Just Beat: The Legend of Zelda

Confession time.

I’m just going to come clean. 

I’m not a Zelda fan.  

I have no issue with the series, and the games from it that I play I generally like, I’m just not a fan.  I recognize that the franchise is a long and storied one that has had significant impact on both the video game community and industry.  I also acknowledge that the Zelda games (with the exception of the odd Philips CDi ones) are all viewed very favorably. 

Let's just forget this ever happened...

It’s just… I don’t know… I don’t dislike Zelda… It’s more that I never caught the fever.

See, growing up, I wasn’t allowed to own any sort of game system.  So, I was limited in my exposure to the NES library by what games my friends owned or rented.  I fondly remember playing Mario and Mario 3 at John’s house after freezing our asses off building snow forts in his front yard.  I remember my life forever changing the first time I tried (and failed miserably) to play Metroid at my cousin’s house – I even remember that she told me of the rumored ‘Justin Bailey’ code, but couldn’t get it to work because she kept entering it as ‘Justin Bates’.  

Spoiler Alert:  Doesn't do anything

Contra, Bubble Bobble, TMNT, Mega Man, Gradius - nearly every NES game that has since achieved ‘classic’ status holds at least a passing flash of nostalgia in my childhood memory banks. 

Every game, that is, except The Legend of Zelda.

I mean, I knew it existed.  I very vaguely remember seeing it once or twice, maybe on TV or in a store, but nothing that stands out.  I think the issue is that once I started getting consoles and owning my own games, I had already formed my nostalgia-based opinions of the oh-so-wonderful NES early years.  And, unfortunately, I missed the boat when it came to Zelda.

Having finally sat down to play it, my honest reaction is one of casual ambivalence.  However, looking back, I can say that I understand why the Legend of Zelda made such an impact.

Many of the games that began long-standing franchises did so, I believe, because they gave the player such an immense sense of accomplishment.  Metroid, Final Fantasy, Zelda – all had an element of the unknown, of starting an adventure completely lost, with no idea of what to do or where to go.  It was up to the player to take those first tentative steps and start exploring and when the player beat a dungeon or found a new item, it was a direct result of the player’s own work.  Whether it was through memorizing or drawing maps, lengthy trial and error process, continually getting lost, or through pure force of will; it was the player that won the day.  

These games were not easy.  There were no checkpoints, limited save locations (or horrendous password systems), primitive to non-existent maps, no indication of what items actually did, no internet to provide guides, and only questionable Nintendo Power articles and playground rumors to help you along your way.  Oh… and we were SIX YEARS OLD!  

Either the world is a gray rectangle, or that's one shitty map.

That’s why we asked to borrow our parent’s camera to take a blurry picture of the final end screen when we succeeded.  We had undergone a long grueling ordeal that tasked us beyond our physical and mental limits.  We were damn right to be proud.  We just beat the game.

When I play the Legend of Zelda today, I have all the requisite knowledge of every other Zelda game I have ever played.  I have years of experience and a finely tuned intuition of where to look for secrets and how to handle dungeons and bosses.  Additionally, there are things that I just flat out know.  I knew where to bomb to open up Gannon’s Lair.  I knew to try and go into the waterfall with the raft.  I knew where to look for hearts, to burn bushes in weird spots, to play the flute at the empty pond, to…

The point is, The Legend of Zelda posed very little in the way of challenge to me now; and as a result, beating it really didn’t have much of an impact on me.  However, had six-year old Steke beaten this game (along with the rest of humanity) when it first came out, my reaction wouldn’t be an ambivalent ‘oh yeah, The Legend of Zelda… it’s pretty good,’ but rather, ‘IT’S THE MOTHER F*CKING LEGEND OF ZELDA, SON!’

State of the Steke Address

My fellow gamers, heck yeah, I’m back!  I recently finished up the second of my collegiate degrees – again with little or no prospect of actually pursuing a career with said degree.  Now that that is over with we can get back to the important things in life:  Videogames, Lego, Running, Friends.  Awesome.

It’s been nearly a year since I last posted.  Ironically, it was a self-reflection post about getting my ass in gear and rejuvenating my passion for the things I like to do.  Well… then the final semester of an engineering degree took hold and doing things I like went out the window.

However I did play some games since last February and, much to my own surprise, most were pretty good.  That said – Time for the Rapid Fire Bonus Round

Round 1: StarCraft 2

I finally caved and bought it, then proceeded to easily sink about 200 hours into it.  I’ve beaten the campaign several times on the hardest setting and played on ladder for two or three seasons (I’m a pretty poor player, in most respects – mid to high silver at my best).

Needless to say, I love the game and still spend at least an hour a day either watching pro level casts or playing. 

Round 2:  Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Kirby is a nice title for the Wii with a very unique and original presentation.  While playing Epic Yarn, I was constantly marveling its creativity and outstanding level design.  At numerous points in the game I commented, ‘This is how you make a 2-D side scroller!’  My only complaint was the absence of challenge, as it is impossible to die and getting the various medals for each level is pretty stinking easy. 

Not exactly what you see everyday

Round 3:  Donkey Kong Country Returns

Fan-freaking-tastic!  I loved DKCR!  Throughout the entire game I was amazed at pretty much all of it.  I constantly commented, ‘Screw Kirby, now THIS is how you make a 2-D side scroller!’  The music, graphics, play control, challenge, everything was all top notch.  DKCR easily makes it high on my best games of all-time list.  Very awesome.

So effen' sweet!

 

Round 4:  Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Okay.  Let’s get this straight.  The Uncharted games are all really good.  They are fun, cinematic, challenging, and have a truly adventurous feel to them.  Uncharted 3 is no different.  Each of the different environments is exquisitely presented, vary dramatically from one another (and from previous games), and a blast to play.  However, I feel that the story linking each of the different set pieces lacked a certain… umph, and simply served to get us from one action scene to another.  Plus, I was very disappointed in the ending.  Seriously, I feel like I shot a rope and that was it – end of story.  I enjoyed playing Uncharted 3, but was left feeling a bit hungry.

Round 5:  Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

This is the fourth of the metroidvania-style games I’ve played, and to be honest, is my least favorite.  It was fun and got me just as addicted as the others, but I didn’t quite dig the art style or feel that the ‘castle’ map was very intriguing.  I’d recommend it for fans of the series, but not to new-comers (I’d have them play Symphony of the Night – so awesome!).

Round 6:  Gaia Seed

Let me tell a bit of a story.  I love 2-D shooters.  It kills me that the genre is all but dead.  So, when I was reading Destructoid a while back and saw a mini-review of an old PS1 era Japanese 2-D shooter, I was intrigued.  When the reviewer stated that Gaia Seed, ‘was probably one of the best 2-D shooters ever..’ I was obsessed.  I hurried over to the PlayStation Store and the description of the game confirmed that Gaia Seed, ‘…is widely touted as one of the best side-scrolling shooters ever…’  Hurry up and take my money!

Then I played it.  Uh, what?  Am I missing something?  I beat the game on my second play-through, beat it on one credit on my third, and got the ‘good’ ending on my fifth (It took me to my fifth only because the game tricks you into getting the bad ending).  The graphics look like a late generation SNES game, the music is unremarkable, the power-up system is weak, and the levels lack challenge.  Maybe I’m missing something, but Gaia Seed is nowhere near the best shooter ever made.  This game, it kinda sucks.   

That's some serious epicness... for serious?

                                        

State of the Steke:

See, I do play games every once in a while!  Let’s take a look at the stats:

Games Owned:  329

Games Finished:  132

Percentage:  40.1%

Progress to Date:  Present, but not quite visible to the human eye