Don't expect Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland to make another pass-- look for something different this time.
When the past installment, Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland was released, it received an excellent welcome wagon in Japan (no sarcasm) and in America/Europe (sarcasm). Whenther people were fans of Tingle or not, most who played the game actually enjoyed it, and many have said it is one of their favorite Zelda games.
Will the sequel live up to its predecessor's glory? Read on, my friends, read on.
As a webmaster/content writer of a Zelda fansite, OrdonVillage.com, I felt that we should be responsible for covering this game, even though it's just a spin-off of the Zelda franchise (although I should mention that it is considered to be canon). I dipped into my pockets to buy TLBT as an import. Sadly, I'm illiterate when it comes to Japanese, so it's been a struggle to play through this game so far.
As I loaded up the game, I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that several new characters had been added to the series. I watched the opening cutscene, and saw that it was good. (No pun intended.) However, when it came time for me to navigate around my room, I was a bit confused. "Why isn't this stupid control pad working?!", I asked myself. Within the next few moments, I realized that this was a point-and-click adventure game.
For those of you who remember, Lucasarts had quite a few of these games way back when. (These included the infamous Money Island games, which are apparently going to make their way to WiiWare.)
At first I was dismayed to come to this realization. I loved TRR. I wanted another TRR. I don't want this crappy point-and-click game! ...But after playing for about half-an-hour, I began to change my mind. I noticed how vivid the colors were, and how well-developed the character's personalities were. The game had a cheerful atmosphere to go along with it, too. The music was also great, as well. It seemed to mix a little bit of the old in with some new. I started to thoroughly enjoy myself.
Then, it happened- I got stuck. After trying almost every possible avenue I saw, I had no where left to turn. And I was only on page two. You see, this game is divided up into pages. Each page has several sections (usually about three) that Tingle must venture through to complete the page.
Eventually, I figured out what to do after messing around using various items for an hour or so. For this particular style of point-and-click adventure, you search for items, use them on other items, and use the effects in different areas. For example, you might search through a pile of corn husks, and find an ear of corn. You take inside a farmer's hut, and use it on the fire to roast it. You can then take the cooked corn and give it over to a statue.
Or in a another instance, you can use a slingshot to strike a crow, causing it to drop a much-needed battery. There are so many items, and so many objects, it's hard to know what to interact with, and how.
From what I've seen so far, this is a very rewarding game. It has plenty of challenges, to be sure, but isn't that what Nintendo fans have been asking for, especially when it comes to Zelda?
For those of you interested in purchasing this game, I would suggest that you wait for an English release, as this is a very text-heavy game. From what I've heard, there are very difficult puzzles well into the game, many of them which are almost impossible to complete without some understanding of the language.
Let's just hope that this humor-filled game comes to America soon, as it's something you don't want to miss out on.