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The NWR Mailbag: May 2016: The Impossible Prediction

by Donald Theriault - May 10, 2016, 10:36 am EDT
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It's back, and thankfully not in POG form.

It's been a long time, but the Nintendo World Report mailbag has returned, thanks to the support from our friends at Patreon.

If you have a question that you'd love to see here, send it over to mailbag @ nintendoworldreport dot com or leave it in the comments below. For consideration in next month's pre-E3 mailbag, please have questions in by May 25.

As always, these are actual questions posed by actual readers.


Q: Seeing as how DLC is a major part of the core franchises for Nintendo i.e. Mario Kart, Smash, Mario Maker, Splatoon, what do you think the DLC will look like for the new Zelda game for WII U/NX? What are your predictions for what the Wolf Link Amiibo will unlock in the new game?

- Dan, Canada

A: With about 7.1 seconds worth of footage to go by, trying to predict anything about Zelda Wii U / NX is a tricky proposition. We don't even know what type of game this would be, so it's not as simple as saying “Elder Scrolls: Oblivion added an additional island, so Link(le) is going to go there” or “there's going to be giant world spanning monsters like in Xenoblade Chronicles X”.

When Zelda games have been remade, they've added an upgrade to the game that makes the game slightly easier. The Link's Awakening Game Boy Color version added your choice of colored tunics that gave permanent defense/attack buffs. The Link to the Past remake for Game Boy Advance gave a hyper-powered spin attack, Wind Waker brought the Swift Sail, and Twilight Princess HD's Wolf Amiibo-powered dungeon unlocks the Bottomless Wallet. I would suspect that if there's any DLC for the new Zelda, it'll be something along those lines – perhaps more in the Link's Awakening line (attack or defense buff).

As for what the Wolf Link amiibo will do, I'd like to see your Rupee count from Twilight Princess HD carry over to the new Zelda. Owners of the Wii U version can pay a small amount - $5 (roughly $9004 Canadian) - to unlock the dungeon that can give you extra defense, or use 9999 Rupees from the Wolf Link amiibo to pay your way in. As a carrot to owners of the NX version, they get access to the dungeon for no extra charge.

If the Wii U version of Zelda came out with just a single delay (so it was this year's holiday game) followed up by a NX port of it next year, I think there would be a DLC strategy for the game that the NX port would roll up. Now that the game is 2017 for all platforms – and that's before the Wii U version develops a sudden, last minute bug that doesn't show up on the NX version for some reason – I can't see DLC being a thing for the new Zelda game. Maybe we'll get similar amiibo use to Twilight Princess HD, and that'd be OK by me.


Q: So I'm playing through Pokémon Red and just got to the fight with Ga... er, Dicks Oak on the S.S. Anne. During his bragging, he says he's got over 40 Pokémon in his Pokédex. Assuming he's talking about Pokémon caught and not seen, is that physically possible?

- Thomas, Halifax, Nova Scotia

A: OK, let's lay this out here: On the Polifact (True to Pants on Fire) scale, this would be “Mostly True”. In a typical Red/Blue run, if you spent a lot of time grinding out Pokémon you could theoretically get a “Caught” figure of 54 if you traded in starters/version exclusives/trade evolutions or 43 if you didn't. I'm usually around level 25 when I hit the S.S. Anne, so you'd have a fair few Pokémon in your PC if they were evenly leveled.

You'd have...

  • Two forms of your starter (2)
  • Butterfree/Beedrill and prior forms (8)
  • Pidgey/Pidgeotto (10)
  • Rattata/Raticate (12)
  • Spearow/Fearow (14)
  • Ekans/Arbok or Sandshrew/Sandslash (16)
  • Pikachu (17)
  • Nidoran F/Nidorina (19)
  • Niodran M/Nidorino (21)
  • Clefairy (22)
  • Jigglypuff (23, 25 after two Moon Stones used)
  • Zubat/Golbat (27)
  • Oddish/Gloom or Bellsprout/Weepinbell (29)
  • Paras/Parasect (31)
  • Diglett/Dugtrio (33)
  • Meowth or Mankey (34)
  • Abra/Kadabra (36)
  • Geodude/Graveler (38)
  • Farfetch'd (39)
  • Drowzee (40)
  • Mr. Mime (41)
  • Magikarp/Gyarados (43)

The only issue is that if you did that, some of those Pokémon only evolve at level 25. His team in that fight is level 16-20 and includes an under-leveled Raticate. Why wouldn't he pull Graveler, Gyarados, etc. out in that fight instead of saving it for Pokémon Tower? So he probably traded like a madman, which, given how much of a jerk he is, I'm kind of amazed he pulled off.

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