Daily Debate: Which Zelda Game Had the Best Swimming Mechanic?

Controversial, I know. However, after recently picking up Breath of the Wild (again), I noticed how uniquely Nintendo had crafted Link’s swimming mechanic. I quickly became curious about this swimming mechanic in previous games as it had been ages since I had played Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess. Suddenly I found myself down a YouTube rabbit hole of Link swimming in various games.

After review and recollection, I truly wanted to pose this question to the community: Which game in the Zelda series had the best swimming mechanic? They were each so different and that may be the beauty of it. We typically find Link strapped to head to toe in a form of Zora gear. I personally felt that swimming in Skyward Sword was abysmal likely secondary to the motion control mechanics. I felt I was going to fling my controller out of my hands multiple times just to get Link to do a spin attack underwater. On the other hand, my favorite mechanic to this day is that of Link in Majora’s Mask. This of course is more-so the original Majora’s Mask, not the 3DS remake. The remake made the swimming sluggish and not as fluid as the original Nintendo 64 version. Several games have tried to recreate this feeling of rushing through the ocean, but nothing felt better than Link in Zora’s mask in the Great Bay.

What are your thoughts on the latest games’ swimming mechanics? Could Tears of the Kingdom update this further and include more deep diving capabilities for Link? Leave your thoughts below!

Sid

Blogger with a dog