Walking Through

Recently I played Metroid: Fusion, because I was feeling a bit nostalgic. I remember playing this game to death when I was a kid and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, it took only minutes for me to hit my first wall. I’ve beaten Metroid: Fusion before, and I don’t remember being stuck this early on. I had spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what to do next, but nothing seemed to work. I had no choice but to look up a walkthrough.

I ended up beating Metroid: Fusion for the second time and feeling pretty good about it. I made it through all of the trials and tribulations that the game threw at me. The walkthrough merely told me where to go next. Besides, I used to buy strategy guides for games back in the day. Having the strategy guide by me didn’t hurt the experience of completing the game. There was plenty extra to the game that I could have gone back and played, and the strategy guide would have told me where to look. I played the games my way, and I felt good about it. Playing the game with a strategy guide is like having a friend who’s beaten the game before and will help you when you ask.

Strategy guides were cool, and were full of art and factoids about the game. The guides were arranged to have very specific and clear instructions alongside screenshots of the game that showed the player important landmarks to take note of. Nowadays, strategy guides are filled with statistics of the weapons in multiplayer, as a result of developers’ focus shifting towards online multiplayer as opposed to the single player experience.

Games these days don’t often require a strategy guide because they are so straightforward and streamlined that little is left up to the player for interpretation or imagination. Modern game design holds players hands and doesn’t let them explore, or experiment with different methods. Strategy guides and walkthroughs are just extra weight. Players should be getting lost in video games. Players should be adventuring and exploring and trying new things and going outside of their comfort zone in a certain sense.

What makes video games special is that element of gameplay giving players direct control of the action of the character. It’s okay to get lost, it’s okay to fumble, it’s okay to fall, and it’s all right to fail. Video games can teach us these things, and if we have to look at a strategy guide or a walkthrough to get over that one part, then so be it. There’s no shame in reaching out for help.