Zelda: Breath of the Wild screenshots

Check out some beautiful new screenshots of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

[DialgaMarine]

This was the one Wii-U title I had any anticipation for, and it has not impressed me in the slightest. The graphics are just so god awful, and all the game mechanics that people are praising to the heavens are just things that Nintendo copied and pasted from other franchises, and then slapped their logo on it so that their moronic fans would pretend they're original ideas.

Too many other games releasing in the future look far more fun and impressive. This is just utter crap.

[Gaz_KnightofNylrac]

While I won't get into a discussion on art styles, many which often don't change minds, I feel many tend to misrepresent what many rational gamers, Nintendo fans or not, say about how game mechanics are used in particular games.

In this case, Breath of the Wild's various game systems. While it's true most aren't original in the slightest even to Nintendo games, to me it's more about what Nintendo tends to do really well when they put their minds to it; polish.

When you say that "Nintendo copied and pasted [game mechanics] from other franchises" dismissively, it seems you're missing the context in which they're being applied. It's true that things like weather, destructible environments, waypoints and towers, RPG weapon/defense systems, and elements such as fire-spreading and wind-based systems; these aren't Nintendo-exclusive ideas. I agree with this statement.

What is happening here though, is that Nintendo usually takes game mechanics they feel works in a particular game/franchise and usually polishes them to a ridiculous mirror sheen. In BotW's case, it's all those above systems working as a whole in the context of a Zelda game. For Zelda, not even all of these mechanics are new, but the sheer scope of an open-world-style Zelda akin to the original title and the implied expectation of Nintendo's high standard of quality is cause enough for excitement, as seen by numerous previews.

As a past example, Nintendo also didn't "create" gravity-based mechanics that made Super Mario Galaxy such a fantastic game (both times!), but they went with a game filled with 50% gravity-based planetoids and it was a solid core mechanic for half the stages, and they created amazing platformers out of it. I'll never say Nintendo "created" that aspect, but I will give them due credit for making it front-and-center in a polished Mario platformer and making it a critically-acclaimed and fan-favorite title.

For those who give Nintendo all the credit for these mechanics, I can't really speak for them or defend them. You're partially correct in wanting to straight them out, for blind fanatics are the bane of normal fans for certain.

However, I am trying to speak as a rational Nintendo fan that can accept the good and bad from all games I play, and this is a ton of good being applied to the Zelda formula. That makes BotW a very anticipated game for me and many others based on the enthusiasm I've seen these last few months of the actual game up and running. It's all these mechanics merging in a Zelda game that has many excited, and we'll see in March if all of this glowing optimism is warranted.

[ChickeyCantor]

yih you mad

[DialgaMarine]

Yeah, mad that I bought a Wii-U on launch day, and have playing DK64 and an hour of Smash Bros. The console is utter shit, and now the only game that had any potential on it is looking like shit.