The 30th Anniversary is over and my big goal for the 30th Anniversary was to play through as many Zelda games again as possible. This was not only to re-experience all the games, before Breath of the Wild comes out, but it was also an enterprise to clear my Zelda backlog on both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. This included many untouched Virtual Console copies, all the Nintendo 3DS Zelda games, where I own duplicate copies for various reasons, as well as 2nd Quests, Linked Games and/or Hero Modes that I left for a later date.
Much of this was already achieved last year and the final sprint now was happening in the first two months of 2017, where I had the goal to go through all 3D Zelda games on my Wii U again as a preparation for Breath of the Wild. And I'm almost done with the effort:
- Ocarina of Time (on Wii U)
- Majora's Mask (on Wii U)
- The Wind Waker HD (2nd Quest)
- Twilight Princess HD (Hero Mode)
- Skyward Sword (Hero Mode)
Originally, when rumors had it that Breath of the Wild would be released in June, my plan was to do all of this in five months, one game per month. But with the March 3rd release I only had two months left, where I spent most of my free time playing Zelda to achieve it, because I really wanted to get this done.
Well, I'm not completely finished with my last playthrough of Skyward Sword, but that's not so important, because Skyward Sword wasn't part of my backlog. I already had completed both the normal game and Hero Mode back when the game came out. So, as long as I got to refresh my memories about the game, I'm happy.
Anyway, here's the complete list of all my "replaythroughs" for the 30th Anniversary:
The one game that's still on my backlog would be Zelda II - The Adventure of Link on the Wii U Virtual Console. But to get the most enjoyment out of this game, you have to play its 2nd Quest, so I've already beaten it twice on the 3DS last year. But I will probably play the Wii U version later this year, when I go through the rest of my Wii U backlog.
There's also one Zelda game completely missing on the list: Four Swords Adventures. But since I focused entirely on 3DS and Wii U, the game was simply not available. Also, if I ever play the GameCube version again, I want it to be in multiplayer with three other people.
Then there's Tri Force Heroes, where I even also have a duplicate copy that I got for review purposes back in the day. But this game is still fairly new and I put over 200 hours into it, so there was no need to replay the entire game again already.
Overall I'm really happy that I did all of this. On the one hand this gives me a certain level of closure and completeness. Breath of the Wild will be a big new chapter for the series, maybe even a new beginning, where it's good that I'm done with the series as a whole and ready to move on. On the other hand re-experiencing all the games made me evaluate, what I liked and didn't like, what worked great and what didn't work and so on. It gave me a good picture of what I would want out of the ultimate Zelda game. And it will also help me to draw the lines between Breath of the Wild and the past games, when I evaluate the new title.
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