Browsing: Link’s Awakening

For those of us who love, play, and appreciate video games, the end of the year is especially exciting because everyone gets to give us their Game of the Year lists. But why do we do these lists? Why do we care? Why should anyone? For this edition of Punished Chat, I spoke with this very site’s David Silbert about how we approach making our own lists, what we value, and why they exist at all.

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Last year, I decried the overuse of gaming terms like “metroidvania,” as often such words and phrases do little to actually describe the experience any game presents. While I understand why someone might lean on a certain vernacular when describing various works, the time has come for us to rethink how we talk about games in order to describe them in a more accurate manner. I’m not calling for the obliteration of such terms, either; I just believe we should know what we’re saying when utilizing these words.

Here are five particularly notable examples.

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When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took the gaming world by storm two years ago, it amazed players with its massive open world, improved traversal mechanics, weapon variety, and breathtaking scenery. … After playing Cadence of Hyrule, the latest Zelda spin-off, which uses the mechanics of Crypt of the Necrodancer, I now realize what was missing: the integration of music as a core gameplay mechanic (Kass doesn’t count).

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