Zelda In My Pocket » Alter

Kakashi: The Search for Tingle 2.10 Released (non-Wi-Fi update)

Alter — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 23:17:37 +0000

Sorry it’s taken so long to get news to you regarding our game, Kakashi: The Search for Tingle. It’s been quite busy, but I can assure you that we’re still working on this project!

This post here is to announce that version 2.10 is now available in the Kakashi site’s downloads section as a normal update, rather than Wi-Fi only. I know it’s a small announcement, but it’s news nonetheless.

I hope you all enjoy this ‘very’ minor update, and I hope to be bringing you some real news shortly.

Alter

Link’s Awakening to be Available on the 3DS Virtual Console

Alter — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:36:16 +0000

Woohoo! We have some great news; The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX is to be released on the Nintendo 3DS’s Virtual Console. IN 3D. Yes, that’s right; you’ll soon be playing one of the greatest Legend of Zelda games in a 3-Dimensional world. In only five months, actually. Which leads us to some more news:

We’ve just now found out that the Nintendo 3DS will be released in North America this March. No specific date has been announced yet, but we do know just how close it is until we can play that sucker!

Now there are two thoughts that come into my mind. The first one is “how will they handle the printable photographs?”. I can see a lot coming from this, seeing as you can even take 3D photos on your 3DS. Will they bring back the GameBoy Printer? Probably not, but I imagine that Nintendo has something special in store for our little mouse photographer and his Link’s photo album. The second thought is a little more obvious; when will we see the Oracle Series and The Minish Cap? And let’s not leave it there: If they can make those games 3-Dimensional, they can do that with The Legend of Zelda, the Adventure of Link and A Link to the Past.

Boy, am I ever excited!

Source: Official Nintendo Magazine

Ocarina of Time 3D Update + Japanese 3DS Release Date

Alter — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:53:27 +0000

Many apologies for the lack of updates, but quite frankly, we don’t like fluff, and there’s been no real news for any portable Legend of Zelda games. Until now. The biggest development we’ve seen for quite some time is finally here: More news, images and even some video footage of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D has been released.

First off, I’ll start with the video. For those of you who are too lazy to watch the whole lineup, the “Zelda” segment starts at about 2:31 into the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve got to say that, although it’s great to have the footage, five seconds doesn’t really do the game justice. Oh, well. I’m sure we’ll start to see a lot more in the near future. My guess is that Ocarina of Time 3D will be a launch title for the Nintendo 3DS. You’ll also notice that there’s a few new screenshots, as well (four in all).

Finally, we have the Japanese release date for the Nintendo 3DS. It is currently set for February 26th, 2011. That’s really not too far away, and I suspect it’ll deploy stateside around that period. European releases are usually only a few weeks later than their American and Japanese counterparts, so it’ll probably be close together around the board.

*Thanks to Zelda Universe for the news updates!

Death in The Legend of Zelda — Part 2 Update

Alter — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:14:28 +0000

Howdy all! Just a quick post to let you all know that we’ve got the next part of our article mini-series up! Please read and enjoy.

Also, if you haven’t already joined our Facebook and Twitter pages, please do so now! Although the former is doing quite well, the latter isn’t; we hope to change that with your help!

Death in The Legend of Zelda — Part 2

Welcome to the second part in our “Death in The Legend of Zelda” mini-series! Let me quickly pick up where I left off last time…

As I pointed out earlier, death has never had a good deal of meaning when it comes to video games, especially in Zelda. In order to make the series (and the industry as a whole) more effective, emotional and powerful, the topic of death needs to be addressed. More so, it needs to be done properly. Again, reiterating what I already covered, developers seem to think that if they increase the amount of blood, gore and violence they add into games, they will have effectively tackled this issue.

Click here to read the rest of Death in The Legend of Zelda— Part 2

Click here to view the article’s entire page.

Minish Cap Walkthrough Update

Alter — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:53:35 +0000

We just wanted to post a nice, quick update in order to inform you all that we’ve now updated our Minish Cap walkthrough! Our guide will now take you through the Temple of Droplets; you’ll notice we’re getting close to completion. And once the guide is all up, we’ll add images and create a new guide template, allowing for a cleaner reading experience. Again, a special thanks to Micheal for all of his hard work!

You can click here to view The Minish Cap guide.

We also want to apologize for the slowness in news and updates. However, worry not; we have something very big planned for this site. We’ll update you with more soon. :v)

Alter Stevens,
Webmaster

Site News + New Article- Death in The Legend of Zelda

Alter — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:40:58 +0000

So as many of you may have noticed, we’ve been a little down as of late. The reason for this can mostly be summed up with two statements; the first being that there has really been no handheld news since The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was released last December. The second would be that, well, many of us have been quite busy. Personally, I, Alter, am transferring schools to the other side of the States in a couple of days. Our other Webmaster, Justin will also be attending college this Autumn. In light of these events, fear not; we plan to keep the site active, and have some other staffers ready to take the baton until life returns to normal!

Until that moment, however, we have another little mini-article ready for you!

Death in The Legend of Zelda — Part 1

Death— the very word may just send a faint chill down your spine. However, in the context of the virtual world, most of us don’t give it a second thought (Unless, of course, by “death”, you mean the deletion of your Facebook account). What I mean by this is that in real life, the power of death is a great adversary— one that you and I are unable to conquer. However, when you’re gunned down by an enemy combatant in Call of Duty or have your last heart stabbed by a Moblin in Link’s Awakening, do you really give it much thought? Assuming you’re not on a speed run, and are reasonably sane, chances are that the answer is “no”. In 95% of video games, you can either load your last save point, restart the level, or simply be self-revived and lose a few points.

For some odd reason, game developers have no problem with adding endless blood and gore into death scenes, whether it be the protagonist’s or an NPC’s death. However, they seem to neglect actually making death meaningful…

Click here to read the rest of Death in The Legend of Zelda— Part 1

It carries no weight, meaning or purpose, other than to show that you failed. Nothing is either permanent nor difficult to reclaim. At the moment, the only game that I can think of where death has real meaning is Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears, where if one of your squad members is killed, they’re gone for good, along with their awards, etc. Despite this fact, it wasn’t too important. All that happened was that your squadmate’s name was changed; no different sprites, or anything of that caliber.

So to get this centered on The Legend of Zelda, we should at least ponder the question “If Link dies, why aren’t there more severe consequences?” I mean, shouldn’t something powerful happen? If Link didn’t often die (assuming it’s an easy game when it comes to the matter of running out of health), I think it would make for a more powerful experience to have something that displays to players the physical pain, anguish and defeat and that Link is experiencing. One of the things that the developers behind the series often talk about is how they want the player to not just play as Link, but feel as though they are him. One of the best ways to connect to a person other than yourself is to experience their pain. In this situation, though, the first step is to make Link’s feelings and failures real. The second is to convey them onto the player. I doubt that this could be done within one game, but maybe two or three. I think that if Nintendo, as well as the Zelda team are able to master the emotional connection of responses from the gamers to the players, every series they touch will be improved.

Now let’s be clear; I’m not suggesting that when Link dies, you have to restart your entire quest. Maybe that’s an idea for an unlockable “super hard” mode, but not for normal gameplay. Also, I’d like to see something more creative than “punishment” (as in taking away an important item that needs to be reclaimed. This isn’t Runescape). A possible idea (coming to my head as I’m writing this) would be having a skeletal Link walk around until he’s able to reach someone or somewhere where he can be restored to himself. That’s just one fleeting idea in a single facet of this topic; there are so many other thoughts and issues that could be covered here, and some of them will be in the next part of this article.

Click here to view the article’s entire page.

Zelda in my Pocket Taking Short Break

Alter — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:22:27 +0000

We at Zelda in my Pocket have had an interesting scenario appear in the last two days. It would seem that we will be unstaffed for this upcoming week. Heh heh… oops. Let me explain: I, Alter, am going to be out of town, Justin is already out of town and Fredrick has been aloof in recent times. That’s it for the administrators, but what about the others? Well, Chris has been MIA, Alex is wrapping some things up before getting bogged down with schoolwork and Cody is away at camp. Cody? Ah, yes. I forgot to let you all know; we have a new staffer! Meet Cody (a.k.a. Ver-go)! Some of you may know him a bit; he used to be active around the Zelda Dungeon forums. Anyway, we’ll be formally introducing him later on, but maybe he’ll make a post if he can!

Also, you’ll notice we have a handful of new Affiliates! The first one is Kirameki (yes, the same ones hosting the Irodzuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip translation poll). Kirameki is known for their various translation work, and through affiliation, we can hopefully support their endeavors in translating such great games. The second affiliate is Nintendo Buzz. Seeing as they focus on all Nintendo news, I highly recommend them for all of your Pokémon and Mario needs. Our third and final affiliate is Exploding Deku Nut! (Try saying that three times fast!) They’re well-known for their awards throughout the Zelda community, as well as their occasional off-the-wall antics.

In other news… well, there really is none. Back in a week, folks!

Color Changing Tingle’s Love Balloon Trip Translation?

Alter — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:16:50 +0000

Well, now it appears that there’s a possibility of a fan translation for Color Changing Tingle’s Love Balloon Trip (a.k.a Irodzuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip)! There’s a group which we’re unfamiliar with, known as Kirameki, which creates fan translations of various games. (The one I immediately noticed was Captain Rainbow, known for it’s numerous Nintendo and Zelda cameos.) Kirameki currently has a poll going on which is inquiring as to which game their team should begin translating next. It just so happens that Irodzuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip is on their list. You all know what that means; you need to get over there and cast your vote. It’s a matter of life and death. Well, not really, but it would quite nice if we had a translation coming that quickly.

Click here to vote for Irodzuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip!

Apparently, until I’d cast my own vote, Tales of Hearts was tied with Irodzuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip, but now we’re leading by one vote. Get over there and make sure that the translation your b=voice is heard! (Of course, that’s only if you’re voting for Irodzuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip.)

Source: Kirameki

In other news, some Japanese scientist have discovered something quite amazing. Think Star Wars. Basically, we’re now looking at having full-fledged, interactive holograms which you can essentially “feel”. And how do they detect motion? None other than… Wiimotes. Nintendo had better be talking with these guys. Watch the video and read all about it at by visiting TG Daily.

Source: TG Daily

Kakashi: The Search for Tingle Now Has Wi-Fi Features

Alter — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:10:13 +0000

Hey, all! We’ve got a couple of news pieces regarding our Kakashi title. The first one is fun: We have yet another piece of art, and if I do say so myself, it looks quite… tough. Who knew Kakashi had a side to him like this? Regardless, it’ll be added to our collection, which you can enjoy.

The second update is more or less… ground-breaking. Yes, Kakashi: The Search for Tingle will feature Wi-Fi. But you already knew that if you read an earlier post on the Kakashi Site. However, we bet you didn’t know it would come this soon. Yes, that’s right, it’s here. Today we’re announcing our Demo Engine 2.00, which is very, very special. Let us explain: First off, this file will void Demo Engine 1.0; you’ll have to grab this one for it to work. After booting it up, you won’t see any differences in the game. The only change you’ll see is a new button added to the main menu, named “update”.

At the same time, we’ve also released Demo Engine 2.10, but you won’t find it in the downloads section. “Why not?”, you ask. The reason being is that by clicking the “update” button, you’ll download version 2.10 and it will automatically patch your game with the updates! What lies in update 2.10? Just download it and find out! (Don’t worry; it’s nothing spectacular; just enough to show you our capabilities.) As always, keep in mind that these are beta files, and are prone to various bugs and glitches.

Although a small handful of Nintendo DS Homebrew games have implemented Wi-Fi in some fashion, we wish to point out that none have been as intricate as this. The only other possibility would be DSOrganize, a high-tech Wi-Fi enabled organizer, which allowed you to download Homebrew games from a library. Sadly, it’s now an obsolete project.

We hope you’re as excited about this news as we are! Look forward to more news coming soon!

The download can be found on the Kakashi site’s download page, or by clicking here.

P.S. By the way, we’re kidding about not having Demo Engine 2.10 on the site. We’ll put it in the downloads section for our users who happen to be running an emulator, and are unable to connect to Wi-Fi. Also, a special thanks to Alex, for working so hard on the coding!

Kakashi: The Search for Tingle Engine Demo Release

Alter — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:21:58 +0000

The title says it all, doesn’t it? We are pleased to announce to you two separate events… The first one is that our test demo is ready! The second is that we are announcing our new site, kakashi.zeldainmypocket.com! All of this is pretty self-explanatory, but let me remind you that these are not the final animations or textures; this is simply to show you that the game is being worked on, as well as to demonstrate the engine.

The game can be found on the Kakashi site’s download page. Thanks for being so patient throughout the game’s development, and a special thanks to Alex Plunkett and Justin Folvarcik for their hard work!

Also, as you’ll see on the Kakashi website, our game will be featuring more than just single-player; it will have a multiplayer mode, as well as Wi-Fi. Now isn’t that something?

Thanks for reading!

-The Zelda in my Pocket Staff