With the recent announcement of the delayed release of the sequel to Breath of the Wild, many fans are feeling frustrated, burned out, or simply soured about the game. The reactions are understandable; we get hyped for a game’s release, and when it gets pushed back, it’s simply hard to stay excited, especially with so many other fantastic releases to steal our attention.
For today’s Boss Rush Banter, we wanted to ask our readers about their own experiences with game releases. Of course, there’s a few obvious games for which frustration has been spread far and wide; but what about for you personally? Which games most impacted you? When I think about which games I’ve had the longest or most painful wait, there’s a few franchises that come to mind.
As a kid, I grew up playing The Legend of Zelda. I loved the original—there was no question about its status as my favorite video game. Then Zelda II came along. The format changed dramatically, and I felt deep disappointment. Gone was the top-down adventure and the free-flowing exploration. The only legendary quality of Zelda II was the way it inflicted pain. (Don’t worry, I’ve come to appreciate the game as an adult.)
I was a young kid at the time, but I dreamed and hoped Nintendo would give the franchise another go and release something more like the first game. The wait between Zelda II and A Link to the Past was four years—certainly not enormous by today’s standards. But at the time, that was approximately half my life. But oh was the wait worth it!
As I’ve grown older, another gaming franchise I’ve come to love is Aliens. Hunting down Xenomorphs is a thrill infused with nostalgia. As a kid of the 80s and 90s, the motion picture Aliens was regular viewing for me. When developers started releasing video games letting me play the role of colonial marine, my chest burst with excitement (sorry couldn’t resist that one).
When Aliens: Colonial Marines came out, the game bombed. Players found the Xenomorph AI lacking, the storylines awkwardly constructed, and the graphics unimpressive. I was crushed. I played and enjoyed the game, but it became very clear another Aliens shooter game wouldn’t be coming out for quite some time. I had to wait all the way until 2021 for Aliens Fireteam Elite to release.
Beyond my personal experiences, I know that fans of many other franchises have had brutal development cycles for games they feel passionately for. I think about fans of the 3-D Metroid games, and I feel for them with the interminable wait for Metroid Prime 4. I hope that when the game does release, it will live up to expectations. With the success of the 2-D Metroid Dread, it’s hard not to have those expectations reach sky high.
Tell us what you think! What has been your longest or most painful wait for a game’s release. Share your reactions in the comments below or join in the conversation over on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.
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