The Zelda Games, Ranked

It's been over 12 years since I've started this blog and in all this time I've never really bothered with ranking all the Zelda games from best to worst. I've mentioned here and there what Zelda games are among my favorites and which ones I don't like as much, but I've never created an actual ranking. If some other Zelda fan were to write this blog, then he or she would have posted an update of such a list every other year, since it's an easy way to talk about the games. So, what happened here?

Well, one reason was that I never really had a clear favorite for the longest time. There were a bunch of Zelda games that I liked more than the rest, including the N64 games, Link's Awakening, as well A Link Between Worlds, but there was no satisfying resolution here.

But this has changed with the Nintendo Switch and its Zelda titles: the amazing Breath of the Wild, which pretty much became a tier of its own with its engaging, massive open world, as well as the remake of Link's Awakening, which quickly became my favorite top-down Zelda experience. So, if you have a Nintendo Switch, then you can consider yourself lucky and play what I consider to be the best of the best... (Together with the best Zelda spin-off title, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition.)

Another reason was that I had trouble ranking certain Zelda games against each other, where some of it seems more like a blur. There were my favorites, there were my least favorites and then there was the entire rest in between. And this hasn't really changed, so instead of a pure ranking from best to worst, I will be working with several tiers instead, because this makes things a little bit easier for me.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at said tier list:

As you can see, there are four tiers in total: Goddess, Queen, Princess and Maiden. The naming of these tiers should give it away already, but I don't necessarily consider any Zelda game to be super bad or completely terrible. It's just that I've enjoyed some of the games less or more than others.

Likewise, I don't think that any Zelda game is perfect. No game ever is and they all have their ups and downs, their strengths and weaknesses, where naturally it all comes down to personal preference. While I try to look at the whole package objectively, which includes world design, dungeon design, enemy design, combat, items, side quests, story, graphics, music and everything, in the end it's really about the following two subjective questions:

• How much did I enjoy playing this game for the first time?
• How much do I enjoy replaying this game?

A good sense of discovery and a low level of linearity are arguably two of the biggest factors here, but it's not all there is to it, because otherwise the original The Legend of Zelda would probably rank higher. But the world design and some fun collectible side quest influence me more than the story or enemy design for example. And nostalgia is undeniably another factor, especially for the first question... Competing with those childhood memories is tough.

Other than splitting everything into the four tiers, the tier list also distinguishes between 3D and 2D Zelda games, where this is about the primary perspective (mainly third person view vs. top-down) and not the actual engine. Like with Mario or Metroid games, this tends to make a bigger difference.

2D Zelda games are much simpler, but also play faster, where they offer better replay-ability overall. Dungeon play and items are much more important here and can really make or break these games. The 3D Zeldas on the other hand are more the grand, epic adventures with a big budget and development cycle behind them. Here atmosphere and immersion play a big role and less so in the 2D Zelda games.

Comparing the two formats almost feels unfair, where each half probably should stand on its own, but generally the 3D Zelda games can be seen as slightly better than the 2D Zelda games on the same tier, which is why they got put at the front / left.

So, you can basically read this tier list from left to right and top to bottom. However, within the same block the games were ordered chronologically, at least for the most part, and are pretty much interchangeable. Still, in most cases this is how I feel about their individual ranking, where I would put The Wind Waker definitely above Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword for example, especially with its HD version.

Apropos, whenever there is a remaster or enhanced port, this tier list will go with the latest version, considering it as the "best", even though in some cases things might have been changed to the worse, like in Majora's Mask 3D. But the N64 version of Majora's Mask would still be in the same spot. The only game that got listed twice is Link's Awakening, because I feel like the remake improved things so much that the game was able to move up one tier.

Now, with all of this out of the way, let's talk a little bit about each individual tier...

Goddess Tier

 

Breath of the Wild is the most successful Zelda game to date and will certainly shape the series from now on, where it also lands on top of this list. Ever since the Nintendo 64 Zeldas, which were my favorite 3D Zelda games before Breath of the Wild, I've dreamed of a Zelda game on this scale with a huge, open world to explore and many different weapons to use, so in many ways this game was a dream finally coming true for me.

 

It's really a new milestone for the series and a tier of its own, where comparing it to the older 3D Zelda games would be like comparing an ocean to some lakes. It will have to measure itself against its successors, however, like the upcoming sequel.

 

Still, there is a thing or two that it could learn from older Zelda games, like when it comes to engaging side quests and more complex dungeon design. But overall it's just a whole other level of Zelda and without a doubt one of the best open world games ever made thanks to its addicting exploration loop and the Climb 'n' Glide gameplay.

Putting the remake of Link's Awakening right next to it might even seem controversial, since it's pretty much the polar opposite to Breath of the Wild in many ways. But it represents the best of traditional Zelda experience in a modern and charming way, where it's the perfect companion piece to the big, new flagship of the Zelda franchise. It's a short, but sweet experience.

Of course there is also a certain bias here, because the GameBoy original was my very first Zelda game, but exploring Koholint is still as much fun as it used to be over two decades years ago and also offers some of the best 2D dungeons in the series.

Queen Tier 

As already mentioned, these are the Zelda games that I've considered to be my favorites before the Nintendo Switch era. While these games all have their flaws, these flaws didn't leave a major impact on the enjoyment of these games for me personally.

Other than providing great childhood memories, Ocarina of Time has some of the best 3D dungeons in the series to offer, while Majora's Mask has one of the best 3D overworlds, where there's something find in every corner. Together these two games form one unforgettable experience, which shouldn't be missed by anybody.

 

Both of the N64 games also stand out with their amazing atmosphere, thanks to the great use of sounds and music, which is something that has been considerably strong with 3D games from that era. It's the sound that really makes these games so memorable despite their limitations in graphics.

 

This could also be called the nostalgia tier and we've already talked about Link's Awakening, where its GameBoy Color version also makes the list to emphasize that the remake is really that much better. The improved interface and controls, as well as the nice additions are certainly missed here, but it's still one of the best Zelda games overall.

A Link Between Worlds gets a placement in this section as a more fun version of A Link to the Past. While the whole concept of getting all the items at the start is questionable at best (Breath of the Wild has the same issue), the items are all very fun to use and the wall merge ability adds a whole new perspective to the top-down Zelda gameplay. If the dungeons were more challenging and the mini-games somewhat better, then this could give the Link's Awakening remake a run for its money.

Princess Tier

Now we're talking about the good middle. All of these titles offer a solid Zelda experience and might even be the eternal favorites of other Zelda fans. But for me they have at least one major flaw or even several flaws, which make me enjoy them less than the game in the upper tiers.

The Wind Waker is actually quite close to the Nintendo 64 Zelda games in terms of atmosphere, has a timeless appeal to it and offers various of the qualities that made Breath of the Wild so good. But the dungeons feel like a slog and there is too much repetition with things that aren't very fun to begin with. Plus, the combat is way too easy and the course of the main game seems needlessly linear.

Apropos linear, this is one of the main reasons why Twilight Princess fell flat for me. The game is way too guided and restricted on every step of the way to be any real fun. And the wolf transformation feels quite underwhelming when compared to the excellent mask transformations from Majora's Mask.

Skyward Sword was a little bit better when it comes to exploration, but its focus on motion controls and its world design create other problems. And I doubt that an HD remaster of this game would change anything here on a meaningful level, especially when it comes to the world design.

A Link to the Past on the other hand offers that good dose of freedom and non-linearity that I'm looking for in a Zelda game and also has one of the best 2D overworlds in the series, where A Link Between Worlds was happy to recycle most of it. But unlike the 3DS successor, A Link to the Past doesn't offer that much in its second half, where you're basically just busy with dungeon crawling.

The Oracle games are like two sides of the same coin and it would never occur to me to view these games separately. But while they offered more of the Link's Awakening gameplay, these games never get as good as Link's Awakening. Plus, the password system is somewhat convoluted. Maybe a remake could move them up one tier, though...

 

The Minish Cap is one of the most charming top-down Zelda experiences, but similar to Twilight Princess it tends to be quite linear and restrictive. The grind to get all figurines can also be a pain for 100% players.

Last and surprisingly not least, there is also Phantom Hourglass on this tier, which many Zelda fans consider to be the worst Zelda game of all time. But when the game came out, I actually liked it enough to put it on par with A Link to the Past at the time and this still holds. This game has a very open second half, one of the best collectible quests in the series with the Spirit Gems and an interesting main dungeon, which was designed around speed-running. Even the whole touchscreen Nintendo DS gameplay worked quite well for me.

 

The normal dungeons can be somewhat simple, however, and the collecting all Ship Parts is also too much of a grind. But overall I like it more than its sequel, Spirit Tracks, which is part of the lowest tier...

Maiden Tier

I can only repeat myself here when I say that I don't view any of these games as failures, even of the risk of making me sound like a fanboy. But all of these titles are lacking something that I'd want out of a Zelda game.

With the three multiplayer titles this is quite obvious: they don't have a real overworld, where instead you play individual levels. You can't really fault these games for this, since they were designed around multiplayer and therefore are more or less a thing of their own. But in the grand picture of the Zelda series this is where they rest.

Overall the multiplayer games are also pretty much equal, where they all have their advantages and disadvantages. I liked Tri Force Heroes enough to play it for over 200 hours thanks to its online multiplayer, its Challenges and the outstanding outfits, but it also has the simplest level design and the worst singleplayer mode. Four Swords is very short, but also offers the best replay value thanks to its randomly generated areas and the best mix of cooperation and competition. Four Swords Adventures has the best story, level design and singleplayer mode, but is also the most static and can be somewhat boring to replay.

Now, with the NES Zelda games it's simply that A Link to the Past came up with many things that make a Zelda game feel like a Zelda game, like cutting grass or opening treasure chests. The NES Classics are somewhat bare-bones in comparison and can also be very brutal and unforgiving, almost archaic. They are good for a challenge, however, and the music is great.

Finally, Spirit Tracks is lacking a good pace, where everything in this game is just awfully slow. Getting anywhere in the game with the train is very slow. The whole Phantom puzzle mechanic is very slow. Even simple actions like crossing a gap is very slow. It's all slow and this makes it dull to replay. Say about Phantom Hourglass what you want, but at least that game doesn't needlessly test your patience on all ends. That the Spirit Flute is completely broken on newer systems doesn't really help either...

...

Of course all of this is subject to change and I might consider updating this list in the future, once more Zelda games have been released or remastered.

Amazon Lists Skyward Sword for Switch

 

screenshot source

 

Naturally, this has already been removed and it could have been a mistake, but Amazon UK briefly had "Legend of Zelda – Skyward Sword (Switch)" available for pre-order (see here).

If you've followed this blog, then this shouldn't come as a huge surprise. We've discussed possible additions and improvements for a Skyward Sword HD remaster already in early 2018 and at the end of that year Eiji Aonuma teased us with the possibility of Skyward Sword on Switch at a concert in Japan, where I've been expecting this title ever since.

Of course, a standalone release will be more in line with Nintendo has been doing in terms of remakes, remasters and ports during the last years and will effectively remove this title from an "HD Collection", but such a collection could still become a thing with The Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD and maybe Link's Crossbow Training HD later on.

It's also interesting how this is just called "Skyward Sword" and not "Skyward Sword HD", similar to the remake of Link's Awakening. They might even change the logo of this release to the new flat design, so it's clearly distinguished from the Wii version. Or alternatively this could have been a mistake in a mistake from Amazon.

But it feels like there will be an announcement coming soon. Maybe we're even getting a Nintendo Direct this week, on August 20th, which would be great. And like for the past three years, I'm really hoping that this will finally come with a golden Nintendo Switch Bundle. This is the game that came with a golden Wiimote after all...

Golden Joy-cons would simply be the next evolution of this. Playing this game with motion controls will still be an important factor, so having shiny Joy-cons for the job would be nice to have.

As for the release date, it could already come this year, but all of the 3D Zelda remasters and remakes so far were released in Spring. If Skyward Sword on Switch gets released in early 2021, it would also follow the same cycle as Twilight Princess, where the HD version came out in early 2016, five years prior and nine and a half years after the original on Wii.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Small Battlefield Added

Wow, this came out of nowhere. Nintendo just dropped version 8.1.0 of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which comes with a few improvements for the game's online mode. And those are certainly needed in times of a pandemic, where people are primarily playing Smash online. Of course you shouldn't expect wonders here, since they won't magically add servers, but there are some adjustments to the netcode, match-making and getting into Elite Smash.

In addition, this updates comes with a new stage: Small Battlefield. It's basically just Battlefield without the top platform, which makes it similar to Pokémon Stadium 2 without stage hazards, which is a stage that frequently gets picked in tournaments. But it's smaller and therefore even better suited for 1on1s.

I've been playing Smash more competitively for a while now and I've kept thinking that it would be nice to have a two platform variant for all the stages, similar to the Battlefield and Omega variants. Sakurai even mentioned on Twitter that they were considering this, but they weren't able to do this (as translated by PushDustin).

We can only speculate why this is, because technically all they need to do is to remove the top platforms from the Battlefield variants and shift the other two platforms slightly. But maybe it's because these variants need to be saved separately, which would cause a larger update (though it shouldn't be that large, since assets like textures or meshes can be reused), or because this would require lots of testing for over 100 new stages. Or it's because they would need to get permissions for the 3rd party stages... We don't know, but hopefully they will implement this in the next Super Smash Bros. game, because it would be nice to have.

They've also added the option to choose from any music on the four Super Smash Bros. stages (Battlefield, Small Battlefield, Big Battlefield and Final Destination), which is great. But it also completely ignores your "My Music" selection for these stages, where instead it goes over all your "My Music" settings, which is not so great, if you want to play these stages with classic Smash Bros. music only. Hopefully the random music selection for these stages will get fixed later on.

Speaking of random, for some reason they have added random selection buttons for Battlefield and Omega stages, which seems rather redundant, because you could simply press X and use the old random selection button before. The main advantage is that it prevents you from accidentally going for the wrong version, but that's about it. And together with the new Small Battlefield stage, this takes half of the potential empty slots on the stage select screen:

So, if they are going to add more stages beyond the 2nd Fighters Pass, then there are only three spaces left on this screen and a "Stages Pass" seems out of the question now. And this also makes the stage select screen arrangements differ between the normal Smash mode, Training mode and the stage select in the rule sets, which might be annoying, because finding stages is already confusing as it is...

However, what I like about this new arrangement is how it sorts things by pushing the first stage of a certain Smash era to the front. The stages from Super Smash Bros. Brawl now start at the fourth line with Delfino Plaza and the stages for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U start at the eighth line with Mushroom Kingdom U. And the "DLC era" starts in line 10 with the Super Mario Maker stage. This should make things a little bit easier and intuitive to find than before, even though a "sort by franchise" option is still dearly missed.

 

(Maybe they will also add something to Training Mode later, so it has the exact same arrangement. There could be two new versions of the Training stage for example.)

And while they were busy with this change to the stage select screen, they still haven't bothered with implementing a quick stage hazard toggle on it, which would be far more valuable than these random buttons. How hard could it be...?

Also, ideally you would be able to choose which stages appear for the random Battlefield and Omega stages. This was a feature that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U had, but got axed in Ultimate for its convoluted rule sets. But sometimes when I play with competitive rule sets, I just want to go to a random Battlefield or Omega stage, but then it puts me on Battlefield Smashville or Omega Pokémon Stadium 2 all the time, because it takes the from the limited pool of allowed stages. And this makes these random options rather useless, because the main reason to play these altered stage variants is because you don't want to play the normal version of that stage anyway, where you likely will have it disabled in the rule set.

At least this free update makes me more hopeful that they are going to do a bunch of free Echo Fighters next, maybe even a couple more stages, either as standalone paid DLC (similar to the Super Mario Maker stage on the Wii U and 3DS) or as another free addition, where they could bring some of the missing stages back (though, this would mess with the new arrangement). And with only three more open slots, it now feels more likely that they actually might consider filling the entire stage select screen.

PS: It's telling when the most exciting thing that has happened lately is a "new" stage for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. We seriously need a Nintendo Direct...

Why Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is Poison

... for your brain. And similar free-to-play games in general.

So, I didn't make it a secret that I've been enjoying some of Nintendo's smartphone games in the past years as a guilty pleasure, up to a point where I actually thought that getting a Zelda title on smartphones could be pretty good. (Spoilers: that's a terrible idea.)

And to be fair, Super Mario Run was actually very solid. You pay for it once, where it's rather cheap and there are no micro-transactions. It plays nicely and the game doesn't really bother you much with daily rewards, events and all that crap. The only bad thing about is that there is some "gacha" mechanic to unlocking all the kingdom parts, but this only involves spending time, not money, and is also something you might find in normal Nintendo games, e.g. the ship parts in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Then came Fire Emblem Heroes and to this day I mostly play this game to check out the beautiful ladies of the Fire Emblem universe, which is seemingly the best thing about this whole franchise, enabling it to become Nintendo's biggest gacha game. And this mobile title already has all the cancer of modern free-to-play games: gambling with an ingame currency to obtain playable units (the "gacha"), micro-transactions, daily rewards, constant events that keep you engaged and now also a "Battle Pass" (see here).

Still, it was a good way of having some fun on my way to work and out of all these bad things, the only one that really affected me were the events, mostly "Tempest Trials" and "Forging Bonds", because they lure you with some good rewards, but require extensive, repetitive grinding to get them. Of course it also sucked not getting the characters I've wanted, but at least I've never felt the urge to spend any real money here, thanks to the ridiculous prices of this game.

Now, 2020 came and I've been stuck in home office for four months now with no real reason to play Fire Emblem Heroes, other than staying up to date. And while I still play it, it's really a minimum amount of time per week.

But at the same time another of Nintendo's mobile games gained my attention, thanks to the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The game felt like the perfect, carefree answer to the pandemic and certainly was Nintendo's biggest hit this year, but since I don't have a Switch yet thanks to Nintendo's reluctance of making the Switch that I want to have, I've decided to check out the mobile outing of the Animal Crossing franchise again instead.

I've actually already tried the game in late 2017, but quickly dismissed it, because it seemed like a never-ending wave of pointless fetch quests. And I should have listened to this verdict from that time, instead giving this title another chance.

In general you need to find your feminine side for this title, because it's all about making friends with cute animals and decorating your camp site. That's all there is and there is a reason why Animal Crossing is mainly popular with female players. In fact over 90% of the players I've met were female or at least using a female avatar (which I even did myself).

Well, other than the fact that this induces the least amount of testosterone you will ever have while playing a game, this sounds rather harmless. But the real problem of this game is how it creates a vicious reward cycle from performing mundane tasks...

For the most part you're fulfilling camper requests from collecting things in the environment: fish, fruits, insects or flowers. So, you visit the five different main areas of this game, which includes your campsite, and you keep collecting whatever you find. Then you give it to the animal "campers", who then reward you with Bells and building materials, which you can use to create stuff for your campsite, your van and also your house (where I tend to ignore the last two). Plus, you also level up, which gives you additional rewards.

It even provides a simple "mail" interface to do all this, so that you don't even have to talk to the ingame characters in person to get the rewards. You just click / touch your way through the list of requests. It's an incredibly easy way to be rewarded and since there is no actual challenge provided in the tasks, literally the only thing you have to do is play the game. And this can quickly make it very addicting, because you're guaranteed to be rewarded again and again and again.

The camper requests regenerate every three hours, specifically on certain times on the day: 2PM, 5PM, 8PM and so on. So, this already creates an incentive to check the game out multiple times per day, maybe even every three hours. But since you technically wouldn't miss out on anything important for not doing so, Nintendo keeps doing three major events per month that are all connected with a reward chain and where you won't be able to get all exclusive rewards, unless you keep participating in all the events.

These events are growing flowers and catching insects on them, catching fish for a tournament and collecting "Gyroidiots" in the environment. And this seems to be the same for every month, just with different themes and rewards.

This is so strict that you actually need to play this game at least three times per day to get everything in the end. I've even started to optimize things here by planning my play sessions around the times where everything gets swapped, so I can do two reward waves at once. And once you start creating habits or even planning your day around a video game, you know you're in trouble... The game creates obligations for you and that's not something you'd want from a video game.

In comparison, if you want to get all the exclusive things from events in Fire Emblem Heroes, playing the game once per day still should be more than enough. It's even designed so that you can skip it for one or two days and potentially not miss out on anything. It's still bad and this still creates some obligations,  if you don't want to miss out, but it's by far not as bad as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

Clearing the events is also much easier with enough friends, who can help you out, mostly with the flower growing thingy and getting Gyroidiots. And while I usually avoid adding "friends" that I do not know in any other game, I did have over 20 of them in this game, creating a small network where everyone was helping each other out with stuff, more or less successfully. And this kind of creates a social obligation to play this game. "It helps the others."

In addition there is also a second currency in the game, so called "Leaf Tickets". Those are much rarer to get for free, can be bought from real money and naturally are required for many of the exclusive items and changing your campsite environment. There is even a gacha system here in the form of fortune cookies, where you get random stuff. Again, I did not put any money into this, but if you get addicted to collecting all the things in this game, it might get really expensive for you.

And as if all of this wouldn't be already bad enough, everything in this game keeps craving for attention. There are red exclamation mark bubbles everywhere and they don't go away, until you finally take a look. "Go check it out, there are new announcements! Go check it out, there is something in your inbox! Go check it out, something happened on your friend list! Go check it out, there are some finished quests! Go check it out, there is something new to buy for your campsite! Go check it out, there is a new camper episode to watch, even though you can't watch it yet!" It's insane and your game is completely overloaded with this whenever you're booting it up.

Mobile Game Designer: "Where do we want to attract the player's attention?"

Mobile Game Director: "Yes."

Normally, I wouldn't even look at such games and even make fun of peopling playing such trash. But since this is Nintendo we're talking about, I was inclined to give their mobile offerings a try (they are free to play after all) and ultimately fall for the same nonsense that has been poisoning gamers for many years now, with all their cancerous methods of making money and keeping the players addicted.

In the end it's good news that according to Bloomberg.com Nintendo has realized that they should better focus on their home console experience instead on the mobile gaming market, because the former is more lucrative and relies on traditional monetization methods. Ideally, The Legend of Zelda will never be abused to create such a free-to-play titles...

And yes, big games like Breath of the Wild or Hyrule Warriors can be equally addicting and even more time consuming. But at least they do not create obligations, where you can just play them on your own pace. And even if you are as crazy as me and go for 100% completion, there is still an end to these games, all while at least providing some good gameplay and a fun experience.

So, stay healthy... and not just by avoiding some virus.

Cadence of Hyrule: DLC and Physical Edition Announced

So, we really did get a Nintendo Direct today... probably just not what most Nintendo fans were hoping for. The first "Partner Showcase" focused on a few 3rd party announcements and surprisingly there was still something in here with relevancy for this blog: Cadence of Hyrule.

Cadence of Hyrule is probably the first Zelda-related title ever (minus the ones on CDi) that doesn't really have my attention, so I would have never come up with predictions for this. I've tried the game once, but I didn't like it enough that it can't wait until I have my own Nintendo Switch one day. And it's probably a good thing that I haven't invested in this game yet, now that it is getting a physical edition later this year, which also includes all the upcoming DLC. I'll certainly get this one.

The DLC is split into three packs:

• Character Pack: Adds Impa, Shadow Link, Shadow Zelda, Aria and Frederick as playable characters.
• Melody Pack: Adds 39 Songs.
• Symphony of the Mask: Adds a new story chapter where you play as Skull Kid, who uses different masks.

This all sounds quite good, especially the Skull Kid story mode looked interesting, where the different playable characters give me small Hyrule Warriors vibes, which is a good thing. Impa even uses a Naginata here, which she so far only did in Hyrule Warriors. So, there was definitely some inspiration taken from Koei Tecmo's Zelda project.

And it will be nice to have it all on one cartridge. The physical edition launces October 23rd, which is probably the same time when the third DLC Pack gets released.

The Character Pack will be available today and the rest gets released until the end of October. And as usual for Nintendo DLCs, this will also come with a Season Pass, where you get bonus costumes for Link and Zelda if you buy the whole thing. It's unclear whether the physical edition will include these costumes or not, but it probably does, since it's stated to come with the Season Pass.

Nintendo Direct Coming Soon?

Today is the release day of Paper Mario: The Origami King. And just like after the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in March we're back to not knowing anything about what's next for Nintendo. Which means it's time for a Nintendo Direct or at least the announcement of the next big release.

There even have been rumors that we're getting a Nintendo Direct as early as Monday. It could again be shadow dropped, like the Nintendo Direct Mini from March, which followed the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons the week after. So, it's probably best to write down expectations now, if you really want to go into the next Direct with expectations.

Whenever we're getting a Nintendo Direct, one of the topics will certainly be the seventh Challenger Pack for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It's actually of note how they've already removed the "New" labels from the official website. Apparently, this only happens when a new fighter announcement is imminent. And it's remarkable how quickly they've removed this after the release of Min Min not even three weeks ago.

I'm personally so happy with ARMS and Min Min in Smash that I doubt that any of the upcoming DLC would top this, but getting a Challenger Pack for Minecraft would still be quite hype for me. They could also do another mystery reveal again, e.g. by announcing a Pokémon from Sword & Shield, but then they probably wouldn't have changed things on the official website already... In any case it will be interesting.

Otherwise such a Nintendo Direct would probably primarily focus on Nintendo's line-up for the rest of 2020. So, I'm not expecting anything about Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3 or the sequel to Breath of the Wild, though it would be nice to finally learn more about these titles.

But the 35th Anniversary of Super Mario could become a topic and what's also quite in the realm of possibilities for this year is a new 2D Metroid on the Nintendo Switch, developed by MercurySteam, who did a good job with Metroid: Samus Returns on the Nintendo 3DS three years ago. It would be awesome to get a follow-up to this, whether it's another remake or finally a new title. Maybe this could even lead to a cool looking Special Edition Nintendo Switch...

Nintendo's Reluctance to Fix and Improve Games

Screenshot by HylianAngel @ GameFAQs

Let's start this article by saying that Nintendo has some of the best, if not the best quality control in the business. If a Nintendo game hits the shelves, it's absolutely ready and in a finalized, fully polished state, which most games out there won't ever reach these days.

However, games are never perfect and even Nintendo goofs up here and there. And when that happens, it's very rare for Nintendo to actually do something about it, unless it's a critical, game-breaking bug.

As early as the Wii, they did provide a tool to repair your save game of Skyward Sword, if you happen to get stuck during the Song of the Hero sequence, because the Eldin part doesn't get triggered. And last year they've fixed the glitch in Link's Awakening on Nintendo Switch, where Marin doesn't ever leave her house, thus preventing you from making any progress after Level 3.

Of course in the days of the GameCube or in earlier generations something like this wasn't possible at all. The only way to fix anything was to release a new version of the game, put on disc or cartridge. So, they had to make sure that games would be near perfect before getting them out there, which is certainly one of the reasons why Nintendo's quality control is so good. Back in the day it had to be.

Now, with the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U it was finally possible to provide extensive patches and updates for all their games. If there was a problem with one of their products, they finally had the means to easily fix it, where day 1 patches are even getting more and more common for Nintendo.

But... they rarely make use of updates and when they do it's mostly just to either prepare DLC or to fix critical bugs like the ones above. Anything else most likely will be ignored... Of course putting updates out there costs money, time and other resources, so fixing some minor issues probably just isn't worth the effort for them. But with certain games they've released multiple updates, but still refused to fix some of the issues that have been bugging the fans for a while.

This blog has actually a dedicated series of posts that are all about updating most of the Zelda games from the past ten years:

• Let's Update Ocarina of Time 3D
• Let's Update A Link Between Worlds
• Let's Update Majora's Mask 3D
• Let's Update Tri Force Heroes
  
• Let's Update the Coliseum
  
• Let's Update Twilight Princess HD
  
• Let's Update Breath of the Wild
• Let's Update the Link's Awakening Remake
  
• Let's Update the Chamber Dungeon
  

Many of these suggestions are major feature requests, which of course aren't necessarily expected from free updates, but with each game there are also some minor fixes left to be desired, which were never happening.

It basically all started with A Link Between Worlds, where it felt almost too obvious that you should be able to summon Shadow Links via Play Coins, instead of playing for four hours to have one appear. It would have made completing the game much, much easier, especially if didn't have the chance to use StreetPass in some form. (Also, they could have lowered the requirements for the Giant Cucco. *cough*)

Majora's Mask 3D then mostly had some issues with its interface and controls, where the Zora Swimming probably was the worst offender. It's notably also the only Zelda release in the last decade without some "Hero Mode" option, which could have been added via an update.

Tri Force Heroes actually had placeholders for another area and for additional outfits, where all of this never has been made for some reason. But it was really the game's singleplayer and Coliseum modes that left a lot to be desired, where they could have improved many things with some adjustments.

Twilight Princess HD introduced the new Ghost Lantern item only for it to be completely useless. Ideally it would have made the Poes appear during day or let you change the daytime to night. There was also a bug where you could miss one of the three Bomb Bags, while the interface and controls were far from perfect. Especially the new horse behavior sucked monkey balls.

And don't let me get started on Breath of the Wild... There are unobtainable chests, a glitch preventing you from getting the Thunder Helmet, lots of annoyances around the armor inventory and still no way of climbing in the rain without slipping. And those are just some examples.

The remake for Link's Awakening wasn't much better, with its lack of D-Pad controls or the silly chests with Secret Medicines staying closed if you already have one. Another warp point in the central mountains was dearly missed. And the whole Chamber Dungeon feature was so underwhelming on certain ends that an update there could have done absolute wonders.

All of these were examples for the Zelda series, but this is a Nintendo thing and certainly concerns many of their games. The hugely popular Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for example is already on its eighth major update, version 8.0.0, but it still doesn't let you toggle stage hazards on the stage select screen and it still doesn't remember your last fighter choice in the Smash mode, both things that are just annoying and are frequently requested to be fixed...

...

The devil is in the details and it's often the little things that might leave a sour taste in your mouth after an otherwise excellent experience. And it's not like Nintendo is completely immune to the idea of fixing little issues and improving their game in small ways.

With Breath of the Wild they did actually fix and improve a couple of things. Originally you weren't able to re-obtain any of the DLC armor pieces, if you sold them, but update 1.3.3 added them all to Granté's collection, which was a really good improvement for the game. They've also fixed a couple of issues with the game's Master Mode.

But updates like that are rare, which is a shame. Even if some of these issues seem minor, Nintendo could a lot of good by listening a little more to the players and updating their games accordingly. Small things do count and in the end this is about making your most loyal customers happy.