No, you won’t. Not if you know the trick. The Blast Mask’s description hides a huge secret. Much of “retro game magic” comes from designs that follow this pattern.

Bombs are an important exploration tool in Majora’s Mask. You use them to blow open secret areas. It’s annoying when you run out of bombs, which is one reason Breath of the Wild just gave you an infinite source from your magical smartphone.

Majora’s Mask’s solution: Gve the player a reusable bomb, as long as they strap it to their face.

It’s a useful item with an interesting tradeoff, but the coolest moment is when you figure out the trick.

The Trick: If you’re raising your Shield whien you detonate the Blast Mask, you don’t take damage from the explosion.

This makes no thematic sense. The shield is in front of your face. The Mask is alreaady ON your face. It’s a quirk of the game’s coding.

It’s also a fantastic moment that makes players feel awesome, and makes them wonder what else there is to discover.

The “hand-holding” discussion in modern games misses the point. If players universaly liked feeling lost, there wouldn’t have been such a big market for Strategy Guides. I read so many cover to cover.

Here’s why the Blast Mask works better: You don’t need to know this trick to play the game. It’s “Optional Complexity”.

It’s a glitch, but I’d never fix it. It rewards players for experimenting, exploring, and makes them want to share the knowledge with others. Heck, I’m doing that now.

Confusing, counter-intuitive game behavior liek this is a HUGE problem if you HAVE to know it to play the game. “How could I have guessed that?!?” we rightly shout.

Shielding the Blast Mask is the opposite. It’s why Minecraft is so fun to get into. You don’t need to know that being in a boat negates fall damage. You don’t need to know you can make an infinite water source from two water blocks placed in opposing diagonal corners of a 2×2 square.

But, when you learn that, it makes an immediate and exciting difference to how you play.

So try the pattern: Design useful secrets that are a bit counter-intuitive, the kind most people won’t stumble across. As long as you don’t NEED to know them to have fun playing the game, you’ll spark joy for people who figure it out. It’s pretty cool.

If you like my breakdowns, you should check out my design bootcamp: Mastering Game Systems.

Now, back to the Moon.