Mini Game Online Leaderboards

Back when I was really into Rupee Rush from A Link Between Worlds, probably my favorite mini-game in the entire Zelda series, I made the suggestion that the game should have had online leaderboards for mini-game high scores.

Now, Super Mario Odyssey has exactly that for most of its mini-games, like the Jump-Rope Challenge, the Beach Volleyball or all those Koopa Freerunnings. They don't feel as enticing, however, the first one got even glitched twice by now... But it's something that still might be interesting for future Zelda games.

Nintendo will certainly push their new Nintendo Switch Online service from now on, where probably the majority of their games have to support online functionality in some way. For Zelda there are multiplayer-centric episodes every now and then, as well as additional battle modes, which could do the job. But for a Zelda game without any online play, mini-game leaderboards seem like a safe bet.

It's also something that adds value to the game, while it's not really required for playing and completing it. Nintendo's online services will be shut down eventually, like it already was the case for Nintendo DS and Wii, and then the games don't work online anymore, which is a problem. It kills the timelessness and might even prevent you from completing them. In case of Tri Force Heroes you can at least still complete it in local multiplayer, but something like the Friend Vouchers in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption can't be done anymore. So, I'd rather have mini-game online leaderboars than some forced online feature like the Friend Vouchers.

But it would need good mini-games for this. Something that's fun and where you keep going, continually improving your high scores. Honestly, I only ever had this experience with Rupee Rush in the Zelda series. Breath of the Wild has terrible mini-games for the most part, where I was glad that only two of them had exclusive rewards attached to them. I certainly didn't miss online leaderboards there. But this doesn't mean that the next Zelda game wouldn't profit from such a feature.