This is when Nintendo was still competing on power. The GameCube that came after was much more powerful than the PS2, and the N64 felt at least double as powerful than the PS1.
Everyone was getting ripped off by piracy, we saw the downfall of the Dreamcast to a certain extend due to that. Nintendo was better prepared, first with cartridges on the N64 and secondly with mini discs on the GameCube.
On the N64 they sacrificed the use of video files by doing this, and to be honest I'm glad they did. Many of these classics would had look cheesy with video cutscenes. Instead we got engine built cutscenes that made everything smoother.
When you compare Super Mario 64, Ocarina Of Time, Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong 64, Banjo-Kazooie, etc. to mascot platformers on the PS1, the PS1 looked like a much older console, similar to the 32X, and even the Saturn felt the same way.
After Nintendo realizing with the GameCube that extra power was not going to win sales, they came out with the Wii, completely underpowered and something that changed Nintendo's direction.
The risk paid off with the Wii sales to them. On the other hand, if it wasn't for the Wii success and Nintendo was still following the path of the N64 and GameCube, Breath Of The Wild would have a photo realistic look instead of something stylized.
When I first saw Ocarina Of Time I was blown away. This was Zelda, it said Nintendo 1998 while Link was riding the horse and my mind exploded. What an impact that was. With Super Mario 64 it was the graphics jump what made it impressive, but with Zelda it was the meaning behind it, the stories, the adventure, the feelings, and the emotions.
After finally playing Breath Of The Wild, and even seeing Mario just in how it is looking on the trailers, it seems that at some point someone probably came to challenge Nintendo to tell them that they can't beat themselves, that they will never had another Ocarina Of Time or Super Mario 64 kind of impact in the psyche of players.
It seems that they took that challenge personal, and considering how many other financial options they now have with Pokémon, and the casual market, they decided, straight up for ego reasons, to accept that challenge, and that's why they went all intellectual in delivering these experiences.
For Zelda at least, I heard they even designed a Zelda 1 prototype in order to make it. Which means someone over Nintendo has a NES style version of Breath Of The Wild somewhere, and I wish someone would hack it out to the public.
The map is 10 times bigger than Skyrim and 5 times bigger than The Witcher 3. If you count The Witcher 3 DLC is still almost 3 times a bigger map. But the size of the game is not what makes it special.
In fact, any kind of technicalities are not what make any game special. This game could release on 480i and with a 4:3 aspect ratio and it would still be amazing. We just have better TVs now. What makes it special is that instead of doing a few things right, it does hundreds of things right, and it all adds ups.
The bar is very high right now, people had played Horizon which has a very high graphic fidelity that wows most people, but they also have played Final Fantasy XV that is one of the best games of the generation, The Last Guardian that is a straight up piece of art, Yakuza 0 that is this kind of Godfather movie that is super fun, Resident Evil VII that keeps everyone shit scared in VR, Nioh that gives you Dark Souls and Ninja Gaiden, what can we say, they are all amazing games in multiple aspects.
For example Gravity Rush 2 came out recently and as people say, it does feel like a Zelda mixed with some sort of Super Mario Galaxy, that is impressive, and yet it is hard to deny Nintendo went all out with this, like in a holy shit kind of overwhelming matter.
There is not a perfect game other than maybe Tetris or Ms. Pac-Man, but I would say most games that are masterpieces like Breath Of The Wild add a few things right without doing everything perfect, Breath Of The Wild may not do everything perfect either, but the hundreds of things that it actually does perfect add up to surpass most games we have seen, and any kind of perfection we can come close to accomplish in game development.
It's funny 'cause I always say how older games were the best, for the most part that holds, but Breath Of The Wild has definitely prove me wrong on how game developers can still WOW us with excellent game design.
Starting with Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian, we had been getting only amazing games, one after another, such as Nioh, Yakuza 0, Gravity Rush 2, Resident Evil VII, Horizon, now NieR Automata, and on top of that we get this Zelda game that is above everything we have seen. I can officially shut up and say video games are still on their prime.
This game is setting up a new standard with a world that is alive and interactive. My brother got Horizon which is a new game that is very good, but I try to climb things and I cannot do it, and it feels super weird after being able to interact with everything on Zelda. It makes a big budget open world game like Horizon that just came out look outdated. Nintendo were some of the open world pioneers with the first Zelda on the NES, and now they came back to remind us that there can be new things on a genre we thought we had mastered by now.
I don't follow game sites such as Kotaku, but I feel the kind of scores they use (no score at all) is the best kind. They instead use words like perfect, masterful, or best of all time. That is much more descriptive in my opinion. I appreciate everyone giving it a 10 because it deserves it.
But Breath Of The Wild has a world that is completely interactive, that is connected everywhere you go, on every single square meter, where you can find a stone on the ground on the other side of the map, and bring it to the boss fight. It is reinventing a genre we thought we had mastered. It is showing us we can do more and better. Giving it a 10 sometimes is just not enough.
Nevertheless Ocarina Of Time will always keep a place in my heart as the former best game of all time. I never thought I would say that, but you have to give Caesar what is Caesar's. I'm more of a F-Zero kind of guy, but I know we are not getting that any time soon, so I look for other things instead like Fast RMX and the like. I don't really like open world games, and then this Zelda game came and I can't deny is the best we have seen.
