So one thing I’ve been doing lately is searching for game-related news on mornings I am off work. It’s a good way to find some fuel for the blog, and sometimes I learn stuff that I did not yet know. Today, I searched “legend of Zelda” hoping to find some fresh info on Zelda Wii U. Instead, I found out that one of my favorite games of all time has apparently been voted for less than a new game called Undertale.
If you’ve ever used the site GameFAQs to search for hints, guides, and cheats, then you’ve probably seen them taking a poll. They do polls all the time, often ones that span the course of weeks or months in a tournament-style bracket. This was one such poll in which they set out to rank “The Greatest Game of All Time.” Now apparently, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time usually wins this competition with little effort. But this year, newcomer Undertale won the contest, humiliating and offending Zelda fans everywhere.
If you love Zelda and you’re not offended, you’d better get offended.
How dare those punks with their fancy new-fangled titles take the best franchise that ever existed ever and take the best game that ever existed ever and humiliate it so thoroughly? Those Undertale lovers should pay! I bet their stupid game is just some Halo knock-off where all you do is shoot stupid aliens all day!
Huh? It’s actually an RPG where you can defeat monsters by befriending them instead of having to kill them? But you can still kill them if you want to?
Well, I’m sure some huge company made it, like Square Enix or something! Those stupid big companies are always throwing their money at people so their games can win votes on community websites!
What? This is an indie game?
Well…well then…but…Zelda iz teh BEHST 4 evur!!!1!!1!
Seriously, people, it’s time to be okay with the fact that this happened. People like Undertale. It’s a very popular game with a strong internet following and you know what? So it beat Zelda on GameFAQs. Did that site question every single gamer? Of course not. I certainly didn’t vote in that poll. And even if we all voted and Undertale still won, it’s okay for a new game to be the most popular. In fact, I encourage it.
I love Ocarina of Time. As a kid, it was my first Zelda game. It was the game that made me fall in love with Link and Zelda and Hyrule. But if that game that was originally made 17 years ago is always the best game ever made, then aren’t we going downhill? Aren’t we failing to innovate and to do better than we have done in the past?
Let me ask you this. What’s gonna happen when Zelda U comes out? That game is supposed to have an expansive open world where you can approach any dungeon, any problem, from a different angle in order to succeed. The graphics look beautiful in all the gameplay demonstrations, the action looks great, and this has all the makings of an incredible Zelda game. But when it comes out, people are going to be so busy comparing it to Ocarina of Time that it may not get a fair shot.
There’s nothing wrong with loving the classics. But don’t love the classics so hard that you use them as the standard for every game ever made. Because chances are, you’re going to find yourself criticizing silly portions of every new game because it doesn’t live up to your wildly oversized expectations. Or, you’re going to be the moron screaming “Ocarina of Time” while all the people who like Undertale on the internet message boards talk about how stupid you are. Do you want to be that moron?
So let’s just take a step back and stop getting so angry about everything. It’s Christmastime, we’re supposed to be full of joy, cheer, and love. So let all the Undertale fans and the Zelda fans get together and hug each other. Exchange some gifts. And if you, like me, have not played Undertale, maybe you ought to check it out before typing a bunch of swear words on the internet.
Adventure Rules 
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