The Wild Blog in the West

Image: Nintendo This critique contains spoilers for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . I had not played video games for 25 years.   Then came The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . The Legend of Zelda premiered in 1986 as an eight-bit top-down style adventure game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).   It involved an elf-like warrior named Link wandering through the land of Hyrule, seeking out eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda.   Critics lauded the game for its open world style of play, which took Link through mountains and forests in search of his objectives.   Over the decades, The Legend of Zelda would form a series with a cast of familiar characters and its own lore.     Breath of the Wild (2017) set off an earthquake in the Zelda franchise.   It took the open world concept of the first Zelda and turned it into a 3D experience where Link could climb on ne...

Okay, that was a bad play on words, I admit.  Telltale's Game of Thrones is definitely not boring, even if at times it feels one note. For those who haven't played the game yet, there be spoilers below! What is Telltale's Game of Thrones ?  For the uninitiated, Telltale Games is a gaming company that produces graphic adventure series, many in multiple chapters.  Its Game of Thrones Season One follows House Forrester, bannermen to House Glover and Stark family loyalists.  In the books, House Forrester is mentioned in passing, little more than a hill clan.  In the episodic series, which follows the show, House Forrester is a minor noble house with the motto: "Iron from Ice." The story begins on the night of the Red Wedding, where the Forrester patriarch, Gregor the Good, is slain by deceitful Freys.  Before he succumbs, he gives his squire, Gared Tuttle, a mysterious message: "The North Grove must never be lost."  Gared returns to the Fo...

Have you ever wanted to play a video game, but didn't have the money or the time?  Thanks to the power of YouTube, you can see how that game is played, and then some. I first stumbled upon video game playthroughs, or walkthroughs, when I was looking for video on the famous S uper Mario Brothers "minus world."  If you've ever played the classic Super Mario Brothers , you may be aware that there are certain glitches in the game, and those savvy enough to exploit them can find themselves in, as they say, a whole new world: In case that wasn't weird enough for you, here is minus world in the Japanese version: But playthroughs aren't just for watching cool glitches in beloved classic video games.  They are also for watching entire video games and interactive stories.  For instance, when I was young, I beat Nintendo's classic game, Mike Tyson's Punch Out .  Years later, they came up with an updated version on Wii, which I don't own and don...