Best. Freebie. Ever. – Where's Drew?

I have indeed chosen wisely.

Ever since I got to Japan, I’ve been buying gaming magazines. I can’t read them (beyond the easy stuff), but the pictures are nice and they come will nifty free stuff. I’d been buying Famitsu Cube + Advance, a Nintendo magazine, religiously every month since they always had the best stuff.

But they’ve been slipping.

Okay, I know I’m not they’re target audience. While some of the Pokémon stuff is amusing (and makes nice prizes for some of my students), I have no interest in Mushi King cards. (I’ll explain more about MK in another post). The freebie from FC+A was another card this month, so I gave it a pass. I turned my eyes to Nintendo Dream.

I’d picked it up a few times before, I was never as pleased with the magazine as I was with FC+A. ND didn’t seem as polished, and they’re freebies were never as good as the ones from FC+A.

Well, that used to be the case.

For their August 2005 issue they came up with what is easily the best freebie I’ve seen so far. A 32 page book about the new Zelda game, as well as a CD with the E3 2005 trailer and some nice screenshots. That may not seem like much, but to Zelda fans (and fanatics) it’s a goldmine. Even though I can’t read much of what’s in the book, the pictures alone are more than worth it. They show a lot more of the game that what was revealed at E3. And since I can’t read the text, I get to wonder and speculate even more about what they all mean.

Which is perfect for me.

The whole point of a Zelda game is to explore and find things out while you play. Nobody (in their right mind) would read a guide to any Zelda game before playing it. That would defeat the purpose of actually playing the game.I’m still not sure when the game is due to come out, or if it’ll be released in English or Japanese first. Not that I care. I’ll buy whichever one comes out first.

And if I have to play though it in Japanese once and replay it in English, I’m more than willing to do that.

Now for some spiffy pics!