I don’t know whether this is good for my brain or not.
Having exhausted my tolerance for the tedious portions of Epic Mickey (despite a continued impulsive inclination to be making Mickey jump gaps and pop spores,) I’m trying to move on. Arguably, I don’t have time to play video games. Equally arguably, I don’t care during my present life interlude. Escapism has its place.
So, based on a recommendation from someone named Nick, whom I don’t know, I’m trying The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. We had it anyway. No waste.
With Epic Mickey, I had a little something on Gabe, since I was partway through my third play-through by the time his semester ended and he got home from Connecticut. That he pretty much lapped me from that point notwithstanding, I could still point out a thing or two, such as—where you can find robo-Goofy’s body parts, or whether it’s a bad idea to smash the pipe organ.
Zelda is a different story altogether. I’ve made it through the so-called Prologue on dumb luck and uncoordinated random shaking of the wii-mote and nunchuk, and arrived at a point where which button you push when begins to make a difference in whether you can proceed through the various battles or not.
Gabe likes to watch, if he catches me playing the game. I was stuck, knowing that I needed to retrieve an explosive spider-pod and heave it at a carnivorous plant, but failing utterly to execute the task. Here’s what could be overheard:
Turn around! Where? There! Over the gap! There’s a gap? Yes! That’s a gap! (at this point I make Link fall into the gap and lose health points.) No! Block that with your shield! You mean the Z button? Yes, lock on! Like this? No! That’s “item of interest”...don’t do that, just lock on! Don’t let it bite you!
Etc. You get the idea. By the time he’d coached me through saving the remaining two captive monkeys, he said “this is really strenuous...for me.”
I could see that it was, and pointed out the parallel that popped naturally into my head. “Okay,” I said. “NOW you know what it was like, teaching you to drive.” Because it was. Just like that. He laughed.
Then I was at the part where I had to knock a baboon off a perch and give it a good spanking while snapping, toothy, venus-fly heads lunged periodically. Perhaps I will begin to grasp the various 24 or so different buttons one can deploy on a set of wii controls. Perhaps not. At any rate, I broke the cardinal rule of gaming, handed the remote to Gabe, and said “here, you do it.” He did it. So, I got the boomerang I was supposed to snag next, and will move on from there with a hopelessly inadequate skill set.
I got the hang of Mickey, more or less, but this Link kid I’m operating in Zelda just has a few too many modi operandi for me to suppose that the hand-eye skills of someone who can’t even play whack-a-mole are going to get me through. And I still don’t know whether it’s good for my brain.
5 comments:
I confess I get like that with Zelda, the more gadgets he acquires, the less I'd know which one wis required to further the storyline and defeat the next boss (and I HATE Boss fights).
Beth is replaying Majora's Mask on the N64 and having fun, but still needs occasional help from an online walkthrough guide. Neither of us have hand-eye-virtual world co-ordination problems, but right now my gaming needs are fulfilled with iPod Touch games, requiring just one stumpy digit to play.
We've avoided getting a Wii, XBox 360 or PS3 as we have so little spare time together, and plenty to fill that time with. We do have handheld games consoles, and I play PC games occasionally but am currently not in a very gaming phase.
I can attest to Gabe’s back-seat gaming, but not his front-seat driving (although I’m sure he’s basically a stunt driver). I personally hate being watched while playing video games; I feel the need to prove my digital prowess and flex my robot arms, which usually results in my character dying.
As for your controller dilemma, I recommend a Kinect. It’s basically all the good parts of Tron without getting sucked into an Apple IIGS.
But the kinect is an XBox thingy. I don't want another console. Where would I plug it? Too many wires.
Fortunately, I made do with the wii ensemble, and even beat the Forest Temple carnivorous plant boss in one try. Easiest boss fight ever.
I find my video gaming skills are similar to my skiing skills. (I've skied twice.) I might make it down the hill, but I'll fall down getting on the lift, and lose a ski jumping off.
You need to be a certain kind of person to like platform games. My son plays Zelda, and I've watched him, but it's not my kind of game. I prefer RPGs or RTSs. The only platform games I've completed were the pocket ones on Gamedesign.jp , And I'm still struggling with Mamono Slayer. Boggle on PC, anyone?
I had to look up terms to see what category Twilight Princess falls in. Wiki says "action adventure." There's a lot of running around and whacking things with your sword in the proper sequence. Not too much jumping, per se...I just have a clumsy nunchuk thumb and tend to run wobbly.
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