Author: Álvaro Arbonés

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Is it necessary to play other installments of the franchise to understand the story of Tears of the Kingdom?

We solve all the doubts about the games you need to play so as not to miss anything from the history of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

In video games, continuity is usually less important than in other media. In movies, literature or series it is always important to know the previous installments of a franchise, but that is something that is rarely true in video games. A medium full of reboots, remakes, and, on many occasions, franchises that even when they have continuity, are constructed in such a way that each installment can be played independently of all the others. Something in which The Legend of Zelda stands out in a particular way.

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Each installment of The Legend of Zelda, with very few exceptions, stands on its own. Although virtually all take place in the same world, each Link and each Zelda is a new reincarnation of the chosen hero and the princess who must guide him, destined to defeat the primordial evil known as Ganondorf, and to fall in love over and over again in each of their incarnations. Now, in a few cases there is continuity between games. Which seems to be the case with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

As a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game’s events take place after everything that happened in the previous game in the series. While Zelda and Link explore a subway temple, they find a mummified body. It will come to life, raise Hyrule Castle to the heavens and take Zelda with it, forcing Link to save her once again.

In this sense, it is logical to think that it is necessary to know the events of, at least, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A relatively simple story, and that Nintendo itself has recently compiled in a video to refresh our memory, but that does not cover the entire history of the world. Because in 2020, from the hand of Omega Force, Nintendo would release Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a game that takes place a hundred years before the events of Breath of the Wild, explaining the events that led to the situation of that game. While narratively deeper, it’s not necessary to understand the entirety of what happens in Breath of the Wild, as it’s self-explanatory, but it’s true that it adds a handful of extra layers that make the events that occurred in both games more memorable. Which is presumably why the same thing will happen with Tears of the Kingdom.

In any case, none of this is absolutely necessary to get into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In principle, and unless Nintendo says otherwise, knowing very much about the events that transpired in Breath of the Wild should be more than enough to enjoy the adventure. But if you want to know more, Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity are waiting for you to unravel one of the richest stories ever developed in The Legend of Zelda saga.

The Legendary Impact of Zelda: The Characters that Captivated Gamers and Influenced Pop Culture

The Legend of Zelda and its characters have had a great influence on pop culture, something that we are going to show you with a few examples.

With thirty-seven years behind it, The Legend of Zelda is one of the most influential sagas in the history of videogames. Within the medium, it has shaped entire genres. Outside of it, its influence has been no less. Link is recognizable even to those who have never touched a controller in their lives, and Zelda is a name that resonates in everyone’s mind. That’s why it seems interesting that we stop for a moment to think about how it has influenced our culture, both inside and outside the video game. Because few video game franchises can claim to be as iconic as one of Nintendo’s two main swords.

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Although the game is called The Legend of Zelda, we cannot deny that its best known character is Link. Known by parents and grandparents around the world as Zelda, despite being a boy, but in many occasions also confusing his gender because of his androgynous beauty, he has appeared on more than a few occasions in movies, television and other video games. Particularly in animated series.

Among the series in which Link has made cameos is South Park. In the three-part episode Imaginationland he appears briefly, passing in front of the camera, as one of the characters who inhabit the world where all the things we humans have ever imagined exist. More subtly, in the background, Ganondorf, better known as Ganon, the main villain of the saga, can also be found. Within the sardonic series, another one that would make its own homage is Rick & Morty. In the episode of the second season called Total Recall where an alien manipulates the minds of the whole family, making them believe that there are all kinds of imaginary beings, and forcing Rick at one point to sell the Nintendo 3DS Zelda Edition to the others. A rather subtle detail that only the most fanatical fans of the saga will notice.

Speaking of irreverent series, Robot Chicken have made a lot of humor, particularly of the relationship between Link and Zelda. In the third season episode Shoe, in the sketch Rescuing Zelda, Link saved Zelda only for Zelda to point out that she barely knew him and was already tired of all the guys who had come to her rescue before him. In the episode sketch Fridge Smell, from season eight, Link and Zelda sleep together in the same bed, only to be woken up by Zelda’s farts, part of the joke being how he calls her “wind-waker”, in reference to the installment of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker saga. And in the eighth season, a sketch called Hopefully Salt features Link trying to get Zelda’s bra off, only to sound the sound of discovered treasure when he finally succeeds.

More recently, in Supergirl’s tenth episode, Childish Things, a person shows up dressed as Link at the National City Toy Convention. Something that shows that the influence of The Legend of Zelda transcends the space of the animation world.

As we have already said, in addition, in the video game world there have been a thousand tributes to the characters of the franchise. Something that has led them to talk about more characters besides Link. For starters, in the much-loved The Simpsons Game, in the Enter the Cheatrix level, Lisa shouts that she hopes to meet Zelda, in reference to Princess Zelda. Similarly, in the NeverQuest level, Homer appears dressed as Link and Marge as Zelda. In Neverwinter Nights, Obsidian’s 2002 role-playing game, there was a boss named Ganon. Something that also happens in Enter the Gungeon, where a boss named Evil King, Cannon, mimics Ganon’s fight in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Now, if we transcend the characters to embrace the influence that symbols have, then we can extend to infinity. Because the triforce appears in so many games that it doesn’t make any sense. It’s appeared in N+, League of Legends, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and The Binding of Isaac, just to name a handful of the most well-known. Because the triforce is one of the most famous video game symbols.

As is Link’s master sword. So it should come as no surprise that the master sword and how to get it are things that have been parodied many times, one of the most notable being Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak. A Game Boy Advance game where Hamtaro must remove the legendary spoon from a pedestal that mimics that of the legendary sword, for which he must collect three stones, blue, red and green, in the same way Link must get them in order to claim the master sword in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Now, let’s not kid ourselves: we’ve saved the sweetest for last. The sadly deceased Robbie Williams was a great lover of the saga. So much so that he named one of his daughters Zelda, after the princess from The Legend of Zelda. Something that earned them both to appear in a TV commercial for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and to make a special appearance at the London Zelda Symphony Concert at the Hammersmith Apollo for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the franchise. Thus being a living demonstration of how the love of fiction can materialize in people. Transcending something that for others may be a hobby to become something that is as intrinsic a part of our lives as a daughter.

In the end we have left a lot of things by the way. Lots of references, winks, influences. The Legend of Zelda is a very influential saga that will continue to be so in the future, because it never ceases to inspire new generations. And as long as that continues to happen, as long as Link, Zelda and Ganon continue to be a source of inspiration, there will always be reasons for us to want to remember them. Or introduce them into our lives.

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Henry Cavill at 40: A Look Back at His Best Roles and Future Projects

Henry Cavill turns 40 and we take advantage not so much to review his career, but to look at his future projects.

Time passes for everyone, even for Superman, Geralt of Rivia and Henry Cavill. So, because Henry Cavill is now in his forties, it’s a good time to take a look back at his career, but above all to remember that forty is not remotely the end of anyone’s life or career. On the contrary, it is usually the peak of most people’s careers. That’s why we’re not only going to talk about Cavill’s past, but, above all, look to the future and see what challenges lie ahead for this actor, whose fame has come to him not only for being handsome and having known how to choose his roles very well, but also for being an obsessive of all things geeky.

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Born on May 5, 1983 in the Crown Dependency of Jersey, an island in the Channel Islands, his film career began in two now virtually forgotten films, Laguna and Kevin Reynolds’ adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo in 2001 and 2002. Although he later had minor roles in films like Hellraiser: Hellworld or Starudst, in addition to starring in the underrated horror thriller Blood Creek, by Joel Schumacher, in 2009, his leap to fame would happen when between 2007 and 2010 he played a much more attractive than the historical version of Charles Brandon,1st Duke of Suffolk in the series The Tudors. A role that earned him recognition in America, if not the whole world, and which opened the doors to the project that would make him a star: being Superman in Man of Steel in 2013.

From then on his projects accumulated. He appeared in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, he played Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes, and thanks to Netflix he has been able to fulfill his dream and play one of his favorite fictional characters, Geralt of Rivia, even correcting aspects of lore poorly translated to the screen. But after that, what awaits him in his future?

What we do know is that, in the short term, he seems to have taken a liking for spy fiction, especially for starring in it. Later this year, but with no date set, he should release Argylle, the new film by Matthew Vaughn, director of Stardust, Kingsman and Kick-Ass, which adapts the first novel, as yet unpublished, by Elly Conway. In this film Cavill would play a world-class spy with amnesia who is led to believe he is a successful novelist who writes stories about spies; at least until he remembers the truth and throws himself into a spiral of revenge against the organization he used to work for, The Division. Similarly, in 2024, he will release The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a film directed by Guy Ritchie, director of Snatch: Pigs and Diamonds and RocknRolla, where he will play a spy part of an organization founded by Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming that would use dirty tactics to fight the Nazis, being the origin of the current black ops.

So much for his secured job, which is coming relatively soon and something totally unexpected would have to happen for us not to get to see it. Of course, that’s not the only thing on the horizon for Cavill. In film and television, we work at least three or four years ahead, even when we the audience know nothing about it. That’s why we can also talk about the next projects he has in the pipeline right now, even if some are still rumors to be confirmed, and even those in pre-production we still can’t say for sure that they will come to fruition.

His next confirmed project, still without a date, is the adaptation of the novel The Rosie Project, directed by newcomer Steve Falk. In this romantic comedy, we follow Don Tillman, an Australian genetics professor who spends his life trying to minimize the inefficiency of all aspects of his life, seeking to be happy. Because of that he doesn’t fit in well with others, until he meets Rosie, a waitress who, even though Don immediately thinks she doesn’t fit in with him at all, he can’t help but think about her constantly. A role where Cavill can demonstrate his gallant gifts, having to carry the weight of a character with certain subtleties and contradictions, which can be a real challenge, especially if the script is up to the original story.

Finally, his other major future project is still up in the air, as it is not yet known when it will be made, if ever. Because Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick saga, has reportedly wanted to direct a remake or reboot of The Immortals, Russell Mulcahy’s mythical 1986 film, with Henry Cavill in a role yet to be specified. But, again, it’s still up in the air, as Stahelski has five other projects in pre-production and another five in development, not counting possible new John Wick installments, so nothing can be considered confirmed yet in this regard.

In any case, it is clear that Henry Cavill’s career has only just begun. At forty years old, he has already been three important characters in pop culture, but he can still prove much more as an actor. And it looks like he’s ready to do just that. Where he’ll end up is something only time will tell, but what we do know for sure is that he’s a superb actor to keep an eye on. Because if his career has shown us anything so far, it’s that Cavill may well be much more than we imagined.

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From Tamriel to Text: How ChatGPT Revives Skyrim’s Popularity Among Gamers

Skyrim continues to make people talk, this time thanks to a mod that adds compatibility with ChatGPT.

No game dies if it has a dedicated community behind it. Thanks to mods, games that have been around for years, if not decades, are still making waves, having new content and proving more refreshing than many games that have just come out. In fact, it is not uncommon for many of the most radical innovations to come from the community. Because long before any AAA game studio has experimented with AI to write dialogue for their NPCs, someone has done exactly that with a mod for Skyrim.

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The creator of this mod, Art From The Machine, has released a video of almost seven minutes showing the possibilities of using ChatGPT to make the NPCs of the game respond to our comments and our actions with stories created in a completely improvised way. Making use of xVASynth, a text-to-speech program, and Whisper, a speech-to-text program, he has also managed to make all of this possible by voice, taking the verisimilitude of the whole thing a step further. Allowing us to talk about almost anything with the characters, who will remember our previous conversations, we will know at all times that we will always receive an appropriate response beyond the limits of the script. Something that would make getting into Skyrim easier than ever.

That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have some obvious problems to overcome. Unless some limits are imposed, ChatGPT can end up overstepping the boundaries of what the characters can say, going out of character or even talking about things that have nothing to do with their world. Also, in the video there is a noticeable delay between speaking to them and the response they give, something that Art From The Machine itself has confirmed that it hopes to improve in the future.

However, we have to keep in mind that this is only a video. The demo is neither dated nor confirmed, nor can it be tested in any way. Until we see it in operation, we have to take all this with a grain of salt. Because, while it is fascinating on paper, one wonders whether it will really add anything to hear what an AI has to say without adding any more context than that, the fact that certain dialogues are written by the AI. Because at the end of the day, the interesting thing about fiction is that, like the mods, there are human beings behind it who are passionate about something they love, something that no AI, no matter how advanced, will ever be capable of.

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Ilia Topuria: The up-and-coming fighter who could be UFC’s next champion

Although not very popular in Spain, MMA is a very popular sport and one of its rising stars, Ilia Topuria, is Spanish. We present it to you.

Contact sports have never been particularly popular in our country, even if we have had great athletes in these disciplines. Having had particularly important boxers, no sport based on martial arts has ever really caught on. Not even when the world, and especially the USA and England, seem to surrender to the benefits of MMA, mixed martial arts, Spain continues to show a rather lukewarm interest in this regard. Something that may change soon, as we may have a possible UFC champion of Spanish origin on the horizon.

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Born on January 21, 1997 in Halle, German city famous for being the hometown of composer Georg Friedrich Händel and host city of Russian mathematician Georg Cantor, he moved at the age of seven to Georgia, the native country of his parents, where he would practice Greco-Roman wrestling at school. At the age of fifteen he would move to Alicante, where he would begin practicing martial arts at the Climent Club gym, making his debut on the professional MMA scene at the age of eighteen, in 2015, in local competitions.

His first four fights took place in Valencia and Alicante against local fighters, winning in the first two rounds by submission, with keys that forced his rivals to surrender. His first international fight, in CAGE 43, was in Helsinki on April 28, 2018, where he beat Mika Hamalainen by submission in the first round. From there he continued to climb the ranks, winning by submission all of his fights in Cage Warriors and later in Brave Combat Federation, with the exception of his eighth fight, won by KO against Stephen Goncalves, knocking him down with punches. At that time he caught the attention of the current biggest MMA company in the world, the UFC.

In UFC he has had five fights so far. His first, against Youssef Zalai, he won by unanimous judges’ decision after all three rounds were exhausted with no clear winner. His next three fights, against Damon Jackson, Ryan Hall and Jai Herbert he won by KO with punches, with his last fight so far, against Bryce Mitchell, managing to win by submission. This has earned him to become one of the biggest promises of the company, with an extraordinary win rate, which justifies the nickname he was given at his gym: El Matador.

Despite the fact that Ilia Topuria’s career is already more than consolidated, the lack of knowledge of his sport in Spain makes him a less known professional than he should be. Even if he has never been shy to appear in the media. Already in 2021 he appeared in La Resistencia, David Broncano’s program, where he talked about his life and his work, and he has appeared in more than a few podcasts in recent months, such as The Wild Project, in addition to his own podcast. If we also count his recent appearance on El Hormiguero, it is undeniable that he has the potential to be a Spanish sports star.

If you want to see Topuria’s next fight, you’ll still have to wait a bit. While it had been announced that his next fight would be June 17 at UFC on ESPN 46, it will finally be June 24 at UFC on ABC: Emmett vs. Topuria, this being his first headlining bout and also his first fight against a fighter ranked one spot above him, as Josh Emmett is ranked fifth in the UFC’s top 10 featherweight rankings.

If Topuria wins this bout as soundly as his previous fights he would be very well positioned to compete for the UFC featherweight world title, currently held by Islam Makhachev, who has an impressive 24-1 record. Whether Topuria makes it that far or falls by the wayside only time will tell, but what is clear is that he is a rising star and has the potential to be the first Spanish UFC champion. Something that, if achieved, will not only be making history, but also, perhaps, will awaken interest in contact sports in a country as reactive to them as Spain is.

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What happened to the Ewoks? The reason why they don’t appear in the new Star Wars movie

Loved by a few, hated by the many, Ewoks appear less and less in Star Wars. What is this about? That is what we explain to you trying to understand its history.

Secondary characters appear and disappear. It is the law of life. Their popularity suffers ups and downs, writers or directors become infatuated with them, and they can have small moments of glory. However, unless they manage to dazzle the public, we will rarely see them on a regular basis. That doesn’t take away from the fact that, because of their importance in a specific era, it sometimes makes us wonder why certain characters have been ignored. Because, let’s cut to the chase, what happened to the Ewoks, and why are they rarely used in Star Wars anymore?

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Making their first appearance in 1983 in Return of the Jedi, the third film of the original trilogy, the Ewoks are a species of vaguely anthropomorphic space bears with very little technological know-how that deal a severe blow to the Empire, allowing the Rebels to take down the Emperor once and for all. The peculiar thing is that while they are famous today, Ewoks were never among George Lucas’ original plans. The final battle on the moon of Endor was to take place on Kashyyyk and the Empire was to be pitted against that planet’s indigenous species, the Wookies.

The problem is that George Lucas wanted this to be a fight between the Empire, technologically very advanced, and a primitive species, with minimal technological knowledge in a sort of echo of the Viet Cong guerrillas and the struggles of the Native American tribes upon the arrival of the Europeans. Given that Chewbacca was shown to not only know how to use weapons, but had a fair amount of engineering knowledge, that plan didn’t seem right for the Wookies. But he didn’t want to scrap it altogether either. Thus, the Ewoks were born.

Inspired by the Wookies, Lucas sought to create a sort of reverse of his original characters. That meant relying mainly on two strategies: reversing the name by eliminating a couple of vowels along the way (from Wookie to Ewok) and making the Ewoks small where the Wookies were big. Otherwise, the characters would be the same as what I had conceived. Physically strong, intelligent despite their limited technological knowledge, very hairy, with flat faces and earth-toned hair and eyes. In that way, his idea is that if the Wookies worked with the audience, there was no reason why the Ewoks shouldn’t. Something that gave them, even before the movie was released, the green light to appear in their own product line.

This translated into the fact that, in 1984, two adventure films were released in the U.S. that would follow the Ewok’s adventures on the moon of Endor. In Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, a human family, the Towani, suffer an interstellar accident and crash-land on the Ewok satellite. Shortly after their accidental crash, the adults are kidnapped and the children meet an Ewok named Deej, who decides to take them in and help them find their parents, leading them on a little adventure together. In its sequel, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a group of Sanyassans, a species of humanoid reptiles with tough, rough skin, attack the Ewok village and steal an energy cell that the Towani need to finish repairing their ship. For that reason the Ewok and humans join forces to go after them, defeat them and, once the cell is recovered, the Towani finish repairing the ship, leaving Endor and its furry inhabitants behind.

To say that these two TV movies are not masterpieces will surprise no one. They are familiar works, with no pretense other than to be entertaining, seeking to demonstrate that the Ewok are a strong and peaceful people of generous and affable people. Unfortunately, what they succeeded in doing was to redouble the hatred that fans already felt for these peculiar characters.

Since the release of Return of the Jedi the ewooks have been openly despised. Highly questioned by fans, they have been considered a forced inclusion that is there solely to sell toys. A view that the movies only reinforced – there was nothing of what fans expect from Star Wars, just a product clearly focused on the younger generation. That made the popularity of the Ewoks minimal, which added to the discreet success of the movies, they decided not to continue trying to exploit the image of these plush characters. Even if they have been appearing here and there, including in the end of the vilified ninth installment The Rise of Skywalker.

So when we talk about the disappearance of the Ewoks in an era where all the characters return, no matter how minor, it’s probably because of that. They’re not characters that are remembered fondly. They are seen as objects of exploitation, that are focused for a child audience and nothing more. Arguably, in fact, Star Wars is a franchise that targets a family audience and should not be a reason to attack characters with a child audience in mind, but the reality is this: the Ewoks alienate fans. That’s why it seems unlikely that we’ll see them again in the future starring in their own series or their own movie. Which is a shame because these distant cousins of the Wookies deserve much more respect than they’ve ever been given.

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A closer look at the wackiest characters that have graced the Zelda franchise

The Legend of Zelda is a very rich universe with some very unique characters. In this article we review the most peculiar of all of them.

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most famous video game franchises in the world. Despite the misunderstandings generated by the title and the fact that the main character is called Link, its characters are well known and loved by the general public. This doesn’t mean that the saga doesn’t have a good handful of quite peculiar characters. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Of the strangest characters, when not directly insane, that populate Hyrule and all the worlds we have visited by the hand of Link and Zelda. Because although it may not seem so, this is a world full of peculiar characters.

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Salvatore

Few things are funnier than a man who is unnecessarily serious. A boring man, who doesn’t make sense to be there, but somehow, doesn’t clash at all with everything he does. And that’s Salvatore’s role in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: to be strangely hilarious in his utter lack of enthusiasm for his work.

Salvatore, a man with a blank stare and minimal mustaches, is in charge of the Sink the Fleet and Cannon Game mini-games who always greets us with a bored and disinterested gesture. But when he has to explain the games to us, he impersonates other characters in the game, pirate captains or damsels in distress, all with wooden cutouts with a hole in which to fit his face. He shouts. He voices. He changes his accent and the way he speaks. But not his enthusiasm. Salvatore always comes across as bored and completely disinterested in what’s going on happening. On the other hand, that’s exactly why we like him. He never stops being funny even though, in reality, we know he’s still looking for another idea to take on.

Skull Kid

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a game that many of us still remember today with a mixture of reverence and dread. Its setting was strange, it was full of mystery and its main antagonist during most of the game, Skull Kid, made everything even stranger. Child-sized, colorfully dressed and very mischievous, influenced by Majora’s Mask, he seeks to bring down the Moon in order to destroy Thermina. But the strangest thing of all is that Skull Kid is not the only skull kid in the franchise, because they are a whole species.

Usually found in the Lost Forest, a labyrinthine forest where the pedestal of time where the master sword is hidden, it is said that adults who die in the forest become skeletons and children become skull kids. Kind to children and hostile to adults, something that is represented in how they are friendly with Link as a child and attack him as an adult, are one of the great mysteries of the Zelda saga. A recurring species, with importance in the lore, but the more we know about them, the more mysterious and distant they seem to us.

The ghost hunter

Although it is always said that the darkest game is Majora’s Mask, it is undeniable that Ocarina of Time also has some disturbing aspects. Ultimately, after Ganondorf gains the power of the Triforce, no one in the village of Hyrule Castle can live there anymore, except for one person: the ghost hunter. A mysterious character who makes a living selling ghosts and loves to create trouble.

But who is this character? The game never makes it clear. But everything seems to point to the fact that he is probably the gentleman who remains standing exactly where the ghost hunter is sitting seven years later. He is a knight who encourages you to break vases and who wears clothes with the triforce symbol, just like the ghost hunter. If both are located in the same place, wouldn’t it make sense that the impudent and mischievous soldier would become the impudent and mischievous ghost once Ganondorf takes over the place?

Tingle

Finally, we have to talk about the strangest character of the franchise. The man who has starred in two of his own games. Who has appeared in almost all the installments. Who’s very appearance has caused countless nightmares, who’s obsession with forest fairies is disturbing, and who, despite working as a cartographer, seems more qualified as a lowly inventor than a geographer. We speak, of course, of Tingle.

This 35-year-old Hylian made his first appearance in Majora’s Mask and since then has not stopped appearing in one way or another. Believing himself to be the true reincarnation of a fairy, as Zelda is the reincarnation of the legendary hero, he’s always comic relief, sometimes in the form of an ally, sometimes in the form of a minor antagonist, as well as the originator of the phrase “kurulin…PA!”. Essentially, a romanization of the Japanese phrase “kuruinpa”, the sound the Japanese make to say that someone is cuckoo. Something that already tells us everything about what we should think about the strangest man in all of Hyrule.

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Forza Motorsport shows its new functionality: a system for blind people

Forza Motorsport promises, in its new development video, to bring the franchise’s gaming experience to the only people who couldn’t experience it until now: the blind.

Microsoft is notorious for making more news about its tug-of-war with various government agencies over its wallet-grabbing than its video games, but perhaps that will start to change in the near future. With Forza Motorsport on the horizon, due for release this 2023, Microsoft’s popular racing game has released a new development video focusing on one of its most eye-catching accessibility options: blind driving assistance.

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In this video the people from the studio along with their accessibility consultant, Brandon Cole, explain what this functionality consists of. Adding sounds that tell us if we are getting too close to the limits of the track, when we should turn or if we can accelerate or we should slow down, this system is designed so that blind or visually impaired people can enjoy the racing game like sighted people.

This is a step forward from their previous game, Forza Horizon, where they already included numerous accessibility options, winning numerous awards in this regard. Something that demonstrates the studio’s commitment to this particular facet of development.

Something possible, also, thanks to the fact that Forza Motorsport is the closest version to the simulation of the franchise. Focused on on-track racing, the variety of cars and their destructibility and modification, it has shown itself since the Xbox 360 generation, when it appeared in 2005, as the main competitor to Sony’s racing game par excellence, Gran Turismo. For its part, Forza Horizon, whose first installment appeared in 2012, is the most arcade and casual version of the franchise, inviting us to play more with realistic physics, variety of terrains and all kinds of different races and competitions under the excuse of a great festival centered around the motor world.

For that reason, we look forward to this eighth installment of the Motorsport subsaga. Not only because Microsoft has to start showing that it is not lagging behind Sony, especially after the success of its Gran Turismo 7, which has a movie in development, but also because its accessibility options such as this no-vision driving assistance are a very good precedent that other big budget games can take note of.

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Transformers Franchise Ranked: Which Movies are the Best and Worst?

Before superheroes were popular, we had the Transformers. In light of his new film, we review the franchise, ordering its installments from best to worst.

There was a time when neither Marvel nor DC seemed to be in the public’s expectations. In the late 00s, when blockbusters were eagerly awaited, what everyone was thinking about was the Transformers franchise. A franchise that today has lost some of its favor with critics and audiences, but is the fourteenth highest grossing franchise in the history of cinema. Considering that we are talking about a list where the top 5 is made up of the MCU, Star Wars, Spider-Man, Harry Potter and James Bond, the fourteenth place does not seem to justify the oblivion to which it sometimes seems to have been relegated.

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That doesn’t take away from the fact that the films in the franchise have had their ups and downs. Better and worse moments, especially thanks to the fact that the director most involved with it, Michael Bay, has more passionate critics than ardent defenders. But as the seventh installment of the franchise, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is so close that we already have even its first trailer, we are going to order all the films of its particular cinematic universe to check how fair have been the reviews of it. All to find out why, the best of them all so far, is a spinoff.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

The greatest sin an entertainment film can commit is to remind you that you’re watching a movie. That’s something that Transformers: Age of Extinction and its gargantuan 165 minutes constantly falls into. An ode to excess where the special effects fail to lift a movie where the human scenes make you want to hit the fast forward button and the robot scenes remind us that previous movies did it better. A painful reminder that for a movie to feel important, you have to do more than just repeat over and over again how important everything at stake is.

Transformers: The Last Knight

Ingenious in its premise, but disastrous in its execution, Transformers: The Last Knight falls into the same problems as Transformers: Age of Extinction with one differentiating element: what happens in The Last Knight has a coolness factor that allows us, from time to time, to go back to childhood and gaze in awe at the mayhem happening on screen. Or it could have if it had embraced what it really is. If it had taken it to its ultimate consequences that it’s a story that feels like it was written by a 5 year old playing with his Transformers toys after being told the story of King Arthur way too much, it might be a couple of places higher on this list.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

There is an expression that second parts were never good because when it was forged Dark of the Moon had not been released to compare it with Revenge of The Fallen. Everything that the second installment of the franchise is -mamarracha, crazy, full of fights and epic scenes with lots of slow motion-, is what this third installment wants to be, which only manages to be a worse, longer and more tired version. A movie that promised a lot, but lacked a twist of its own.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

There are two ways to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. As a movie that wants to follow a script with a meaningful logic, it fails miserably and ends up being too repetitive and frustrating not to notice that it has forty minutes of footage left over. But if viewed as a film where robots bleed brake fluid and the Great Pyramid of Giza is used for robots that turn into vehicles to fight and perform spectacular stunts, the film is enjoyed as one enjoys an afternoon at the circus: appreciating the possibility of seeing something that should not be possible.

The transformers: The Movie

This is cheating, because it is not part of the canon of modern Transformers movies, but it does not detract from the fact that it is a Transformers movie. And the fact is that, taking place twenty years after the original series, The Transformers: The Movie was a critical and public failure that only over the years has ended up being revalued. Why? Because the robots are voiced by people like Leonard Nimony, Eric Idle or the invention of fake news, Orson Welles; the soundtrack is a mixture of Vince DiCola’s electronica and heavy metal composed by Stan Bush and “Weird Al” Yankovic, and its animation can only be defined as psychedelic at times. A film that probably deserves to be at the top of this list.

Transformers

Except that the movie that started it all is still an example of what late 00s blockbusters were all about. Michael Bay unleashed. It starts as a comedy, continues as a thriller, ends as an action movie, and somehow, it works throughout without us even getting to consider that it all shouldn’t ever be able to fit together. But it does. The result is a family film that the presence of Megan Fox and Michael Bay’s direction of actors make it extremely uncomfortable to watch as a family to define the identity of the franchise from its first installment. Something very few in the history of entertainment can say.

bumblebee

Now, let’s not kid ourselves. If Transformers is the foundational film of the franchise, Bumblebee is what happens when you make that same movie with a fifteen-plus audience in mind. It’s not just that Travis Knight’s direction, Hailee Steinfield and John Cena’s performances, and Bumblebee’s design are among the best in the saga, it’s that the film has cinematography, pacing, and a script that manages to be consistently enjoyable, familiar, and when it hits, epic and tense, without being uncomfortable for any member of the family. Does it miss the sound and fury of Michael Bay? Perhaps. But it’s a price we’re willing to pay in exchange for the comfortable genius unleashed in Bumblebee.

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Rihanna will be the Smurfette, but she’s not the craziest thing about the new Smurfs movie

The Smurfs are going to have a reboot and they have found a Smurfette to match: Rihanna herself.

Some projects seem to be born out of meetings that have dragged on too long for anyone to dare say that maybe that wasn’t as good an idea as it sounds to top executives. We all have movie names in mind when we say this, but every year new names come out that make us wonder what the hell they were thinking when they greenlit those projects. And while there’s only one Cats, we can’t kid ourselves: a reboot of The Smurfs, half live-action and half animated, that’s also a musical, sounds like something that could go horribly wrong. Or at the very least, extremely funny.

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In this regard, the latest news about The Smurfs movie is that Rihanna will voice the Smurfette. After making a surprise appearance at CInemaCon, an annual convention of movie theater owners in Las Vegas, the singer and actress stated that “I tried to get the role of Papa Smurf, but it didn’t work out”. Jokes aside, it has been revealed that the singer will write, record and perform original songs for the film, in addition to producing the project itself. Something that demonstrates an undeniable commitment to it, as well as tremendous faith in the film.

Many people will ask at this point, but is there actually a Smurfs movie in development? The answer is yes. Set for release sometime in 2025, we learned on February 7, 2022 that LAFIG Belgium and IMPS, the owners of The Smurfs brand, had reached an agreement to produce several Smurfs films in conjunction with Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies, the first of which would be this as-yet-untitled project.

That said, it’s also worth remembering that Rihanna, when it comes to choosing roles, has had a rather peculiar mix of small successes and real box office catastrophes that makes it even more difficult to evaluate whether this new film adventure will end up working out well or not. Her first film, Battleship, was not only a box-office flop, but also won her a Razzie for worst supporting actress; her first step in animated films in Home: Home Sweet Home ended up passing without success; and her last big project, with a leading role in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, ended up in a film that ended up being a box-office and critical failure despite having some of the most recognizable faces of today’s cinema.

That doesn’t detract from the fact that, as we have pointed out, she also has her small victories. Her role as Marion Crane in the fifth season of Bates Motel was very well received, despite having to fill Janet Leigh’s iconic shoes; and Ocean’s 8 showed us a lighthearted and fun Rihanna in a film that was a hit both at the box office and with critics. Which is why it’s hard to be totally skeptical about what will happen with this movie.

Even if everything else we know about the film doesn’t invite even the most tempered optimism. Directed by Chris Miller, who made the third Shrek installment and the first Puss in Boots, and written by Pam Braddy, who co-wrote South Park with Trey Parker and Matt Stone until 1999, but has also written the screenplays for Hot Rod – Jumping Fate or The Bubble, it’s hard to predict what will come out of here. Something with a comedic encore, and certainly with very good music, but seeing the resume of those involved in it, maybe Rihanna is the person who will have to carry the burden of making sure this movie turns out well. Or that she is lysergic enough for us to forgive her everything.

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