You are now aware that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is over 25 years old.

I am sorry I missed the actual anniversary. Hell, I am sorry for the lack of posts in over half of a year. In the meantime, I got a job and managed to develop some new opinions about my beloved hobbies. I have recently lost that job due to a car wreck, so I have time again.

But yeah, January 14 was the big date, and Gamefaqs did their daily poll to commemorate it by asking whether you had actually played the original game:

I think it is safe to say I have. A whopping 40% of the users who voted had not played it. Shocking! It seems that the Nintendo 3DS is actually beginning to maintain the interest of my peers lately. I was planning to buy one before the car wreck, but that is now on hold. Unfornuately, having not played one is making it hard to review. However, the library is looking interesting now, even it is only franchise AAA rehash. Portable gaming has always been about bringing portability to the last generation (a wise move, reducing internal competition between products), so I can live with it. There were concerns of the second analog stick and the peripherals needed last year, but the design looks promising if a little awkward.

2011 was an eventful year for gaming. The 3DS launched. Deathwing erupted out of the Pacific off the shore of Japan. Video games are now protected free speech in the United States as a Supreme Court precedent (always nice to have and shows we do have allies in the real world). Sonic the Hedgehog turned twenty. The PS Vita launched in Japan. And the game launches were not half bad either. Half bad I say? Well: DC Universe Online, LittleBigPlanet 2, Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Pokémon: Black/White, Dragon Age II, Ocarina of Time 3D, Bastion, Dead Island, Disgaea 4, Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2, Dark Souls, Arkham City, Skyward Sword, Skyrim, The Old Republic, and blah blah blah.

I made extra sure to hit up The Old Republic (forever known as Tor) for Christmas. Admittedly, the release felt rushed and hackneyed, but my experience with MMO's is very limited. My repetoire includes: Maple Story and WoW. Suffice it to say, it was an unfair opinion of an MMO launch. However, I very much enjoyed diving right into the Sith lore; Force Lightning was a tool of disposal by level 3. Sure, I picked the Horde of Tor, so to speak, but it was really enticing. I fully intend to see all of the individual class stories. Tor is seperate from WoW in one capacity only: it is purely optimized for a single-player experience. Yes, there is PvP. Yes, there are instances and raids (groups of four and 20). However, it is very much Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 Online. I think they just did not  want to call it that. That said, after recently downloading a copy of Dragon Age: Origins, Tor is much prettier graphically, the improvement is noted. The problem is, DA:O is old and you feel too inclined to want to compare them. Why? Because they are simply not the best graphics. I reached level 24 before the subscription ran up. I already feel I got what I paid for out of it and still want to play more when I have disposable cash. That is the crippling difference between Tor and WoW. Being away from WoW was not acceptable, I sold plasma to afford it when I was into it. Will Tor have longevity? Time will only tell.

GAMING MUSIC:

I was greeted to this jewel after installing the game. No complaints here. However, it is difficult to shake the feeling of LotR while listening to DA:O's background music. It camps an otherwise brutal game. I can live with it or listen to something else.