Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’ve been chewing on.
Todayin response to the disappointment among some Zelda fans who (from what we’ve seen so far) think Tears of the Kingdom looks too similar to BOTW, Alan looks back at some past instances of Nintendo returning for a second…
We already know from the first trailer that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be more Breath of the Wild. It wasn’t said directly, but the similar visual style combined with its very early title — ‘Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ (remember that?) — showed that Nintendo knew it had captured the magic with the Switch. launch title, and he wasn’t about to break free so quickly.
And with every trailer since, including yesterday’s, we’ve been presented with what looks to be just that – more Breath of the Wild, with modifications. Showcasing a small selection of new abilities along with a world and general gameplay that is unmistakably BOTW. Link’s new Fuse ability has already had me and many others fantasizing about some ridiculous weapons we can create. That little addition alone opened up a world of possibilities. Combat looks the same, exploration mostly the same (but with more vertical tilt), and yes, weapons still break. But in the midst of all that, I can attach a mushroom to my shield and use it to create a spore cloud and surprise my enemy.
Sequels don’t have to reinvent the wheel; they never did. And most people, at least as far as Tears of the Kingdom are concerned, agree with that.
However, there is a portion of the fan base who are not happy that Tears of the Kingdom is ‘more of the same’. Claims that it should be DLC for Breath of the Wild, or disappointment that a game that took six years (despite a massively destructive pandemic, of course) to develop is ‘reusing assets’, while few and far between, are easy to find , and got me thinking about ‘iterative continuations’. Why does ‘iterative continuation’ seem like a bad thing to some people?
Sharp turn or stay in the lane?
By their very nature, video game sequels are supposed to take what made the previous game great and improve upon it, smoothing out the flaws while maintaining the identity of the series. Games probably do this better than any other medium because of the constantly evolving knowledge base and toolset of a relatively young industry.
Nintendo has a reputation for innovation, especially with its consoles. But when I think about some of my favorite Nintendo games, it seems that the big N is also a master of repetition. Back in the early days, Big N tried new things while also developing familiar sequels.
Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) are quite identical, the latter has different levels and is many, many harder. On the other hand, The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link are quite different — a top-down adventure versus a side-scrolling RPG is a pretty sharp left turn. Both of these sequels are controversial in their own way, but both point to Nintendo as a developer.
Today, you can essentially divide the Zelda and Mario series into 2D/top-down and 3D, but even within those limitations, Nintendo manages to iterate and differentiate. Super Mario Sunshine is “the one with the water pack” and Breath of the Wild is “open world,” for example — but they also factor in console generational jumps, even if Breath of the Wild was a cross-world title gen.
More than one!?
Before the newer generations of consoles, we were often spoiled for choice. The Donkey Kong Country series was entirely developed for and released on the SNES, and each one added new mechanics and new levels, but the core games were very similar to each other.
The same can be said for Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, two masterful 3D collectible platformers. Kazooie laid the groundwork, and Tooie just goes for the “bigger” and “more” model (perhaps to his detriment, although after more than two decades of experience exploring complex 3D worlds in the meantime, we advise you to revisit it).
We’d get entire series or subseries on one console, with wait times that were often just a few years — just look at the early Kirby games, for example. Nowadays, a direct sequel can take five or more years to conceive, develop, produce, market, and so on. You routinely have to wait entire generations of consoles. And, often, DLC follows.
With bigger teams to manage, more powerful hardware to develop for, and higher expectations to live up to, video games are damn expensive. Not only to produce, but also to buy. Super Mario Odyssey gave Mario a new gimmick in Cappy, tons of amazing worlds, more collectibles than ever before, and a big look for his Switch debut. And if people wanted a new 3D Mario on Switch (besides the excellent Bowser’s Fury stopgap), Mario Odyssey 2 would probably be what it would (will?) be. Of course Nintendo would take some of the advantages and build on what made Odyssey great, right?
We’ll probably wait until the next console for more 3D Mario, Odyssey 2 or not, and it’ll be something a little different, though not wildly different.
Masking the galaxy
The two best Nintendo sequels ever are an iteration of their predecessors — Majora’s Mask and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Majora’s Mask does change a lot from Ocarina of Time — the mask mechanics are brand new, the overworld is brand new, the timer is a stressful new addition, etc. — but it uses many of the same monsters, mechanics, and weapons from Ocarina of Time.
Remixing and condensing elements of Ocarina of Time down in Termina — an unknown but eerie world — and Clock Town is actually pure genius. You’re already familiar with Hyrule, but now you can become more intimate with the townspeople, helping them and learning about their intricacies, patterns and movements. Putting you back in the shoes of Young Link robs you of some of that power, the Hero of Time who saved the world just months earlier. And the tone of Majora’s Mask takes some of the disturbing parts of Ocarina of Time — the Forest Temple, the Temple of Shadows, the Re-Deads, the Likes, etc. — and turns it up to 11. It’s one of the best ‘proper’ sequels out there.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 takes this to the extreme – and it is “only” more Super Mario Galaxy and a lot more textbook tracking. The game has been cleaned up, Yoshi has been added, and there are more galaxies with more varied looks, but essentially, this is more of the same, with more challenges to solve and Green Star quests.
But hell, if more of the same means more perfect galaxy-hopping gameplay, then I want it all. To say that Mario Galaxy 2 is just “DLC” for Galaxy is confusing. It’s a brand new game and more than worth the price of admission. Super Mario Galaxy has a different central world and a deeper (albeit optional) story focus, but just adding Yoshi and a few new power-ups to Mario Galaxy 2 opens up the possibilities and potential for new puzzles and challenges. Yoshi in space is a dream concept anyway, how could anyone be mad about that?
A new ink mark
Splatoon is a radically unique series in Nintendo’s library. Splatoon 2 took everything that made the first one great, put it on better hardware, and really fine-tuned the experience. Five years later, Splatoon 3 did the same thing, but on very
But Splatoon 3 does loads new things — new weapons, stages, characters, everything we talked about, and a slightly different musical atmosphere thanks to Deep Cut. And it falls into a different genre than many other Nintendo series. Pikmin and Pikmin 2 on the GameCube (and Pikmin 3, to be fair) aren’t radically different from each other either — one has a timer while the other doesn’t, and 2 has all-new Pikmin species and enemies to fight, for example — but this unique RTS series has a core that, if it changed too much, like Splatoon, it wouldn’t be Splatoon. The same can be said for fighting games and racing games — that’s perhaps why Smash Bros. and Mario Kart typically deals only one per console.
Tears to be continued
Longer waiting times between sequels, increased development costs, consumer costs, and the need to patch or update the game after launch could make a non-teasing sequel a bitter pill to swallow for some. A brand new 3D Zelda game is an incredibly exciting prospect, but when you’re watching it — and on the same console — where do you go?
Breath of the Wild is the best-selling Zelda game of all time — and it’s not even close. It is widely regarded as one of the best video games ever made. The same thing happened with Ocarina of Time, and Nintendo recognized it and made an ‘iterative’ sequel. Tears of the Kingdom seems to follow the Majora’s Mask template to some extent, changing enough things to keep it fresh, as well as changing the tone and mood, at least from the looks of the trailers. Hyrule looks familiar, but it’s also quite different with all that verticality and those Sky Islands.
Breath of the Wild captured something magical, so of course Nintendo wants to build on that. Not every Zelda game in the future will be “another Breath of the Wild,” but from what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Tears of the Kingdom is that, to a certain degree. Repetition is extremely important in video games, whether it’s using the same formulas or taking large parts of previous games and just tweaking the mechanics. The space for innovation isn’t going anywhere, and very soon we’ll be back in the familiar realm with new tools that offer a fresh, exciting perspective on places we thought we knew. What could be more ‘Zelda’ than that?
And now I can make a super long spear with a rake and a big stick, so the Moblins are safe.
Table of Contents
