When I watched the final trailer The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom For what I suspect will be the first of 37 times, there’s one thing I immediately wanted to do: Freefall endlessly over Hyrule, watch as Link’s long new locks are blown back by the wind as he sets a collision course on an interesting new mystery. Since every trailer is for the mysterious breath of the wild Sequel has shown Link doing this, I’m pretty confident that it will be a permanent feature in the game and I can’t wait. Free fall is one of the best mechanics in video games, and I’ll outline my case as to why.
It’s better than flying. Flying is for cowards. Real ones know what’s going on: Right here, on solid ground. Cool you’re up there in heaven, bro. I’m going down here where the cool swords are.
Gravity is your friend, not your enemy. Or maybe an enemy. The tension between where the world wants you to go and where you can actually go is The Good Shit when it comes to game design. The most entertaining game mechanics make you feel like you’re not just breaking a rule, but exploiting it. Hence free fall: a beautifully elegant moment where you break a rule (gravity), only to moments later embrace it and use it to do something incredible.
You can’t ignore the world beneath you. Back to my first point. If you’re just looking for the sky, you never have to think about all the interestingly designed rooms in the actual game world. Fallen is a tool that asks you to look at the world and understand it better. That’s why every battle royale game starts with you jumping out of a giant flying Roomba or whatever.
It’s pretty good for punching power. Screenshots and photo modes were created for posts where you can position your game character and say “Kiss my tunic, 30,000 feet”.
They made a whole game about it and it decided. Remember gravity? And Gravity Rush 2? Incredible stuff man.
It’s the best game mechanic yet Mario‘s jump. If Mario’s leap was the moment that split the video game’s atom, then free fall is cold fusion. I find. I’m still working on this metaphor. As with cold fusion, it may not actually work. Just know it’s sick as hell.
