I opened my Nintendo Today app today and was greeted with this animation and I absolutely love it. I have my calendar set to random, so on any given day, a random Nintendo IP theme will load for that day. The available themes in rotation are currently Mario, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and Zelda. So there was 1 in 5 chance that this birthday message would show up in the theme of my favorite Nintendo series, The Legend of Zelda. I guess we take those.
What’s really neat and special about this is the subtext. Breath of the Wild was a really transformative gaming experience, and Link, as the evergreen silent protagonist, has always been a perfect candidate when it comes to immersing yourself in a role. It’s easy to swap yourself into his shoes and play the game from that perspective as the main character. If you’ve played BotW, (or TotK), then you should be able to pick up on the subtext here that this birthday message featuring Zelda and the 4 champions was specifically designed from the POV of the main character, Link, which is in this case, me, the birthday boy. Very thoughtful design and lovely composition by some detail-oriented staff at the Big N.
Today, I’m happy to be 37. Happy to have spent almost 11 years married to my soulmate. Happy to have friends who are happy and willing to give my flowers now. Despite all of the uncertainty and insanity in the US and the world at large, today—right now—everything feels wonderful. I want to hang on to this feeling for as long as I can.
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