Chapter 404: The Legend of… Peter Pan? Christmas Elf? Elf? [Error 404]?

It was quite interesting that movie and reality eventually fell in line as it did, sort of.

In no way is he going to start calling them babe or babes from here on out though.

In his opinion, calling each other by names is more appropriate than lovey-dovey nicknames at this point in time.

Not appropriate in the setting they are currently at anyways.

Right now... there are a whole lot of parents and their kids... and a whole lot of toys.

From small toys to big toys. A whole assortment of them.

Making for quite a sight.

That movie they just watched must have had this vision to aspire for... it's just too bad that the finished product wasn't up to standard.

Regardless, there's just something about toys that compel one to want, buy, own, pack it home, and play with all of them to heart's content.

Alexander is kind of immune to it but the same can't be said to the girls he's chaperoning.

They wanted to ruffle through things just like the others, however, a certain toy selection stuck out in Milla's eyes, making her wonder. "These toys are good and all but doesn't it bother you that all these X-Men, Spiderman, and Marvel whatnot doesn't have the familiar Creed Toys in them? Didn't you buy everything that is Marvel, Alex?"

"Of course, he did. I was there when it happened." Drew answered smugly. "He looked cool as ever when signing stuff. A lot of people from the other side looked very sad though"

"I wasn't asking you." Milla really had that look on her face that screamed she should've been there.

Alexander took this chance to answer but it's simple really. "That's because Hasbro still has claim in them."

"A contract got everyone stuck as it is. It's either there's someone that will stomach the damages or wait it out until the whole binding paper expires."

"And as much as Hasbro wants to part ways as I do, they aren't really in a hurry to any of that with all the inventory that they've got to go through."

His full acquisition to buy Marvel from Cadence was a very secretive surprise, after all.

Just as surprising as it was to find out how lopsided the Hasbro-Marvel partnership really was.

A one-time pay-out for toy licensing hardly seems fair when they could have gone for those royalties per unit.

Really shed some light on how Marvel lost their prime movie licenses and could only watch in envy as Hollywood made a ton of money out of them.

Oh well. It's those kinds of decisions that got Alexander the motivation to hash out Marvel's old stakeholders, directorial board, and just its overall management structure anyways.

"But it's all good since my pinch-hold on G.I. Joe's production via Marvel Production evens it all out." Alexander expounded. "Which is why it came as no surprise that even after 95 episodes of momentum, they decided to cancel that cartoon show last month."

Some jargon flew past Milla's mind but something there got her thinking, and the Teddy Ruxpins on display only reinforced it. "Speaking of shows, I heard that that talking robot teddy bear now has one, too."

"WoW, I guess." He figured that it was Worlds of Wonder being Worlds of Wonder.

"The annoying trolls and Trollogs from the complicated land of toymaking sure are tricky." Drew joked in reference. "Still, I know the magical Toymaker or Asian Santa if it's any help. Hehe!"

"Not necessary." Alexander declined in jest as well. "Even when marginally taking into account what my competitors are doing, none of those matter when I have the most sought-after toy of today."

"The Gokus and the Turtles?" Drew guessed.

"Close but not really." Alexander shook his head on that.

It's not just about Dragonball and TMNT being a popular hit alternative to most Saturday Morning Cartoons... bringing about bountiful interest to those respective toy lines.

"It's actually about Creed Chaos Systems and GameKeys." He revealed. "Those are still toys to play with in most technicalities, after all."

Yep. Instead of kids begging their parents, grandparents, godparents, and other relatives to buy them the NES and the hottest GamePaks for Christmas.

It's a new timeline, so... Creed's game systems are now supreme.

"Well... at least, that explains my recent confusion." Milica happened to notice a weird sight in this toy store.

A weird sight wherein fellow kids were clamoring to buy a certain green figurine.

With Creed Toys in those boxes, she put two and two together and muttered. "Isn't that guy from your Peter Pan game?"

"Peter Pan?" Drew interjected. "I thought that he was supposed to be some Christmas elf?"

"He is elf-like but not that kind of elf." Alexander corrected. "And yes... it's from our newest game... The Legend of..."

"Link." Drew cut him off. "That's what his name says in the box."

Milica scoffed. "That's his name but the major toy line title says differently. It says... Zelda."

"So, he's a Christmas elf named Link but also Zelda?"

"Didn't you hear what Alex said? He's not a Christmas elf! He's just an elf named Link, who's probably not Zelda."

"So is Zelda a place, then?"

"It's the Legend of Zelda and it's best that the two of you leave it at that." With no choice, Alexander straight out concluded before it got a bit more confusing than it actually is.

Knowing these girls, it probably will. They'll confuse things that reality could only opt for [Error 404].

They've even got him thinking about website matters for some reason.

Just as how their confusion did get him thinking of Robin Williams out of nowhere.

Being a game fan, naming his daughter Zelda, and playing as live-action Peter Pan is probably reason enough though.

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Anyways... contrary to the confusion of the girls that just got home from vacationing in Mexico...

Chaos Unit owners had earlier been introduced as soon as their selection was updated for 11/11 to be available.

The confusion about what it is was palpable to the community as well but they quickly got the gist of it.

When they bought it for that 35-dollar price tag... The Legend of Zelda actually seemed straightforward as described...

In the manuals and during the short prologue which plays after the title screen, that is.

A small kingdom in the land of Hyrule is engulfed by chaos when an army led by Ganon, the prince of darkness, invades and steals the Triforce of Power, one part of a magical artifact that alone bestows great strength.

In an attempt to prevent him from acquiring the Triforce of Wisdom... Princess Zelda splits it into eight fragments and hides them in secret underground dungeons.

Before eventually being kidnapped by Ganon, she commands her nursemaid Impa to find someone courageous enough to save the kingdom.

While wandering the land, the old woman is surrounded by Ganon's henchmen, when a young boy named Link appears and rescues her.

Upon hearing Impa's plea, he resolves to save Zelda and sets out to reassemble the scattered fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom, with which the evil Ganon can then be defeated.

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Simple enough but it's actually quite far from it.

Everyone who played the game can attest to how complex it really was.

The player controls Link from a flip-screen overhead perspective as he travels the overworld, a large outdoor map with various environments.

Various environments aren't even the majority of it.

Throughout the adventure, Link finds and acquires various items that increase his abilities further.

Including Heart Containers which increase his life meter; magic rings which decrease the amount of damage Link takes from enemy attacks; and stronger swords which allow Link to inflict more damage on enemies.

There are even Rupees, boomerangs, bombs, and whatnot but that's beside the goal.

These items are mainly found in caves scattered throughout the land.

Some are easily accessible, while others are hidden beneath obstacles such as rocks, trees, and waterfalls.

It really encourages exploration for it can only be completed by traversing every dungeon and nook that can be explored.

And one has freedom on how they would go about it.

This freedom allows many ways of progressing through the game but that freedom can be vexing as well.

It's a multi-path dungeon by design... it's a nightmare if one doesn't know what's what.

Hence, it's a game that encourages the sharing of ideas and discoveries with other players. Much more so than they have with any other game.

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It's a complex game, to say the least.

And Shigeru Miyamoto's shtick about mazes, caves, gardens inside a drawer, and the limitless wonder of unknown exploration was really showing.

It's a shame that it's already many months since February 1986 and Nintendo is just focusing its full force on staving off Creed's momentum more than anything else.

Alexander simply published since they didn't... with a game with far better overworld graphics with all the "16+bit" stuff.

Setting aside all the complex issues that may arise, he's even already considering what he was going to do with the upcoming sequels.

Like entirely revamping Adventures of Link and thinking about A Link to the Past.

This was The Legend of Zelda, after all.

A video game franchise worth being bold for.

Granted, he may have sort of taken a step back on being really bolder.

After the devastating Chernobyl and the scandalous Iran-Contra... this was the most harmless coincidental real-life bait-and-switch he's ever done.

Here he was... releasing a game at the season of Christmas... with a character that's easily misinterpreted as Santa's helper, the green and somewhat teensy elf.

Just like how Drew misunderstood... a lot of people also misunderstood.

Albeit a bit unplanned, at least, it sort of worked wonders.

Saving himself the commercial costs and embarrassment of that original rapping nerd-teen advertisement.