The Zelda ZoneZelda Played This Week #1
Hi, internet! Zelda here, I’ve been meaning to write more for too long, and I love sharing my Gaming experiences, so I decided on a weekly play log of notable stuff I’ve played over the week! Expect mini-reviews on a mix of retro and new(ish) games, general game talk, and fangirling.
As a bit of background I’ve transitioned from my day job to full-time Internet Being™️, that’s Streamer, Writer, and sadly, Social Media poster (but at least I don’t have to use Twitter anymore). I’ve neglected my Zelda.Zone for long enough and decided it’s time for a new Feature section.
Please let me know what you’ve been playing in the comments! The internet needs more back-and-forth talk, and not on Social Media. I feel Bad Sites have traumatized us all, I want to get back to that Early Internet, 2000s at the latest, you know? When people liked being on the internet. Remember that?
Table of Contents
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- Yakuza Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth (PS5, 2024)
- Oblivion Remaster (PC, 2025)
- Vacation Simulator (PSVR2/PS5, 2023)
- Sonic Colors Ultimate (PS4 via PS5, 2021)
- Sonic Chaos (Game Gear, via Analogue Pocket, 1993)
- Vectorman (Genesis, via Nintendo Switch, 1995)
Yakuza Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth (PS5, 2024)
I envy people who don’t care about Trophies/Achievements, and often consider myself one of those lucky people, too. But when it comes to a platinum trophy for a game I really like, sometimes I do try. But woof, I forced myself to stop on LAD: Infinite Wealth because the “Level 70 Kasuga” achievement is downright rude and seems like a way to sell more level-pack boosters. There is simply no way to achieve that without grinding against the same level ~50 endgame enemies for what was shaping up to be 5–10 hours with nothing left to DO in the game but grind.
Aside from that HARSH, final note of bitterness, I loved this game and that’s a really big reminder to developers to consider your achievement design. It is super weird to go into a game you love, try to get all the achievements, and come out liking the game less, but it’s not even that uncommon. My favorite achievement experience semi-lately was Subnautica; upon beating the game I got the last Steam achievement and there you go!
So much more to say about the game than Achievements, but it really stuck in my craw. The game learned quite a lot from criticisms of the first (which I enjoyed plenty, personally!). Lots of QOL improvements, easier to get around and find things. Enemy designs are much more wacky, and side stories have been slightly cut down, and 2 major mini-games cover almost the whole game.
They made both an almost full-fledged Pokémon experience (complete with an Elite Four, Pokémon Snap, and Pokémon Go!), as well as a very direct Animal Crossing New Horizons parody with quite a lot to do and, of course, its own storyline.
I have too many words to blab about it in what’s supposed to be a short column like this one, but I played it for over 100 hours and truly enjoyed it. It was a reminder of why I try to space out my long RPG playthroughs, though!
Oblivion Remaster (PC, 2025)
I streamed this one; otherwise I might not have bothered to include it. It’s okay. It’s extremely Oblivion; I at first objected to the term “Remaster” after seeing the graphics; clearly a remake, no? Well, gameplay-wise it seems all but completely identical to the point that I decided mid-stream “yeah I don’t have to play this anymore”, having recently beat the original Oblivion again just a few years ago.
It looks better but performs pretty poorly; my first introduction to PC slowdown on stream in a few years that wasn’t a bug. It’s kind of an unfortunate “Gold Standard” of Bethesda gaming, a massive 120 GB in size, looks good but not amazing for the year it’s been released in, doesn’t tread genuinely any new ground (but hey, it’s a remaster), and it runs like…a Bethesda game.
I don’t mean to sound like I hated it, but it’s an easy skip for me, and I’m glad I grabbed it on Game Pass. If you never played Oblivion and Old PC Graphics are a massive dealbreaker for you…(*holding many negative comments*) it’s a good game, and it looks prettier now, good ahead and try it.
Vacation Simulator (PSVR2/PS5, 2023)
VR is still such a weird thing to me. I can’t play the games TOO long, but it really is quite neat. PSVR2 is easily my favorite VR headset to wear, yet it exposes some major problems with VR (well, mostly the selection of games). Moreover, I had to physically beat my PSVR2 controller for about 20 minutes to make it work properly, and apparently this is a somewhat common thing. A very strange first-use experience for a $400 product. I was very mad.
Anyway, Vacation Simulator is quite fun and a great example of learning your audience by the devs. The first game, Job Simulator, is quite open-ended, it’s a funny physics prop game more or less. It wasn’t bad, but got a lot of complaints as “not a game” or not worth it’s price. TBH, most VR stuff is at least moderately overpriced; I generally agree, but can’t hold it against the developers so much.
So Vacation Simulator adds “Efficiency Bot,” who is obsessed with making sure you have fun in the most EFFICIENT way possible. Efficiency Bot is an obvious dig at players who complained the first game had “nothing to do”, while at the same way giving them what they wanted. EB, as it is most efficiently referred to, gives you Tasks that must be completed to unlock further enjoyment activities. Vacation Bot is aghast at having a task list for a vacation, but the tension between the two NPCs is a very funny way of the devs managing to have their cake and eat it too. Now you have Standard Gameplay Task Lists, AND the game makes fun of you for it!
The game does feel more fun to play than Job Simulator as well, embracing the vibe of “let the player do what they want” while giving them lots of VR-friendly tools to play around with. You get a camera, a backpack for “inventory” at all times, a fully interactive computer with “Apps”, collectables, and critically, the ability to eat/drink any semi-edible items you find lying around. I have not yet “finished” my vacation.
Angry Birds Isle of Pigs I have a lot less to say about; it is Angry Birds, but you get to actually use a slingshot simulated in VR. The levels are very basic, and I am glad it was fairly cheap. Somehow it is still much better to play than Angry Birds 2, which has a ton of Content, shall we say, but also all the F2P stuff that will eventually make you hate actually playing it. The result is a pretty average “First VR Game” that sells its concept but feels a bit empty. You could, but shouldn’t, finish it in a single session.
Sonic Colors Ultimate (PS4 via PS5, 2021)
Remakes are interesting things to review, and we’ve got two this week! This is certainly an easier way to play Sonic Colors, though I was actively told not to buy it when it came out and only got it from Playstation Plus. There is extremely little added content, but I am playing it on my PS5. Even the cutscenes weren’t re-mastered, every lovely compression artifact you got to see on the Wii release is preserved in full.
As a game, it’s good-it’s Sonic Colors, damn it! It is not quite my favorite Sonic game, but it works well enough and the settings and story bits are cute fun. A much lighter romp than the later Sonic Forces, the cutscenes are funny and not much else.
Gameplay is now-standard “boost sonic” and I must say I never got into the Red Rings stuff. They don’t detract from my enjoyment, but I’ve never gone back to 100% a Red Rings sonic game before Frontiers. Which I hear lets you play as not-Sonic, finally. Goodness, Sega learned the wrong things after Sonic Adventure 1&2. Please keep letting me play as not-Sonic.
I’m only halfway through but enjoying it. It has made me realize how many Sonic games I have started and half finished, or at least never 100%’d. I still need to play Frontiers’ Free DLC/“we finished the game after it came out”. Sega, please consider giving Sonic Team a proper budget for once.
Sonic Chaos (Game Gear, via Analogue Pocket, 1993)
I never had a Game Gear, but I went and bought one after I got my Analogue Pocket, which also plays Game Gear games. I’m not sure if I’m a “Collector”, but I do like to own The Original where it’s not insanely expensive. Which is increasingly often the case for retro gaming, sigh.
So I’d already beat Triple Trouble on my 3DS, and the game I wanted to play next was Shining Force: Sword of Hajya, but it seems to be the one Game Gear game that the Analogue Pocket’s FGPA stuff doesn’t emulate/save state properly on. Corrupts the cart save(!) if you save state, or press the sleep button. I tried twice to play it but gave up for now. Frustrating experience with a pretty premium piece of kit.
Sonic Chaos feels about perfect for Game Gear; short, fun levels, shorter than Triple Trouble. Deaths are primarily from falling off the level and in a tiny 4:3 screen jeez is that easy, but the game is generous enough with lives that it doesn’t feel too frustrating. I have reached a zone with Egg in the name, and can only assume it is one of the last areas in the game. Plus, you can play as Tails! So I did, of course.
Vectorman (Genesis, via Nintendo Switch, 1995)
I finally finished a childhood classic! I really should have just played it on Easy mode, but in 90s fashion the difficulty is called “Lame” in Vectorman, and little girl Zelda was NOT willing to play that. In reality, difficulty mostly just affects how many Extra Lives you get. I always hated classic style Game Overs, so no loss there.
The game is pretty great! It’s not super long, but definitely designed for repeated plays in ascending difficulty (something Little Zelda never was a fan of). The game looks wonderful for a Genesis game, enemies have some real weight to their movements thanks to being made of multiple sprites, allowing enemies to fall or break apart in ways that were still somewhat novel for sprite-based 2D games. For a very brief period before the N64, you could get away with calling games like this and Donkey Kong Country “3d Graphics”.
It’s crazy to think how close I got, I got to the final battle against War Head and never beat him because of the lives system. Didn’t even need save states this time, though I did play it on the unfortunately titled easiest difficulty setting. It’s a good posterchild for why I wish difficulties actually told you what they do; less or weaker enemies is sometimes unwelcome, but move 1 ups and such in a game with real Game Overs is an option I’ll always take, at least for a first playthrough. Save the 1CC for later.
Fun Graphics Nerd Joke: Vectorman’s nemesis War Head was originally a mild mannered bot called Raster; Vector vs Raster graphics, cute stuff.
This was supposed to be a short column, maybe the next one will be! I hope you enjoyed, please let me know what you’ve been playing in the comments! Perhaps I’ll stream it or play it for a future column.
Zelda 👑
