Wind Waker HD releasing early digitally, Nintendo changing?!

[Eric]

Don't know if anybody else noticed this, but Wind Waker HD is gonna be available for at least 2 weeks early before it hits retail. This is something I expected Microsoft to push with the Xbox One back when they were "Digital or DIEEEE" but the company to lead with this is Nintendo of all places(Hopefully a small portion of the changes in their online policies going forward). Granted, this is the lone game in a sea of games, but I'd certainly love to see it become the standard. When a game goes gold, there's technically no reason a digital version can't be made readily available immediately. Hell GTA5 is sitting there on the PSN store, and the only reason we're not playing right now is because we have to wait for retail.

[Julius Seeker]

This also happened with New Luigi U. There was the cheaper expansion version for NSMB U and a stand alone downloadable version. About a month later the retail version was available.

I personally hope this becomes a permanent change because I generally download most of my games now.

[Zeus]

Oh, Eric. If you actually read my posts you'd realize that Nintendo leading the charge when it comes to digital distribution has been the norm since the spring. And Wind Waker HD isn't the first release by Nintendo on the Wii U to get a digital release first.

Nintendo has been shockingly aggressive in their push towards digital downloads, much more so than $ony or Microshaft

[Eric]

Zeus your posts kind of like....have various portions to them that shock and awe more then the rest, if I'm missing these things from you, it's your fault! :p

[Zeus]

Zeus your posts kind of like....have various portions to them that shock and awe more then the rest, if I'm missing these things from you, it's your fault! :p

Maybe you should pay more attention then :-)

[M'k'n'zy]

On the note of Wind Waker HD, god it looks amazing!

[Zeus]

Yeah. But more importantly, they got rid of most of that stupid fetch-quest at the end. With their Zelda remakes, Nint¥do at least seems to be doing more that just upping the graphics

[M'k'n'zy]

They changed a lot of things beyond the graphics actually

-streamlined the triforce quest as you mentioned. You will now just find 5 pieces, and only have to transcribe charts for three
-hero mode available from the start - harder difficulty where you take double damage and there are no heart pickups, the only way to heal is from potions and fairies.
-Fast sail available after first dungeon, allows you to move faster on the water and you don't have to change the wind.
-key items, like the wind waker, mapped to dedicated buttons so you don't have to equip them
-change equipment quickly by drag and drop on the touch screen
-sped up and shortened some animations, such as the grappling hook
-the whole world loads at once so you don't have loading screens between sections
-the tingle tuner is gone and replaced by tingle bottles, which share messages from Miiverse within the game

[Zeus]

Limited Edition is already sold out in the US, not even in the system in Canada. Fucksticks better bring it up here!

[Julius Seeker]

They changed a lot of things beyond the graphics actually

-streamlined the triforce quest as you mentioned. You will now just find 5 pieces, and only have to transcribe charts for three
-hero mode available from the start - harder difficulty where you take double damage and there are no heart pickups, the only way to heal is from potions and fairies.
-Fast sail available after first dungeon, allows you to move faster on the water and you don't have to change the wind.
-key items, like the wind waker, mapped to dedicated buttons so you don't have to equip them
-change equipment quickly by drag and drop on the touch screen
-sped up and shortened some animations, such as the grappling hook
-the whole world loads at once so you don't have loading screens between sections
-the tingle tuner is gone and replaced by tingle bottles, which share messages from Miiverse within the game

That sort of stuff actually makes the game playable. The one feature that would make this an instant purchase for me would be Gamepad mode. So far it's only been the games that offer Gamepad mode that I have actually completed.

[SineSwiper]

So, no Old Man and the Sea jokes any more?

[Julius Seeker]

The game has been fairly popular as a download only title. It's up to 4th place overall, even getting ahead some of those games that were released with a special moth long 99 cent sale.

Not bad for a game that is both $50 and an enhanced port of the least popular initial home-console Zelda release.

It's interesting to recall how unpopular this art style was initially. Many games from its time period that were perceived as better graphically are games that don't look particularly good today; largely because their graphics have been outdated. Looking at Wind Waker, this is a game that hasn't diminished over the last decade. The artistic direction looks to have been justified.

I'm still going to wait a bit for the purchase. It's not going away from the eShop, and I have Rune Factory 4, Pokemon Y, and Ace Attorney 5 to play next month. I really enjoy this era of digital distribution. I might even be able to catch a sale between now and the time when I have time to play Celda.