The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomlaunched last week, and I’ve been having a great time covering Hyrule in twin-sized beds. Echoes of Wisdom is also the first Zelda game with traditional dungeons in over a decade, and I’ve been relishing the opportunity to hunt down keys, both boss and small. As much fun as I’m having, it’s bittersweet because I wish I could do this more often.
Four Decades On, The Legend Of Zelda Is Still Unique
Nintendo’sbiggest series tend to spawn their own genres. Mario invented the platformer. Mario Kart popularized the kart racer. Pokemon led to the creature collector. And Metroid became the template for the Metroidvania (despite Castlevania claiming more than its fair share of the name). Yet Zelda, one of the oldest, best-loved, and most consistent series in gaming,has never really spawned its own genre outside of sporadic efforts from other developers.
In recent years, there have been a few Zelda-likes but they arrive at a rate of about one a year, give or take. Hyper Light Drifter paired Zelda-style exploration with Souls-style boss difficulty in 2016. Minit gave players a miniature Majora’s Mask in 2018. Chicory: A Colorful Tale painted the tiny sub-genre red in 2021, and Death’s Door and Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion occupied a similar space. Tunic riffed on the series' gameplay (and fashion choices) in 2022.
If you’re really invested in these games, it’s not difficult to find them. But it isn’t a sub-genre that sees reliable releases by any stretch of the imagination. Compare the number of games I listed above — which cover asix year span— to the number of notable Metroidvanias released in 2018 alone: Dandara, Iconoclasts, Chasm, Dead Cells, Timespinner, La-Mulana 2, Guacamelee! 2, The Messenger, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, Yoku’s Island Express, Death’s Gambit, and the Switch port of Hollow Knight, which led to its stratospheric popularity after a quieter 2017 PC release.
Admittedly, 2018 was a particularly packed year for Metroidvanias, but I’d argue we’veneverhad a packed year for Zelda-likes. They appear every so often, but making the next A Link to the Past isn’t a rite of passage for new developers the way making a Metroidvania or 2D platformer seems to be.
Zelda Hits Hard Because It’s Rare
For that reason, the release of every new Zelda game still hits like a truck. I enjoyed last year’sSuper Mario Bros. Wonderand 2021’sMetroid Dread, but neither of them felt essential in the way a new Zelda does, because indie devs verify you can play great 2D platformers and Metroidvanias every year. It’s incredibly rare to get something like Zelda, and since the 3D games in the Switch era have increasingly moved in a different direction, getting to solve a new traditional Zelda dungeon feels really special.
Though puzzle games release fairly often, few of them take Zelda’s approach of offering large spaces, separate from the rest of the game’s world, that are solely dedicated to presenting interconnected puzzles. Metroidvanias do something similar, but not quite the same. When you start a new area in a Metroidvania, you may not have the tools you need to tackle it. It’s a key part of the genre, which allows for open-ended exploration and satisfying progression. But Zelda is unique in what it presents: the chance to enter a space and solve one big puzzle while knowing that you have everything you need.
Most Zelda dungeons are built around one specific tool, which you gain midway through completing them. You pass through the first portions of each dungeon seeing, for example, statues marked by open eye symbols that are too far away for you to hit them with your sword. Then, halfway through, you get the bow and arrow, and suddenly you can interact with those inaccessible statues. The whole dungeon opens up to you. It’s like the entirety of a Metroidvania condensed into an hour or two of gameplay. I love it, and I wish there were more games like this. The arrival of each new Zelda feels like an event because of it, but I want to see more developers host this kind of event.
