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HTLOZ speaks with
SHIGERU MIYAMOTO
Espio goes to the European Consumer Trade Show and sits with Nintendo's gaming master!

Today (september 3th, 2000) was the greatest day of my life. My back is aeching and my feet are killing me, but never the less, the greatest day.

Making an Entrance

After a two hour car journey, I was refused entrance by a stupid stewardess women, so I had to spend 25 quid on a registration form, just to get in. Not a good start, but a cool German man helped me out with directions and stuff.

So here I was, gaming heaven. What do I play first? The first game I find of course, Mickey Speedway USA.
I would have played it for longer than 30 seconds, but 1, It's mickey mouse and 2, I could see Mario Tennis from there!

Now, because I got there early, everyone in the bloody building hadn't realised Mario Tennis was cool by then, so I actually got a go. Damn good game, with simple controls, it's less a tennis sim, and more fancie 3D pong.

The Games

I didn't enjoy Zelda: Majora's Mask as much as I hoped. It's probably because it's one of those games you have to play with the windows and doors firmly shut. Still, it was nice to see an English version, and the it was one of the few games at the show that you could actually hear.

I didn't get to play Banjo-Tooie as much as I would have liked to, but I did get to play quite a few levels. One was the first person shooter temple level, where you have to collect totum poll heads to get a jiggy. The first person mode is good fun, you can even aim with R, infact, in the normal game, when you use C-up to look, you can use the crosshair to fire eggs. I also noticed that the Banjo-Kazooie humour was back, where Kazooie offered a temple guard a bribe to get in.

Conker's BFD was a brilliant game. It made me laugh out loud untill I got stomach cramp. I played the infamous Bigga Bonner level, where you had to bite cunks out of a guys arse, and it's deadly realistic. When you die, the devel has a little chat with you witch is also quite funny, he's actually a midgit with a squeaky voice who swears alot. Conker didn't get the attension that I expected though.

Dinosaur Planet is a very pretty game, and the cut scenes are excellent. But like Zelda, you need to concentrate on it, and really play it through to enjoy it fully. The game is pretty much like Rare's version of Zelda, an the presentation is excellent.

Donkey Kong Country on the Gameboy color wasn't played much by me, seeming as it's a Snes port. It has been mixed with DK64 a bit though, it even has the same menu.

Gameboy Advance

The Gameboy Advance floor was packed. The only game I got to play was weird japanese maze game. The actual console is much smaller than the GBC, and it feels a bit odd. I suppose I will get used to it in time though. I was a bit dispointed with the game I was playing, it looked like a GBC game.

Mario Kart Advance was only viewed by me in movies, and it looks almost as good as the N64 version, but not quite as good. I didn't get to play it because of the crouds, but I've been told that it was very good.

Zelda´s creator speaks with Espio!
"Holy Crap! I just saw Miyamoto!"

I was just walking through the reception when who but Shigeru Miyamoto, creater of Mario and Zelda walked right passed me. I stould a starred in total shock for a while, and then he was gone. I was pretty niffed after that!

Well it was time to go home. I walked to the train station after spying to Bits girls and the ex-N64 Magazine editor, and who was standing next to me? Shigeru Miyamoto and his right hand man! I was shocked that Miyamoto was going to use the train, then again, trains are very good in Japan.

Shigeru Miyamoto and his right hand man reading a map at the train station.
Espio (Andy) follows them while taking this picture.

I followed him into his carrage, and I stould up, while he and his right hand man sat and read through a Japanese London map book. As more people got off the train, I moved and sat opposite him, as the both laughed and talked to each other.

It's funny when you're in the same room as Shigeru Miyamoto, because you go as giddy as a school girl at his almighty presence. I just sat and smiled at him, I don't know if he noticed.

Games master, Shigeru Miyamoto and his right hand man in the train.
Espio got inside the train to take this picture.

The train stopped,and everyone had to moth onto another train to continue, I followed closely behind Mr. Miyamoto and his right hand man, as we exited the train. For some reason, Shigeru's translater left him and the station, but Miyamoto-san started reading a train map, I think he is really trying to learn English now. I wanted to get an autograph from him, but I had nothing for him to sign, then I though, the back of my press pass! I quickly wen't over to him and asked for his autograph. "Sure!" he said. Yes, in English. I always throught he couldn't speak a word of English, but obviously you learn a few words once you've had a translater as long as him.

He took his time writing the signature, about 20 seconds to be precise. Then he checked the front and wrote my name above the signature. "Andy!" he said in his soft calm voice, and handed to me. That's right, the Nintendo daddy said my name. Life is good.

Zelda´s creator signature.
An autograph from Shigeru Miyamoto dedicated to Andy (Espio).

I went off for a while, happy with myself, then the train arrived and I went in the same carriage as Mr. Miyamoto, and sat two chairs away from him. After a while he started conversation, here's the full transcript:

SM: Where are you from?
Espio: East London
SM: Are you a games developer?
Espio: No, I work at a website
SM: Pardon?
Espio: (points to Hyrule: The Land of Zelda's address on pass)
SM: Oh great! , did you go to the show?
Espio: Yes, I played the new Zelda and I thought it was very good
SM: Pardon?
Espio: Zelda: Mask Of Mujula is very good
SM: Oh, did you play Gameboy Advance?
Espio: yes, but I couldn't play Mario Kart, it was too crouded!
SM: (laughs) We have just finished that!
Espio: You have finished it?
SM: Yes, but we can make it better (laughs)
Espio: Have you finished Mario for Gamecube?
SM: No...
Espio: (pulls digital camera from Pocket) Can I have a photo with you?
SM: (laughs then shakes my hand for the camera)

Andy (Espio) shaking hands with Shigeru Miyamoto himself!
Oh my gosh... we´re sure Espio will never wash his hand again!!!

That's the core of the speach, i'm pretty sure there's more, but this is all I can remember. After this, he got off of the train and waved to me from outside. He got off at Edgeware station, which was a fitting tribute seeming as he makes cutting edge ware.

Wow! Espio went to the ECTS 2000 without even knowing he was going to meet the gaming master himself! But he did!
With this, Hyrule: The Land of Zelda becomes the first and only Zelda website to share a moment with the creator of Zelda himself!

Thanks so much Shigeru Miyamoto for your time! We hope to see you again in the future!

-The staff at Htloz.com

Ects Day 2
Htloz plays English Zelda: Majora's Mask

Majora's Mask wasn't very popular at ECTS 2000, seeming as all the people there were journalist types, and had already imported the Japanese version, in fact, I heard a man come up to the kiosk next to me, and say to his girlfriend "hey look! Now we can understand it!". Isn't that nice? His Girlfriend plays Zelda with him. Yesterday, I said that I didn't enjoy it much, true, but now that I have left it, I have realised that I want to go back and play it! I'm addicted again!
Now, the first part I played on the game was the part where Link has just turned into a Deku Scrub, and you have to use the Flower thing, to go chopper style onto the other platforms.
I must have played this part about four times, because journalists would watch the English intro, then leave it for someone else to play, which was actually pretty good, because I was always left to play it on the big screen :) After that part, you end up with one of those cut scenes with the zooming camera, it seems the EAD Team likes that effect, as it is used a lot throughout the game. Anyway, you end up in a windmill type place (at least it has the same sound effects as the Kakariko Windmill), And you meet the mask man there. I can't remember the full speech, but his first line is "You have suffered a terrible fate..." which along with the Dark background music, shows that this game is much darker than the first 64-Bit Zelda.
From this point on, I reset the N64, because I didn't really have time for cut scenes...
Once you play the game from the switch on point, you'll notice that the game has the same intro, so I pressed start hoping for a full version, but no luck. It was a 'Tour' version, like the one shown at E3 2000. It was a simple menu with the sky in the background, and the fairy fountain music playing. The tours included 'Goron Race', 'Zora Race', 'Woodfall Temple', 'Somthing Field', 'Something-or-other Boss' and 'Clocktown'. There wer more, but these were the ones I played.

Goron Race

I decided to choose the Goron Race before the others. You appear at a cannion type race track appearably on Death Mountain. There are a few Gorons in a duddle, so I went over to them, and spoke to a child Goron. He said something to the equivelant of "Hey, I've been waiting for you, you're going to race, right?', then you have to choose yes or no. I of cource, being the man that I am, chose 'YES', and appeared on the starting line with several other Gorons. Unless you haven't allready guessed, I was obviously Goron Link at the time. After the countdown, you have to do Goron Link's spin attack (cough, Sonic) whitch consumes magic. The Cource is very basic, with a few ramps and pots of Magic, and at the end a load of trees to dodge, whitch of cource, I hit EVERY time! I never did win this...

Zora Race

I liked this, it's like the 'Engarde Arena' from DK64. Basicly, you have to follow a beaver, through 20 hoops, if you go through them all in 20 minuites, you get a bottle. The water effects are really good here, if you go through an area of water with plants groing in it, the water is kind of green and mucky, but if you go through an area next to green grass, and pebbles on the water bed, then the water is really clear. I would have won this race too if I hadn't of spent 30 seconds of the two minuites I had working out the controls, I went through the last hoop JUST as the time ran out, and it didn't count!

Woodfall Temple

This is the Deku Link temple, but I didn't read the title properly and thought it was a waterfall temple, so I chose it. A water temple sounds much more challenging ;) Anyway, I started in a room, when the obviously glitched 'NATL' the fairy told me that "The water in here is like the water in the swamp...", In other words it's not a good idea to go for a little paddle in there. In the center, there's a huge platform thing, and on the corners there are lilly pads. You can stand on the lilly pads, but if you touch the water, you bounce and get higher every time until you fall to your death. It took me four deaths to realise that I didn't know what to do, so I reseted.

Woodfall Temple Boss

This boss is the big jungle man one, with the big sword. I started out as normal Link, but there was a chopper flower (temperate name) in the middle, so I put the Deku Link mask on, and launched into the air. I tried to throw deku nuts at the boss, but he wasn't taking damage, and after a while, these little bug things fell from the sky, so I just quit. I have more important things to do than loose.

Clocktown

I didn't look forward to playing in Clocktown, because I wanted an action packed dungeon to stop me wanting to go and play Banjo-Tooie. I walked around for a while, until a spotted a 'chopper flower', so I transformed into Deku Link and walked over to it. A flying tree thing came from the sky and said, "Hey, this spot's reserved for me!". I turned back into normal link, and had a run around, when I noticed that the town was split up into 'North, East, South, West' (never eat Shredded Weat). Still, a bit too boring for my liking, reset!

Field

After a while, I just fancied a muck around, and went into the Field tour and just messed about with the weapons for a while. I noticed the menu here, it's the same as in Ocarina of Time, but it has a gold tint. All the menus are back, except the one where you can equip Link's sword, shield etc, is now a mask menu, the equipment moves to the 'Quest Status' menu. None of the map had been revealed. I had every weapon, and every mask except Oni-Link. I equipped Fire Arrows, the new Slingshot and a cool looking sword that you could assign to the c-buttons. I tried the slingshot, no big deal, the same as before. I tried the fire arrows, the same as before. Then I got out the sword, hahaha! Just like the biggoron sword, except it's called "The Great Fairy Sword", and it looks great. A vulture type bird started fly towards me, so I smacked him round the chiggers with it. Marvellous! The sword broke! A fake!
The game had its fair share of glitches though, I've already told you about 'NATL' the fairy, surely NOA wouldn't call the fairy Natl ? And another thing I noticed was, when I tried to put down Bombchus, they exploded at my feet and I would loose energy. It took me a while to realise they weren't going to go along though. Stupid stubborn me.

-Espio, the meeter of Miyamoto-san ;)

For the most complete coverage on the japanese Majora's Mask click here>>

The upcoming GAMEBOY ADVANCE was also at the event, of course.

Nintendo fans enjoying the upcomng titles for N64

ECTS 2000 coverage by ESPIO.