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Majora's Mask is genuinely my favorite video game. I think that it took the gameplay of Ocarina and put it into a much more interesting world. I could ramble about why I like it, but I'll also emphasize that I totally understand a lot of the criticism leveled against it. For someone just jumping in, I can understand getting frustrated when time runs out on you and you lose a bunch of progress. You have to get into the mindset of restarting time and then slowing it before you do something important. Is that fun? No, but I think it's a worthwhile price to pay for the way that the world evolves over that three-day span.

Majora's Mask was also my first Zelda game, and I'll acknowledge the potential Mario Kart effect there. And I will absolutely acknowledge that Ocarina is a much more influential, important game.

My biggest desire for the Zelda series is a game that has an entire world that feels as alive as Clock Town.

These are seriously impressive. You nailed the style. Thanks for sharing these.

It has been said about this site before, but I just wanted to drop in to say that I appreciate that news stories like this give all the information that we need right in the title and subtitle on the front page. That's some efficient writing that serves the readers.

As someone who was late to the game on that franchise, I hopefully can look at it without my glasses getting too rosy. Nuts and Bolts is the first game that I played any substantial amount of. I adore it and think it's one of the best games of the last generation. If you haven't seen the Giant Bomb TNT on it, you may want to check it out to get some idea of what it's like. What the TNT doesn't really show, however, is the fun of building. If I remember correctly, in the video they mainly stick to slightly modified versions of vehicles that the game provides, but you can build some really wild stuff. The game's physics are wonky in a way that is permissive of unbalanced, nonsensical vehicles. They don't slap you on the wrists for building something that is completely unwieldy, so I had a ton of fun building the most absurd vehicles that I could to complete challenges in single player.

Since I loved Nuts and Bolts, I picked up the 2 N64 games on ebay. The first game was quite good! It has a lot of charm, and it doesn't overextend itself. You don't have to do too much fetch-quest stuff if you aren't a completionist, but the game won't be fun for you if you don't like some degree of hunting around for things. Overextension was my big problem with Tooie. They tried to cram in too much, and it got to be a chore pretty often. The worlds felt big for the sake of being big, and they pushed the hardware too hard, making the framerate pretty crummy (which I hear isn't an issue in the XBLA re-release). There's still plenty of fun and personality in the game, but too much filler. I never finished it.

Whether or not Banjo Kazooie holds up to Mario 64 just depends on what you're looking for. Mario 64 has better platforming and has a faster pace. Banjo Kazooie isn't about pulling off skillful jumps, and is more about exploration. I definitely prefer Mario 64, but plenty of people prefer Banjo. I feel like it's one of those things where you prefer whichever one you played first.

To address the topic as a whole, I don't buy it. I don't think that a musician posting up some musical notes suggests that Banjo Kazooie is returning. It's probably just a piece of a song for whatever they're going to announce. Hopefully it's something cool, and hopefully modern Rare proves me wrong about its capabilities as a studio, but for the moment I'll temper my expectations.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed Splatoon's controls. I love what I've seen of that game, but the controls are the sort of thing that you can't gauge based on video. That could easily be my game of this year, although I hope Star Fox beats the odds and does right by that N64 game.

I would also be pretty happy to see a Burnout sequel. I don't have anything to play it on, but love finds a way. I have friends.

Never in all my days

Absolutely, man. I was actually just thinking about this while watching some videos earlier today. Jason has fit in so smoothly. He's really talented, and he's a huge asset to the team. I'm glad he's on board.

Thanks for all the good times, Patrick. I'm really going to miss your presence around here. Take good care of yourself, and don't be a stranger. I'll be keeping an eye out for more stuff from you. <>

Yeah, I found it to be quite good. Exploring that world through Clementine's eyes changed how I approached things, so it was a nice fresh take on that formula. It never quite hits as hard as season one, and the characters aren't as memorable, but I found the whole thing really enjoyable, and I look forward to a potential third season.

Yeah, I noticed that string of tweets earlier. I respect Alex's openness with that stuff, and while I'm sure he knows he's appreciated, I'm glad to get a chance to throw my hat in on this reminder that we support him and appreciate the work that he does. Regardless of how hard it hits, anxiety bites a lot of people, and it's good that we can at least lean on each other and have a venting space when it's needed.