Nintendo’s oft-derided gimmicks give their games identities
Doing its best to stand out
I recently completed a replay of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It was my first replay, in fact, having last completed the title shortly after the launch of the Nintendo Wii - back in November 2006. On paper this is a game I love; a focus on dungeons, the realistic art style, the darker tone, and a unique companion character in the form of Midna. Yet, I come away from the game firmly in the '8.8 it's great' camp. It’s easy to see the care and attention put in to ensure a great traditional Zelda adventure was delivered, but it also feels a bit cold. It's missing that X factor that series titles such as The Wind Waker or Majora's Mask base their entire existence around.
No doubt this was meant to be Wolf Link. Link is certainly no stranger to animal transformations, famously turning into a pink rabbit in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but the Wolf Link transformation of Twilight Princess brings with it an entirely new set of skills. Wolf Link can use some of Midna's powers to attack multiple enemies, leap upon enemies to chain multiple bite attacks, and use his elevated senses to track scents and find digging spots. These are all great ideas and are occasionally recontextualized during the adventure, but they are the only ideas. After a few hours you've seen all Wolf Link can do and then need to spend the next twenty occasionally transforming back into the wolf to repeat these same handful of actions.
As a gimmick it's pretty weak. Wolf Link ultimately fails to make the game stand out in any meaningful way and so it just feels like 'another Zelda game'. As I reflected on this further, coming to conclusion that Wolf Link was why the game didn't fully land for me, I started to appreciate the way Nintendo often designs games. Occasionally I hear game players mention the gimmick of a new Zelda or Mario game in a dismissive tone as though that is all the game offers and Nintendo can only make games with gimmicks. The failure of Wolf Link shows that these gimmicks are more important than we think - they are the basis of a game's identity.
Imagine The Wind Waker without the ocean, imagine Majora's Mask without the three-day cycle. Those games would be nothing - they are so fundamentally tied to their unique ideas as to be inseparable. The experience each title offers is distinct and defined through their gimmicks, and the experience one comes away with defines the identity of the game upon reflection.
In this way I feel Nintendo deserves more credit for their gimmick design. It can occasionally not go far enough and drag down an experience, as is the case with Wolf Link, but often it makes their games feel unique from one another - think Mario Sunshine's F.L.U.D.D., Galaxy's planetoids, or Odyssey's capture mechanic. It is unreasonable to expect each series title to be a total rethink such as Breath of the Wild, but a strong gimmick that provides distinct gameplay and leaves the player with a well-defined sense of game identity is an excellent approach to keeping things fresh. It's a clever design paradigm that ensures each Nintendo game is worth playing and leads to consistently memorable experiences.
Still some real memorable moments, no doubt.