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The new legend of Zelda is a toy box of delights

271 points by noir-york 10y ago

dimgl 10y ago
I've had so much fun with this game. The game design is on a whole other level. The fact I can take a regular arrow, walk up to a campfire, light the arrow on fire, shoot the ground and light THAT on fire, create an updraft and ride it with the paraglider and then swing my hammer downwards to kill everything around me is incredible. Quite possibly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.
- jay-saint 10y ago
  Agreed absolutely every element of this game is fun. They struck the perfect balance between ease of entry and play and a massive and complex world. They avoided pitfalls of many other RPG games that add complexity at the cost of fun. They also learned to not completely hold your hand as many other Nintendo titles have in the past.
  - Pulcinella 10y ago
    They also avoided the pitfall of open world at the cost of bugginess. Not to name names, but many open world games, especially on consoles, have been pretty buggy.
    - Rapzid 10y ago
      They did something amazing that at least I had never heard of in the game industry. In one of their making-of videos released today they said that every so often everybody would take a week break(at the same time) to play the game. This served as a check-in of sorts to see what everyone else was working on and to get company-wide exposure and feedback on each other's work. It shows. I played the entire game through use sleep mode on the switch between sessions. Not a single game breaking or fun breaking bug. The consistency throughout is phenomenal... Well, the people work on Death Mountain killed it; looks better than the other areas IMHO.
      - Agentlien 10y ago
        I also saw the GDC video where they talked about this and it really resonated with me. Where I work we are constantly reminded to spend time just playing the game and the whole studio (120+ people) regularly gather in the main meeting area, watching as someone plays through a mission. What was mentioned in this video, however, is on a whole different level and it sounds amazing.
        Rapzid 10y ago
        I got the impression from the making-ofs that they jumped into the deep end as far as innovation. Not just from a gameplay and design perspective, but from a process and company culture perspective as well. I get the sense that a lot of process was cultural and stagnant. However, when the opportunity arose to throw more change after good they jumped on it and made some very interesting progress. I can't help but get a strong impression that the experience of developing BOTW has had a transformative effect on Nintendo. I'm also getting those vibes from the Switch and double-down strategy on indie devs and turn-key game engines; if not already certainly over the life cycle of the system. This particular process seems to have arisen from Nintendo's need to control quality. We've seen this in effect before with many games, but Metroid Prime and Retro Studios comes to mind. With a Warren Buffett like eye for potential Nintendo pulled on Retro to make Prime, and through sure will for quality helped guide their efforts and the final product into the amazeballs results of Metroid Prime. That need for uncompromising quality control, coupled with the challenges of a MASSIVE game(certainly more massive than anything they have undertaken) led them to try out this process that comes with obvious financial downsides. In the end, they are rightly satisfied with the results. Inspiring.
  - cgriswald 10y ago
    I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the relative lack of a tutorial and 'front story'. I've gotten games and then sat on them for months because I knew I'd need a good 45 minutes to even start playing the game and just never had the time or patience. This game was just such a great "pick up and play" experience; and it let's you learn a lot of stuff on your own. The puzzles are amazing because they feel very natural. The game doesn't go out of its way to prevent you from "cheating" or solving the puzzle however you like. But it also doesn't feel like it was intended for there to be more than one solution. The intended solution is usually clear after the fact (even if you've solved it some other way); and it seems like the solution, but any other solution is also accepted. It feels as if I've really stumbled across this puzzle, and even if I can't figure it out, I can figure SOMETHING out, and that's alright.
    - flgr 10y ago
      And yet they kinda manage to still teach you things carefully. It feels like in the past they were afraid of making things to subtle, but if you look at the game with an eye of game design (just create a second user on the Switch and restart it from scratch) it's surprising how they still manage to steer you. The whole plateau is a tutorial, but it doesn't jump into your face as much. And then there's that one annoying motion controlled puzzle with a way to bypass it that a bunch of journalists mentioned in their reviews, and it's as if it was designed with that trick in mind. So that journalists discover it and write about how this game is different. Which is interesting. Almost like they thought of how to communicate that this game is different and how to best let people notice, and then they came up with that.
      - cgriswald 10y ago
        Agreed. You can definitely feel the 'steering' if you're looking out for it, and there are points later in the game where events happen and it gets a little hand-holdy. But compared to games where a character accosts you immediately, tells you exactly what button to press, then tells you exactly which button to press next, ad naseum (and usually tells me so much I don't retain any of it), it feels like it's not even there. I think the motion control puzzle was a flub, though. The motion controls sucked. I ended up doing it the "right" way, but at no time did it feel like what I was doing to the controller and what was happening on the screen was correct; but I love that it's possible to find other ways.
  - on_and_off 10y ago
    >They also learned to not completely hold your hand as many other Nintendo titles have in the past. Except for some crucial passages in the game where it suddenly REALLY wants to hold your hand. I am still loving the game but I would to see it stop shouting at me to shoot an arrow on the big glowing parts of [redacted]. I would have much prefered to figure that on my own.
    - audunw 10y ago
      I felt that this kind of instruction was more related to story than to gameplay. Story-wise it wouldn't make sense that you're not told what to do there. That's kind of a theme for all the "boss" battles.. there's another character who knows more about the boss than you do. It also gives sense that the battle is more of a collaboration rather than you just figuring out some way to kill it. I don't think they were worried about people not figuring out what to do. In other parts of the battles you have to figure out much harder stuff for yourself.
      - on_and_off 10y ago
        Maybe. I guess that the main problem I had with this is that the French dialogs and dubs are awful. Sadly the switch does not let you choose the language of a game the same way that most desktop games do. The scenario and characterization are not great, but with bad translations and voice acting, it weakens these moments a lot.
        idle_zealot 10y ago
        I can confirm that the English dubs are pretty bad too.
        eisrep 10y ago
        Yeah, the voices I can live with. But the delivery and emotion (or lack thereof) are really disappointing.
- deleted 10y ago
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- flgr 10y ago
  It's super interesting that Nintendo seems to have down the elements of game design really well that actually make a game fun. Compare that to other games such as Pokemon Go or No Man's Sky, which feel like the designers might have forgotten to add the core game itself. It's also interesting to compare to Witcher 3, which is another great game (but via different means IMHO). I'm surprised by how much Nintendo nailed this (what features to invest time into to make a game fun). Seems like they might be ahead of others there. And that makes me wish that that part of game design was better understood.
  - city41 10y ago
    Shigero Miyamoto has been overseeing Nintendo's games for 37 years now. If you read any interviews or histories on Nintendo, Miyamoto providing feedback on a game to make it fun and engaging is very common. Combine his vast experience with the fact he's a genius when it comes to gameplay, and he's tough for other companies to beat.
    - flgr 10y ago
      I guess what surprises me is that we haven't written down mechanics or principles that will make a game fun instead of just addictive. (There seem to be many well established dark patterns for getting people to spend money on freemium games, but I haven't seen much about what makes a video game more fun.)
      - marrone12 10y ago
        You can't encapsulate fun to a series of algorithms. The brilliance of the Breath of the Wild is in it's imagination. When a game truly feels like magic, it needs someone to inspire it.
      - Negitivefrags 10y ago
        There are numerous attempts at theories of fun out there, but none of them really let you look at a design and know if something will be fun without trying it. They don't even really give you much of any concrete guidance on how you might change a design to make it more fun if it isn't currently. The best attempts at this tend to be along the lines of looking at certain player profiles and trying to imagine what about your design appeals to those who enjoy that profile. It's possible that this isn't something we can easily quantify. If I asked you to write a book about what makes music good, would you be able to do that?
- jghn 10y ago
  I've always loved sandboxy style open world games, stretching back over 20 years now. As time passed my ability to find time to play these sorts of games has drastically waned. I'd pick something up but it'd take so long to figure out how to make it work that I'd just stop playing. You're spot on. What I love about this game is capture by what you wrote but also that it turns out to be pretty easy to get into. I'll likely never beat the thing, but there's so much cool stuff that my natural explorer tendencies are already coming out. "I wonder if I can do this?" generally winds up being answered with "yes"
- joshmn 10y ago
  Have you attached those little balloony-things to a bomb and sent that down to some moblins yet? Or dropped a leaf on purpose so a moblin uses it as a weapon?
- Pigo 10y ago
  Just out of curiosity, have you experienced any of these problems I keep hearing so much about? The videos from launch have led me to think everyone has scratched their screen and the system barely runs Zelda.
  - vintagedave 10y ago
    I'm astonished at how much people are mentioning apparent problems, given how great the game is. I run it with the console both plugged in and handheld. On a TV, I have seen stutters a few (ten?) times in twice as many hours of gameplay. Even then they weren't very bad. My screen is not scratched. I have no dead pixels. The game is the best I have ever played. It is absolutely incredible. My personal opinion? Bad news sells better than good news; a glowing review is never going to be as "good" (widely shared, viral, etc) a review as one selling problems. (And for websites and Youtube, it is selling: selling their channel).
  - Belphemur 10y ago
    As an owner of the switch and the game. Nope not any issue you read online. No problem with the joy con, no performance problem (either handheld or TV). No dead pixels. I bought the carrying box for it, then no scratch on the screen. Battery life is good when used in transport (forget about road trips of more than 3-4h). The game slow a little down when there is a huge amount of grass, but it doesn't impede the gaming experience. All in all, I'm really happy with my purchase and I don't get how so many people have so many issues with it.
  - aaron-lebo 10y ago
    The game does have performance issues. Anyone telling you they aren't there is either in love with the game (and not seeing it) or is only used to low framerate games It's not an issue undocked (because it runs at 720) and the game looks fantastic. If you play docked, though, there's lots of performance stutters - look at a certain area, attack a specific enemy and framerate drops to sub-30 and it might stay that way for a few seconds. That being said, it's a good enough game that you can ignore it and even forget about it, but it's always there. It's my only real issue with the game.
scaasic 10y ago
Caveat being the only consoles that can play it are either impossible to find or at the very end of its lifecycle.
- wickawic 10y ago
  How does that affect the quality of the game?
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Availability is an issue - I can't get the game. Nintendo needs to improve this - I wanted the Wii back in 2006/2007 and finally gave up trying to get one retail, and never bought the console. I'm not a serious gamer, I game casually when I do, but that's a lost sale.
- arielweisberg 10y ago
  We are well on our way into 2017 and you still can't find the NES classic. I wish Nintendo were a bit more Apple in that respect.
  - 086421357909764 10y ago
    They're notorious for spiking demand by creating limited availability. They do it with their amiibo launches all the time. It's kinda sad really. They claim more classics are on the way though after the switch is stocked regularly.
- stormbrew 10y ago
  Past the end of lifecycle, I think. It's quite difficult to find WiiUs as well, at least from an actual store.
- endemic 10y ago
  > at the very end of its lifecycle This might not be a bad thing. Plenty of quality software already released that you can obtain cheaply. I skipped the Wii U, but am going to pick one up so that I can actually play Zelda, as well as explore the other games I missed.
tyleo 10y ago
I wonder whether future Zelda games will be more like this title, or more like its predecessors. I have had great experiences with both, and Ocarina of Time now contends with Breath of the Wild as my favorite game. Even I don't know what I would prefer.
- flgr 10y ago
  I wonder whether now that they have a functioning engine and tools for large open worlds it might take less effort to create another open world like this — and then allow them to spend that time on also having the more traditional big dungeons in there. That'd be neat at least. I think getting some longer more traditional dungeons as DLC would be amazing.
  - city41 10y ago
    There are two DLC packs coming later in the year. Hopefully they do just that.
    - flgr 10y ago
      I'd like to see them succeed with episodic game play. I'm not sure if anyone really ever did that. I know that Valve wanted to do it with Half Life 2 and then just stopped after two episodes. It sounds like Witcher 3 had two great extensions, but that's it pretty much. It sounds like one of my favorite childhood games had that in mind, but then others figured out how to create content, and they let the community create new content instead. Is anyone actually doing episodic game content successfully? I guess MMORPGs like WoW do, but is anyone successfully doing episodic content for games outside that genre?
- cmrdporcupine 10y ago
  If Nintendo follows their pattern you won't see another major Zelda title for 5-6 years at least, maybe even more. There will be smaller Zelda-themed titles that have other gameplay mechanics but with a Zelda theme, like what they did with Four Swords, etc. But we'll maybe see a similar engine with something else from their franchise. I'm really hoping they do Metroid with this engine!
danbolt 10y ago
Not particular to the genre, but I think this is one of the characteristics that had made games like NetHack and Dwarf Fortress so engaging to some. The right combination of mechanics and systems, alongside interesting or surprising placement to create scenarios that the brain interprets as a narrative.
- veli_joza 10y ago
  More modern example is Rimworld, it really gets the design right. Each game item has multiple uses in different contexts, and randomly-generated events actually add up to meaningful story. It's also great example on how to build complex world while still allowing players to have good insights into mechanics and game state.
ddavidn 10y ago
Agreed. I've always wanted a useful house in a Zelda game. Now I have one. And the game just keeps getting better (albeit a little too easy so far)
- geoah 10y ago
  What use did you find for a house? I bought one, upgraded everything and the only use was the bed.
  - flgr 10y ago
    It allows you to store extra swords, shields, and bows AFAIK. Also has a couple of tools (hammer, others) conveniently available nearby.
  - ddavidn 10y ago
    I liked the weapon storage for keeping certain useful/powerful weapons, especially since it took me forever to find Hestu's second location, and the bed is nice to have as well. Mainly just a fun thing to have, and I'm hoping they pop something house-related into the DLC.
- greggman 10y ago
  Wow! I totally missed that was even a possibility. I thought it was just a dialog tree conversation not an actual feature.
  - mercer 10y ago
    There's so much stuff like that in the game! My brother comes by regularly to play on a separate account and while we try to go to different areas there's still quite a bit of overlap. It's incredibly how much stuff is in all those areas that he visits that I haven't even seen, but it's even more incredible how much stuff one of us missed in the areas we both explored. And considering that we're both pretty serious gamers and compulsive 'find everything' personalities, I suspect more casual games could replay the game from the start multiple times and still discover new stuff that is 'significant' (as opposed to 'minor' stuff like new items, korok seeds, or shrines).
Arizhel 10y ago
Is it just me or does it seem like there's something wrong that these 30-year-old game franchises are continually being milked? Is it really that hard to come up with something new these days? Back when these things were new, there were no other, much older franchises to draw from. Metroid, Zelda, etc. were all brand-new and came out at about the same time.
- Pfhreak 10y ago
  They aren't mutually exclusive. Splatoon received critical acclaim, for example. This is also true for every other media -- we relentlessly rebuild, recycle, and remix old work to create new content. It's a part of being human.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    >we relentlessly rebuild, recycle, and remix old work to create new content. It's a part of being human. I addressed that before: this simply isn't true for Nintendo games circa 1985-6. At that time, these characters and games were all-new, except perhaps for Mario, and he came from Donkey Kong which only came out a few years earlier. So why were they able to come up with so many original characters all in such a short span of time, which have lasted this long, but they haven't created anything original in the last 10-20 years that even remotely compare? Personally I think it points to some change in our society.
    - aikinai 10y ago
      As posters above have mentioned, all "sequels" in a Nintendo franchise tend to be completely independent with basically the character models swapped in later in development to make it part of a series. There's no shortage of ideas for new characters and stories, but if you don't put a recognizable name on the box, you immediately sacrifice half your sales. Movies are the same, so maybe you're right there's something different about society's taste these days.
      - Arizhel 10y ago
coreyp_1 10y ago
I would love to play it, but I can't find a Nintendo Switch. That is, I absolutely refuse to reward scalper behavior (which Nintendo encourages via their artificial shortages).
- merlincorey 10y ago
  It's available on the Wii-U as well.
  - coreyp_1 10y ago
    True, but I don't own a Wii-U, and the Wii-U is 5-year old technology, whose production has officially ended as of January (http://kotaku.com/wii-u-production-has-officially-ended-for-japan-1791813878 http://kotaku.com/wii-u-production-has-officially-ended-for-...). Scalpers are lowlifes, IMO.
    - 6502nerdface 10y ago
      > Scalpers are lowlifes, IMO. If the two alternatives are a world where no new Switches are available for anyone to buy, and a world where some new Switches are available for a high price, then surely the latter is strictly better than the former. Your sentiment places the scalpers in an unfair position of "ethical entanglement": if you try to make a problem slightly better, then by not fixing it entirely you are now to blame. Other examples at http://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethics/ http://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethi...
      - tgb 10y ago
        How are scalpers trying to make the situation better? They don't increase the supply, as in your erroneous hypothetical. There's an argument for scalpers, but it's more subtle. Companies want immediate sales and to be able to say they sold out. Scalpers let them do that by taking on some of the risks themselves. And it ostensibly allows people to make a time/money tradeoff between waiting in line or for later supplies versus paying more.
fumar 10y ago
I stopped playing video games by the time I started college. I can't recall once specific game or event or thought that spurred the change. Recently, as I near 30 yrs old, I wanted to step back into my childhood and picked up a Switch with Zelda. The game starts with a nice intro, light game mechanics, and then sets you loose. It has been a week and I have been playing 2-3 hours per day, every day. I can't remember the last time, I played a game that teleported me to a new world, feel like a kid, success. Any other games you all recommend from the last decade?
- mzs 10y ago
  Portal and Portal 2
  - komali2 10y ago
    Also, the Half Life series. Not nearly as explorable as the early zelda games, though.
    - swsieber 10y ago
      Antichamber is also a very fun adventure puzzler. It actually gives you tons of leeway even though it does have a linear path that's the easiest. I took maybe 6 hrs on my first play through, but there are speed runs that go under 10 minutes.
- soVeryTired 10y ago
  I got hooked on one of the newer Civilization games recently. Get nuked by Gandhi!
  - viraptor 10y ago
    Stellaris is a great game in a similar genre. Really well done.
- ZeroGravitas 10y ago
  Splatoon, a sequel to which should be coming out for the switch, is a different kind of game, but may inspire some of the same feelings.
hackuser 10y ago
> Anything liquid can be frozen. Anything metal can be magnetised. Anything flammable can be set alight. Graphical NetHack? (Disclaimer: I played NetHack only once, a long time ago, and know it mostly by reputation.)
- flgr 10y ago
  In their GDC talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc) one of the core concepts they present is "multiplicative gameplay", which sounds a lot like what NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup aim for as well. It's a surprising amount of fun to have multiple ways to solve puzzles and try to come up with one that was or was not intended to solve it.
  - BHSPitMonkey 10y ago
    Here's a direct link to the timestamp where they talk about this, and show off an internal 2D prototype of their "chemistry engine": https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?t=1067 https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?t=1067
city41 10y ago
This video is an excellent demonstration of creative ways to play with the engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvbqxBUG_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvbqxBUG_c It has some swearing and some very minor spoilers if you are just starting the game.
- smnscu 10y ago
  I came here to post the same link. Dunkey is by far my favourite YouTuber. https://www.youtube.com/user/videogamedunkey https://www.youtube.com/user/videogamedunkey
- simooooo 10y ago
  The dog spinning with him was hilarious
jessewmc 10y ago
It might be worth pointing out that if you're having trouble finding a console to play this on, refurbished Wii-Us are still an option for $200. https://store.nintendo.com/ https://store.nintendo.com/ I bought one since I wanted some party games and didn't have any Nintendo console anymore. It was more than worth it. Mind you this was before end of life so the calculus might be a bit different now.
- mercer 10y ago
  I can second this, in particular if 1) you like Nintendo games, and 2) you haven't played all the Wii and Wii U titles (or perhaps even GameCube). I bought the Wii U even though I could've bought the Switch. It's my first Nintendo console since the Gameboy Advance (SP) and GameCube, and I'm very happy with my decision (giddy, even). Here's a few arguments in favor of getting a Wii U: - you can play all the WiiU and (most?) Wii titles. Even just the first-party ones are worth it: Metroid Prime Trilogy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wind Waker HD, Mario 3D World, Mario Galaxy (1 and 2), Mario Kart, Wii Sports, and so on, along with and admittedly small selection of great third-party titles. - through the Virtual Console you can also play a pretty decent selection of N64, NES, SNES, Gameboy Advance, and DS games. This gives you access to many if not most of Nintendo's Zelda, Mario, Paper Mario and Metroid titles, among others, as well as tons of games that at the very least have high nostalgia value (although the first party ones are generally highly acclaimed too). - there's a decent amount of 'indie' titles available, although I suspect that to be quickly eclipsed by the Switch. - based on (ridiculously extensive) googling around before making the decision, it seems that Breath of the Wild is just as good on the WiiU as it is on the switch, with the one big (but to me unimportant) exception of resolution (900p on Switch, 720p on WiiU). Plus, for now at least it's better than the 900p docked version for Switch, performance wise. But that might be fixed with a firmware update. Basically, the Wii U is at this moment the ultimate Nintendo console. And even if (or when, really) they start offering these games for the Switch, I consider it unlikely that they'll support Wii games on account of having to support the Wii controls (remote + nunchuck). All that said, obviously the Switch is far superior when looking forward (WiiU is discontinued, even) and for mobile play. If those things don't matter too much, I'd say get a WiiU even if you can get a Switch, and sell it once Mario Odyssey or some other new game you want comes out. The WiiU will probably retain much of its value, even as your 'retro-gaming machine' to handle all the weird control schemes Nintendo has been going through lately.
robbfitzsimmons 10y ago
Does anybody subscribe to this magazine (1843)? I subscribe to the parent magazine The Economist, and this sounds appealing, but $50 for 6 issues seems steep (and no online subscription).
- disillusioned 10y ago
  They send me a lot of issues with my normal Economist subscription, but you're definitely right that it's not cheap.
hackuser 10y ago
I only peripherally pay attention to games, but is my impression right that Nintendo is just a brilliantly innovative company, light years ahead of any other (major) gaming developer? Off the top of my head, I see the Wii, Pokemon Go, and now this. In addition to being innovative, they seem focused on artistry, creativity, and positive experiences for their customers. Wii in many ways encouraged collaboration and activity, playing with others (i.e., rather than alone with pizza all night long); it focused on that over flashy graphics and shock-and-gore. Pokemon Go got people out on their feet, interacting, exploring and engaging with their towns, creatively rather than garishly introduced them to the possibilities of new tech (AR), and was fun but not violent. Perhaps that's already Nintendo's reputation; I don't know. But they don't get enough attention and praise IMHO. They seem to me to be like the Pixar or Apple of games, or better.
- syva 10y ago
  Totally agree! However, Pokemon Go is not Nintendo.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - flgr 10y ago
    I'm surprised by how similar and non-gamy Pokemon Go feels (feels more like a grind / freemium mobile game). I was also surprised by how much the core mechanics have a vibe very similar to Ingress. I think it'd be interesting to see a Pokemon Go designed by Nintendo / Game Freak themselves.
    - mcphage 10y ago
      > I was also surprised by how much the core mechanics have a vibe very similar to Ingress. It was made by the same developers—and the pokestops and gyms when the game launches were all ingress sites.
- flgr 10y ago
  > it focused on that over flashy graphics and shock-and-gore > They seem to me to be like the Pixar or Apple of games, or better. I think that what both Apple and Nintendo have in common is that they don't just try to put hardware components into a box and sell them to you for cheap (e.g. Dell). They have a chance of higher profit margins by taking themselves out of that race via trying to find creative ways to add value instead of optimizing raw performance / sale price.
overcast 10y ago
It's a shame the game is only available on the two most underpowered gaming devices. Can you imagine this game on a PS4, or a PC. I cry thinking about it. If Nintendo just became an elite third party triple a developer for the big boy consoles, I think they would make a killing. They can also make their little gimmicky peripherals for said console. That will satisfy their need to reinvent the user interface every time, and then abandon it shortly after. Without screwing over an entire console generation.
- deleted 10y ago
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- flukus 10y ago
  > Can you imagine this game on a PS4, or a PC Yes, It'd be nearly identical. The only thing that more horse power could noticeably improve would be the draw distance.
  - overcast 10y ago
    ...and a higher, steady framerate, higher resolution, better anti aliasing. Just about everything. I'm not asking for changing the look of the game, I'm asking for it to render properly on modern hardware.
    - flukus 10y ago
      > ...and a higher, steady framerate, higher resolution, better anti aliasing. That won't make it anymore fun.
      - overcast 10y ago
        I didn't say anything about more fun. But <=20fps drops is NOT fun.
        flukus 10y ago
        That's not something I've experienced, it certainly happens rarely. It also doesn't affect fun. Games were fun back when 25 FPS was the best you could hope for, even games that dip down to 1 or 2 at times (Goldeneye) could be fun.
averagejoe13789 10y ago
There is giveaway going on for it - https://gethealthpack.com/giveaways/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-giveaway/?lucky=69 https://gethealthpack.com/giveaways/the-legend-of-zelda-brea...
deskamess 10y ago
Never played Zelda before. First Nintendo device was a Wii but did not buy Zelda. My daughters loved the Wii (sports,resort) but last year it finally went down (green tint screen). I thought about the WiiU but knew the Switch was on track and decided to wait it out. The game has taken up our free time. I let my daughter drive but "we" played - as Zelda newbies we were helping each other out with ideas. Took about 2 days, but we finished the plateau with just one internet cheat [stasis shrine]. We are still getting a hang of the controls/camera and fighting. The game is so clean, scenic, responsive, detailed, responsible and well thought out. An immersive alternate reality. Kid friendly to boot. I still know so little since we do not have prior Zelda history. Is there a trick to getting Rupees? Where to find arrows... how do we get powerful tools like swords and bows? Can I sell a horse that I trained? Better clothing? What do you buy vs find? In spite of all that we managed to finish the plateau and when we flew down in the paraglider, it actually felt like we accomplished something. And thats key... we were always making progress or when stuck went and did something else before coming back. Side note: So what made me buy Zelda given that I had no history with it? Well, it was really the only real game that the system launched with (not counting 1-2 Switch as it is a demo). Lucked into it. I am not sure how Nintendo did it. Perhaps I did not understand who Nintendo was (via the Wii). This game seems to expose their true capability and soul. Maybe there are other non Nintendo games as fluid as this; I just don't know. Switch Negatives: Just an opinion... Wii Sports is better than 1-2 Switch.
- greggman 10y ago
  You're better off having not played previous Zeldas IMO I just finished the game and finally went online and realized I missed a ton of the new fun because I was playing like an old Zelda. I didn't realize the extent to which it's a sandbox. To give 2 ideas that hopefully are not spoilers. You can throw things at enemies and theyll pick them up. So throw them something useless. Another is you can for example attach and octo balloon to pretty much anything and then use a leaf to blow it somewhere. I dont know if those are good examples I just know I really didn't look for all the creative ways to combind the things you can do
  - deskamess 10y ago
SimeVidas 10y ago
Current status: Watching the memories I got so far in different languages. French is excellent.
cmrdporcupine 10y ago
The game play is great, but I think this one has the weakest story telling of all the big Zelda games I've played. And the English voice acting is very terrible. The voices are annoying and badly done, from my perspective. I couldn't tell the difference between the voice of Zelda and the Mipha character, probably the same actor. My wife has to leave the room when a voice acted snippet comes on, and my kids make fun of it. But me and the kids have been playing it non-stop. The actual game play is great. The world is huge but maybe not as massive as I thought initially. Certainly the map is Skyrim-ish sized, but it doesn't have the same depth of dungeons and quests and items as Skyrim does. The focus really is still on the main quest. So I suspect after I'm done the main quest I probably won't play it much. There's not really a character-building item-collecting aspect to it, despite the large open game world and adaptable mechanics, etc. the focus really is a typical Zelda game: rescue the princess and defeat Ganon.
islon 10y ago
> Chop wood or light fires in the glacial wastes of “Skyrim”? No chance. You can chop wood even in vanilla Skyrim, and with mods you can light fires, ride dragons or do whatever you want.
- CleaveIt2Beaver 10y ago
  >and with mods you can light fires, ride dragons or do whatever you want. Not to pick on you directly, but this rebuttal seems to come out every time an unfavorable comparison is drawn to Skyrim lately, and it honestly makes no sense to me. If the comparison is to the base game, which everyone experiences regardless of platform, why would anyone ever consider mods in that comparison? Of course you can do things that aren't in the game if you change the game. I can also add custom reticles to any game I want, provided I have plastic wrap, tape and a marker, but that doesn't imply they're part of the game.

271 points by noir-york 10y ago

dimgl 10y ago

I've had so much fun with this game. The game design is on a whole other level. The fact I can take a regular arrow, walk up to a campfire, light the arrow on fire, shoot the ground and light THAT on fire, create an updraft and ride it with the paraglider and then swing my hammer downwards to kill everything around me is incredible. Quite possibly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.

jay-saint 10y ago
Agreed absolutely every element of this game is fun. They struck the perfect balance between ease of entry and play and a massive and complex world. They avoided pitfalls of many other RPG games that add complexity at the cost of fun. They also learned to not completely hold your hand as many other Nintendo titles have in the past.
- Pulcinella 10y ago
  They also avoided the pitfall of open world at the cost of bugginess. Not to name names, but many open world games, especially on consoles, have been pretty buggy.
  - Rapzid 10y ago
    They did something amazing that at least I had never heard of in the game industry. In one of their making-of videos released today they said that every so often everybody would take a week break(at the same time) to play the game. This served as a check-in of sorts to see what everyone else was working on and to get company-wide exposure and feedback on each other's work. It shows. I played the entire game through use sleep mode on the switch between sessions. Not a single game breaking or fun breaking bug. The consistency throughout is phenomenal... Well, the people work on Death Mountain killed it; looks better than the other areas IMHO.
    - Agentlien 10y ago
      I also saw the GDC video where they talked about this and it really resonated with me. Where I work we are constantly reminded to spend time just playing the game and the whole studio (120+ people) regularly gather in the main meeting area, watching as someone plays through a mission. What was mentioned in this video, however, is on a whole different level and it sounds amazing.
      - Rapzid 10y ago
        I got the impression from the making-ofs that they jumped into the deep end as far as innovation. Not just from a gameplay and design perspective, but from a process and company culture perspective as well. I get the sense that a lot of process was cultural and stagnant. However, when the opportunity arose to throw more change after good they jumped on it and made some very interesting progress. I can't help but get a strong impression that the experience of developing BOTW has had a transformative effect on Nintendo. I'm also getting those vibes from the Switch and double-down strategy on indie devs and turn-key game engines; if not already certainly over the life cycle of the system. This particular process seems to have arisen from Nintendo's need to control quality. We've seen this in effect before with many games, but Metroid Prime and Retro Studios comes to mind. With a Warren Buffett like eye for potential Nintendo pulled on Retro to make Prime, and through sure will for quality helped guide their efforts and the final product into the amazeballs results of Metroid Prime. That need for uncompromising quality control, coupled with the challenges of a MASSIVE game(certainly more massive than anything they have undertaken) led them to try out this process that comes with obvious financial downsides. In the end, they are rightly satisfied with the results. Inspiring.
- cgriswald 10y ago
  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the relative lack of a tutorial and 'front story'. I've gotten games and then sat on them for months because I knew I'd need a good 45 minutes to even start playing the game and just never had the time or patience. This game was just such a great "pick up and play" experience; and it let's you learn a lot of stuff on your own. The puzzles are amazing because they feel very natural. The game doesn't go out of its way to prevent you from "cheating" or solving the puzzle however you like. But it also doesn't feel like it was intended for there to be more than one solution. The intended solution is usually clear after the fact (even if you've solved it some other way); and it seems like the solution, but any other solution is also accepted. It feels as if I've really stumbled across this puzzle, and even if I can't figure it out, I can figure SOMETHING out, and that's alright.
  - flgr 10y ago
    And yet they kinda manage to still teach you things carefully. It feels like in the past they were afraid of making things to subtle, but if you look at the game with an eye of game design (just create a second user on the Switch and restart it from scratch) it's surprising how they still manage to steer you. The whole plateau is a tutorial, but it doesn't jump into your face as much. And then there's that one annoying motion controlled puzzle with a way to bypass it that a bunch of journalists mentioned in their reviews, and it's as if it was designed with that trick in mind. So that journalists discover it and write about how this game is different. Which is interesting. Almost like they thought of how to communicate that this game is different and how to best let people notice, and then they came up with that.
    - cgriswald 10y ago
      Agreed. You can definitely feel the 'steering' if you're looking out for it, and there are points later in the game where events happen and it gets a little hand-holdy. But compared to games where a character accosts you immediately, tells you exactly what button to press, then tells you exactly which button to press next, ad naseum (and usually tells me so much I don't retain any of it), it feels like it's not even there. I think the motion control puzzle was a flub, though. The motion controls sucked. I ended up doing it the "right" way, but at no time did it feel like what I was doing to the controller and what was happening on the screen was correct; but I love that it's possible to find other ways.
- on_and_off 10y ago
  >They also learned to not completely hold your hand as many other Nintendo titles have in the past. Except for some crucial passages in the game where it suddenly REALLY wants to hold your hand. I am still loving the game but I would to see it stop shouting at me to shoot an arrow on the big glowing parts of [redacted]. I would have much prefered to figure that on my own.
  - audunw 10y ago
    I felt that this kind of instruction was more related to story than to gameplay. Story-wise it wouldn't make sense that you're not told what to do there. That's kind of a theme for all the "boss" battles.. there's another character who knows more about the boss than you do. It also gives sense that the battle is more of a collaboration rather than you just figuring out some way to kill it. I don't think they were worried about people not figuring out what to do. In other parts of the battles you have to figure out much harder stuff for yourself.
    - on_and_off 10y ago
      Maybe. I guess that the main problem I had with this is that the French dialogs and dubs are awful. Sadly the switch does not let you choose the language of a game the same way that most desktop games do. The scenario and characterization are not great, but with bad translations and voice acting, it weakens these moments a lot.
      - idle_zealot 10y ago
        I can confirm that the English dubs are pretty bad too.
        eisrep 10y ago
        Yeah, the voices I can live with. But the delivery and emotion (or lack thereof) are really disappointing.
deleted 10y ago
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flgr 10y ago
It's super interesting that Nintendo seems to have down the elements of game design really well that actually make a game fun. Compare that to other games such as Pokemon Go or No Man's Sky, which feel like the designers might have forgotten to add the core game itself. It's also interesting to compare to Witcher 3, which is another great game (but via different means IMHO). I'm surprised by how much Nintendo nailed this (what features to invest time into to make a game fun). Seems like they might be ahead of others there. And that makes me wish that that part of game design was better understood.
- city41 10y ago
  Shigero Miyamoto has been overseeing Nintendo's games for 37 years now. If you read any interviews or histories on Nintendo, Miyamoto providing feedback on a game to make it fun and engaging is very common. Combine his vast experience with the fact he's a genius when it comes to gameplay, and he's tough for other companies to beat.
  - flgr 10y ago
    I guess what surprises me is that we haven't written down mechanics or principles that will make a game fun instead of just addictive. (There seem to be many well established dark patterns for getting people to spend money on freemium games, but I haven't seen much about what makes a video game more fun.)
    - marrone12 10y ago
      You can't encapsulate fun to a series of algorithms. The brilliance of the Breath of the Wild is in it's imagination. When a game truly feels like magic, it needs someone to inspire it.
    - Negitivefrags 10y ago
      There are numerous attempts at theories of fun out there, but none of them really let you look at a design and know if something will be fun without trying it. They don't even really give you much of any concrete guidance on how you might change a design to make it more fun if it isn't currently. The best attempts at this tend to be along the lines of looking at certain player profiles and trying to imagine what about your design appeals to those who enjoy that profile. It's possible that this isn't something we can easily quantify. If I asked you to write a book about what makes music good, would you be able to do that?
jghn 10y ago
I've always loved sandboxy style open world games, stretching back over 20 years now. As time passed my ability to find time to play these sorts of games has drastically waned. I'd pick something up but it'd take so long to figure out how to make it work that I'd just stop playing. You're spot on. What I love about this game is capture by what you wrote but also that it turns out to be pretty easy to get into. I'll likely never beat the thing, but there's so much cool stuff that my natural explorer tendencies are already coming out. "I wonder if I can do this?" generally winds up being answered with "yes"
joshmn 10y ago
Have you attached those little balloony-things to a bomb and sent that down to some moblins yet? Or dropped a leaf on purpose so a moblin uses it as a weapon?
Pigo 10y ago
Just out of curiosity, have you experienced any of these problems I keep hearing so much about? The videos from launch have led me to think everyone has scratched their screen and the system barely runs Zelda.
- vintagedave 10y ago
  I'm astonished at how much people are mentioning apparent problems, given how great the game is. I run it with the console both plugged in and handheld. On a TV, I have seen stutters a few (ten?) times in twice as many hours of gameplay. Even then they weren't very bad. My screen is not scratched. I have no dead pixels. The game is the best I have ever played. It is absolutely incredible. My personal opinion? Bad news sells better than good news; a glowing review is never going to be as "good" (widely shared, viral, etc) a review as one selling problems. (And for websites and Youtube, it is selling: selling their channel).
- Belphemur 10y ago
  As an owner of the switch and the game. Nope not any issue you read online. No problem with the joy con, no performance problem (either handheld or TV). No dead pixels. I bought the carrying box for it, then no scratch on the screen. Battery life is good when used in transport (forget about road trips of more than 3-4h). The game slow a little down when there is a huge amount of grass, but it doesn't impede the gaming experience. All in all, I'm really happy with my purchase and I don't get how so many people have so many issues with it.
- aaron-lebo 10y ago
  The game does have performance issues. Anyone telling you they aren't there is either in love with the game (and not seeing it) or is only used to low framerate games It's not an issue undocked (because it runs at 720) and the game looks fantastic. If you play docked, though, there's lots of performance stutters - look at a certain area, attack a specific enemy and framerate drops to sub-30 and it might stay that way for a few seconds. That being said, it's a good enough game that you can ignore it and even forget about it, but it's always there. It's my only real issue with the game.

scaasic 10y ago

Caveat being the only consoles that can play it are either impossible to find or at the very end of its lifecycle.

wickawic 10y ago
How does that affect the quality of the game?
- r00fus 10y ago
  Availability is an issue - I can't get the game. Nintendo needs to improve this - I wanted the Wii back in 2006/2007 and finally gave up trying to get one retail, and never bought the console. I'm not a serious gamer, I game casually when I do, but that's a lost sale.
arielweisberg 10y ago
We are well on our way into 2017 and you still can't find the NES classic. I wish Nintendo were a bit more Apple in that respect.
- 086421357909764 10y ago
  They're notorious for spiking demand by creating limited availability. They do it with their amiibo launches all the time. It's kinda sad really. They claim more classics are on the way though after the switch is stocked regularly.
stormbrew 10y ago
Past the end of lifecycle, I think. It's quite difficult to find WiiUs as well, at least from an actual store.
endemic 10y ago
> at the very end of its lifecycle This might not be a bad thing. Plenty of quality software already released that you can obtain cheaply. I skipped the Wii U, but am going to pick one up so that I can actually play Zelda, as well as explore the other games I missed.

tyleo 10y ago

I wonder whether future Zelda games will be more like this title, or more like its predecessors. I have had great experiences with both, and Ocarina of Time now contends with Breath of the Wild as my favorite game. Even I don't know what I would prefer.

flgr 10y ago
I wonder whether now that they have a functioning engine and tools for large open worlds it might take less effort to create another open world like this — and then allow them to spend that time on also having the more traditional big dungeons in there. That'd be neat at least. I think getting some longer more traditional dungeons as DLC would be amazing.
- city41 10y ago
  There are two DLC packs coming later in the year. Hopefully they do just that.
  - flgr 10y ago
    I'd like to see them succeed with episodic game play. I'm not sure if anyone really ever did that. I know that Valve wanted to do it with Half Life 2 and then just stopped after two episodes. It sounds like Witcher 3 had two great extensions, but that's it pretty much. It sounds like one of my favorite childhood games had that in mind, but then others figured out how to create content, and they let the community create new content instead. Is anyone actually doing episodic game content successfully? I guess MMORPGs like WoW do, but is anyone successfully doing episodic content for games outside that genre?
cmrdporcupine 10y ago
If Nintendo follows their pattern you won't see another major Zelda title for 5-6 years at least, maybe even more. There will be smaller Zelda-themed titles that have other gameplay mechanics but with a Zelda theme, like what they did with Four Swords, etc. But we'll maybe see a similar engine with something else from their franchise. I'm really hoping they do Metroid with this engine!

danbolt 10y ago

Not particular to the genre, but I think this is one of the characteristics that had made games like NetHack and Dwarf Fortress so engaging to some. The right combination of mechanics and systems, alongside interesting or surprising placement to create scenarios that the brain interprets as a narrative.

veli_joza 10y ago
More modern example is Rimworld, it really gets the design right. Each game item has multiple uses in different contexts, and randomly-generated events actually add up to meaningful story. It's also great example on how to build complex world while still allowing players to have good insights into mechanics and game state.

ddavidn 10y ago

Agreed. I've always wanted a useful house in a Zelda game. Now I have one. And the game just keeps getting better (albeit a little too easy so far)

geoah 10y ago
What use did you find for a house? I bought one, upgraded everything and the only use was the bed.
- flgr 10y ago
  It allows you to store extra swords, shields, and bows AFAIK. Also has a couple of tools (hammer, others) conveniently available nearby.
- ddavidn 10y ago
  I liked the weapon storage for keeping certain useful/powerful weapons, especially since it took me forever to find Hestu's second location, and the bed is nice to have as well. Mainly just a fun thing to have, and I'm hoping they pop something house-related into the DLC.
greggman 10y ago
Wow! I totally missed that was even a possibility. I thought it was just a dialog tree conversation not an actual feature.
- mercer 10y ago
  There's so much stuff like that in the game! My brother comes by regularly to play on a separate account and while we try to go to different areas there's still quite a bit of overlap. It's incredibly how much stuff is in all those areas that he visits that I haven't even seen, but it's even more incredible how much stuff one of us missed in the areas we both explored. And considering that we're both pretty serious gamers and compulsive 'find everything' personalities, I suspect more casual games could replay the game from the start multiple times and still discover new stuff that is 'significant' (as opposed to 'minor' stuff like new items, korok seeds, or shrines).

Arizhel 10y ago

Is it just me or does it seem like there's something wrong that these 30-year-old game franchises are continually being milked? Is it really that hard to come up with something new these days? Back when these things were new, there were no other, much older franchises to draw from. Metroid, Zelda, etc. were all brand-new and came out at about the same time.

Pfhreak 10y ago
They aren't mutually exclusive. Splatoon received critical acclaim, for example. This is also true for every other media -- we relentlessly rebuild, recycle, and remix old work to create new content. It's a part of being human.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  >we relentlessly rebuild, recycle, and remix old work to create new content. It's a part of being human. I addressed that before: this simply isn't true for Nintendo games circa 1985-6. At that time, these characters and games were all-new, except perhaps for Mario, and he came from Donkey Kong which only came out a few years earlier. So why were they able to come up with so many original characters all in such a short span of time, which have lasted this long, but they haven't created anything original in the last 10-20 years that even remotely compare? Personally I think it points to some change in our society.
  - aikinai 10y ago
    As posters above have mentioned, all "sequels" in a Nintendo franchise tend to be completely independent with basically the character models swapped in later in development to make it part of a series. There's no shortage of ideas for new characters and stories, but if you don't put a recognizable name on the box, you immediately sacrifice half your sales. Movies are the same, so maybe you're right there's something different about society's taste these days.
    - Arizhel 10y ago

coreyp_1 10y ago

I would love to play it, but I can't find a Nintendo Switch. That is, I absolutely refuse to reward scalper behavior (which Nintendo encourages via their artificial shortages).

merlincorey 10y ago
It's available on the Wii-U as well.
- coreyp_1 10y ago
  True, but I don't own a Wii-U, and the Wii-U is 5-year old technology, whose production has officially ended as of January (http://kotaku.com/wii-u-production-has-officially-ended-for-japan-1791813878 http://kotaku.com/wii-u-production-has-officially-ended-for-...). Scalpers are lowlifes, IMO.
  - 6502nerdface 10y ago
    > Scalpers are lowlifes, IMO. If the two alternatives are a world where no new Switches are available for anyone to buy, and a world where some new Switches are available for a high price, then surely the latter is strictly better than the former. Your sentiment places the scalpers in an unfair position of "ethical entanglement": if you try to make a problem slightly better, then by not fixing it entirely you are now to blame. Other examples at http://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethics/ http://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethi...
    - tgb 10y ago
      How are scalpers trying to make the situation better? They don't increase the supply, as in your erroneous hypothetical. There's an argument for scalpers, but it's more subtle. Companies want immediate sales and to be able to say they sold out. Scalpers let them do that by taking on some of the risks themselves. And it ostensibly allows people to make a time/money tradeoff between waiting in line or for later supplies versus paying more.

fumar 10y ago

I stopped playing video games by the time I started college. I can't recall once specific game or event or thought that spurred the change. Recently, as I near 30 yrs old, I wanted to step back into my childhood and picked up a Switch with Zelda. The game starts with a nice intro, light game mechanics, and then sets you loose. It has been a week and I have been playing 2-3 hours per day, every day. I can't remember the last time, I played a game that teleported me to a new world, feel like a kid, success. Any other games you all recommend from the last decade?

mzs 10y ago
Portal and Portal 2
- komali2 10y ago
  Also, the Half Life series. Not nearly as explorable as the early zelda games, though.
  - swsieber 10y ago
    Antichamber is also a very fun adventure puzzler. It actually gives you tons of leeway even though it does have a linear path that's the easiest. I took maybe 6 hrs on my first play through, but there are speed runs that go under 10 minutes.
soVeryTired 10y ago
I got hooked on one of the newer Civilization games recently. Get nuked by Gandhi!
- viraptor 10y ago
  Stellaris is a great game in a similar genre. Really well done.
ZeroGravitas 10y ago
Splatoon, a sequel to which should be coming out for the switch, is a different kind of game, but may inspire some of the same feelings.

hackuser 10y ago

> Anything liquid can be frozen. Anything metal can be magnetised. Anything flammable can be set alight. Graphical NetHack? (Disclaimer: I played NetHack only once, a long time ago, and know it mostly by reputation.)

flgr 10y ago
In their GDC talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMsF31NdNc) one of the core concepts they present is "multiplicative gameplay", which sounds a lot like what NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup aim for as well. It's a surprising amount of fun to have multiple ways to solve puzzles and try to come up with one that was or was not intended to solve it.
- BHSPitMonkey 10y ago
  Here's a direct link to the timestamp where they talk about this, and show off an internal 2D prototype of their "chemistry engine": https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?t=1067 https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?t=1067

city41 10y ago

This video is an excellent demonstration of creative ways to play with the engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvbqxBUG_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvbqxBUG_c It has some swearing and some very minor spoilers if you are just starting the game.

smnscu 10y ago
I came here to post the same link. Dunkey is by far my favourite YouTuber. https://www.youtube.com/user/videogamedunkey https://www.youtube.com/user/videogamedunkey
simooooo 10y ago
The dog spinning with him was hilarious

jessewmc 10y ago

It might be worth pointing out that if you're having trouble finding a console to play this on, refurbished Wii-Us are still an option for $200. https://store.nintendo.com/ https://store.nintendo.com/ I bought one since I wanted some party games and didn't have any Nintendo console anymore. It was more than worth it. Mind you this was before end of life so the calculus might be a bit different now.

mercer 10y ago
I can second this, in particular if 1) you like Nintendo games, and 2) you haven't played all the Wii and Wii U titles (or perhaps even GameCube). I bought the Wii U even though I could've bought the Switch. It's my first Nintendo console since the Gameboy Advance (SP) and GameCube, and I'm very happy with my decision (giddy, even). Here's a few arguments in favor of getting a Wii U: - you can play all the WiiU and (most?) Wii titles. Even just the first-party ones are worth it: Metroid Prime Trilogy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wind Waker HD, Mario 3D World, Mario Galaxy (1 and 2), Mario Kart, Wii Sports, and so on, along with and admittedly small selection of great third-party titles. - through the Virtual Console you can also play a pretty decent selection of N64, NES, SNES, Gameboy Advance, and DS games. This gives you access to many if not most of Nintendo's Zelda, Mario, Paper Mario and Metroid titles, among others, as well as tons of games that at the very least have high nostalgia value (although the first party ones are generally highly acclaimed too). - there's a decent amount of 'indie' titles available, although I suspect that to be quickly eclipsed by the Switch. - based on (ridiculously extensive) googling around before making the decision, it seems that Breath of the Wild is just as good on the WiiU as it is on the switch, with the one big (but to me unimportant) exception of resolution (900p on Switch, 720p on WiiU). Plus, for now at least it's better than the 900p docked version for Switch, performance wise. But that might be fixed with a firmware update. Basically, the Wii U is at this moment the ultimate Nintendo console. And even if (or when, really) they start offering these games for the Switch, I consider it unlikely that they'll support Wii games on account of having to support the Wii controls (remote + nunchuck). All that said, obviously the Switch is far superior when looking forward (WiiU is discontinued, even) and for mobile play. If those things don't matter too much, I'd say get a WiiU even if you can get a Switch, and sell it once Mario Odyssey or some other new game you want comes out. The WiiU will probably retain much of its value, even as your 'retro-gaming machine' to handle all the weird control schemes Nintendo has been going through lately.

robbfitzsimmons 10y ago

Does anybody subscribe to this magazine (1843)? I subscribe to the parent magazine The Economist, and this sounds appealing, but $50 for 6 issues seems steep (and no online subscription).

disillusioned 10y ago
They send me a lot of issues with my normal Economist subscription, but you're definitely right that it's not cheap.

hackuser 10y ago

I only peripherally pay attention to games, but is my impression right that Nintendo is just a brilliantly innovative company, light years ahead of any other (major) gaming developer? Off the top of my head, I see the Wii, Pokemon Go, and now this. In addition to being innovative, they seem focused on artistry, creativity, and positive experiences for their customers. Wii in many ways encouraged collaboration and activity, playing with others (i.e., rather than alone with pizza all night long); it focused on that over flashy graphics and shock-and-gore. Pokemon Go got people out on their feet, interacting, exploring and engaging with their towns, creatively rather than garishly introduced them to the possibilities of new tech (AR), and was fun but not violent. Perhaps that's already Nintendo's reputation; I don't know. But they don't get enough attention and praise IMHO. They seem to me to be like the Pixar or Apple of games, or better.

syva 10y ago
Totally agree! However, Pokemon Go is not Nintendo.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- flgr 10y ago
  I'm surprised by how similar and non-gamy Pokemon Go feels (feels more like a grind / freemium mobile game). I was also surprised by how much the core mechanics have a vibe very similar to Ingress. I think it'd be interesting to see a Pokemon Go designed by Nintendo / Game Freak themselves.
  - mcphage 10y ago
    > I was also surprised by how much the core mechanics have a vibe very similar to Ingress. It was made by the same developers—and the pokestops and gyms when the game launches were all ingress sites.
flgr 10y ago
> it focused on that over flashy graphics and shock-and-gore > They seem to me to be like the Pixar or Apple of games, or better. I think that what both Apple and Nintendo have in common is that they don't just try to put hardware components into a box and sell them to you for cheap (e.g. Dell). They have a chance of higher profit margins by taking themselves out of that race via trying to find creative ways to add value instead of optimizing raw performance / sale price.

overcast 10y ago

It's a shame the game is only available on the two most underpowered gaming devices. Can you imagine this game on a PS4, or a PC. I cry thinking about it. If Nintendo just became an elite third party triple a developer for the big boy consoles, I think they would make a killing. They can also make their little gimmicky peripherals for said console. That will satisfy their need to reinvent the user interface every time, and then abandon it shortly after. Without screwing over an entire console generation.

deleted 10y ago
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flukus 10y ago
> Can you imagine this game on a PS4, or a PC Yes, It'd be nearly identical. The only thing that more horse power could noticeably improve would be the draw distance.
- overcast 10y ago
  ...and a higher, steady framerate, higher resolution, better anti aliasing. Just about everything. I'm not asking for changing the look of the game, I'm asking for it to render properly on modern hardware.
  - flukus 10y ago
    > ...and a higher, steady framerate, higher resolution, better anti aliasing. That won't make it anymore fun.
    - overcast 10y ago
      I didn't say anything about more fun. But <=20fps drops is NOT fun.
      - flukus 10y ago
        That's not something I've experienced, it certainly happens rarely. It also doesn't affect fun. Games were fun back when 25 FPS was the best you could hope for, even games that dip down to 1 or 2 at times (Goldeneye) could be fun.

averagejoe13789 10y ago

There is giveaway going on for it - https://gethealthpack.com/giveaways/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-giveaway/?lucky=69 https://gethealthpack.com/giveaways/the-legend-of-zelda-brea...

deskamess 10y ago

Never played Zelda before. First Nintendo device was a Wii but did not buy Zelda. My daughters loved the Wii (sports,resort) but last year it finally went down (green tint screen). I thought about the WiiU but knew the Switch was on track and decided to wait it out. The game has taken up our free time. I let my daughter drive but "we" played - as Zelda newbies we were helping each other out with ideas. Took about 2 days, but we finished the plateau with just one internet cheat [stasis shrine]. We are still getting a hang of the controls/camera and fighting. The game is so clean, scenic, responsive, detailed, responsible and well thought out. An immersive alternate reality. Kid friendly to boot. I still know so little since we do not have prior Zelda history. Is there a trick to getting Rupees? Where to find arrows... how do we get powerful tools like swords and bows? Can I sell a horse that I trained? Better clothing? What do you buy vs find? In spite of all that we managed to finish the plateau and when we flew down in the paraglider, it actually felt like we accomplished something. And thats key... we were always making progress or when stuck went and did something else before coming back. Side note: So what made me buy Zelda given that I had no history with it? Well, it was really the only real game that the system launched with (not counting 1-2 Switch as it is a demo). Lucked into it. I am not sure how Nintendo did it. Perhaps I did not understand who Nintendo was (via the Wii). This game seems to expose their true capability and soul. Maybe there are other non Nintendo games as fluid as this; I just don't know. Switch Negatives: Just an opinion... Wii Sports is better than 1-2 Switch.

greggman 10y ago
You're better off having not played previous Zeldas IMO I just finished the game and finally went online and realized I missed a ton of the new fun because I was playing like an old Zelda. I didn't realize the extent to which it's a sandbox. To give 2 ideas that hopefully are not spoilers. You can throw things at enemies and theyll pick them up. So throw them something useless. Another is you can for example attach and octo balloon to pretty much anything and then use a leaf to blow it somewhere. I dont know if those are good examples I just know I really didn't look for all the creative ways to combind the things you can do
- deskamess 10y ago

SimeVidas 10y ago

Current status: Watching the memories I got so far in different languages. French is excellent.

cmrdporcupine 10y ago

The game play is great, but I think this one has the weakest story telling of all the big Zelda games I've played. And the English voice acting is very terrible. The voices are annoying and badly done, from my perspective. I couldn't tell the difference between the voice of Zelda and the Mipha character, probably the same actor. My wife has to leave the room when a voice acted snippet comes on, and my kids make fun of it. But me and the kids have been playing it non-stop. The actual game play is great. The world is huge but maybe not as massive as I thought initially. Certainly the map is Skyrim-ish sized, but it doesn't have the same depth of dungeons and quests and items as Skyrim does. The focus really is still on the main quest. So I suspect after I'm done the main quest I probably won't play it much. There's not really a character-building item-collecting aspect to it, despite the large open game world and adaptable mechanics, etc. the focus really is a typical Zelda game: rescue the princess and defeat Ganon.

islon 10y ago

> Chop wood or light fires in the glacial wastes of “Skyrim”? No chance. You can chop wood even in vanilla Skyrim, and with mods you can light fires, ride dragons or do whatever you want.

CleaveIt2Beaver 10y ago
>and with mods you can light fires, ride dragons or do whatever you want. Not to pick on you directly, but this rebuttal seems to come out every time an unfavorable comparison is drawn to Skyrim lately, and it honestly makes no sense to me. If the comparison is to the base game, which everyone experiences regardless of platform, why would anyone ever consider mods in that comparison? Of course you can do things that aren't in the game if you change the game. I can also add custom reticles to any game I want, provided I have plastic wrap, tape and a marker, but that doesn't imply they're part of the game.