Forced forward, or back?

And here we are, a month later and only introductory entries to show for it. That's some good bloggin', boys.

I've had ideas percolating on actual worthwhile topics to discuss in here, and once I get those ideas down in structured, word-sentence-paragraph form, they will be posted.

I finish up work two weeks from tomorrow, at that point I've promised myself I'd spend at least a week gaming, and writing about games, and reading the blogs of some folks I've been following on Twitter, and who have been posting in Michael Abbott's Vintage Game Club's foray into The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

I've been playing through Majora's Mask along with the Club, and it's struck me that there's a certain type of game that can merit these sorts of playthrough - and it's those that have a worthwhile narrative. This might seem obvious, I guess, at first glance: no one can critically analyze a game like Pac-Man, or even Super Mario Bros. in this sort of way. I would argue that the original Zelda for the NES might be the cornerstone for the mature gaming experience.

In my mind, I put both the original Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda side by side as the quintessential starting points for my generation of gaming. The key difference between both games is the direction in which the gameplay propels you. In Super Mario Bros., you can only go forward, never back. For a wide-eyed, innocent child, it was easy to know where to go to find the Princess (the next castle); it was the getting there that was the challenge. Meanwhile, in The Legend of Zelda, you had no choice but to retrace your steps, constantly, in order to find the next task of your quest to rescue the princess. The challenge was figuring out what the heck you were supposed to do next. I remember as a seven year old, renting the original gold cartridge with my cousin, and being completely baffled. It was quite complicated, and for my inexperienced, platformer-trained mind, I got frustrated and annoyed with it, and ultimately tossed it aside.

Now, as an adult gamer, while I can still appreciate the appeal of a platformer ('Splosion Man has recently caught both my attention, as well as Clair's), newer games in the Zelda oeuvre have opened themselves up to me, along with other more complex and interesting narrative games. Just before the release of Twilight Princess, I replayed the original Zelda, and completed it, albeit with some aid from a few online sources. While it certainly lacks a more complete story than say, A Link to the Past, even, I had more of an interest in navigating the world of Hyrule, killing its baddies and solving its puzzles.

The Legend of Zelda set the tone for more complex games to follow, not only in its own franchise, but in others. As the series progressed, more focus was given to epic storylines and character development. While as a child, I enjoyed the hack 'n' slash adventure gameplay of A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, as an adult replaying Majora's Mask, I can now fully appreciate its depth and darkness of story and character. As I grew older, more mature games started to come to my attention, like Final Fantasy VI (or III as I played it on the Super Nintendo), and Chrono Trigger.

I'm not saying that RPGs of that nature, or other mature narrative games couldn't exist without Zelda. What I am saying is that before The Legend of Zelda, I can't really think of a console game that put forward more than that a very simple gameplay concept; eating pellets, jumping from level to level, or driving on an infinite highway. If there is, it simply did not have the impact that Zelda had, and still has (take Okami for a recent example) on video games. From that comparatively primitive 8-bit beginning, we now have games that can be discussed and debated over in a similar sort of way as novels or films. This appeals to the undying child in me that revels in a late night spent fighting through dungeons, and as an adult gamer, who revels in the a-ha! moments of narrative and thematic discovery.

If only I had the time now that I had as a child to sit down and actually finish some of the epic quests I've been starting. Oh, the responsibilities of adulthood.

- MarquisMark