The Nerd Next Door

Recently, I re-played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword  on Switch, a game I hadn't played since it came out on Wii a decade ago (god I feel old). Overall, I enjoyed the frame rate boost and quality of life changes that the port makes over the Wii original. I also think playing through Breath of the Wild has given me an appreciation for the dungeon crawling of Skyward Sword . Motion controls were still a pain , but I did love that camera control the motion controls have now. But as I was playing, I remembered a criticism about Skyward Sword that I had as a kid, a lot happens emotionally but Link doesn't speak, at all. It's normal for Zelda games but feels weird in Skyward Sword because it puts a lot more effort into making the player care about what's happening. So, it seems weird that Link doesn't say anything when it feels like he should or when someone directly addresses him and it's only implied that he speaks back. I came to the realization however that,...

Ask anyone what the best feeling in a video game is and you'll get a wide variety of answers, the thrill of winning and dominating your foes, the chaos you and a friend can create with a large sandbox, the feeling of discovering a world of lore and fighting their way through it, the terror of having to survive against overwhelming odds. For me though the best feeling in a video game is when the world feels like it could go on forever, that this stretch of world your in is just a small part of something bigger and who knows what lies over the next hill (answer: whatever assets the dev was too busy to delete). The first time I felt this was when I was 5 and got my first gaming console, a Nintendo Gamecube, along with a copy of Super Mario Sunshine . My mind was blown by just how big the world of Isle Delfino was, how you could see other islands in the distance and how you could swim in their direction, I wanted to see those places and go there. Well I was a dumb child who kept re...