Video Games and Stuff

Wow, I haven't updated in a long time. This is because nobody reads my blog. Anyway, time for some random comments on video games. Let's see here...

Ocarina of Time. This game is epic. Ten years after its release, people still play it. This is partially because of its rerelease on the GameCube and Wii, but mostly because it is one of the best video games ever made. While those who grew up with the XBox or PS2 will make snide comments about its low polygon count and lack of voice acting, and then go into a tirade about how Nintendo is "kiddy", they are missing the point. For its time, the graphics were cutting-edge. This game came out in 1998. Back then, the XBox was but a twinkle in the eye of Bill Gates, the PlayStation had just come out (literally; OoT came out the day of the PS's release), and only one console had an analog stick on its controller. This was the Nintendo 64. Nintendo's third console.

When designing Ocarina, Eiji Aonuma had to come up with some way to keep the protagonist (Link) facing his enemy in battles, while still allowing freedom of movement. His solution: Z-targeting, named after the Z-trigger on the underside of the controller. This was no simple camera change: it locked the camera and Link's orientation so that the camera was behind Link, who was facing his current foe. It also changed Link's entire moveset to be more combat-oriented, adding fast backflips and sidesteps as well as a double-damage jump attack. In fact, the Z trigger was the only way to manually change the camera angle (when no foe was in reach, it would move the camera behind Link); there was no need for other controls, as the camera AI was very well-designed. Another advance was thecontext-sensitive A button. The face buttons had icons on the screen; the blue A button could serve as the aforementioned jump attack, plus the following: talk, roll, sidestep, backflip, put away items, open doors, grab items, and more; this was very intuitive. Both of these design elements have been copied by numerous other games, including almost every FPS.