Tingle Island Revisited: The Horror Returns

A few years ago, around the time Strange Moments in Gaming was created, we talked about Tingle the man-elf.  Tingle is easily one of the creepiest, if not the creepiest character in the Legend of Zelda series, so it was fitting that he made an appearance in this blog.  However, looking back on the article I feel like I had not done justice to Tingle Island in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker due to my somewhat brief mention of the place.

Because of this grievous mistake, and because this current entry marks the 100th post in Strange Moments in Gaming, I have decided to once again face the terror-who-wears-green-spandex by giving a more in-depth look at Tingle Island.  Join me on my adventure to the land that makes Lost's island seem like Disneyland.

Upon arriving in the vicinity of Tingle Island, I find that the land itself is somewhat small and barren.  Dominating the landscape is the massive and threatening Tingle Tower.  This tower is composed of a single column carved with various designs which we'll see in a bit.  As a warning to all passing sailors, the top of the tower is capped with a gigantic rotating Tingle head, making this a lighthouse from hell.  Let's take a closer look shall we?

After making landfall, it immediately begins to rain on the island.  I think we can all take this as a bad omen; something is warning me to turn back while I can.  Instead I gather my courage and continue on a little closer to the tower, to observe the various carvings on its column.  It doesn't take long for me to notice that one of the carvings is the giant pig head of Ganon himself (or one of his minions).

Something is definitely not right here.  For someone who claims to be a fairy, why would Tingle create a monument to the world's biggest threat?

Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I begin to scale the single ladder that leads to the top of Tingle Tower.  At the top I make first contact with the island's natives, which consist of not just one, but three Tingles!  The horror is tripled and Link and I are both fighting the urge to power off the game, but we stand our ground and begin to make some observations.

First, there appears to be some slave labor occurring here.  Two Tingles in light-colored spandex struggle to rotate the giant Tingle head we saw earlier, while the green spandex-wearing Tingle we all know and fear watches over them like an overseer.  He doesn't lift a finger to help despite the grunts of agony from the two laborers.

I decide it's finally time to speak to the "man" himself, the green Tingle.  I'm sure he'll provide some insight into this whole operation, right?

Tingle is as creepy as ever.

Nope, not only does he provide no explanation about the purpose of this tower, but he refuses to acknowledge the back-breaking work of the other two Tingles.  Instead he insists the tower runs on "fairy magic."  I figured this would be a good time to back away from the delusional man-elf and take to the seas, but I felt obligated to do one last thing: experience Tingle Island at night.

What better way to maximize the creepiness than this?  Seeing the carved Ganon head during the dark of night serves to make the tower appear even more imposing, and to top it off the rotation of the giant Tingle head now sounds like the moaning of tortured spirits.

I then proceeded one last time to scale Tingle Tower, where I was greeted with...oh no.......no........

How I survived this ordeal I'll never know.  I appear to have woken up in my office chair, where I have been hastily writing this article to warn you all of the dangers of Tingle Island in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

On a more serious note, I hope you've all enjoyed this 100th post in Strange Moments in Gaming!  Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting on my posts, I enjoy hearing from all of you.  Here's to another hundred posts!

A few years ago, around the time Strange Moments in Gaming was created, we talked about Tingle the man-elf.  Tingle is easily one of the creepiest, if not the creepiest character in the Legend of Zelda series, so it was fitting that he made an appearance in this blog.  However, looking back on the article I feel like I had not done justice to Tingle Island in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker due to my somewhat brief mention of the place.

Because of this grievous mistake, and because this current entry marks the 100th post in Strange Moments in Gaming, I have decided to once again face the terror-who-wears-green-spandex by giving a more in-depth look at Tingle Island.  Join me on my adventure to the land that makes Lost's island seem like Disneyland.

Upon arriving in the vicinity of Tingle Island, I find that the land itself is somewhat small and barren.  Dominating the landscape is the massive and threatening Tingle Tower.  This tower is composed of a single column carved with various designs which we'll see in a bit.  As a warning to all passing sailors, the top of the tower is capped with a gigantic rotating Tingle head, making this a lighthouse from hell.  Let's take a closer look shall we?

After making landfall, it immediately begins to rain on the island.  I think we can all take this as a bad omen; something is warning me to turn back while I can.  Instead I gather my courage and continue on a little closer to the tower, to observe the various carvings on its column.  It doesn't take long for me to notice that one of the carvings is the giant pig head of Ganon himself (or one of his minions).

Something is definitely not right here.  For someone who claims to be a fairy, why would Tingle create a monument to the world's biggest threat?

Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I begin to scale the single ladder that leads to the top of Tingle Tower.  At the top I make first contact with the island's natives, which consist of not just one, but three Tingles!  The horror is tripled and Link and I are both fighting the urge to power off the game, but we stand our ground and begin to make some observations.

First, there appears to be some slave labor occurring here.  Two Tingles in light-colored spandex struggle to rotate the giant Tingle head we saw earlier, while the green spandex-wearing Tingle we all know and fear watches over them like an overseer.  He doesn't lift a finger to help despite the grunts of agony from the two laborers.

I decide it's finally time to speak to the "man" himself, the green Tingle.  I'm sure he'll provide some insight into this whole operation, right?

Tingle is as creepy as ever.

Nope, not only does he provide no explanation about the purpose of this tower, but he refuses to acknowledge the back-breaking work of the other two Tingles.  Instead he insists the tower runs on "fairy magic."  I figured this would be a good time to back away from the delusional man-elf and take to the seas, but I felt obligated to do one last thing: experience Tingle Island at night.

What better way to maximize the creepiness than this?  Seeing the carved Ganon head during the dark of night serves to make the tower appear even more imposing, and to top it off the rotation of the giant Tingle head now sounds like the moaning of tortured spirits.

I then proceeded one last time to scale Tingle Tower, where I was greeted with...oh no.......no........

How I survived this ordeal I'll never know.  I appear to have woken up in my office chair, where I have been hastily writing this article to warn you all of the dangers of Tingle Island in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

On a more serious note, I hope you've all enjoyed this 100th post in Strange Moments in Gaming!  Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting on my posts, I enjoy hearing from all of you.  Here's to another hundred posts!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Eternal Darkness: Hallucinations that Steal Your Sanity

Remember the good old days of the survival horror genre?  Back when quick time events weren't considered a necessary feature, and Resident Evil games weren't Gears of War with zombies?  Those were the days.  Today I thought we could take a trip down memory lane to a survival horror game on the Gamecube called Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.  But rather than covering the plot of the game, let's take a look at the game's defining feature: sanity effects.

In Eternal Darkness, you are bestowed with a sanity meter, which fills up mainly by executing finishing moves on enemies.  However, this meter has a tendency to drain when you encounter said enemies, and once it reaches a critical level of emptiness you get to experience the game's sanity effects.

Sanity effects are events that occur to screw with your head, such as moments when you'll be exploring a room and spontaneously the sounds of screams or footsteps will be heard.  As your character's sanity further disappears, more extreme events will occur.  On occasion you might enter a room which appears to be filled with monsters all rushing to attack you, only to find that they vanish when you begin to fight back.  Other times you might suddenly find your character walking upside down on the ceiling, or even dying for no reason whatsoever.

The developers even went so far as to include sanity effects that will have you rushing to your Gamecube to check for actual hardware problems.  One of the more devious effects has you entering a room filled with monsters, only to have no control over your character while a message flashes on the screen telling you that your Gamecube's controller is unplugged.

Also brutal is when the screen goes completely dark, as if you had turned off your TV.  There is even a sanity effect that will nearly give you a heart attack: it pretends to delete all your saved games.

No matter what you choose, it still says that all saves have been deleted.

Thankfully all sanity effects are temporary, and upon completion of the event you will restart in the last room you entered, with no damage done to your inventory/saved games/Gamecube.  Truly this is a unique and unnerving feature, and one I much prefer to the button-mashing quick time events that seem to have become a staple in survival horror (if you can even call the new Resident Evil games survival horror these days).  If you've got a Gamecube, and you want to lose some sanity, definitely check this one out!

Remember the good old days of the survival horror genre?  Back when quick time events weren't considered a necessary feature, and Resident Evil games weren't Gears of War with zombies?  Those were the days.  Today I thought we could take a trip down memory lane to a survival horror game on the Gamecube called Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.  But rather than covering the plot of the game, let's take a look at the game's defining feature: sanity effects.

In Eternal Darkness, you are bestowed with a sanity meter, which fills up mainly by executing finishing moves on enemies.  However, this meter has a tendency to drain when you encounter said enemies, and once it reaches a critical level of emptiness you get to experience the game's sanity effects.

Sanity effects are events that occur to screw with your head, such as moments when you'll be exploring a room and spontaneously the sounds of screams or footsteps will be heard.  As your character's sanity further disappears, more extreme events will occur.  On occasion you might enter a room which appears to be filled with monsters all rushing to attack you, only to find that they vanish when you begin to fight back.  Other times you might suddenly find your character walking upside down on the ceiling, or even dying for no reason whatsoever.

The developers even went so far as to include sanity effects that will have you rushing to your Gamecube to check for actual hardware problems.  One of the more devious effects has you entering a room filled with monsters, only to have no control over your character while a message flashes on the screen telling you that your Gamecube's controller is unplugged.

Also brutal is when the screen goes completely dark, as if you had turned off your TV.  There is even a sanity effect that will nearly give you a heart attack: it pretends to delete all your saved games.

No matter what you choose, it still says that all saves have been deleted.

Thankfully all sanity effects are temporary, and upon completion of the event you will restart in the last room you entered, with no damage done to your inventory/saved games/Gamecube.  Truly this is a unique and unnerving feature, and one I much prefer to the button-mashing quick time events that seem to have become a staple in survival horror (if you can even call the new Resident Evil games survival horror these days).  If you've got a Gamecube, and you want to lose some sanity, definitely check this one out!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad