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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is one of the most popular entries in the entire Zelda series. So it's not surprising that the announcement that Nintendo is redoing it for the Switch has caused such a stir. The original 1993 remains a master class in adventure game design, and we are personally looking forward to getting our hands on the 2019 edition of this flagship title.
The news was also reminiscent of one of our previous stories, about Jeff Hansen, Nintendo's world champion in the early '90s. The feature film we aired – and the short film that accompanies it. – was actually inspired by Zelda: Link's Awakening; If we contacted Hansen, it's only to tell him about a press trip that we had talked about in a playful issue of EDGE magazine.
The trip – a press event intended to promote the game before it was launched – involved placing a group of journalists specializing in games on a long distance train, the ultimate goal being to find out who could finish it first. Although this is not a global success – the game was launched in Japan a few months earlier – it still deserves to boast, and Jeff, thanks to his status as Nintendo World Champion, has continued.
"The train trip was particularly exciting because neither my parents nor I had ever done a long distance train trip before," Hansen told us last year. "I think they had a hard time deciding which of them would go in. Usually my mother came with me on our travels, so it was my turn."
Each person participating in the trip received a Game Boy and a copy of Link's Awakening, unpublished in America at that time. "The only people on the train with Nintendo were me, my father, the Golin-Harris and Nintendo marketing executives and a group of journalists," says Hansen. "All participants received a new game from Game Boy and Link's Awakening, including my dad, who played it for about 10 minutes before starting to read his PC magazine again. bought only a few rooms on the train with beds, so we all slept in turn. "
Although everything seems well organized, a key was launched early in the works. "The initial plan was to go from New York to Los Angeles, but shortly before the event, a major bridge on that road collapsed, causing several deaths," said Hansen. "So the plans were changed to go from New York to Seattle instead, we were a bit scared to embark on the trip after hearing the news, but we were also happy not to be the ones on the deck when the one "There were several major stops on the way we waited hours before leaving, and some journalists came and went at the Chicago stop."
During his glory years in the video game, Hansen's usual tactics when he was tackling a new game often involved working with like-minded friends, but that was not a thing about which he could count. "None of my usual friends were asking for help, and I certainly could not give clues to Google at the time," he says. "There were a few Nintendo advisors who came with us on this trip, so I was able to ask them for some advice when I got stuck at the very beginning of the game." After that, the navigation took place "Hansen's talent – which had won him many world championships at this stage – has taken over. "The only thing that really mattered was getting into the game and beating it," he recalls. "I was so busy that I did not pay much attention to the outside world until I beat the game halfway across the country."
Hansen was not only synonymous with prestige, it was a prize money. "Nintendo had announced that the first person on the trip to beat the game would be awarded $ 1,000, so it's what motivated me to spend every hour awake beating it before," he said. he. Unfortunately, although this is the first person to have completed the game (you can watch this moment here), the money has not been paid. "Unfortunately, Nintendo really was not encouraged to give me this money, the only non-journalist, and I was a little disappointed to discover that I was not eligible – after I had defeated the game! I remember there were several others who also beat him before we arrived in Seattle, and the first to do it after me was declared the official winner. "
Although unlikely, it would be surprising to see Nintendo relaunch this unique promotional event for the upcoming Switch title.
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