The Legend of Zelda

The Good
I find it pretty great how balance this game is compared to others that were released around this time. When you play games from other companies, I find it a little frustrating at how clumsy the balance of those games are. Games like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, while still good games, felt unbalanced at how difficult it is to stay alive. On the other hand, I feel like Zelda makes you feel more in control of that factor.

This is accomplished through the exploration aspect of the game. Unlike other games before it, where if you couldn't finish a level you just had to try and try again until you finally got it right. But in Zelda, if you can't finish a level you can go back to the overworld and possibly find a way to extend your life, or buy a better shield in order to return to the level and try again, but this time some factor of that level has changed which makes the game less frustrating to play though.

As I can't be totally sure of this since I haven't played every single game from around that time period, but all the games I played before that were based on "make it through the level" and your difficulty factors were either a time limit, killing a certain number of enemies, or finding keys. (which admittedly Zelda also does but the inclusion of Zelda's item system makes it more interesting.)

I will agree with some other negative reviews of this game that the graphics were very simple even for it's time, but I feel like this was done on purpose. The same reason that there wasn't a town with villagers that you could talk to. The fields were a solid bland color, all the dungeons are basically monochromatic, even the dungeon BGM is very repetitive. I get the feeling that these were mechanisms used to create the feeling of loneliness. Sure, there are some people in the game that sell you items, give you money, tell you a hint, or gamble with you, but the text is so sparse and robotic (again possibly on purpose) that it accurately conveys this sense of loneliness never felt in game worlds before.

The Bad
Some rooms in the later dungeons seem to only rely on throwing more baddies in there as a difficulty factor as opposed to finding a smarter way to create challenge. I also hate the way that they re-use bosses from earlier dungeons and just throw them into the later dungeons. Seems like they just wanted to get the game out so they started to recycle old content to push it out quicker.

The Bottom Line
Zelda is a game about accomplishment. Much like the early Metroid games, it's fun to play through and find an inaccessible area, find an item meant to reach that area, and then it clicks in your head. You really feel a sense of accomplishment when this happens because even though it is a video game and was definitely a pre-determined scenario (by the game designer), you feel much more like you found this item and thought up a really cool use for it as opposed to using it for more firepower or more life. That is really what made this game unique and why it was a pioneer for the industry.

The Good
The Legend Of Zelda is often acclaimed. As the best game ever. Or the best rpg. Or best Nintendo game, or some such. Yet I have always thought it was overrated. Even Nintendo Power rated it higher than Super Mario Bros. Yes somehow Zelda is better then the game that made Nintendo.

The upside to the Zelda series is that the games got better. (Zelda 64 anyone?) And it helped spawn better games. I.e. Landstalker.

The Bad
The downside is just about every thing else. The Graphics are lame even for a NES game. How many colors could the NES display like 4? Because this is not a colorful game. And all the colors are bland. Compare Super Mario Bros. to Zelda and you’ll see.

The Sound/ Music well the sound effects are nothing special. And the only tune I liked was the main theme. Which would sound better in latter Zelda’s.

The Gameplay is as liner as it gets. You go from dungeon to dungeon with no villages to break up the tedium. If Hyrule has no villages who does Zelda rule over? They could have at least had one town, I mean come on. Oh yes and the dungeons have to be done in a specific order, making the game even more linear.

The Storyline is for the most part non-existent. For some reason an old man gives a little kid a sword and tells him to save Zelda, a Princess without a Kingdom, so not only is it stupid, but the player never feels that they must save Zelda.(How come Nintendo can’t get over the “save the princess” thing?)

The Bottom Line
The Bottom Line is that you should skip this one and play The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awaking. Or Zelda 64.

The Good
This was one of the first games I got for the NES. Though the graphics were not particularly good, even for the time, it was designed quite well and was / is highly addictive.

It plays like a cross between an overhead scrolling platform game and an RPG. Its not truly either but borrows from both genres. Its a unique formula that has been copied by many successful games.

The Bad
The graphics on the Legend of Zelda show its 20 year old age. They are primitive, with repetitive sprites. Even compared to later NES games the graphics aren't very good.

The depth of the gameplay and the music more than make up for this.

The Bottom Line
Wondeful game. And there is a 16 bit version of it which is a hacked version of BSZelda that you can find on the internet. It lets you enjoy the game play of Zelda with well drawn graphics. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the SNES is also something you would probably like.

There are also some other games I'd recommend that are good knock-offs of Zelda: Crusader of Zenty for the Genesis, Golden Axe: Warrior for the Master System, Neutopia 1 and Neutopia 2.

Neutopia 1 and 2 are probably the best Zelda style games around next to A Link to the Past. In fact, I like them better.