Zelda

[Queen Boo]

I've always been a staunch defender of Wind Waker, it's honestly my favorite 3D Zelda of the pre-BOTW era, it was the first real attempt at an open world 3D Zelda game and while the limitations of the hardware and the rushed development prevented it from reaching it's full potential it still perfectly captured that spirit of adventure and exploration that makes Zelda great, personally I always loved the sailing and didn't care that there was more water than land, when you did find an island it just made it feel that much more special. Also it has the best overworld music in the series let's be real.

Twilight Princess is good but I never got far into it before moving onto other Wii titles, I do plan to revisit it but next time it will be the Gamecube version instead, I think it would be a lot less frustrating for me than the Wii version was. I still need to give Skyward Sword a spin.

Honestly I've never played a Zelda game I outright didn't like, but if I had to pick a least favorite it would be Spirit Tracks, I haven't played Phantom Hourglass but apparently it has a lot of the same issues I had with Spirit Tracks, such as an overreliance on awkward stylus controls and having to follow a set path instead of being able to explore the world freely. It's a shame those two are the only real follow ups Wind Waker had, I'd love to see a true sequel that fully achieves what the developers had originally envisioned.

For a long time I've prefered 2D Zelda to 3D Zelda but with 3D Zelda now being more open than ever my opinion is starting to change, BOTW was the first 3D Zelda game that truly kept me engaged all the way to the end.

[SGR]

I've always been a staunch defender of Wind Waker, it's honestly my favorite 3D Zelda of the pre-BOTW era, it was the first real attempt at an open world 3D Zelda game and while the limitations of the hardware and the rushed development prevented it from reaching it's full potential it still perfectly captured that spirit of adventure and exploration that makes Zelda great, personally I always loved the sailing and didn't care that there was more water than land, when you did find an island it just made it feel that much more special. Also it has the best overworld music in the series let's be real.

Twilight Princess is good but I never got far into it before moving onto other Wii titles, I do plan to revisit it but next time it will be the Gamecube version instead, I think it would be a lot less frustrating for me than the Wii version was. I still need to give Skyward Sword a spin.

Honestly I've never played a Zelda game I outright didn't like, but if I had to pick a least favorite it would be Spirit Tracks, I haven't played Phantom Hourglass but apparently it has a lot of the same issues I had with Spirit Tracks, such as an overreliance on awkward stylus controls and having to follow a set path instead of being able to explore the world freely. It's a shame those two are the only real follow ups Wind Waker had, I'd love to see a true sequel that fully achieves what the developers had originally envisioned.

For a long time I've prefered 2D Zelda to 3D Zelda but with 3D Zelda now being more open than ever my opinion is starting to change, BOTW was the first 3D Zelda game that truly kept me engaged all the way to the end.

I'm curious, what were the points in OoT or MM that you started to disengage? I had the complete opposite experience with BOTW. The world felt empty to me, the progression felt artificial, and I never felt 'propelled' forward like I did in other Zelda games. But granted, exploring for the sake of it in games is not my thing. I've always felt more engaged with more linear and crafted experiences.

[Queen Boo]

It was the water temple that stumped me in OOT so it basically became a fishing game to me after that, though I did eventually beat it when I gave the game another go, though I still haven't beaten the game. I do plan to do that the next time I play it.

I actually haven't played Majora's Mask much because I didn't have the N64 version and I only played a bit of the GameCube port from the Collector's Edition, I actually really enjoyed what little I played of it I just ended up getting distracted by something else and never returned to it, I'm bad about that sometimes.

[Lexi Darling]

It was the water temple that stumped me in OOT so it basically became a fishing game to me after that, though I did eventually beat it when I gave the game another go, though I still haven't beaten the game. I do plan to do that the next time I play it.

Yeah I had the same experience, I got OOT for Christmas in 1999, got stumped by the Water Temple and didn't touch the game for a couple years. I also played Majora's Mask on release week and the time travel messed with my 11 year old brain so much that I didn't end up beating that game until around 2008 when I was 19.

Link's Awakening will always be my favorite though. I still remember Christmas 1995 when I got my first Game Boy with that game and Mario Land 2. I have photos of that with 6 year old me wearing Magic School Bus pajamas sitting under the silver metallic Christmas tree we had that year. Remember those? Shit now I just miss the 90s.

[Guybrush]

I love Link's Awakening as well. I've finished it twice. The first time, I had borrowed a mate's Gameboy to play it. My parents had rented a very basic cabin in the mountains in Easter to go skiing. So it was skiing in the day, but at night I was playing through Link's Awakening in the bunk bed and having a blast.

[DJChameleon]

I'm guess I'm the only person that loved buying strategy guides. I did it for OoT and MM. I can't relate to the Water Temple being a sore issue because of that fact.

Strategy guides were my life back then.

[SGR]

I'm guess I'm the only person that loved buying strategy guides. I did it for OoT and MM. I can't relate to the Water Temple being a sore issue because of that fact.

Strategy guides were my life back then.

I bought strategy guides for certain games. With the proliferation of the internet, they're hardly made any more as anything but collector's items/novelties - but almost every game that was popular used to get one issued for them.

The problem when it came to OoT and MM for me was that I didn't have them on N64 and play them in their hey-day. I played them on a Zelda Collection disk on the Gamecube that contained multiple Zelda games. And there wasn't a strategy guide made for that one. Certainly would've helped though.

[DJChameleon]

I bought strategy guides for certain games. With the proliferation of the internet, they're hardly made any more as anything but collector's items/novelties - but almost every game that was popular used to get one issued for them.

The problem when it came to OoT and MM for me was that I didn't have them on N64 and play them in their hey-day. I played them on a Zelda Collection disk on the Gamecube that contained multiple Zelda games. And there wasn't a strategy guide made for that one. Certainly would've helped though.

oh okay yeah I played both when they first came out on N64. I still have my N64 copy of OoT it's the golden special edition cartridge. I wish I had the box would be worth money I bet.

Anyone remember Game Genie and looking up codes to use with it?

[SGR]

oh okay yeah I played both when they first came out on N64. I still have my N64 copy of OoT it's the golden special edition cartridge. I wish I had the box would be worth money I bet.

Anyone remember Game Genie and looking up codes to use with it?

I don't think I ever met anyone with a Game Genie, but as a kid, I was acutely aware of Game Shark which served the same purpose. I never owned one as a kid, but I knew some other kids who did. Back then, (probably still happens now) teachers and school admins would ban anything that was fun (Beyblades, Yu-gi-oh, MTG, etc). So whereas we used to bring that physical link cable to trade pokemon between our Gameboy Cartridges during recess openly, after it got banned, we'd continue to do it, but we'd have to do it under the slide/jungle gym (away from the prying eyes of the recess monitor) like we were doing a drug deal.

Bit of a tangent aside, if you had a Game Shark back then, you were essentially the coolest kid during recess.

[Queen Boo]

I had a Game Genie for the Genesis, I used it for things like making Sonic jump higher in Sonic 1.

[SGR]

Beyond using Game Sharks/Game Genies, I miss the pre-baked cheat codes in games in general. Seems like new games never have that. Was it all just to sell us cheat code books as kids?

[Guybrush]

It's handy for game testing I guess and kinda cool to leave in. Who doesn't remember iddqd from Doom?

[Queen Boo]

Beyond using Game Sharks/Game Genies, I miss the pre-baked cheat codes in games in general. Seems like new games never have that. Was it all just to sell us cheat code books as kids?

I think there are two big reasons cheats died out.

1. Achievements and trophies.
2. The rise of online and competitive gaming.

But boy do I miss them, cheats were the shit, especially during the N64 era.

[SGR]

I think there are two big reasons cheats died out.

1. Achievements and trophies.
2. The rise of online and competitive gaming.

But boy do I miss them, cheats were the shit, especially during the N64 era.

I can see the first but not quite the latter. Devs would just need to design it such that the cheat codes aren't usable in online spaces, and only in single player modes. The achievements and trophies thing makes sense (and I do like achievements and trophies). I've seen some games (GTA might be one of them) that tells you that using cheat codes will void the trophy. But I'm guessing some devs are just too lazy to be bothered coding that in, so the cheat codes just get dropped entirely.

[Guybrush]

I also like the consoles, like in Bethesda games where you can do so much if you just look up the various console commands.

As a rule, I don't cheat, but as an even bigger rule it's about getting enjoyment out of a game. Sometimes, cheats can help with that.

I'm not a PC gamer these days, but I have fiddled around with cheat engine back in the day. That can be fun.