This little tidbit doesn’t really count as news, but it’s an interesting Zelda reference that put a smile on my face.

The Metro is a free newspaper distributed at bus and train stations throughout the UK. It’s often quite an unusual newspaper with obscure references - for example, it once featured an interview with Nobuo Uematsu, famed Final Fantasy composer - chances are, I was one of five readers who knew who he was.

So picture the scene. Waiting for an exam to start, I tire of studying, and pull out the (Scottish version of) today’s Metro I had stolen from the train station. Turning to the comments section, where readers text in short, often bizarre messages, one leaped off the page at me. You may not wish to read any further if you have not completed Twilight Princess, as there is a vague reference to the game’s ending. I repeat, TWILIGHT PRINCESS SPOILERS AHEAD.

The following comment was printed:

Got the girl, killed the baddies, saved the entire planet. It’s time to go home. This goes out to the dark princess. Goodbye my love x x.

Spaceman from Sighthill

I may be overly-quick to spot a Zelda reference, but that sounds suspiciously like the end of Twilight Princess! Spaceman, if you’re reading this (unlikely), let us know if this is what you meant by the comment. And congratulations on your victory! And yes, we all miss ”the dark princess”, but life goes on…

Update: Okay, this article is stupid and so am I. Let’s move on.

Twilight Princess - Packaging
Phantom Hourglass - Packaging

There is, I now see, something seriously wrong with me. I spend an inordinate amount of time scanning, cropping, rotating, fixing, healing, filtering and levelling images of packaging used to sell games to the otherwise unaware. You and I will buy the new Zelda game no matter what the cover looks like. Others are more shallow or ignorant (pick one!), so really, this artwork is for them, and I have no business being so obsessed with getting high quality copies so neatly placed across a page, clearly labelled for the hardcore to do whatever it is they want with them. But I continue cleaning and adjusting, even to our older images - I want to rescan them to get rid of that ghastly (and seriously out of date) watermark, the moire and the low resolution.

Dear Deidre, what the hell is wrong with me? Does anyone else share this obsession or am I on my own?

Unveiled today were two interesting pieces of keyring merchandise, which will be availible in Japan towards the end of the year.

Phantom Hourglass Sound Drops

Similar to the Mario sound drops released a few months back, when pressed, these keyrings make noises from Phantom Hourglass. Ideal for winding up your friends, or pretending you’re Link!

Wii Remote Projector

Not entirely a Zelda product, these Wii remote keyrings display an image of a Wii game character onto a darkened wall. They do not, unfortunately, summon Nintendo characters to your aid when shone into the sky. There are eight in all, and characters from Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn are included in the set, two from each game. The two Zelda-themed remotes include images of Link, and Midna atop Wolf Link.

These wacky keyrings are currently only availible to pre-order in full sets at specialist site National Console Support, but will probably be more widely availible, and availible separately, towards the end of the year, when the December release approaches.

While everyone knows about the First4Figures Zelda statuettes, there has been some Zelda merchandise released recently, mainly due to the release of Phantom Hourglass in Japan, which may have gone under the noses of everyone but the avid collector. As I so happen to be an avid collector, I have typed up a quick guide to the recently released merch for your enjoyment.

For those who don’t like Japanese jargon, Gashapon are small figures which can be bought from Japanese capsule toy machines, or in small “anonymous” boxes. These Twilight Princess themed figures by Yujin, which were released last month, look great. The set of four includes Link, Midna atop Wolf Link, Zelda and Zant. They require some simple assembly, but nothing more than snapping on the arms and legs. To buy them at the extremely cheap price of $2.99 each, try Play Asia, though you will have no choice over what figure you get. Or if you want the complete set, I’d recommend you try Ebay, but don’t blame me if you get swindled!

Twilight Princess Gashapon - Play Asia

Phantom Hourglass Link Plush

This little guy is sure to be a hit with the female fans, and possible male fans with a feminine side too! A plush of Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass Link by Sanei, he comes in two sizes, small (18cm) and medium (32cm). He’s set to be released to screams of “Kawaii!” everywhere sometime in September, and costs $12.90 and $19.90 respectively on Play Asia.

Phantom Hourglass DS Cases

These Phantom Hourglass themed DS Lite cases by Sanei come in two varieties, green and blue, both with a different graphic, and cost a mere $8.90 on Play Asia, so you can keep your DS safe with style.

Phantom Hourglass Pen Set

Want to be the envy of your entire school? Now you can, with this set of two Phantom Hourglass themed pens! Made by TakaraTomy, they are $8.99 on Play Asia.

Phantom Hourglass Pen Set - Play Asia

Of course, note that Play Asia isn’t the only place you can buy these items, but I’d recommend it due to their cheap prices and postage. Also, note that these items are Japanese imports, so you won’t find them in Toys R Us. You’d need to find a specialist shop if you want to buy them without the aid of the magical internet.

IGN have posted this video interview with Zelda director Eiji Aonuma. They touch on a new Zelda for Wii, Twilight Princess development issues and more. Well worth a watch.

Twilight Princess - Poe Guide (New!)
Twilight Princess - Boss Guide (Updated!)
Majora’s Mask - Bottle Locations (New!)
Majora’s Mask - Heart Pieces (New!)
Majora’s Masks - Masks (Updated!)

Yep, after mucho time with zilch updates we end up with two in the same month.  And by two different people, no less!  Yay for us!

Anyway, I felt bad about the lack of updating.  Life being what it is, the HTML writin’ just hadn’t found time to happen.  To make up for this, I decided to update several things at once, as you can see.  I added the Poe section to TP, as well as fixing the mini-boss names, as per the official site.  Majora’s Mask also sees several updates.  New additions being the bottle locations, as well as the Heart Piece locations.  As a fun little update, I also added the Couple’s Mask to the Mask section, thus correcting its disturbing absence from that page.

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)

MTV have posted an interview with Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the Zelda series (for those who don’t already know). For those of you who haven’t read an MTV Games review before, they’re actually really good; the guy who runs the show over there is an avid gamer and asks “hardcore” questions that sites like IGN, GameSpot and 1UP often miss. For example, Aonuma touches on why there were so disappointingly few block puzzles in Twilight Princess, and the reason why Link always starts each game with nothing.

Short, but sweet.

Twilight Princess - Golden Bugs
Twilight Princess - Hidden Skills

Finally completed are the sections for the Golden Bugs and Hidden Skills.  Like with the Heart Piece guide, I attempted to keep directions as landmark based as possible.

Twilight Princess - Review

For the unwashed masses, that means Yet Another Twilight Princess Review. However! This one is slightly different in that it is possibly the world’s most negative Twilight Princess review and yet also the most positive. That’s right, it’s a fanboy’s review, where we nitpick the living soul out of the game and then at the end say it’s all okay because it’s Zelda and it’s great. But it is Zelda, and it is great, so everything’s okay. Enjoy!