Playing Zelda: Again, For The First Time
The Wii is a curious thing. If someone told me a year ago that I would be spending time and money playing a Sports game I would have called them insane. And if that same person told me that I would be replaying and buying games I used to own on NES and haven't played since I was 10 years old I would have totally cut them from my "best friends forever" list.
And yet I've done both of these things, and enjoyed every minute of it. I take great pride in my PRO status in WiiSports golf and my gold medals earned in WiiPlay. And my boyfriend and I have spent a cumulative hundred dollars on the Virtual Console. This is why I haven't finished Twilight Princess yet... because I've been spending too much time trying to pass old games that I passed millennia ago. And for the most part I don't regret it.
It's strange (and a little frightening) the things that stick in one's mind. Just recently I replayed the original Legend of Zelda and despite all common sense, it was like returning to an old friend. Buried deep down, I knew every tree to burn, every wall to bomb, the location of every treasure. Why my brain has held onto it is anyone's guess. And it's strange how far we've all come as gamers, really. I remember playing Zelda for the first time and being in awe of it's expanse, feeling lost in a world that I couldn't possibly ever totally figure out, and now I can pass the game in less than a day and realize just how tiny the world actually is. I don't know if it's the return to a simpler gameplay or just nostalgia, but there's something really rewarding about these games.
Next stop: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, because I like a man who can fight in his boxers.
Pirate Prince
Posted to Video Games on 4 April 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: flashbacks, nes, old school gaming, the legend of zelda, wii, wii virtual console
The question remains, are you going to challenge the Master Quest? I tried it back in the day, and I can assure you, it's hard, very hard. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I'm all for the return of actual challenge in gaming. Everything is so pussified now. Now, obviously stuff that is just randomly "screw you" to the player can stay lost forever, like dying in Kid Icarus just because you ducked and somehow fell through the floor. But games like "Ghosts & Goblins" or "Contra" or Zelda's second quest? Bring them on.
Why has your brain held onto it? It's an iconic game as evidenced by the large collections on my, and many others' hard drives of Zelda remixes, parodies, and trailers from upcoming games. It's what kept the Intellivision, Coleco Vision, and Atari spark alive in me and burning 20+ years later... Now I feel old and need a cucumber mask and martini...