Platform	GameCube
Available	Nov. 28 (Japan)
Price	FREE
Genre	Action/RPG
Developer	Nintendo
Publisher	Nintendo

Well, I played a bit of Ura Zelda on my lunch break today. I had enough time to dart through the beginning scenes and play through the first dungeon (the Deku Tree), but that was it. Here are some quick, random notes that I threw together:

- Saving takes about five to seven seconds. It's not so bad unless you're one of those super cautious types who has to save every two minutes. Also, there's an ever-so-slight delay when you press START to go into the menu screens, but it's not intrusive.

- L targeting (as opposed to Z targeting, since the GC controller doesn't have a Z trigger) feels totally natural. I always thought this would be awkward, but it's really not. In fact, I didn't even notice I was using it until I stopped to think about what I was going to write. Not bad...

- Y, Z and X take the place of the three C buttons (left, down and right, respectively). Feels OK, though I've never been a real fan of the GC's Z button placement. If you like, you can use the C stick instead (just point in the direction of the item). Pressing up on the C-stick switches you into first-person mode.

- Graphics are definitely clearer and crisper than in the N64 version. The difference isn't that major, but it's noticeable. There was a bit of slowdown in the intro fly-by scene, as Justin mentioned earlier, but other than that I haven't seen any problems.

- Music seems to be exactly the same as the N64 version. The game select screen at the very beginning has a nice rendition of the classic Zelda theme.

- The general map layout of the first dungeon is the same, but the puzzles, enemies, enemy locations and item locations are different. For example, many of the torches, chests, crates, floating platforms and the like have been mixed up and moved around, and some rooms have different requirements for you to fulfill in order to be able to proceed. It's probably even more tricky if you played Ocarina, because your expectations of how things should be get all messed up. I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to find the underwater switch to get past the spiked log part (remember that?), only to finally realize that in Ura, you simply have to get on the platform and duck. The switch isn't there! (Sneaky... but I like it!) Also, remember those little mini-gohmas that Gohma dropped from the ceiling during the boss fight? Well, they're all over the dungeon now... in eggs. When you get close to one, it pops out of its egg and starts attacking. (Neat side-note: if you can slash the egg before it hatches, it cracks up and disappears.)

- One room in the Deku Tree is full of tombstones with little Triforce designs on them. If you hit them with your sword, items pop out (rupees, hearts, etc.). I don't remember anything like this in the original Ocarina, but I may have just forgotten about it.

- Enemies are tougher. Some that required one hit in Ocarina require two in Ura. I'm not sure if they do more damage or not, though.

- The battle with Gohma seems to be the same, though I took him out kind of fast, so I didn't really get a chance to see if his attack patterns changed.

That's all for now. I'm sure we'll have more impressions up as the other guys get a chance to delve into the game today and over the course of the weekend. Stay tuned.