I’m a couple days later than I wanted to be, but the latest episode of Read Only Memory, Pizza Links, is here! So watch the above clip, then read the rest.

As many of you guys might know, this was actually the first episode of ROM I started working on before switching to Turnips In Love. I was tinkering around with this idea way back in February but didn’t really start to build all the assets until the middle of March. Once I had the big pieces in place I recorded my script and made the animatic for it. I absolutely hated it. I hated it so much I honestly didn’t think I could salvage it, and because I wanted to get something to Kevin over at GoNintendo, I came up with Turnips In Love. In Love was easy and cute enough that I felt it was a good replacement for what I was currently working on. Plus, it was perfect for nailing the “30″ second run time I was aiming for.

While working on The Return of Captain N, I was trying to figure out exactly which idea I wanted to work on next. I decided that since I already put so much work into this short that maybe I should revisit it. I took a good look at everything I had script and audio wise and decided to throw away half of it. One of the problems with the original version is that it was much too long, going on for probably close to three minutes. You’re not missing anything as I managed to get to the point in a fraction of the time, though I didn’t quite hit my magical 30 second run time. Regardless, once I was able to really narrow down the key points, I felt much happier with what I was shooting for. It’s longer than your average ROM, but it is no where near the bloated beast it once was.

I had fun with this one because it gave me a chance to visit not just Link, but four different versions of Link. I tried to give each Link the same amount of attention, but obviously the star of the show is the Link from the old 80s animated series. Probably because he’s the most fun version of all Links. Sure, he’s corny and a total cheese ball, but that’s what I like about him so much. I tried to nail down the pure stupidity of Link from the CD-I games too. As for Wind Waker Link and Twilight Link, I needed to improvise with them a bit. I decided Wind Waker Link, being the smallest, should act the toughest out of the group. Twilight Link, well, I just wanted to turn him into a big baby. This video also gave me an excuse to put a Ninja Turtle in it, and you know, Ninja Turtles were rather key during the NES era, so he’s not out of place in the video game realm.

Despite already having a lot of work previously finished, this episode was much more involving than previous episodes of ROM. So much so that I needed to enlist the help of Frank to crank out a shot for me earlier this week (he did Twilight Link acting like a bitch, which I thought looked great). Having to deal with five characters was a lot of work, even if I did limit what they did in certain areas.

So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this episode. It’s sort of the last one for a little while. Next month I’ll be doing a compilation video of all the previous episodes but hopefully adding in some new stuff.