Ever wondered what your favorite character's weapons would look like if they were made in real life? Blacksmith Tony Swalton runs a weapons forge and has created props for "over 200 feature films" and has begun hosting a weekly web-series entitled Man at Arms. Every Monday, a new episode featuring Tony and his team as they forge, shape, and detail fully functional replicas of famous weapons from TV, film and even video games. Man at Arms is an "AWE me" production and episodes can be found on their youtube channel.
"Every week our master swordsmith and renowned propmaster, Tony Swatton, forges iconic weapons using high-speed belt grinders, scorching furnaces, and pounding power hammers. Then he takes his weapon to the streets to bust up some stuff."
Tony Swalton and his team have created and recreated thousands of battle equipment at his Sword and Stone shop from weapons to armor to costume props. Be sure to check out the galleries of the armory.
To date, Tony and his team have recreated two iconic Nintendo pieces which I've shown below. But there have been countless other recreations whose origins lie in video games as well as television and movies.
The Master Sword - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Alright, that's enough Mario stuff right now. How about a Zelda announcement? Yeah, let's go with that.
"Announced earlier this year, Nintendo has released a new trailer for the highly anticipated direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Set in the same world, Link will again defend Hyrule in his journeys while passing through various dungeons and puzzles. The game’s official title is The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds..."
Nintendo just had another Nintendo direct video and revealed more and more about new upcoming games for both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U. You can watch it for yourself on Youtube, and you can expect to see me analyse some of those topics both here and at The Geek Generation.
Titles include Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, DK Country Returns 3D, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and some new Zelda news too!
While the E3 recap is being worked on, you can satisfy your videogame cravings with one of the coolest videogame organizations ever made. ExtraLives.org is a website that hosts Multi-Day video game marathons. These college-age men and women "looking to play video games and fend off sleep to raise money for charity."
These guys have raised money through many different marathons and donate the money to build school houses in Africa to help those in need. They broadcast their marathons live online and these marathons have lasted anywhere from 18 to 72 hours. Each one has a theme and for this time around it is a The Legend of Zelda Marathon where two teams will be racing to complete the ENTIRE franchise of Zelda games! You can tune in to watch and for those of you feeling generous, you can also donate any amount of money to support and join the chats as well.
Congratulate me as I’ve just recently completely the timely N64 masterpiece (hehe, “Time”ly) known as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Released in the later half of the N64’s life time, the game has been critically acclaimed as one of the best videogame of all time by gamers of all genres.
A Work in the Making
Although the game was released in America on November 23, 1998, development originally was going on hand in had with Super Mario 64 – a game released at the launch of the Nintendo 64, production of the game took much longer going through a ton of revisions and rewrites. Packaged into a 32-megabyte cartridge, Ocarina of Time was one of the largest (in terms of data) games ever released for the N64.
Plot Overview
Ganandof - The Antagonist
This incarnation of The Legend of Zelda starts off with the hero of the story, Link, a child of the Kokiri village located deep in the forest. Considered an outcast for not having a fairy like the rest of the children, one day Link is greeted by a fairy named Navi after suffering a terrible nightmare. Turns out Navi was sent by the Great Deku tree who later informs Link that he is destined to save Hyrule from Great King of Evil Ganondorf as well as rescue the kingdom’s princess, Zelda. Link navigates through multiple dungeons while collecting and using various weapons and power ups. Probably the most exciting twist in the story is the use of time travel; switching between young and adult Link in order to solve puzzles and move the game forward.
TV Commercial
Game Play
Young and Older Link
The game sports elements from three genres: Action, Puzzle solving, and Role-playing and each genre is prominantly displayed from the revolutionary fighting style, the time consuming mysterious dungeons and the beautiful story that leads the hero through the quest. The game itself is largely a Roam Free game with Hyrule field acting as the central hub for the game. Most side quests can be done in any order and many tasks can be started and finished later when new abilities become available. The differences between “Old” and “Young” Link makes areas more interesting the second time around as new things can be collected and the changes of scenery.
Link's gear
Battle System
Typical of the The Legend of Zelda series, Link’s trusty weapons are his sword and shield. Attacking foes head on requires both patience and reflexes as they are in real time and open to a 3-D plane of movement. Other weapons and upgrades, including a slingshot and a bow and arrow, as well as magic spells increase the hero’s range and power.
"Z-Targeting"
The most revolutionary aspect of the fighting style is a targeting system referred to as “Z-targeting” (activated by pressing the “Z” button when played on the N64). This ability allows Link to focus on single targets while still moving around. It allows for the player to quickly dodge and jump away from attacks and make more precise and powered up attacks without missing the foe. This type of targeting would later be used in other video games (Such as the MegaMan Legends series). Whether the player chooses to target or attack head on, the fighting system of the Legend of Zelda is one of the best real time weapon based adventure games available.
A Truly TIME-less Video Game
Gamecube remake
Box art
Although Ocarina of Time quickly gained a direct sequel in “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask”, video games aren’t always about what’s next. The high replay value and average play through time of over 30 hours led Nintendo to port this game…Not once, not twice, but (including the Wii’s Virtual Console port) but FOUR times. A Gamecube re-release including Ocarina of Time and the director’s cut: “Ocarina of Time: Master Quest” and a bundle game “The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition” featuring ports of The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask.
The most recent version is a complete recreation that was released in the early days of the Nintendo 3DS titled “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D”. With real 3-D and enhanced graphics, this verson took Link through the game in smoother and detailed graphics that exceeded the N64 and Gamecube versions.
Also good to know, the original N64 version was released in 3 different cartridges with each subsequent one fixing glitches and sporting minor changes from bugs to censorship. The original cartridge was released in all gold – one of the few games to be released on a non-gray cartridge. Later incarnations would be in the standard format
Recommendation
I totally and completely recommend this game to be a part of any serious gamer’s library. There’s no excuse not to have a copy considering how it’s available on at least 4 systems. I give this game a full 10 out of 10, a five star ranking, 2 thumbs up and MC Hammer Bro. seal of approval.
Well, with about 10 days since my last post, I've been able to get some stuff done. The most exciting thing would be my first video game Review/Recommendation. In that section, I'll go over some of the goods and bads as well as the fun stuff after playing through the video game.
Aside from that, I've been working on what else I can do to make this Blog exciting and entertaining so that I can please my followers even when I'm not currently updating. Hopefully I'll come up with something and I'll continue to have the support of my followers.
Oh, and with the holidays approaching, I promise to have some good content to post come the end of the month.
