On April 20, 2019, I got one of the worst phone calls of my entire life: my best friend of 36 years had fallen four stories off of his apartment balcony and was on life support at the hospital. I was shocked and in disbelief, but his sister would not have phoned me if it wasn’t true. We had grown up together, played video games and gone camping together, and he even served as best man at my wedding. Now I had the unfortunate task of giving one of the eulogies at his funeral, something I always wished that he would do for me one day. Instead, I would be the one outliving him and honoring his legacy.
Since our lives had always been so intertwined, his family was practically my family too. Therefore, when they cleaned out his apartment, I was fortunate enough to inherit some of his belongings. Among these belongings was his video game collection, which contained, in particular, a few Zelda titles.
Growing up, I always associated the Zelda franchise with my best friend, Nate. If it wasn’t for his older sister giving us tips over the phone, my mom and I would probably still be stuck in the first dungeon of The Legend of Zelda. As we learned more and more about the game, we shared the tricks and secrets with each other. I have fond memories of the two of us laying out the poster from an old Nintendo Power magazine and trying to find our way through Hyrule. As we grew up, our focus shifted over to EA Sports’ NHL games, but my best friend’s passion for Zelda remained strong. I remember how he got his Game Boy Color far sooner than I did, which he used to play Link’s Awakening DX. I wasn’t fond of The Adventure of Link and hadn’t yet seen A Link to the Past, so I was surprised by how charming the graphics and soundtrack were on his little Game Boy device. The fact that they were able to take something I had played on my TV screen and shrink it down to fit that tiny screen always impressed me. By the time I got a Game Boy, the system was already on its way out, and the only games I had for it were Pokémon Red, Space Invaders, and Alleyway. I always hoped to trade games with him at some point, but as the saying goes, time flies by so fast.
Our interests shifted once again during our teen and young adult years, this time to the Mario Kart and Mario Party franchises. And of course, when one owns a Nintendo 64, one is also obligated to buy GoldenEye 007. With my friend’s older sister and my neighbor joining in, we now had a solid group of four that could game together on the N64 and GameCube. Those were the only games I remembered him owning for those systems, so I was in for a surprise when I inherited a few other gems from his collection.
While sorting through boxes in his apartment, I was so happy to find those old N64 and GameCube consoles; it meant that I was getting closer to the games and, hopefully, the memory cards. Sure enough, all the games were there: Mario Party 2, 3, and 5, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and even GoldenEye. And even more exciting, the save data was still there on the cartridge. It was the story of our childhood that I could always go back to, despite him now being gone.
But as it turned out, a new story was also awaiting me, and what I saw next made me stumble back a bit: a like-new copy of The Wind Waker for the GameCube! I had never played this game before, but during that time in my life, I was considering purchasing either a Wii or GameCube in order to play this game. It was overpriced even before the pandemic hit, though, so I couldn’t believe this little nugget of gaming had been hiding in his collection and was now saving me one hundred dollars. Unfortunately, the memory card that held the save data for his playthrough was never found; perhaps it had been accidentally discarded as a result of not knowing what it was at the time. Even so, I was able to inherit a great game from my best friend, and I now get to honor him by starting my own playthrough and naming my character “Nate” (which is an experience I will be sharing during our 20th anniversary celebration in December. Stay tuned!).
When my friend’s mom gifted me his old Game Boy Color along with his copy of Pokémon Blue (oh, how we could have traded and battled together!), I discovered another Zelda gem in his collection that I didn’t know about: Oracle of Seasons! Maybe the battery had died or the save data had been cleared, but whatever the case, his playthrough of this game also couldn’t be found. Once again, I will be honoring him by naming the main character after him when I play on his old cartridge.
It is so odd how we were practically brothers growing up, and yet I had no idea he owned these two other Zelda games. I wish we had been able to play Pokémon together on the Game Boy, or trade passwords with each while playing Oracle of Ages. Instead I’m playing these games alone, with my best friend Nate watching over me from afar. He now guides me through my adventures in Hyrule, and, by naming my rival after him in Pokémon and naming Link after him in the Zelda games, it never feels like I’m truly alone. Every time I play these games, I’m reminded of his smile and his laughter, of our friendship and our memories. By playing these games, I’m honoring a best friend and my childhood at the same time.
