The Discussion Thread: The Greatest Games Event 2017 - FINISH YOUR LISTS

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#1 The Legend of Zelda

Why did it make the list?
When The Legend of Zelda came out it was head and shoulders better than any game that had come before.  The music, the combat, the exploration, the dungeons, the many secrets…all of these things were so much better than any previous game.  On top of that the game was flawless.  There was not one moment where I was jarred out of the game world because of bugs or bad design. 

Once I got to the end of this amazing game, I found that there was a whole second quest waiting for me.  How can I be given such a breakthrough game, and then also be given an entire second quest to play through it again?  It was unheard of at the time.  It is unheard of today!  Any top game of today would surely have its extra quest, or post-game content, sold as DLC (including this year’s Zelda game).

On top of all this, the game ages like fine wine. I feel The Legend of Zelda is even better now than when I first played it in 1987, 30 years ago.  For a long time, I felt Final Fantasy 7 was the best game of all time.  However, last year I went back and replayed the Legend of Zelda and it reclaimed the top spot.  How can a game start out as flawless and then get even better over time?  I will try to explain in the last section below.

 

Original Experience:
This is the game, more than any other, that killed off the arcades.  I am not saying this, because I hate arcade games.  In fact, I love arcade games and have several on my top 50 list.  Rather, I am saying this as someone who remembers arcade gaming compared to the Atari 2600 and then witnessed arcade gaming vs. the NES.  My conclusion is that The Legend of Zelda killed off arcade gaming.

Let me explain further.  The Atari 2600 largely became successful because of arcade ports.  The console really started selling well when they put Space Invaders on it.  After that several other popular arcade games got ported: Asteroids, Missile Command, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pacman….  Look at the best selling Atari 2600 games, and you will see all of these arcade ports near the top.  And yet each one of these games was clearly inferior to the arcade version.  They became best-sellers largely because any kid younger than 16 simply couldn’t go to the arcade whenever they wanted.  So kids were very happy at the time to just play anything.  Then the home console market crashed and went away….

A few years later the NES hit the US.  It had games that felt just as good as the arcade version.  For example, I had already played Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt and Kung Fu Master in the arcades.  Super Mario Bros, in particular, was so good that it became the game that revived console gaming from the dead.  It was just as good as any arcade game out there.  However, The Legend of Zelda was even better than all of the arcade games out there.

The Legend of Zelda truly took gaming to a place it had never been before.  Before Zelda most people played lots of fast and fun arcade style games.  They were meant to be tough and they were not long games, because the makers wanted you to keep playing so that you could put in more quarters.  However, some people were playing computer RPG’s which were much longer and deeper games with exploration and character progression, but also the gameplay was a lot slower and less intense than an arcade game.  The Legend of Zelda combined the best of arcade and computer gaming by making a fast and fun action game that also had more depth because of exploration and character progression like an RPG.  The result was a game better than any arcade game out there (or computer game for that matter).  Why go out to play arcade games, when there are now even better games that you can play at home?

I loved my Atari 2600, but I always preferred going to the arcades in those days.  During the NES era, I largely ignored the arcade.  Then one day I went back and most genres were gone except fighting games like Street Fighter 2.  The Legend of Zelda really made home consoles a powerhouse that couldn’t be ignored.


How does it hold up today?
The Legend of Zelda is even better than I first remember it.  I had always heard that you could play through the dungeons in any order, but I hadn’t tried doing it until last year.  What people don’t tell you though, is that the game becomes a totally different experience if you do this.  For example, usually you get the boomerang and bow in the first dungeon.  This time I got the ladder first.  This made the game feel very different, but still very fun in a new type of way.

The original Zelda is different than every other game, including every other Zelda (although Link to the Past is close).  One reason is that you can play through the dungeons in any order.  (Not even Link to the Past can do that.)  However, the biggest reason is that almost every item in the game makes you more powerful, and also that is the main reason why you get the item.  Sure, bomb and candle can be used to find secrets, but the main reason you get them is to blow things up and set things on fire.  Even the ladder upgrades your combat ability, because now you can hover over water and attack the enemies while they can’t attack you.  This means that if you get the items in a different order, you advance in a very different way, and the game becomes a new experience.

And there is still room to take this further.  Some people play the whole game with just the beginning sword.  Others have completed the whole game swordless (except for Ganon which requires the sword).  Some choose to stay at 3 hearts for the whole game.  Any really good game is easy to learn and difficult to master.  Original Zelda is definitely this, but it also makes each experience different while going through that “difficult to master” part.

 

The Legend of Zelda is a game that started out perfect, and it has gotten better over time.  I have yet to find another game that combines the simple, intense arcade action with deep exploration and character progression.  Also, I have yet to find another game that actually gets better over time.  For these reasons, I have to declare The Legend of Zelda the #1 game of all time.