this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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I recently started playing Zelda The Minish Cap (GBA) on my PS Vita, and for me the appeal - especially with old handheld games - is the simplicity in terms of game mechanics.
The game only has like a dozen of equippable items, dialog with NPCs is very simple, there's a lot of puzzles cleverly integrated into the map, a small trading system (forgot what it's called, these round things where you match your half with an NPCs half), a few different collectibles (heart containers for example) and they pretty much made a very enjoyable game out of that.
Today, a lot of games come with a crafting system, some sort of hunger/food mechanic, complex character progression systems etc. And while I enjoy this a lot of the time, playing a well crafted game based on much simpler (and fewer) mechanics is a welcome change from time to time.
That is why I will always miss these "lesser" versions of the games, AKA as handheld games, and the Switch, or the industry, might have killed that already.
The biggest perk of handheld gaming nowadays is doing the "videogame chores" (like sidequests) more comfortably for your adult life, and not like a quick burst gaming style... Perhaps indies might be the only experience of it that is left.