That comparison's spot on. The way in which the design good Zelda games (I don't know why I use that qualifier, really, I've hardly played one that wasn't) instil you with the confidence to succeed is a beautiful thing. Like you say, you just know that you have what it takes, and that is some serious design wizardry…

Congratulations on the exam-finishing!

What, you don't use movement speed boost elixirs all the time?

I get what you're saying regarding the size of the game, but I'm starting to feel like it might actually be that big.

It's been The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the last week, and that's all I'm going to be doing playing this weekend as well. I'm fifty-odd hours in, which has mostly been faffing about on foot, exploring, cutting grass, bombing jewel deposits, hunting, gathering, (bomb) fishing, and being absolutely crap at…

Seemingly, neither did large parts of Bioware's development team, so at least you're in good company.

Well, audiences as well as critics, for the most part. Nothing they've done after the first Matrix has been anywhere close to being as well-received (unless Sense8 is some secret smash hit for Netflix). But I get your point; Speed Racer represents a storytelling mode that goes against the grain of what the traditional…

That's really well put, the last sentence in particular.

Any blow against FOMO (if you have any problem with it at all) is well worth striking, I say. And it's not like the games you listed are poor substitutes, by most accounts. I don't think you'll be disappointed the day you find that cheap Wii U copy of BotW, though. It's a really good game.

I've always thought that the best solution for this issue would be to include a box-out with How The List Would Look If We Allowed More Than One Game Per Franchise, and then go a little longer on the entry for the best game from the franchise in the regular list — basically writing up the franchise as well as the best…

Agreed! I bet it holds up better than movie.

Your assumptions regarding PSN availability are indeed correct.

Luke Skywalker and Byrds sounds like a band playing John Williams covers on Rickenbackers.

Wow, I'm slightly in awe of that pun.

(My upvote should not be interpreted as endorsement of an opinion preferring thematical variation over level design — clearly wrong! — but I do appreciate the weary sarcasm of your comment)

One franchise's partisan fans are another franchise's sh*tposters, sadly. Also, there are a lot of sh*tposters who aren't partisan fans of anything.

Lovely review, Mr. Wanserski! It's really great to see that the Gameological writers still have the mandate to go long when reviewing games. Along with the Game In Progress features becoming a regular thing, your neck of the woods is still the best part of the site, both in terms of writing and the obvious care that…

Given the pressure laid on critics by both publisher/developer and partisan fans to NEVER score a game lower than an 8, a 75 on Metacritic should be interpreted like something closer to a 50 in real money.

Do you think BotW for Wii U will ever go on sale? Nintendo are notoriously slow to lower the prices of their own games at the best of times, and in this instance, there are even more factors at play to make a price cut unlikely. Given that Nintendo sold out the Wii U audience in order to ensure the least amount of…

You're so right about that! When I posted my stupid-long Picross screed yesterday, I did not expect the lovely discussions about it that followed almost immediately. Again, that's flipping Picross, just about as far from triple A as you can get. These people are amazing.