The Legend of Zelda has taken over GameCity! The Legend of Zelda has now been going strong for twenty five years and GameCity today honoured the legendary RPG franchise with a full day dedicated to all things Hyrulean.
It was the last day of the festival, and today I think it really came into its own. Lovers of Zelda travelled far and wide to visit the festival and the turnout seemed better today than any other day of the festival. The atmosphere in the tent was captivating with the hustle and bustle of the crowd, the array of Hyrulean sights and the accompanying Zelda theme music adding to the heroic vibe of the day. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d actually stepped into the game!
But it wasn’t just about glitzy decorations and atmospheric music; this was GameCity, so cue the games. Every Zelda game imaginable was on show from The Legend of Zelda itself, all the way through to the imminent Skyward Sword. Hundreds of Zelda fans were scattered across the floor, all having a go at saving the land of Hyrule. Those who were willing to wait in line were rewarded with the opportunity to play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, more than three weeks before its official release date. Anyone with a competitive streak also had the chance to challenge all competitors on Link’s Crossbow Training, which was played all day on the big screen. Those who succeeded in beating the high score were rewarded with a special (yet secret) prize.
There was a host of activities on offer, ranging from shield designing to sword fighting. You could also relive your arts and crafts lessons in school with a chance to get your hands dirty and add some Zelda fan-art to the walls of GameCity (see below), with face painting and ocarina playing thrown in as well. In fact, several lucky attendees of the festival were given limited edition ocarinas to keep, and were invited to take part in the festivals Ocarina Orchestra, who closed the festival in style, belting out several of the Franchises most loved tunes- to the appreciation of gamers and fans at the festival.
It was a fitting end, not only to a brilliant day of celebration, but a truly insightful and enjoyable GameCity. The Legend of Zelda has influenced many games, and just as many gamers. GameCitys’ celebration of this well loved franchise was a fantastic way to end this year’s outstanding festival, which builds on its success every year. As I walked through Nottingham City centre this morning, it was clear the clean up process had already begun with only the steel skeleton of the base tent remaining as evidence of, what was, GameCity 6.
Keegan Spindler
Unfortunately I didn’t have as great a time as you apparently. I was told they were building castle market square in the tent, all it had was some cheap foliage a green carpeted floor. Where was castle market? Apparently only in the game.
I queued for an hour to get in, once I got in I was expecting amazing things, again it was another let down. Link’s Crossbow training was not played throughout the day. They were playing it before I got in the tent and ceased afterwards and decided to do some swordsplay instead with volunteers, then afterwards it was the costume competition, which was briefly uplifting. Having queued again to play a five minute demo, which kept cutting out on me, I was not impressed at all (gaming superb – the execution and set-up was not). I left half an hour later with an annoyed expression on my face, with only a free keyring hanging from my pocket. What was supposed to be an amazing day, turned out to be a rubbish excuse for what they promised.
I thought it was terribly done.
I walked up to a large plain white tent. I waited in a line for an hour to eventually see a bored looking security guard in a yellow vest letting people in. I was not greeted with anything looking remotely zelda themed except a strange man on a stage awkwardly swinging a small wooden sword around. There was nothing to indicate when or where anything was in the small tent but soon realized there wasn’t actually anything to see. They ran out of ocarinas early in the morning.
Not sure what the person above is going on about – I was greeted at the door with a slice of Zelda cake, walls full of fancy artwork and loads of different console games to play. A lot of kids there were really enjoying themselves and I had a good time too!