Mom is a Gamer, Part II

When we last left off, I had abandoned Bad Janet and GTA V for a Nintendo Switch and Zelda, Legend of the Wild, thanks to Allie's early Christmas gift.  The Switch is a handheld game system but it can also be docked so you can play with the TV as your screen.

I haven't played a handheld game since my kids had a Gameboy and I sometimes played Frogger on it while they were at school.  The poor frog always got run over.  Hmmm, are we sensing a theme with some of these games?  Maybe vehicles and I don't mix.

I got the Switch, got Zelda loaded, and set out to play.  Similar to GTA V, this is another game where you can have all kinds of adventures.  It opened on a boy named Link, waking up in a shallow pool of water.  Um, Link?  I thought I was playing Zelda.  But OK, I can go along with this.

Almost right away I realized the game was giving really specific instructions with everything - like press A to take something - which was good as I had no idea what I was doing.  I also did not know how to work the controls, which added additional challenges.  I found a treasure chest pretty quick and opened it to find a shirt, which Link put on.  Then suddenly he was transported to a high tower, where an old man pointed out a glowing structure in the distance and gave Link instructions to go there and bring him a treasure, and he'd reward Link with a paraglider.

First things first:  Link had to climb down the tower.  After struggling to jump to several platforms below, he ran out of platforms, and the only controller instructions showing were JUMP or LET GO.  I pressed let go and poor Link fell a long long way to the ground, yelling all the way, before landing in a crumpled heap where he whimpered ow and then he was dead.  You guys, I felt so bad for him!  Apparently I can run over a ton of adults in Grand Theft Auto, but have my young character die at my hands?  That hurt.

Eventually and completely by accident, I figured out that he could climb the rest of the way down the tower.  I got him to the shrine, got bombs, managed to get the treasure, and triumphantly came out of the shrine only to be beaten to death by monsters.  What the what??  I was not expecting monsters!  When he dies, Link is resurrected at the last place the game saved, so I got a chance to fight the monsters several times before finally defeating them.  I got Link back to the tower to give the treasure to the old man, who chuckled and told me I had to get four more.  I was so mad - I did what he said and he changed the rules!

Here's the controllers on the, uh...control thingie that came with the game, and the body of the system ready to be docked.

Jeff wanted to watch me play, so I docked the switch to use the television for the screen.  After asking me how did I manage to get to the first shrine without finding food, eating anything to restore my strength, or why I didn't have pants on Link, I realized that I had missed a lot, so I wiped Link clean and restarted the game. 

Here's the Switch in handheld mode - complete with Link wearing a shirt AND pants, so fancy!

Playing with Jeff watching was a trip.  First of all, he had me look around the cave where Link woke up and guess what?  There were two treasure chests.  So Link not only got his shirt but he got pants as well.  I had him exit the cave and Jeff showed me all the sparkling things on the ground that I'd run right by - I had no idea you were to go to them and press A - mushrooms and apples went into my inventory...which I also hadn't realized existed.  Weirdly, I couldn't find the shrine with the bombs.  I had just been there!  But everything looked the same so I wandered around and finally stumbled onto a different shrine and the game unfolded from there...slowly and with a lot of deaths, mostly Link's.

Occasionally I managed to defeat some monsters but every time danger was near, ominous music would begin along with the flustering - my flustering.  I've been playing this game off and on for a few weeks now and even though I'm a little better at fighting (and have acquired better weapons, too), more than once I've managed to accidentally throw my weapon at a sleeping monster instead of shooting him with my bow and arrow.  But ask me to throw my weapon deliberately?  Haha, not gonna happen.

I still will somehow hit the button that makes Link crouch while fighting, which is not helpful at all...or I'll hit the button that makes him hold a bomb over his head, which is a pretty glow-y blue with trailing tendrils of blue lights as he frantically runs while Jeff is saying drop the bomb, drop the bomb! 

Simulated panic running with bomb for photos - no animals were harmed in the making of this picture.

While there IS quite a lot of panic on my end, I do enjoy getting to a village, where monsters can't enter.  There are people to talk to, places to buy clothing, food, and weapons, and at one village I discovered an empty house that I could purchase for the sum of 3,000 bundles of wood and 3,000 rupees.  I think I had maybe 19 bundles of wood and about 100 rupees at the time, so it took a while to acquire everything.

Here's where the nature-loving person in me had a dilemma:  to get the wood, you chopped down trees.  Trees in the village.  I felt so conflicted - the first time Jeff told me to chop down a tree by a house I said no...I didn't want to destroy the beautiful environment.  He said they would magically grow back, so I reluctantly swung my ax and not only ended up with wood, but also apples, so I basically razed the village and got enough wood.  Sure enough, the trees grew back, whew!

This game has a camera so you can take selfies, LOL.  Anyway, this is the house that Link built - er, bought.

I finally had enough rupees to make the purchase, and I was so proud to call myself a Hatano Homeowner.  Of course then I needed to get it furnished and yes, this made the former Sims player very happy.  Plus you can't accidentally start a fire in this house like you could with the Sims, so I'm pretty sure the house is mine forever.

There have been a lot more adventures and finds in this game mostly thanks to Jeff pushing me to "go look over there" when all I want to do is hide from monsters and get stuff.  I had one long trek where I nearly quit the game thanks to having to fight a stupid stupid electric Wizzrobe monster over and over and over  - this went on for a couple of days and when I finally beat him?  I really have no idea how I managed to do that beyond shooting a couple of arrows and swinging my weapon, hoping he was near enough to be hit.  My hands were sweaty and my fingers and thumbs had imprints of the controller buttons on them; and yes, I took a break after that victory.

One last thing:  you can acquire a horse if you sneak up from behind, jump on it, and hit the L button to soothe it before it bucks you off.  I was successful with my third attempt, so I took her to the stable, got her a custom mane and tail, and named her.  I am happy to present to you my horse:

Bad Janet, in all her edgy glory.  Maybe I'll be better riding her than I was when Bad Janet drove cars in GTA V...maybe??