nsidr

How do you make a sequel to Breath of the Wild and channel even an ounce of the "wow oh gosh" the first game had? This kind of systems-driven open world with unprecedented freedom in its traversal, you can't just throw in "more systems" and "more world" and achieve that kind of impact. But if we distill the game's primary message to one of "freedom," there's a natural next step: put that fancy boy in the sky.

We all had that nightmare, years ago. A fevered, flop-sweat vision of a future we dared not believe could come to pass. "Nintendo making mobile games." Jesus! I still shudder. The benefits of Nintendo sticking to their own hardware have been well argued, and at the very LEAST we enthusiast game-doers place value on buttons. The notion of Nintendo going multi-platform in the very worst way was not a pleasant one.

Nintendo sometimes makes a big deal about milestones—Mario's 30th, Zelda's 25th, and the "Year of Luigi" are all recent examples that come to mind—but one thing you won't usually hear them mention is how long it's been since something went away. Luckily, my encyclopedic knowledge of pointless factoids stands at the ready! You see, today, February 19, 2019, marks the 25th anniversary of the very last games that Nintendo ever released for the Famicom, the system that enjoyed new releases for nearly 11 years and put them on the map as a home video game publisher.

So hey did y'all see this Link's Awakening or what. Man pretty rad huh. I love that we've finally hit a point where 2D remakes like this aren't trapped on the 3DS, and can really benefit from the processing power of modern console hardware. Behold! Nintendo's flagship box cranking out this... rinky-dink lookin thing? I mean let's be real, this is gorgeous, so bright and smooth with this slick tilt-shift blur going on.