The Legend of Zelda

I've had a couple of game crusades in my life. My first was the Earthbound series, where I emulated and beat all three games in the series, including the rather crappy NES one. Then, my next campaign became beating Battletoads, which took me 2 1/2 weeks. I've had another idea for a gaming quest floating around in my head for sometime. Complete play-throughs of all the 3-D Legend of Zelda titles: Ocarina, Majora's, Windwaker, Twilight and Skyward.

I own the gamecube version, but this still looks awesome

Now despite being solidly in the Nintendo Camp, me and Zelda haven't actually played as much as you might think.I have played a lot of the games, but I have only finished four. I beat Link to the Past on GBA, Twilight Princess when it came out, Spirit tracks on loan from a friend and Link's Awakening as a 3DS download. That means, despite owning Ocarina of Time, Windwaker and Skyward sword, I have yet to beat them.

Now that just doesn't sit well with me. I'm simply not ok with this. And I want to beat these games. I am waiting until Majora's comes out on the Wii U before I attempt this. But I would also like to record me doing this, for internet uploading. But I have several obstacles to this. First, there is no way to record console footage without buying some hardware. Now, the price tag on these boxes aren't prohibitively high, but combined with the cost of a the Wii U and at least 1 game and we are talking over 500 dollars. Second, my home internet suck for uploading. I don't know why, but even mildly sized files can take hours to upload to youtube. And I don't know how to fix that.

So for now, all I can do is try to make plans on how I can accomplish this effort. I like the idea of uploading essentially a noobs playthrough of the Zelda games. But as yet, this dream sits beyond my reach.

Battletoads Playthrough guide (1-3)

Having recently discovered new video recording options with my emulator. My first thought was to make a guide for Battletoads. Its a wicked hard game and describing a walkthrough in words is really tough. So I am just gonna film myself going through the levels. I will have some notes embedded in the video, but most of the details will be in this post. I am emulating this and it will be done with save states. I have beaten the game in a straight run with no saving, but for filming convenience I won't be doing that this time.

Level 1:

Ok, first of, you have to be real quick to reach that portal in the beginning. It takes you to level three, which is really hard, so I would not take it; the first two levels are a good place to build up lives. You can pick up the walker's legs to use as bats, but its not worth as many points. If you have two players, one can throw the head and the other can hit it: toad baseball. If you jump on the dragons while they are on the ground, you can ride them. They breathe fire and kind of fly, but you receive no points for kills on their back, so not worth it. The dragons can kill you instantly if they grab you, so take caution.

Level 2:

This is the level you can build a lot of bonus lives if you are good. Hitting the birds multiple times after they die will get you lots of points and eventually a bonus life. This wasn't my best attempt, but you can usually get three. The ones with the long beaks can kill you instantly. The wrecking ball attack has an interesting mechanic. You can activate either by sitting still by the wall and attacking, or by holding still near an enemy and attacking.

Level 3:

Level three is the level where most players gave up. The speeder bike section is legendary. I got through it without dying, but that took me weeks of practice. Not much to say you can't see. The space invaders steal your health straight from your health bar; kill them and take it back. When jumping with the speeder bike, try not to move up or down, you can actually move beyond the screen and kill yourself. The portal at the end is really hard to hit and not worth it. I will be showing the best way of getting through this game, including which warps to hit. The last post will cover the levels I skipped if you really want to see them.