Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and the continuation of everything-everywhere-all-at-once games (Patreon)

It's been a little while since we've seen a new, clear trend in video games-- Mario 64 created the 3D platformer standard, Halo + CoD4 cemented the next 5-10 years of FPS dominance, and then open world games became the new go-to for franchises like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, etc. Plenty of other genres exist, plenty of other microtrends exist-- but the industry as a whole takes on a kind of "tone" that last around a decade. With Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the new trend continues to cement itself: Games where you can use everything to do anything all of the time.

The first example of this I can remember is Scribblenauts on DS. The technology hadn't caught up with the idea though, and that game-- while a success in its own right-- didn't start the fire. Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey deserve the bulk of the credit for this becoming the trend that it is, but Minecraft also played a part. Games where you can go anywhere, all the time, immediately, no matter what. Games where every item interacts with every other item, no matter what, all the time. Games where you can take over every enemy to fight or solve puzzles. I include Baldur's Gate 3 in this pantheon as well-- do anything! Say anything! We made it all possible.

These games tend not to agree with me super well. When Scribblenauts came out-- the game where you could type any noun and it would show up in the game-- I was one of the people who realized pretty quickly that every level could be solved with a jetpack and a rope, so I solved every level with a jetpack and a rope, which it turned out was not all that fun. A bit like how most problems in Tears of the Kingdom can be solved by a flying machine or a gigantic bridge. I prefer to be restricted I think.

What are your thoughts on Echoes of Wisdom? What about the Nintendo Direct as a whole? Metroid Prime 4 sure looks like Metroid Prime! Which is probably the right move.