If I have any flaws — a debatable position, I assure you — it might be a distinct lack of patience.
It’s true, I just don’t like to wait. When presented with two options, one immediate, one delayed, I’ll often choose the former even if the latter option might be better in the long run. I just don’t want to wait that long.
But I have, on occasion, mustered up enough willpower to push through my impatience to try and reach some greater goal on the farther side of time’s inexorable flow. And that includes my dedication to The Legend of Zelda.
When the Wii came out on November 19, 2006, I did my best to try and get one right away, but it was not to be. I went to my local Walmart, stood in line at midnight hoping to be one the lucky few to get a console, but they ran out of units long before they reached my position in the long, long line of eager Nintendo fans.
This left me with a quandary. For on the same date, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess came out, and I had to make a choice.
The new title was coming out on two consoles, after all. One I already had: My Nintendo GameCube was still chugging along, and I’d already played one Zelda title on it in the form of The Wind Waker. The other I did not: The Wii was out of my reach on release day, and looked unlikely to come within reach in the near future, either.
I made the unthinkable decision. I decided to wait.
Well, I decided to wait on the Wii. I bought a Wii copy of Twilight Princess right away and told myself I’d play it as soon as I could get my hands on the console.
Days passed and turned into weeks. Every time I went into Walmart, I would hurry to the Nintendo cabinet to try and catch a glimpse of a Wii ready to acquire at retail price. Every time, I walked away sadly, nothing in hand.
Meanwhile, the sealed Twilight Princess case sat on my entertainment center, taunting me with its inaccessibility. My GameCube was right there, raring to go, but my Zelda game was incompatible due to my own decision not to compromise. The waiting continued.
I may have gone a little mad at some point during that wait. It’s a blurry time I don’t entirely remember anymore. I dreamed of that game and tried to believe my dreams were reality. I ripped the plastic off the game case and opened it, staring at the full-size Wii disc that could not be played on my GameCube and its disc drive meant for smaller discs. I longed for the game and heard only the laughter of an unfriendly universe.
Christmas came and went without a Wii. My birthday arrived and departed without one, as well. Somewhere out there, happier people were playing Twilight Princess or had already finished it, and I hadn’t even started it yet. There was no joy in Mudville.
Finally, more than four months after I had bought Twilight Princess, I made another sad, mournful jaunt over to the Nintendo case at my Walmart and, lo and behold, a couple of Wii units were to be found within. I may have broken the salesman’s arms in dragging him to the spot to open the lock and cradle the console box within my waiting arms.
I do no think I played any Wii Sports that first day. Hyrule needed me and I, parched and withdrawn from my enforced Zelda drought, needed Hyrule. I popped in my game and started Twilight Princess at long last, with the motion controls I’d waited far too long to enjoy.
At the time, at least, it felt worth the wait.
I learned my lesson, though. When the Nintendo Switch came out with a Zelda game set to release on two consoles simultaneously, I weighed my options, and my suffering budget, and decided I could not buy one right away, even were one within reach. That spring, I bought The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on my Wii U and enjoyed it greatly, no waiting necessary. Seven months later, I would buy a Switch at last and make a Mario game my first title of choice.
After all, I’d already played Zelda, with no delayed gratification involved.
As I said, I don’t like waiting.
