Why Game? 1 - TextFiles.com

the island? Earlier, I spent a good deal of time
trudging through an enchanted forest. Surely
there were many equally fine, well-wrought
sticks laying about there. Why didn’t Link think
to pick up one of those? Why, suddenly, does
he feel the need for one now? Further, what use
could the notoriously well-equipped Link have
for a stick like that, anyway? Did winning the
Yoshi doll trigger some kind of deep, obsessive
compulsive reaction in Link? Is he simply unable
to sacrifice one trinket without replacing it with
whatever other arbitrary trinket might be at
hand at the time?
Despite my protestations, and despite how
stick-picking-up averse I may potentially be, I
must pick the stick up. I can’t cross the bridge
without walking over it, and Link, God bless his
heart, can’t resist picking up anything that he
passes. When I walk past the stick, Link holds
it up over his head, the familiar “you found an
item” fanfare from The Legend of Zelda plays,
and a message reads “You’re not sure how, but
it seems the (banana) [the game uses graphical
icons to represent in-game items] has become
the (stick). You decide to keep it!”
After my initial quandary with the stick,
this is almost too much. Who is this voice,
reminding me not only of how absurd this whole
charade is, but also vainly trying to rationalize
it? Is this the same voice that tells me, when
I find a chest with 100 rupees, that “you’re
ecstatic!” (or, even more pathetically, for a chest
with 20 rupees, “JOY!”)? Is it the same voice
that tells me every time I push up against one
of those pointy, crystal shaped rocks that can
only be broken with the dash boots that they are
an “unusual object” but “there must be some
way around it,” even AFTER I’ve received the
dash boots and have already dashed through
countless instances of the same obstacle?
I have a theory about this, actually. Link’s
Awakening was released maybe a year after
A Link to the Past, and like many Gameboy
games following a 16-bit franchise, there were
many touches that may have been “reverse-
engineered” to fit into the more limited
Gameboy processor. Those of you who’ve
played Link to the Past might remember an
episode where you jump down a well and
sprinkle magic powder on an alter, which causes
a small demon to appear, who “curses” you by
doubling your magic meter. This same demon
makes a cameo in Link’s Awakening serv-
ing the same purpose. We are never given
an explanation of how this demon fits into the
greater mythology of the game; he seemingly
exists independently of it, for no reason other
than give you a magic upgrade. What’s notable
about him, however, is the fact that he insists
that he’s cursing you when he’s actually giving
you an upgrade. In the Gameboy version, after
doubling your powder capacity, he says: “Now
just think of all the stuff you’ll have to lug
around!” I guess it’s supposed to be ironic, and
it is, though perhaps more than intended.
My theory is that this demon is a
manifestation of the aforementioned in-game
voice; the same one that rationalizes Link’s
occasionally odd taste in luggage, and the
same one that would later go on to remind
players that a small heart fills up one heart of
your life meter in The Minish Cap. I say this
because the silly kind of irony he speaks with
is a concentrated version of the silly irony the
franchise has been speaking with since it first
appeared on the SNES, spouting its non-Engrish
text boxes and dialogue. This same irony would
later pervade Wind Waker, which is constantly
reminding you of the silly, annoying, and
downright crippling artificial limits and obstacles
in place - leftovers from the Miyamoto school of
design. Link’s Awakening is notable in just how
The Gamer's Quarter EXCLUSIVE Preview of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 99