My God, its full of polygons!

Exploration. Its one of the things that has kept mankind developing since we one day decided to cut off our tails and stop being monkeys. From the day we discovered that, no, here there NOT be dragons, to the modern day space voyages, we have always been fascinated with the unknown, and thirsty to drink from its tall, cool glass of mango drink.

Pictured: Exploration

So it's not surprising at all that exploration has become a big part of our video games. Sure, it has taken many forms, from Adventure's pixellated quest to slay ducks with large yellow arrows, to the modern day "sandbox" games, but it has always been there, and has been rapidly expanding in scope and focus.

But has the sense of exploration really been growing? Yes, games are getting bigger and more complex, with huge worlds to play in, but... is the actual spirit of exploring the unknown really present in our modern games?

What if I were to say that, in my opinion, this idea of world construction actually peaked on the Nintendo 64?

When the N64 hit the scene in 1996, one of its big selling points was the huge 3D worlds of its games, chock full of baddies to stomp, treasures to win, and yes, lands to explore. And it delivered on this promise. Games like Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, and Banjo-Kazooie gave us huge worlds just stuffed with little things to discover in their various nooks and crannies. But the real important thing here to note is how a lot of N64 games also had hidden areas with nothing in them. Maybe a cave hidden in the side of a mountain, or a little island out in the middle of a huge body of water. Things with no real purpose, and at most, maybe just a powerup or two to be found. These places may not have anything worthwhile to find along with them, but in a way, that itself is the reward. You took the time to explore a world that a group of people put months of work into to make it exist, and your reward is a neat little secret area, or an easter egg, or maybe even a hidden cutscene or event.

But is this practice still being performed? In my experience, no, not so much. Yes, hidden areas and the like are still being put into games, and hell, the sandbox genre is based entirely around this idea. But all of these areas have something you need inside them, like a collectible of some kind, or maybe a new weapon or powerup. In general, things that are going to be hunted out by completionists anyway, and are going to be found by either an in-game radar-like item, or with the aid of a player's guide or online walkthrough.

The event in my game playing career that made me finally realize this trend occurred while I was playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Every source of media that was trying to pump up this game's hype mentioned how huge Hyrule Field was. We were promised a monstrous terrain to explore, stuffed with all sorts of secret things to find. So when I finally got my horse and full access to the field, I immediately started exploring.

After a while, I came across what was, at the time, one of the coolest little discoveries I had ever made: an old amphitheater, tucked away in an obscure corner of the field. There was a single small treasure chest on top of a pillar, but aside from that, there seemed to be no reason to actually come here. At that moment, it was nothing more than a secret spot for dedicated players to discover and enjoy.

I continued on with the game, and was eventually given a quest. This quest required me to explore the field and find some old runic symbols. Each of these spots was marked on my map for easy collection. I quickly found out that one of these spots was that very same old amphitheater.

Suddenly, my cool secret spot was nothing more than a bit of flavor added into a mandatory quest. I was rather disappointed, but I still had a bunch of unexplored field left. Surely there will be at least one cool secret spot?

Nope. There were a few caves, but they all had pieces of heart in them. It was still neat to find them on my own, but that feeling was mostly killed by the realization that I would have been directed to them at some point anyway.

So why did we lose our sense of exploration? We keep getting bigger and more complex worlds, but these worlds just keep getting filled with even more objectives and collectibles. And the fact that all of these worlds are evenly covered with things you'll end up finding anyway is actually making these worlds feel smaller. For example, one of the biggest game worlds I've ever played through was in Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. Now, the game world itself is actually rather small, but it still feels massive. You'll only ever be visiting most of the game's areas once, but all of these areas either have a neat little hidden spot somewhere, or branch out into different paths, and this freedom of exploration makes all of these areas feel twice as big as they really are. And yes, this game was on the N64.

While I can understand why game developers don't want to waste money on creating empty areas, I still don't like how games are losing their sense of freedom and charm. Really, you'd be surprised at how just a few secret places scattered about can add a huge amount of charm to your otherwise basic game. So go off the rails! Fire up some of your older games and just wander around! I'm sure you'll find something cool, and then you'll understand what I've been talking about here.

Bonus content!

Here's a brief list of just a few cool secrets you can find in a few different games. And please, feel free to add more in the comments section!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Forest Stage

Hidden deep in the Lost Woods is a small meadow with a lot of overgrown grass. If you wander around in this grass you will eventually fall into the Forest Stage, a small cave filled with Deku Scrubs. Pop on a mask and watch how they react! They'll react differently depending on what mask you wear.

Secret Grottoes

Its no secret that the game has some hidden caves, but WHERE a lot of them are is! These things are hidden all over the damn place, in many, many different obscure spots, and you'll only be able to find most of them if you have the Stone of Agony. On top of that, each one will require a different way to open them, usually either with a bomb or the Song of Storms. And for the most part, all they have in them are a couple fish and some bushes to chop up. But its still super cool to find a new one on a replaying of the game!

Pilotwings 64
Secret caves

On most of the maps, there are little caves to find. For the most part, they serve no functional purpose, but depending on your playing mode, you can usually fly through them to cause the map to change! The first map, for example, will change from day to night if you find its secret cave.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Wampa fight

How the hell did that get in there, anyway?

Echo Base has a lot of different paths and hidden rooms in it, as well as a couple rooms full of imprisoned Wampas. You can free some of them, and if you do so in one room and immediately flee, you'll be able to go back and watch them fight each other.

Mario Kart 64
Peach's Castle

Yes, even a racing game can have exploration! While on Royal Raceway, after the big jump near the end of the course, you can actually drive down the semi-hidden dirt road off to your right and drive around on the castle grounds.

Psychonauts
Camper scenes

The campgrounds have a lot of little spots on their own, but whats really fun is finding the different campers at different points in the game. They often like to hide in these secret spots themselves, and finding them lets you see a little glimpse into their lives.

Milla's Secret

There is a very-well hidden room in Milla's mind. It is tucked far away in one of the rooms where you need to use Levitation to go up. Inside is a single memory vault, and behind that is another room that doesn't fit in with the rest of the level's theme. And hidden in that room is the entrance to yet another room...

That's all for now! Go find some more on your own!