![]() It’s the final piece of the gameplay loop, and it creates an ongoing experience unmatched in other open-world games. To top it all off, the game’s climb-anything, paraglide-everywhere system means you can traverse huge swaths of the map in minutes. Where do you go first? Once you’ve chosen, do you go straight there, or peel off yet again when you catch a glimpse of even more opportunities? You’re not running toward a quest marker to trigger a cutscene: you’re noticing a billow of smoke, or the tip of a statue, or a strange orange light.Īt any spot in Zelda’s truly sprawling world map, you can bet you’ll be intrigued by five or more objects in the distance. Rather than giving you a giant map full of generic video game checkboxes, the game lets you discover it all in your own way, at your own pace. Here, Breath of the Wild is a masterclass. So why is Zelda still sitting at #5? In short, the world, the sight lines, and the flow of the gameplay.įrom the very first Zelda, exploration and discovery have been the heart of the franchise: the grand feeling of adventure, the fear of the unknown, the curiosity of what’s just over the ridge or around the next corner. The combat, while initially intriguing, has all kinds of flaws (low enemy variety, imbalanced armor system, underwhelming attack-and-defend options). The shrines-the main stand-in for the “puzzles” or “dungeons” in the game-are repetitive. More than two years after the release of Breath of the Wild, I can’t help but think of all the things wrong with the game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) - Switch Meanwhile, the year represents the game's original release date-not necessarily when I played it, and in a few cases, not necessarily the date it came out on the platform listed.ĥ. Note: Several of the below games came out on multiple platforms. The list would be more diverse as a result. ![]() ![]() Today, I play games across almost all major platforms: Switch, iPhone, PS4, and PC. When I was young, I mostly had one console at a time (SNES→PlayStation→GameCube).Disagreements would lead to more interesting discussions than, “I associate this game with elementary school birthday parties and sleepovers you don’t.”.It would be full of games that are still easily accessible today, not old classics that have to be pirated or purchased for $100+ on eBay.I second guess whether a game I played two months ago outranks a game I played two decades ago.īut this paralysis led me to an opportunity: Suppose I throw out all the old favorites and just focus on modern games? Suppose I start the clock from the day after I did that list in 2013, and simply rank everything I’ve played since then? Making that list would be much easier, and my reasoning would be more consistent.Ī list like that would also have a few advantages for people besides me: I don’t know how to sort out the nostalgia. Today-for once-I’m finding it hard to make that same list. Looking back, nostalgia played a big role-six of my top 10 were games I played before I was a teenager, and 22 of 25 before college (I was several years out of college when I made the list). The list featured a mix of childhood favorites and modern-day discoveries. In early 2013, I ranked my top 25 video games of all time. Ranking 25 things in an exact order? Even more so. Putting things in categories helps me make sense of the world. Maybe it’s because ranking is the ultimate kind of categorization. Name a topic, and I’ll lay out a full ranking a few minutes later, complete with absurdly detailed justifications and explanations. it appears impossible to have a save state after doing so)Īfter Game Completion (arguably 1 sausage)ġ - the main character turns into a block, the same kind that turns into a sausage throughout the game.I’m obsessed with ranking things. Outer World (5 sausages - after grilling these 5, the game ends. When you finish the game, the save slot will still say 215, but I would consider that a quirk. And if you beat the game, you will have grilled 220 sausages.
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