You can tell a serious video gamer from a faker by asking them to name the main character in the ‘Zelda’ series of video games. Those who aren’t at expert level will look at you as if it’s a trick question, and say ‘Zelda.’ Those of us who have been playing games for a lot longer (and, we suspect, with a lot more of our spare time) know full well that the character is called Link – and Link is a bonafide video game legend. We’re absolutely thrilled to say that Link (and the whole ‘Zelda’ universe) is back on the Nintendo Switch as of this month.

If you remember the Game Boy – or you’re a retro gaming fan and have picked a Game Boy up just find out how your parents used to play video games – you’ll probably get a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever you think about ‘The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.’ The 1993 game was the very first ‘Zelda’ game to be released in handheld format, and is seen by most reviewers as one of the best Game Boy games ever released. When it got a coat of fresh paint and a re-release for the Game Boy Color in 1998, respected review website IGN gave it a perfect score.

Now, it’s coming back yet again. We’re in a new era of gaming, and Nintendo has decided that the time is right to recreate the game a third time. ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening’ will be released for the Nintendo Switch on September 20^th. So what is it that keeps us coming back to this 33-year-old classic character?

Zelda’s Legend

Zelda games date back to almost the beginning of home video consoles. There’s a full timeline of Zelda games online at this link, but discussing the entire franchise would take us all day. This Switch version of the game is the 25^th Zelda game in total, and the sixth in the past five years. Most franchises in their fourth decade of operation would probably be slowing down. Zelda appears to be speeding up. Even with this new release imminent, we already know that there’s another game – a sequel to 2017’s ‘Breath Of The Wild,’ due for release in 2020.

Such has been the success of Zelda that Link, the Princess, and several of the other characters have crossed over into various different mediums. There was a short-lived TV series based on Zelda in 1989. A Zelda-themed version of monopoly was issued in 2014. A mobile slots game called ‘The Legend of Link’ was launched in 2017. As there’s no official branding on it, we can’t be sure that the mobile slots game is actually a licensed product, but even if it isn’t, it demonstrates the level of affection and nostalgia that comes with Zelda games. Very few video games have crossed over into the strictly-adult world of mobile slots. Lara Croft is one (Lara Croft: Temples and Tombs being one of the better video-game themed mobile slots we’re aware of). Super Mario is another. That’s the kind of company this game series keeps.

As for what makes it so special? It’s the sheer quality of the games. The genre isn’t particularly special, and the stories aren’t especially original. You could argue that games like ‘Final Fantasy’ have taken inspiration from Zelda and gone much further with the same idea. It’s simply the playing experience which keeps players coming back for more. As we said earlier, the original Game Boy version of ‘The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening’ was seen as near perfection. ‘Ocarina of Time’ for the N64 scored perfect grades when it was released in 1998. ‘Breath of the Wild’ did the same again two years ago. Zelda games seem to bring the very best out of Nintendo.

We don’t have to worry about whether this new Switch game will live up to the same quality standards, because it’s simply a revival of the much older original. But have Nintendo added anything extra to it?

The Modern Age

For the main part, this third incarnation of the game sticks close to what made it successful from the beginning. It’s a top-down game which has the occasional side-scrolling sections. If you were particularly attached to ‘the color dungeon’ from the Game Boy Color version of the game – which was designed specifically to show off the device’s color display – you’ll be pleased to know it’s in here, too. There are, however, a few minor adjustments to reflect that times have changed since this particular chapter of the Link saga last got an airing.

The major changes are all in the game’s combat sections. For a start, Link always has his shield and sword equipped, along with any upgrades. This means additional items can be equipped to action buttons – something which was raised as one of the very few criticisms of the original. There’s also a 20 heart limit as opposed to the original 14.

Many minigames that players will remember well – for example the claw minigame – have also had a tweak to make the physics more realistic. Rooms from dungeons that players have completed can be collected, and then used to build new dungeons of your own if you so desire. That gives the game a sandbox-like feel which would have been completely impossible when making games back in the 1980s. Once you’ve built your own dungeon, you can battle through it as a time attack, and win special rewards that can’t be obtained elsewhere in the game.

The addition of a ‘build your own dungeon’ mode feels like a way to allow players to get more game-time out of the game. After all, this is a 30-plus-year-old game. It doesn’t have the hours of gameplay that we now expect from new releases, because software and hardware devices of the 1980s and 1990s simply didn’t have the capacity to allow for games of that length. You won’t find this version of ‘The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening’ any more challenging or time-consuming than you did when you were a child – but it’s bound to give you a deep, warm, sense of nostalgia. We suspect that’s the entire point of it.

The online gambling industry continues to grow at breakneck speed. It was already a steady money maker as we entered the 1990s, but key tech innovations took it to a whole new level. Of course, the introduction of personal computers and the internet got the ball rolling. Then, innovative companies like Microgaming went to work creating the first online casino games while Cryptologic came up with a secure way to transfer funds. The launch of InterCasino in 1996 changed the face of gambling forever.

Since InterCasino went live, countless online gambling sites have appeared all over the world and the industry’s value has skyrocketed. The online gambling industry’s estimated value in 2008 hovered around $21 billion. By 2017, it was worth about $50 billion and many expect it to eclipse the $100 billion mark in the next few years Technological advancements, along with more people gaining access to the internet, continue to drive the industry forward.

Mobile Gaming

The dawn of the internet age got the ball rolling, but it was the mobile revolution that gave the industry even more momentum. Almost anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection now has access to the wonderful world of online gambling. Are you interested in playing online Roulette for real money? Slot games? Poker? Bingo? How about betting on your favorite sports team? It’s all at your fingertips. And you don’t even need to download apps or casino software anymore because HTML5 is so prevalent.

Software

Casino software developers constantly make use of the latest technology to enhance the online casino experience. The quality of games has improved immensely over the past 20 years, and they only get better. Online casino goers expect seamless and intuitive gameplay, stunning graphics, and sensational sound effects on both desktop computers and mobile devices. They also need to be confident in the randomness of Random Number Generators. With so many checks and balances in place, online Roulette players know they are getting a fair shake and that the outcomes of the spins cannot be manipulated.

Another innovation is the Virtual Private Network. A VPN essentially masks your location and allows you to use the internet anonymously. Many countries block access to online gambling sites just as some sites block people from certain regions. Because VPNs hide your IP address, a growing number of users are circumventing these barriers.

Security

In the early days of the online casino boom, many people were hesitant to conduct financial transactions over the internet. They were afraid that ne’er-do-wells would gain access to their personal and financial information. This was a legitimate concern. However, internet security has evolved by leaps and bounds. While we still hear about the occasional breach, SSL encryption makes it nearly impossible for malicious third parties to steal your information. This elevates public confidence and increases the number of people who gamble online.

Blockchain

Blockchain is another advancement that has had an enormous impact on internet gambling. In many countries that have strict anti-gambling laws, authorities force payment processors such as banks and credit card companies to block transactions with online gambling sites. Blockchain transactions are secure, anonymous, and there are no intermediaries to block them. The number of cryptocurrency-friendly sites is still relatively low, but it is growing as more people turn to cryptocurrency for the purpose of gambling online.

Virtual Reality

Virtual and augmented reality technology is still in its infancy, but it has already found its way into online casinos. Strap on your headset and navigate your way to the virtual Roulette table where you actually place your virtual chips on the table. The experience is far beyond live dealer Roulette where you are still a bystander. Virtual reality puts you right in the middle of the action. VR doesn’t just enhance the Roulette game. Being able to interact with dealers and other players in the virtual universe heightens the social aspect of it all. Did the ball land in a black slot when you bet big on red? Take out your frustrations by hurling your virtual drink across the casino floor. Don’t worry, you won’t get the boot.

What’s Next?

It’s hard to say exactly what technologies will be unveiled in the coming years and how they will further revolutionize the online gambling world. Nevertheless, it’s safe to assume a lot of these new innovations will be integrated into online gambling and will attract the interest of a new generation of players. We know that facial, gesture, and voice recognition is here. These technologies will have various applications at online casinos, but it will be a while before we realize their maximum potential.

One new innovation that will definitely make online casino gaming even more enjoyable is 5G mobile internet. This gives us internet speeds up to 20 times faster than 4G networks. This equates to increased responsiveness and even smoother game flow. Who knows how quickly we’ll see 6G, 10G, and higher? Only time will tell.

The gaming industry is booming. Mobile gaming is becoming an online giant as more people than ever play games.

So many people have a smartphone nowadays, allowing anyone to connect with people all over the world, whether as part of a social network or even a game.

Casual mobile gaming gives people a quick distraction from work, a bit of fun during a lunch break or a way to relax when arriving at home.

The beauty of mobile games is that they don’t often require much attention to play (unless you’re doing a puzzle, of course). The best games, such as Clash of Clans and Angry Birds, last just a few minutes but provide the quick entertainment people want.

Many people have grown up with gaming. Especially for those who grew up in the 90s, it represents a natural pastime. Others have never been much interested in gaming for one reason or another.

Still, there are a few games that everyone seems to love. This article will show you a few of the best.

Word Games

Word games are perfect for the adult market. They are some of the more sophisticated games available to download and are perfect for picking up during a quick coffee break. Commuters used to pick up their favorite newspaper and do the puzzle on their way to work. Now you have the ability to do as many as you wish at the touch of a button. Download your favorite word games and play them on the go.

Word games are great for exercising the mind. This can help you wake up more alert in the morning or just keep your brain active.

Some of the most popular word games are classics like crossword puzzles and word searches. Scrabble is another great game that everyone loves. Some puzzle games allow you to play against your friends. Connect the game with your Facebook account and play online for bragging rights.

Quizzes

Test your knowledge with quizzes. Trivia games are among the best gaming apps available. Even those who don’t game can easily be tempted to download a quiz app and get involved with friends. Play them individually or as a group to beat the game offline or compete with players across the world.

There are plenty of apps from which to choose. Some apps like QuizUp let you connect with your social accounts and play against your friends or level up to become the greatest in the world in one particular category.

Trivia Crack is another popular trivia game with great functionality. There is a seemingly infinite number of questions for testing yourself. Another great feature is that you can create your own quizzes. Once set up, get your friends to have a go and see if they are just as clever as you.

Casino Games

Casino games are for adults only. Those that play tend to be more mature and not really seen as gamers.

There are hundreds to choose from on the App Store and Play Store, with the mobile casino gaming sector growing faster than ever. This means there are tonnes of potential bonuses allowing you to get more bang for your buck. Sites like OCG have the latest offers and give free rewards to let you play for real cash without having to spend much of your own money.

Card Games

If casino games don’t appeal to you, why not go for one of the traditional card games found on every PC? Classics like solitaire, bridge and freecell are great games for spending leisure time. Card games are one of the oldest leisure activities in existence.

And they are thriving in the mobile gaming age, with new card games being released all the time. For example, Mindjolt is a great app that gets you access to the latest card games, with new ones released almost every day.

One of the many beauties of card games is that they can take you in almost any direction. Sure, casino and gambling is one avenue but there are many strange games that can be just as thrilling. Don’t sleep on card games – they are a lot of fun.

Hypercasual Games

These apps don’t take much attention to play and are simple to understand. Some hypercasual games have only one action. For example, Flappy Bird requires you to tap your screen to keep the character flying – and that’s it! There are literally no other actions involved.

Many hyper-casual games are fast-paced to keep you playing. For a casual gamer, this is the perfect type of game; you don’t have to invest a lot of time or money to progress and you can get a lot of fun from them in a short space of time.

Hyper-casual games trend in the app stores so you can easily find one that is to your liking. One of the hottest games right now is Jetpack Jump, where the objective is to fly as far as possible. The concept is really easy but it attracts many people to play.

Conclusion

All the above gaming apps are perfect for anyone. If you don’t like gaming much, you will still enjoy playing them by yourself or with friends. Even if you don’t find any games from this list to play, there are so many apps to choose from that you are bound to find something. It’s just a matter of knowing your taste and finding a genre that fits. Once you get started, you will become a mobile gamer for life – and you won’t even know it’s happening!

To read more on topics like this, check out the gaming category.

The battle between fans of the PlayStation and the Xbox has been fiercely fought online for years now, with supporters of both sides claiming that their preferred machine has the best games and the best performance. We’ve always tried to stay neutral on the matter – after all, why have one machine when you can have both, and play all the games? Nevertheless, it now seems that those who prefer the Sony machine will have one more thing to boast about as the Xbox One and PS4 near the end of their shelf lives. Final Fantasy VII will not be appearing on the Microsoft console.

After months of what have appeared to be mixed messages regarding the potential availability of the highly anticipated remake, Square Enix has finally confirmed that the game will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive. To add insult to injury, Square Enix’s statement has been worded in a way that suggests that there were never plans to release the game for any platform other than the PlayStation, ending bluntly with the line ‘we have no plans for other platforms.’

Although the original Final Fantasy VII was a PlayStation exclusive, there was no such thing as the Xbox when the game was released. Microsoft had yet to venture into creating gaming consoles, and the chief rivals to the Sony device were manufactured by Nintendo and Sega. That led some to hope that Xbox players would be able to get in on the action; a hope that was seemingly encouraged by official Xbox channels. Before E3 this year, Gamestop was listing Final Fantasy VII as ‘coming soon’ to the Xbox. The official German Xbox Facebook account also listed the title among their forthcoming games as recently as the first week in July, but have since taken the post down and apologized for what they say was an ‘error.’

The Long Wait

The release date for the revised and updated version of the classic game has now been confirmed as March 3^rd, 2020, which will be almost a full five years since it was announced. The long delay has led to rumors of difficulties with the project, and prompted frustration from some gamers who had become bored with waiting. It’s unclear why Square Enix has faced such difficulty with putting together a new take on the much-loved format when they’ve proved capable of releasing brand new Final Fantasy games within that period.

Despite their insistence that they never had plans to release the game anywhere other than onto the PlayStation, there’s some evidence that there’s been a change in their intentions at some point. If we go back to their original announcement of the game – way back at E3 2015 – the party line at the time was that the game would be coming to the PlayStation’ first,’ which clearly implied it might go elsewhere later on. That, along with the fact that it found its way onto official Xbox release schedules, might indicate that the developer had difficulty making alternate versions, and decided to abandon them.

A subtle change in the way that Final Fantasy VII is being advertised on the UK Playstation store suggests that there’s been an alteration, too. Players looking to pre-order the game have noted that there is now a logo reading ‘PlayStation Exclusive’ next to the game, which was never there in the past.

Reimagining A Classic

Even with all the delay and the disappointment of Xbox and PC gamers about the game’s lack of availability on their preferred platforms, the remade Final Fantasy VII is almost sure to be a huge hit when it eventually sees the light of day. If you weren’t there in the mid-1990s when the original game was released for the PlayStation 1, it’s hard to describe how big an impact it had on players at the time. It was the boldest and most ambitious game ever released for the console; so big that it couldn’t fit onto a single CD.

Before Final Fantasy VII was released, the gaming genre it represents was thought to be the preserve of only the nerdiest of players. Gamers who used their PlayStations to play shoot ’em ups like Time Crisis or wild platform games like Crash Bandicoot were thought to have no interest with the more gentle turn-based gameplay of a Final Fantasy title. As it turned out, they did. A combination of a compelling story and (for the time) cutting edge graphics attracted millions of players, and turned what had once been a niche series of games into a major global brand.

The influence of Final Fantasy VII over other games in the fantasy genre – and even subsequent Final Fantasy games – has been immense. The success of the game led to anime and movies. You can also feel its influence at the casino, where the popular online slots games like Fluffy Favourites Slot or Wild Worlds contains a bonus feature which involves players battling monsters in a way that will be very familiar to Final Fantasy VII veterans. When the functionality of a humble video game can lead to innovations in online slots some twenty years after its release, you know it made big waves when it came out. Unlike all those online slots players, though, it doesn’t appear that Square Enix will be taking a gamble by going outside their comfort zone and letting anyone other than PlayStation players in on the fun this time around.

By the time March 2020 rolls around, it’s likely that the Sony vs. Microsoft debate will almost be at an end. With Apple Arcade and Google Stadia both slated to be released either by or very close to them, the gaming giants will be faced with new competition in a way that they haven’t had to worry about for a generation. How will they deal with it? Who will blink first by releasing their latest creation to the market in an attempt to counter the new technology – and will new consoles even hold the attention of the public in what looks like a new era of streaming games instead of owning them? We can’t say for sure, and nor can anybody else. All we can be certain of is that as we head into the 2020s, it looks like being the most significant decade of change for video gaming in the past thirty years.

To read more on topics like this, check out the gaming category.