When I saw this month's musing theme the very first thing that popped into my head was 'The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker'. Don't get me wrong... I LOVED 80% of the game, but once you got to the part where you had to find 8 maps , AND then find enough rupees to get these maps "deciphered" by Tingle, AND THEN you had to go get the pieces by poking around in the sea with your claw... well, at this point I was pulling my hair out! These kinds of fetch quests drive me absolutely insane. Some other examples include: Finding the Artifacts in Metroid Prime, recollecting your team in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I could easily write a paragraph for each of these instances, but I'm ready to move on.



I'm not a fan of being forced to collect things in games. This is why I've never seen the appeal of Mario 64. Many gamers hail it as the beginning of 'doing it right' in 3D platforming, but I can't agree with that at all. The biggest problem that I had with Mario 64, and most other 3D platformers* for that matter, is that they force you to collect things before you can move on to the next 'world', and I'm not happy with all of the 'worlds' in these games. Sometimes I just want to run through a level so I can get to something that interests me... like fighting Bowser. The fact that I have to go into the shitty desert world not once, but up to 7 times pisses me right the fuck off.



After all this ranting and raging, I feel it's only appropriate to point out the games that do fetch quests right. I don't mind having to get 8 magical items... as long as it will help me out later, and it's not mandatory. God of War is a good example of "fetch quests" done right. You can scour the game looking for hidden caches of red orbs so that you can level up all of your weapons and abilities, or you can just go through the game, open the chests you come across, and still have a decent chance of beating the game... the choice is yours.
Another example of this would be the golden bugs in LOZ: Twilight Princess and to a lesser extent the COGs in Gears of War.

Well now... we've vented over tedious collections of trinkets, doodads, and gizmos; told 3D platformers to fuck off; and wrapped it all up by praising those who do it right. After a long journey like this, don't you feel we all deserve a delicious ice cream cone.



Enjoy!

P.S. I started a job where there is NO internet access, so blogging has become infinitely more difficult. The PAX Dtoid panel has inspired to start blogging again though, so you should see some more updates from me some time soon. I've got a pretty big ketchup blog in mind.

*I love Super Mario Galaxy. Yes, you have to collect stars in the same world, but each challenge presents the level in an almost brand new light.