Phantom Hourglass - Screenshots

Nintendo recently released new screenshots for Phantom Hourglass, due for release later this year. It’s shaping up nicely - it obviously suffers filtering problems but as long as there’s more exploration than The Wind Waker this could be fantastic.

1UP have posted a Twilight Princess “afterthoughts” interview with NOA Localisation Manager Bill Trinen. For those who like to scrub every last syllable from interviews with anyone who has been within a mile of the Nintendo HQ, it’s worth a read. For everyone else, the interview is as annoying as the Twilight Princess story itself: always hinting at greatness, never quite grasping it.

Considering the hoops Nintendo forces journos to leap through to get an interview, it’s not surprising that the hard questions aren’t pushed. It’s indicative of deeper problems within the video games PR-journalist relationship as a whole, but the only person who really loses in this power struggle is you.

(And me)

As you may know, contrary to our Phantom Hourglass splashpage, the latest installment of the Zelda series will not be appearing Christmas 2006. It will however, according to the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, hit Japanese shores June 23rd, a mere hop, skip and a jump away. Or a couple of months, depending on how old you are.

You can get the rest of Famitsu’s news, as well as a rough scan of the new Zelda, over at this perfectly-formed NeoGAF thread.

Huh! Hah! Stri! Every cosplaying fanboy’s wet dream has come true. Not only can you replicate Link’s entire repertoire of indecipherable grunts, Kotaku are reporting you can now do so while swinging full-sized replicas of his sword and shield thanks to True Swords. There are, predictably, a couple of caveats; the full set will set you back over $120 (£70), and those hoping to get their old-school on will be dissapointed as the shield is specifically designed to be worn on the left arm. Still, if this means that the quality of Link cosplay will increase, few will complain.