My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (85-81)

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85. Super Mario Maker (Wii U)

Super Mario Maker nearly became a full-time job for me when it released exactly one year ago today. Prior to the game’s release, I was reasonably excited for it, but I figured I’d play around with it for a few weeks and then move on. I ended up completely losing myself in this bottomless toy-box as my imagination completely ran wild. Super Mario Maker is a childhood dream come true for me. All those imaginary Mario levels I’ve daydreamed about and played through in my head over the years could now be reality (well, somewhat). While the game has some frustrations and limitations (most of which have now been addressed through updates), this creative-tool/game hybrid is nonetheless a treasure. I spent hours and hours deep into the night toiling away on making every brick perfect in creations that I poured my heart into, from a massive airship to an underground sewer complex to a four-level ghost story, and this isn’t even taking into account all the other time I spent exploring all of the creative and wonderful levels from other users. Super Mario Maker even extended beyond the screen as I’d pen ideas down in a notebook and plan out future courses; I even had a whole game planned but I inevitably got burned out before realizing my full ambitions. Looking back, this game fired up my imagination in a way that I hadn’t felt in many years; it was invigorating, and I was always excited to jump back into the game to start creating and playing around again.  Super Mario Maker is a universe, an endless template for creating and playing, and if you are someone who can appreciate both aspects of the experience like me, than it is a truly magical experience indeed.

84. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess/Twilight Princess HD (GameCube/Wii U)

I’ve written about this before, but to this date, I have never in my life been more excited for an upcoming video game than The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I remember when it was announced, I remember each new trailer, I remember when Midna and Wolf Link were revealed (in what still stands as my favorite video game trailer of all time)…there was the delay, the inevitable porting to the Wii, and all the hype and speculation surrounding the game’s release. I remember finally beholding the game Christmas morning in 2006, having just gotten home for winter break from my first year at college. I unpackaged the game, absorbed the title cinematic, and experienced those opening moments with shaking hands.

I had never been so immensely thrilled to herd goats.

I’ve long had a rocky relationship with Twilight Princess and "mixed feelings" only begins to describe it. Twilight Princess represents a catering to fans and a safe return to form after the unhinged imagination present in Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker, a facet which sours the title a bit for me to this day. Nevertheless, Twilight Princess is a beautiful, impeccably-designed, and memorable adventure. Its dungeons are some of the strongest in the series, with the haunting Arbiter’s Grounds and the charming Snowpeak Ruins being two especially memorable highlights. While it is lacking in terms of sidequests compared to other Zelda titles, TP’s main quest is mainly one engaging venture after another that takes Link to the dreary depths of a giant lake, to a moonlit desert encampment, and to the far reaches of an enchanted grove. There are thrilling horseback battles, sword duels with an undead knight, and even an old-West shoot-out…by the time the credits role, there are few games that can say they’ve delivered such a satisfying journey. It’s nothing too daring and it certainly apes a lot of material from previous Zelda adventures, but there’s something comforting and pristine about Twilight Princess’s traditional adventure, and the Wii U’s HD remaster only makes its creative art direction easier to appreciate.

83. The Legend of Zelda (NES)

I was surprised by how easily I became immersed in the original Legend of Zelda the first time I played it. I expected something that would be awkward and difficult to get into compared to the Zelda games that I’d played, and while perhaps in some ways this was true, The Legend of Zelda ended up being an absorbing adventure that not only contains many of the hallmarks that make later Zelda games so great, but also a unique charm that is all its own. It’s a satisfying challenge and there’s something about its minimalist pixel art, tiled dungeons, and satisfying sense of progression that I find very endearing. Coupled with its lovingly-detailed instruction manual and official old-school-anime-style artwork, there’s a very classic nature to this game that I adore. I was late to the party on this one, first playing the re-released Game Boy Advance version, but thanks to a close friend also playing through the same version at the same time, I was able to have that experience of sharing secrets and experiences just like people did with the NES version. And even though Level 6 is still a major pain in the ass, I still enjoy going through the original Zelda quite a bit today.

82. BioShock (PC)

I still remember the pre-release buzz for the original BioShock and thinking that the game looked fascinating. The concept of a mysterious, derelict city under the ocean full of hulking beings in diving suits immediately intrigued me. It did not take long at all to realize that the game was something special the summer that I finally dove into it and began exploring the halls of the city of Rapture. The environment, atmosphere, art design, and sound design in BioShock is all brilliantly done, and working my way through every flooded corridor and listening to every discarded audio log was truly a treat. There’s a potent sense of place in this game, and Rapture and its many colorful personalities is a beautifully-realized creation.

81. Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)

Can you believe that back in the glorious year of 2002, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime both released on the same day in the US? I mean, what a time to be alive! Comparing that with the dark post-Other M times we live in today is bound to make a person a little wistful, especially since these two games were my very first experience with the Metroid series. While Prime admittedly left the bigger impact on me, Fusion is still a great experience. Taking Samus to a creepy space station overrun with mutants and a parasitic menace, Fusion is a polished and somber follow-up to Super Metroid, and is still currently the last Metroid story chronologically. While I prefer the more non-linear 2D Metroid titles over Fusion, it is nonetheless dripping with atmosphere and the encounters with Samus’s eerie doppelganger, the SA-X, are a tense highlight.

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Stop by again for #80-76!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U) Review *Moderate Spoilers*

I really enjoyed my time with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD in a way that makes me regret frequently bashing on the original Twilight Princess for so many years. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely still have notable criticisms of the core game, but Twilight Princess is undeniably a great adventure. Besides some questionable bug-hunting scenarios in the game’s first half, its main quest is near perfectly-paced and is simply one compelling venture after another, full of atmospheric dungeons to explore and monstrous bosses to take down. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the game peels back a new layer and hidden pockets of the world reveal themselves. Its music, its varied bestiary, its quirky characters, and its large yet focused world all have a high level of special care and attention paid to them, and its mechanics and feel of play is snappy and satisfying. It’s not one of my favorite Zelda games, fairly far from it in fact, and to me it’s not one of the more special or stand-out games in the series, but it’s a grand quest that has been carefully crafted, and one that I always enjoy undertaking.

My biggest criticism of Twilight Princess used to be how derivative and redundant it feels. Right from the get go, it was conceived as a “true successor” to Ocarina of Time and a service to fans displeased with The Wind Waker, and therefore the game has always had a bit of a sour aftertaste for me, given just how much I admire the series’ daring creativity in following up Ocarina with Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker and how brilliant I feel those games are. While the game’s legacy in this regard is still a sore subject for me, I’ve gained a better appreciation for the familiar world and callback nature of Twilight Princess over the years, and in my recent playthrough of TPHD, I openly embraced this side of the game more than I ever have before. The game makes it clear that this is the same world that we adventured through in OoT, but great attention has been made to show how it has developed and changed. Magic is a thing of the past and Hyrule has largely embraced technology. This is fitting with the narrative actually, which deals with dastardly magic-wielders who were imprisoned ages ago for misusing their power, and I get the impression that, either figuratively or literally, magic is outlawed in this particular incarnation of Hyrule. Link’s own arsenal reflects this: instead of using magical fire and ice arrows, he constructs more pragmatic “bomb arrows”, and instead of magic spells and wands, he uses a high-tech gear to glide across walls, a no-nonsense ball and chain, and a more realistic-looking Hookshot than ever before. The game’s most “magical” item is probably the Dominion Rod, but even this is some sort of ambiguous mix of science and magic.

Basically, although they largely contain the same locations, TP’s world actually feels much different than OoT’s, and it’s neat to see how that world has evolved. Kakariko Village is now straight out of the American Wild West and has a decidedly industrial feel to it; the Gorons now wear clothing, have a culture centered around sumo wrestling, and use gigantic magnets to mine ore; Castle Town has grown into a bustling city, complete with a medical clinic and a ritzy shop reserved for the upper class. As one further ventures into Hyrule’s historic landscape, echoes of the past begin to reveal themselves. The most magical area in the whole game is hidden deep within the forest and that is exactly what it feels like: an echo, a distant memory of a more enchanted past. It was in this area where it particularly hit me that Twilight Princess is a cleverer Ocarina follow-up than I’d previously thought, and the “magic” that I’ve long felt the game was lacking in comparison to that N64 classic might be quite intentionally absent…and that’s actually quite brilliant in its own way. While I still don’t exactly want to be paying Kakariko Village and Zora’s Domain a visit in every new Zelda game, I’ve grown to appreciate what Twilight Princess accomplishes, and my initial disappointment in the world’s overt familiarity has long since worn off and been replaced with an admiration for how this artfully-crafted world has been constructed.

My biggest criticism with Twilight Princess these days is actually its central narrative, which is unfortunately plagued with examples of poor storytelling and shallow attempts to be something “dark” and “deep”. Whereas many previous Zelda games contained a fairly straightforward and simple plot on the surface with deeper themes embedded in the details, Twilight Princess goes about things a bit less subtly and attempts a more overtly complex tale, utterly tripping all over itself in the process. The situation is dire in the game’s compelling early sections, but the whole intriguing premise of an eerie otherworldly force slowly turning Hyrule into a netherworld full of bizarre monsters and its citizens into spirits terrified to leave their homes completely falls apart as soon as Link enters Hyrule Castle Town for the first time and finds that its citizens are simply living out their lives as normal, with the only hardship being a water shortage that people are only marginally concerned about. One guard standing in a corner exclaims “I’m so bored…” when you listen to him as Wolf Link. Dissipating the Twilight from this area literally changes nothing except for the fact that Castle Town’s citizens are no longer ghosts. This is very poor storytelling and it all but shatters the game’s eerie atmosphere in the early bits. A compelling series of events at the mid-game notwithstanding, the central narrative all but falls off a cliff in the game’s second half when the game’s antagonist decides to take a vacation until the finale, but not before supposedly encasing Hyrule Castle in a giant golden diamond that’s supposed to be threatening I guess? There’s just no narrative impetus at this point, and the game turns into an adventure for the sake of an adventure.

Perhaps that’s not the worst thing in the world though, as these later bits contain some of the best scenarios in the game and one tends to forget why they’re doing any of it simply because they just can’t wait to see where the game will take them next, from making soup with Yetis far off in the snowy mountains to absconding to a City in the Sky ruled by nightmarish chicken people. Though the whole affair largely lacks the narrative cohesion and context of many other Zelda games, by the time the credits role after an epic finale, one really feels as though they’ve been on a satisfying adventure. The narrative isn’t all bad as well and certainly has its strengths. While I wish there was a bit more to it, the Twili have a fairly compelling backstory and Midna has a decently compelling character arc (plus, her and Wolf Link are just really cute together). Besides this, the many subplots are often what shine brightest in terms of TP’s storytelling, from touching moments with the timid Colin, to the notably emotional story of Rutela and her son, to Link’s adventures with the aforementioned Yetis, one of my favorite sections in any Zelda game. This is to say nothing of the Hero’s Shade character, a facet that I’ve always loved, as well as a memorably subtle narrative moment during the endgame involving a certain resilient enemy that has hounded Link the whole game. If nothing else, Twilight Princess has heart, but on the whole its main narrative is the kind that is entertaining the first time through the game, but simply doesn’t hold up under scrutiny or subsequent playthroughs, and lacks the depth and lasting appeal of previous titles like Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. Having lots of flashy cutscenes, copious amounts of dialogue, and being “cinematic” doesn’t necessarily equal good storytelling in a video game, and Twilight Princess, for me, serves as a sterling example of this compared to its predecessors. There’s much more I could say here, like how laughable and silly the game’s frequent attempts to be “cool” and “edgy” are, but suffice to say Twilight Princess has an ambitious narrative with some high points and some very low points, but is unfortunately too sloppily-delivered to reach true greatness.

All of this is praise and criticism I could apply to the GameCube and Wii Versions of Twilight Princess, but we are talking about Twilight Princess HD here, so let’s talk about what’s new, and whether or not this is a worthy remaster. The most obvious and strongest aspect of TPHD is…well…the HD. More specifically, the developers did some fine texture work here, and this crisp new look shines a new light on the game’s detailed world, illuminating every moss-covered stone and Hylian letter. This remaster proves that TP deserved an HD remaster just as much as The Wind Waker, if not even more so since the original didn’t age as gracefully on a technical level. I have always loved the art direction in Twilight Princess: that strange otherworldly glow at night, the bizarre creature and character designs, and its bright green fields under perfect blue skies. Taking a walk through Castle Town really demonstrates how much more vibrant the world feels in TPHD, and this game’s artfully-crafted world deserved to be appreciated on modern televisions. If nothing else, this remaster makes a decently compelling case for that “realistic” Zelda game that many pine for. My qualms with the game’s visual makeover are few, but I do have some: some textures could have been a little more cleaned up and some graphics were oddly taken out, like distant bluffs in Kakariko Village. Also, the lighting seems a little off in some sections and the game’s signature “atmospheric glow” (aka bloom) has been muted somewhat, which I found fine for most of the game but this does take away some of the surreality of the Twilight sections and especially the late-game Palace of Twilight area, which has lost a lot of its visual luster in this version. While I’ve yet to go back and directly compare to the original, I found the look of the game to be mostly faithful on the whole though. Overall the texture and resolution work cleans up and polishes Twilight Princess’s Hyrule and lets the game’s creative and beautiful art direction truly shine.

Besides the visual makeover (which the game’s screenshots and trailers really don’t do justice), several smart tweaks have greatly improved the overall play experience here, each in their own small way, with only a few questionable outliers. Many animations have been made faster or streamlined somehow, alleviating some of the most tedious aspects of the original: Link no longer takes a decade to climb up vines and transforming into a wolf and back is now only a tap on the touchscreen away. The game’s infamous rupee problem has been thankfully copiously addressed: no more rupee reminders every time one turns the game on (thank the goddesses), rupees no longer get thrown back into an unopened chest when they don’t fit in Link’s wallet, and all of the wallet upgrades have grown in size (though perhaps still not as much as they should have). In addition, fifty new collectible “stamps” for use in Miiverse posts have been scattered throughout the world, giving the player something new to find instead of another purple rupee, though I do wish more effort was put into integrating them into the game’s world. It can be quite jarring to be exploring an ancient crypt only to open a chest and stumble upon the “Surprised Midna” stamp. The reward for collecting all of the stamps is also a big spoiler for those who have never finished Twilight Princess before. What is neat though is that there is a stamp for every letter in this game’s Hylian alphabet, making it easier than ever to read the Hylian liberally featured throughout the world on signs, in dungeons, on monuments, and so on. There is also a new “Ghost Lantern” item that makes the Poe Soul-collecting quest easier to manage, and the game even adds Poe counters to each area and to dungeons, just like Ocarina of Time had with the Golden Skulltulas.

Of course, the game makes use of the GamePad in a similar way to The Wind Waker HD as well, though not quite as adeptly as that game did due to some unfortunately awkward interface issues. Having all of Link’s many gadgets and items always at the ready between one’s hands is as convenient as ever, but I found myself almost never using the map on the GamePad’s screen in TPHD. This is partly due to the fact that the world map in Twilight Princess is a lot less important than the one in The Wind Waker, but is also simply because I’d rather view the maps on my big TV screen rather than squint down at the GamePad. Unfortunately and frustratingly, however, the map can not be scrolled on the TV screen with the right analog stick (which uselessly copies the function of the left stick) and the designers force the player to use the touchscreen to scroll the map. Switching to bomb arrows also probably could have been less awkward, as in order to do so one needs to pause the game, tap on the bombs on the GamePad, hit a button to combine them with the bow and arrows, and then unpause, which totally breaks the flow of the experience and defeats the whole purpose of having the items readily available on the touchscreen in the first place. Similar to Wolf Link, why couldn’t there just be a quick “combine” button somewhere on the touchscreen?

Besides this, there are some other additions and tweaks that I’m mostly indifferent to. I appreciate the ability to use gyro motion control for aiming and some other functions, as well as the option to aim either in first or third person, and in my opinion this includes basically the only worthwhile unique feature of the Wii Version of Twilight Princess compared to the GameCube version in this package. Still, I almost always played with the motion controls off as these days I more and more appreciate the consistent accuracy of sticks and buttons. It should be noted that in order to walk around freely in first-person, the player needs to hold down the “ZL” trigger, unlike in Skyward Sword and The Wind Waker HD, which is odd. There are less Tears of Light to collect in the first half’s Twilight sections, though this ultimately doesn’t change too much since one still has to traverse basically the same ground; there are just a few less bugs to squash along the way. Still, if someone wants to just blow through these sections (which are easily the weakest in the game in my eyes, despite an interesting atmosphere and some good narrative moments) as quickly as possible, this will shave some time. Finally, there is the Wolf Link amiibo included with the physical version of the game (the other Legend of Zelda amiibo can also be used, but as I don’t own any of them, I won’t be talking about their functionality…it’s pretty shallow anyway). Wolf Link basically serves two purposes: it can be used as a “quick start” at the title screen to immediately jump into a save file, and it can transport Link and Midna to the new “Cave of Shadows” mini-dungeon. Similar to the new stamps, I’m disappointed that zero effort was put into organically integrating this new area into the world, but nevertheless it’s a decently challenging and decently well-designed new bonus, even if the way it is set up is a bit annoying. It contains three sections that unlock at certain milestones over the course of the main game and previous sections need to be redone to get through the whole thing. The ultimate reward is a new “Colossal Wallet” that holds 9,999 rupees, which I found to be laughably useless considering how late it is that the game first lets you acquire it. While I was iffy at first about locking a section of the game behind an amiibo, ultimately the Cave of Shadows is basically just a Wolf Link-exclusive “Cave of Ordeals” aka enemy gauntlet, and is something completely extraneous that can be easily ignored without missing out on too much.

Twilight Princess HD is overall a very solid remaster, but while amiibos can be ignored, several notable shortcomings cannot. The only tweak that I really have a big issue with is the change made to horseback riding control, which feels notably stiffer and more awkward. Riding Epona across the vast fields of Hyrule is one of my favorite aspects of the Twilight Princess experience, and I almost always prefer galloping to my destination and taking in the breadth of the world over instantly warping. While I eventually more or less adjusted to the new controls, getting there was a trial as I struggled to make turns effectively and frequently bashed straight into walls. I still mostly enjoyed this aspect of the game, but even up until the end something just felt off. This change brings to mind the tweaks that were made to the Zora swimming in Majora’s Mask 3D, and while those were far more detrimental to that experience than the horse controls are here, I really just have to scratch my head and truly believe that Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and the people who work on these remakes and remasters really need to take the old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to heart. It’s quite frustrating to me that what I feel to be two of the most fluid and enjoyable mechanics in the whole Zelda series have now been mucked up in both of their games’ respective remakes. I’ve also heard that the swimming controls were altered in TPHD as well, but hardly noticed and luckily had no issues with them.

My biggest issue with Twilight Princess HD though is actually probably its omissions and several things that weren’t tweaked. It’s irritating that fluid mechanics like the horseback riding that needed no altering were messed with, while some areas of control that really could have used some tweaks, like the wonky flying and snowboarding mechanics as well as Wolf Link’s slow and clunky-feeling movement, were left unaltered (as far as I can tell anyway). Likewise, I’m a bit disappointed that the music seems to be mostly untouched after The Wind Waker HD at least got a few remastered songs. If any of the music was remastered or altered, I didn’t notice, except for maybe the ending credits theme. While on the subject of music, it’s a shame that the enemy battle theme still drowns out Midna’s Lament, which really kills the mood during that pivotal scene. I have some other minor quibbles, like the terrible Magic Armor item being exactly the same piece of garbage as it was before, and also the weird fact that they got rid of the great cinematic that used to play after the title screen, but my personal biggest peeve and what I feel is a really glaring omission is the inability to remove most or all of the heads-up display elements on the game’s main screen. An uncluttered HUD has been an option or simply the default in every Zelda game since 2011’s Skyward Sword, including The Wind Waker HD, and I find it odd and worrisome that it was forgotten here, especially since I almost always appreciate such a feature in games.

Besides these issues, Twilight Princess HD is notably unpolished for a Nintendo title. There’s nothing game-breaking or anything, but I consistently encountered glitches and examples of poor coding throughout my experience with the game. Grass glitching out, a totally immobile enemy, a frequently stuttering camera, movement control occasionally getting wonky, and the “ZR” button randomly and very annoyingly sword slicing instead of shield bashing on a quite frequent basis are some of the issues I encountered. In addition, I happened to notice enemies floating in the sky over the places where they were set to spawn in a few instances and perhaps most glaringly of all was when I turned the camera while looking out a window in a certain dungeon, only to find that I could see the entire next section of the dungeon floating in a white void outside the window, a particularly sloppy and inexcusable flaw that I can’t imagine someone missed. I also noticed some framerate stuttering that I don’t remember being present in the original in a few sections, such as in Zora’s Domain. Granted, I happened upon a few technical issues (including slowdown) in The Wind Waker HD as well, but not nearly as many as I encountered here. Perhaps some of these issues were present in the GameCube and Wii versions of the game, but I have never noticed any of them or any other glitches or bugs in my countless playthroughs of the GameCube version and one playthrough of the Wii version.

Due to these technical issues, some strange omissions, and overall perhaps not as many alterations as there could have been (and one notably negative alteration), Twilight Princess HD is overall an inferior remaster job to The Wind Waker HD, but it’s still very solid and I’m glad it exists, mainly for the new visual polish it brings to the game. Simply playing through TP this particular time has made me find a new appreciation for the game and in this playthrough more than ever I’ve focused on what I really love about this experience, and this is perhaps in no small part due to the remastered visuals and the handful of smart tweaks that streamline the game and fix some of its annoying little quirks. Despite my qualms with the narrative and some other factors, there’s a lot I love about this game. I’ve replayed Twilight Princess many times in part because I am always looking to find some new epiphany with the game; to see something in it that I haven’t before. While I’ve gradually grown to appreciate the game more and more over the years (and admittedly have also just found more to criticize), I feel as though with this most recent playthrough of Twilight Princess HD, I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for. I’ll always have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with the game, but as I’ve run out of things to criticize over time, I’ve only noticed more and more the strengths of this flawed masterpiece, like its atmosphere, its well-constructed main quest, its excellent dungeons, its beautiful world, its strong art direction, its varied monsters and characters, its more unique and creative elements, its crisp mechanics, and even the comforting pleasures of a traditional Zelda adventure that doesn’t break the mold too much. I don’t much like the term “definitive”, but even despite the bugs and some other small gripes, Twilight Princess HD makes enough smart design tweaks and effectively polishes the visuals enough that I’d at least call this the best version of the game, and the one I’m likely to default to playing in the future.

Why I’m (Mostly) Completely Fine with Yet Another Delay for Zelda

Official new artwork of Link from the new Zelda, released by Nintendo

So the new Legend of Zelda game has been hit with yet another delay and this time I’m actually a bit surprised, as I fully expected the game to launch this holiday alongside the NX, Nintendo’s next console/thing/enigma. Oh but that’s the thing: NX has now been announced for a March 2017 launch, defying just about every prediction on the internet that it would launch at the end of this year. First off, I just want to say that I’m glad and a bit relieved that the NX isn’t coming out this year. I’m not exactly thrilled that the Wii U’s life is getting cut short and I definitely don’t think the hardware and its games get enough credit, but at least the Wii U gets one more full year. Furthermore, I don’t have to be tempted to buy not one, but two new consoles this year (the other being the PS4 so I can play The Last Guardian). Likewise, I’m also totally fine with waiting just a little while longer for Zelda, which is very likely to launch alongside the NX in March.

With just about every game delay comes some amount of negativity, but I understand if this one stings in particular for some people. It is the second delay for a promising entry in one of the most beloved video game series of all time, and Nintendo’s commitment for ultra-secrecy with the latest Zelda has left many fans scratching their heads, at this points perhaps wondering what it even is they’re looking forward to anymore. What’s more, it’s now been nearly five years since the last major console Zelda game, Skyward Sword, was released. The waiting, even for just a drop of information about this new game, is very real, but when it comes to video games these days, I’m a very patient person. There are way too many intriguing games out there right now as it is, and more are coming out throughout the year. Nevermind a giant backlog of games I own and haven’t started and my recent desire to go back and replay several older Zelda games. I haven’t even finished Twilight Princess HD, for crying out loud! I am not, in any way, in dire need of this new Zelda game at the moment, which I will want to free my schedule for and really sink my teeth into when I finally get my hands on it. Also, Nintendo’s announcement that the new Zelda will be the primary focus at this year’s E3 and indeed the only playable game on the show floor (in a wacky and surprising bit of news) should help to at least give fans something to make the wait easier (or perhaps even more difficult), and makes me nervous about just how much I’ll be able stick to my “media blackout” plan for this game.

Typically when I hear of a delay for a game I’m anticipating, I simply shrug my shoulders, nod my head, and think, “Ok; I’ll play it when it’s ready.” In fact, it typically makes me even more excited for the game, because at least I know the developers really care about what they’re making and are working hard, and that hopefully the game will be all the better for the extra development time. Of course, delays don’t always signify something positive and might even hint that a game might be in trouble or lost at sea. When it comes to Zelda though, I know how dedicated its developers are and how much love and energy they pour into these games, and since this new Zelda looks to be especially ambitious, I choose to be optimistic.

I’ve heard some speculate that the game is simply being held back in order to launch it simultaneously on the NX, or likely have it be a launch title for the console, and while the official word is that the delay is to “improve the quality” of the game, this speculated reason still might very well be another reason, perhaps even the main reason, for the delay. At the very least, the extra development time might largely be for successfully porting the game to NX. This whole situation is also of course similar to what happened with the original Twilight Princess back when it was delayed from 2005 into 2006, culminating in it being a launch title for the Wii as well as a swansong for the GameCube. I understand why some would be peeved if the game could be released on Wii U by year’s end with an NX version released later, and if this were the case, it might have been good practice for Nintendo to reward the people that bought a Wii U, and especially if they bought one specifically to play the new Zelda, by letting them get the game earlier than NX adopters. Despite this and despite me preferring one version of the new Zelda and not another Twilight Princess situation (especially if they do something extremely asinine like mirror the entire world in the game), I’m ultimately still fine with the delay even if the reason is nothing more than to have a simultaneous launch on Wii U and NX, for a few reasons.

Skyward Sword released exclusively for the Wii at the end of 2011 when the Wii U had already been revealed and was known to be releasing in a year. While the game sold very well when it first launched and was critically very well-received, it ultimately wasn’t very commercially successful in the long run and many people simply overlooked it as they looked ahead to the next console generation or otherwise just weren’t paying attention to their Wiis anymore in the largely barren final months of the console’s life. Nintendo doesn’t want to repeat this; they want Zelda to be successful, they want the NX to be successful, and seeing as how Zelda is, ya know, kind of something that I really dig and since Nintendo is one of my favorite developers, I want these things to be successful too. Holding Zelda back for a simultaneous launch on NX and Wii U is smart for a number of reasons: it would be a great launch title for NX, similar to Twilight Princess, not having it come out on Wii U earlier will mean that the game isn’t old news at that point, and finally if the game does launch in March 2017 or around that time, it won’t be competing with all of the other big holiday releases at the end of 2016. I want this new Zelda game to be successful and I want all the hard work its team is putting into it to be rewarded. I’ve seen enough great games fade into obscurity and neglect on the Wii U (*cough*TropicalFreeze*cough*Pikmin3*AHEM*) to be happy that at least the next big Zelda game will hopefully get the attention that I hope it will ultimately deserve, even if it means the slightly disappointing truth that the Wii U will never have had its own fully exclusive Zelda game.

Besides all this, it’s just kind of nice that we’ll probably be getting the next big Zelda in the spring instead of the holiday season. The last time a new major console Zelda game released in the spring, and in March to boot, was The Wind Waker in 2003, at least in North America. While it’s always a good time to go on an adventure with Link, The Legend of Zelda has largely always seemed like an experience very suited to the spring season for me; the air is warm, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and it’s just the ideal time to go on an adventure clothed in the green of fields, or in this upcoming game’s case, the blue of skies.

Changes I’d Like to See in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

Another Ze-make announced, another leak confirmed. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD is on its way to Wii U next spring, and I’m personally hoping that a Wolf Link and Midna amiibo isn’t the only novelty this new version will be boasting. At first glance, the visual makeover TP is getting seems to pale in comparison to the transformation that The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker underwent with its HD counterpart, but upon closer inspection, the visuals have certainly been cleaned up to a large degree and it looks like the game will be boasting at least much sharper textures if not entirely redone ones. TWWHD looks so notably beautiful in this modern day and age simply because its art is much better suited to the HD remaster treatment and has aged so gracefully, and Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma alluded to that very notion around the time of the HD remaster’s release. The lighting changes and added bloom also had a purpose when implemented in TWWHD, which was to capture the mood of the bright, sunny ocean setting, whereas TPHD may not have any use for similar drastic alterations. Similar to TWWHD, TPHD will not be a full remake like the 3DS Zelda remakes, but rather an HD remaster with hopefully a few tweaks here and there. Whereas my love and respect for the original experiences that The Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask provide made me wary of the changes being made to those games for their reintroductions, I don’t have the same kind of fondness for Twilight Princess and I’ll happily welcome some changes to TP that might differentiate it from the original and smooth out the experience.

I’ve thought up some alterations that I think have a realistic chance of being applied to TPHD. Again, this isn’t a full remake, so I don’t expect anything to the extent of the changes in Majora’s Mask 3D, for example. With this in mind, thinking up this list was a bit tricky because even though it sits at the lower end of my personal Zelda totem pole, Twilight Princess is actually a very polished game and there aren’t actually that many basic changes I can think to make. Most of my major quantifiable issues with Twilight Princess (and trust me, there are a lot) are baked into the DNA of the game and not the kind of thing you can just twist with a wrench a few times like Nintendo did with some aspects of The Wind Waker. That said, here are some of the tweaks I’d happily welcome when I experience this new version of Twilight Princess next spring.

GamePad Functionality

I’ll get the obvious one out of the way first, and going by the currently available screenshots and footage of the game, this stuff is all but totally confirmed anyway. It seems the game’s primary control scheme will be the GamePad, and so I fully expect the same kind of wonderfully-implemented functionality that TWWHD saw to be on display here: things like inventory and map management being on the second screen and gyroscopic aiming, which is honestly perfect because the motion-controlled aiming of the Wii version of Twilight Princess is the only aspect of that version I prefer to the otherwise superior GameCube release, so the HD version is poised to be the definitive version for me control-wise (although nothing quite beats the feel of the GameCube controller for me). As a side note, I’m very pleased to see that the HD version is being modeled after the GameCube version’s world map, so no mirror-world here like in the Wii version. Since I am far, far more familiar with the GameCube version (and also other factors like the world’s layout being more consistent with past Zelda games and also containing Hylian text that is based on the English alphabet and that is very readable if it’s not mirrored), I’m perfectly fine with this just being the way the game is, but an ability to swap between the mirror map and the standard one would be fine as well.

Camera and Miiverse Functionality

Taking another nod from The Wind Waker HD (there’s going to be a lot of that here), it’d be great if the Picto Box was introduced to Twilight Princess for this HD version (it was absent in the original game) and some kind of similar Miiverse functionality was also implemented. There’s no figurine quest or anything of the like in TP, but I’d still love to be able to photograph characters and scenery in TP’s world and share them on Miiverse (of course, I can also just do that by taking screenshots with the Home Button). Twilight Princess is actually fairly steeped in lore if you’re a hardcore fan of the series like me, and there’s a fair amount of food for theorizing in the game, so being able to share discoveries and discuss them online would be neat. Of course, if something akin to the figurine quest or maybe just the ability to photograph people and monsters in the world and get a short bio on them could be implemented, that would be most welcome. Twilight Princess is really lacking in any kind of feature like that compared to the other 3D Zelda games, so this remaster would be the perfect opportunity to remedy that and flesh out the game’s world. Even if nothing this ambitious is added, TP still has some of the most interesting architecture and lore in the series and the sharper textures will make studying features like the designs on the walls of the Temple of Time and the aforementioned readable Hylian text throughout the game a new pleasure, and being able to snap, save, and share some pictographs would make this even more enjoyable.

Refine Wolf Link

This is perhaps a more ambitious hope. Link’s wolf form may be the most underdeveloped “unique mechanic” in the entire Zelda series and it seems like an afterthought added to the game in order to give Twilight Princess a big unique feature to make it stand-out from other Zelda titles, something that it otherwise lacks. While overhauling Wolf Link entirely would call for a redesign of the whole game and is obviously not what I would expect, I think some minor tweaks here and there could at least make dashing around and fighting as the clunky lug a smoother experience. Instead of having to constantly hammer a button to make the otherwise sluggish beast dash in short bursts, just having the option to press or hold down a button once to run would be grand. Perhaps an even better choice might be to handle wolf-running the way it works in the far superior wolf simulator, Okami, where Wolf Link would start out at a measured gait and then gradually burst into a full sprint if the analog stick contained to be held forward. Also, please for the love of Din smooth out wolf combat, so enemies don’t fall down after one strike and invulnerably lie there for half a day before getting up and letting Link chew on them again. Whenever I play the original game, I have to resort to using Midna’s charge-up one hit kill attack in every single combat encounter in wolf form because fighting the normal way is just so bloody tedious.

Besides just overall touching up the way Wolf Link feels to play, maybe the bug-hunting sections where the beast gets the most action could be streamlined somehow as well. While I don’t hate these sections, mainly because of the atmosphere present in them, I find them far more tiresome personally than the Triforce shard hunt in The Wind Waker (which I never actually found tiresome at all, but I can see why people don’t like it), so if they tweaked that for TWWHD, maybe they can find a way to make some changes here. I’m not saying that the two sections are really all that equitable, just that they are both oft-maligned aspects of their respective games. I’m not exactly sure how they could alter the bug-hunting parts to make them feel less like a chore, and to be fair it would probably be harder to do than the rather simple and clever way they tweaked the Triforce hunt, but perhaps just something as simple as shortening them somehow to make the whole affair less drawn out so I can get back to dungeon-crawling and sword-slashing as human Link would be acceptable.

Rupees are so Annoying in this Game

You can never fit them in your tiny wallet. Link puts them back into a chest when he can’t hold them (which, again, is always), so a closed chest remains, forever mocking you and possibly even confusing you on a dungeon map. And of course, the game just loves to tell you how much each of these suckers is worth. Again. And again. And again. Every time you turn on the game. How to fix this? First off, just have a huge wallet from the start like in A Link Between Worlds (and swap out the wallet upgrade prizes from Agitha with some heart pieces or something; they did this kind of “reward-swapping” in TWWHD in some areas so there’s no reason it can’t be done here). At the very least increase the max number of rupees Link can hold; I’ve never understood why the largest wallet in TP can still only hold one-thousand rupees (not to mention you’re likely to get the largest wallet late in the game if at all) when Majora’s Mask had a freakin’ bank and The Wind Waker’s rupee max was five-thousand, especially considering just how many rupees Link finds in Twilight Princess. Next, ditch the “rupee saving” mechanic, or at least mark an already-opened rupee chest on the map with a rupee symbol. Finally, and obviously, for the love of Farore just get rid of the rupee reminders. I KNOW HOW MUCH A BLUE RUPEE IS WORTH DAMMIT. 

Seriously, this game and its rupees.

Selective Redone/Orchestrated Music

Taking yet more inspiration from The Wind Waker’s HD remaster, it would be great if selected tracks from Twilight Princess’s score were remastered and in some cases orchestrated. I’m not asking for the entire soundtrack to be redone, but merely given a similar treatment as in TWWHD, with selected songs being redone and in TPHD’s case, hopefully orchestrated. I’m not someone who believes all music in the Zelda series should be orchestrated and I firmly believe digital music (and other forms of music) still has a place, but Twilight Princess perhaps more than any other Zelda game begs to have a large portion of its soundtrack orchestrated, especially the (and I use this word properly) epic Hyrule Field theme (which already has an official orchestral version out there, so there’s really no excuse not to include at least that version or if not, do a new version).

Better Difficulty Balance

Twilight Princess has a great variety of fierce-looking beasties. Unfortunately, rarely do they ever pose an actual threat to the incredibly overpowered Link. Now, personally I don’t play Zelda games for difficulty, but some level of challenge and real opposition in the hero’s quest is appreciated, especially in regards to bosses. Twilight Princess has some wonderful dungeons and along with these tantalizing labyrinths are some very memorable boss encounters. But they’re all piss easy. Mainly this has to do with the strategy involved in taking them down often being pathetically obvious and extremely formulaic. It’s sometimes tough to really feel like a hero when these massive creatures’ menacing appearance is so betrayed by how easily Link stomps on them. With this in mind, I don’t expect completely redesigned encounters like in Majora’s Mask 3D (hopefully if that were the case, they’d be more well thought-out than in that game though), but I think monsters, bosses, and obstacles dealing a bit more damage to Link would go a long way. Of course, this probably won’t happen and the developers will likely just slap a “hero mode” on TPHD and call it a day, which is fine, but it’d be nice if there was something in-between “barely any challenge at all” and “hero mode”. For all its pretense of being “edgy” and “dark”, TP is one of the easiest and least threatening games in the series, so a little more difficulty might at least be in keeping with what the game is going for. And for Nayru’s sake, please take out the hearts and fairies in the final battle’s arena; Skyward Sword got it right in this regard.

Other Assorted Changes

Some other assorted changes I wouldn’t mind seeing: acquire the Horse Call item earlier or make Horse Grass way more common; perhaps too much to ask, but some smoother animations on characters, especially facial animations and especially Link’s facial animations; make the Magic Armor worth a damn or replace it with a better secret item as a reward for what is essentially TP’s only substantial side-quest (that’s not a collectathon at least); and lastly don’t restrict Link’s movement and actions indoors. This last one is something that started in Twilight Princess and continued in Skyward Sword and it is one of my biggest pet peeves about “modern Zelda”. Please get rid of it; it is so awkward and jarring and hurts the sense of freedom that is part of what makes Zelda games special.

I’ll end with just one more hope I have for Twilight Princess HD, which is, largely unlike its original release, I hope it surprises me. Whether it’s a brand new feature or area added, or just some unexpected and clever changes or additions that I hadn’t thought of, I hope there’s something in here that catches me off guard, in a good way. I’ve played through the original Twilight Princess a lot (the GameCube version, particularly), and speaking as someone who doesn’t care too much about the integrity of the original experience, something to mix things up would definitely be appreciated on my part.

Christmas Video Game Memories

I have countless Christmas memories that are tied to video games, or would that be countless video game memories tied to Christmas? Either way, when I think of fond Christmases past, the thought is usually accompanied by memories of playing a certain game either on Christmas day or sometime around it. There are numerous titles that are “Christmas games” for me, but I’m going to focus on two specific memories (involving three games) in this post.

                One game whose opening moments I will always equate with the rapturous jubilation of Christmas morning is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. To this day, I have probably never been more excited for a game than I was for that one. Back in December of 2006, I had just finished my first semester of living away at college and my life was in a huge state of change. In the span of about four months, I’d felt like so much in my life had drastically changed. It was jarring to be thrust out of my comfort zone and into a brand new world with brand new people and brand new experiences, but before heading off to college I knew however it went there would be Zelda waiting for me at the end of the year. Twilight Princess was significant because it was the first major console Zelda release to come out after I had fallen in love with the series at the release of The Wind Waker in 2003. The years and months leading up to Twilight Princess was the first time I got to experience that sweet, sweet Zelda hype and I drank in every ounce of it (perhaps to a fault, in retrospect). Despite the fact that my life was in a tumultuous state, getting to dive into that game on Christmas morning and through the night made me forget all about everything around me and it was just like any Christmas past when I was an elated kid with a new game. It really was a magical experience. I remember my Mom was disappointed that she wasn't able to get me a Wii with the game (she actually got me both the GameCube and Wii versions of Twilight Princess; I believe she'd bought the Wii version first and was planning on getting the console and just ended up giving me both versions when she wasn’t able to find a Wii; I ended up liking the GC version better anyway), and I remember telling her how much I really didn't care, I was just so happy to have the game. I had a big, goofy smile on my face and all I cared about was playing Zelda. And play Zelda I did. This song will forever remind me of the pure, peerless excitement of Christmas morning, and I wandered around Ordon Village that morning in a sense of awe and disbelief that I was actually finally playing this game. I vividly remember first stepping into the open area of Faron Woods with all the Bokoblins running about and being filled with joy at the first small cave I found. Stepping into the twilight for the first time later in the day, meeting Midna, being completely baffled at the weirdness going on in the game with the giant goat light spirit and this odd triangle-headed villain, and finally conquering the Forest Temple Christmas night. After taking my first steps onto Hyrule Field, I knew that my adventure was only beginning, and over the next two or so weeks, I devoured Twilight Princess. My ultimate feelings on the game ended up being mixed (to put it as simply as possible), but there is no denying the fond memories I have of finally getting to immerse myself in the newest Zelda epic that Christmas vacation.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

                The second game-related Christmas memory I want to talk about predates my Twilight Princess experience by a year and actually involves two games, and it’s a bit of a strange combination: Soulcalibur III and Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. I don’t talk about the series much, but I was a big fan of the Soulcalibur games back in the day (before losing touch with the series when the HD era came around, mainly because I didn’t get a PS3 until a bit later in its life-cycle when there were many other games vying for my attention). I loved the atmosphere and detail put into the Soulcalibur games, and also loved the adventure mode present in Soulcalibur II and III (and maybe the first Soulcalibur as well; I can’t remember exactly) that almost felt like an RPG of sorts. Dragon Quest VIII (to this day the only DQ game I’ve ever played through) was a title that I had been greatly anticipating due to its beautiful-looking art design and also because it just looked like a great traditional JRPG that would be right up my alley. I received both games as gifts on Christmas morning and moseying about DQVIII’s first village, with that tranquil orchestral music playing, on a sunny Christmas morning is a wonderful memory that I have. I also remember sneaking away from my relatives whenever I could throughout the day to play Soulcalibur III. The following week I sunk a ton of time into Soulcalibur and although I don’t remember much about the game right now (except, oddly, for a scene involving a clock tower and that big dude with a giant scythe…I guess I’ll just leave it at that), I do remember having a blast playing it. But there was also Dragon Quest, and that’s one I certainly, absolutely do remember. I adore Dragon Quest VIII; it’s one of my favorite video games ever and one of my fondest gaming experiences. Similarly to Twilight Princess, I remember just immersing myself in the breathtaking, pastoral world of Dragon Quest that Christmas vacation and the days and weeks (and months perhaps) beyond it. I’d never experienced adventure in an RPG or a video game in general quite like in Dragon Quest VIII, where a sprawling fantasy world was laid out before me; not a zoomed-out map with a small avatar running around on it, but an up-close, fully rendered world for me to hoof about in. Dragon Quest VIII is very “traditional” in its approach to fantasy adventuring and it does this so, so well while oozing charm around every polished corner. The first dungeon in the game is a dank cave that the player explores with a burning torch in hand, fighting monsters and looting treasure chests. It just doesn’t get any more classic and charming than that, and DQVIII delivers this kind of experience perfectly. And really I mean that: perfectly. I remember there was a moment about halfway through that Christmas break when I was exploring the massive world in the game and I came to the ocean. A sprawling seaside vista spread out before me with a path bordering the ocean stretching in two directions and hills rolling down to the seaside with rocks and cliffs dotted about. I felt free in that moment, felt inspired and full of joy. To have that kind of adventure when I was younger was simply sublime and I cherish the memory to this day.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

                There are many other Christmas video game memories I could talk about: the year I received my GameCube and Super Smash Bros. Melee (and Luigi’s Mansion!), or the year I got a Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure (and how much that game blew me away back then), or when I experienced my very first Metroid games in Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion one year. I’ve been fortunate and some (myself included) might even say spoiled to have parents who have delivered so many wonderful experiences to me at Christmastime that have consistently supplemented many other lovely memories I have of spending Christmas with my family and friends, especially my Nana, who has now passed away, but who was always an anchor of happiness for me at this time of year. I try as hard as I can to not take how lucky I’ve been for granted and look back on all the happy Christmases that my parents, my brother, my relatives, and my friends have brought me. With my love for Winter and snow and my birthday right around the corner as well, this time of year has always been a source of great joy for me, and I’m incredibly, enormously thankful for it.

To anyone reading this, I can only hope that you find some of the joy that I’ve experienced around this time of year and I wish you a heartfelt Happy Holiday.