competes with free emulators here. Of course ROMs are illegal. But they easy to get and the Visual Boy Advance emulator is superior in so many ways... for example it lets you enter the Advance Shops. A simple thing, but still appreciated.

4 comments:

K2L said...

Nintendo probably thinks we're stupid. No wonder why their 3DS and Wii U sales are pathetic.

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