Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

The Good
The Sequel to Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link, is better than it’s predecessor in all the ways that matter.

In Zelda II, the Princess of the title has been put to sleep by magic. It is up to Link, or whatever you name him, to break the spell and save her. The plot thickens when the dead Gannon’s minions are out for Link’s blood, literally, as it is the key to reviving the evil lord!

Zelda II, is wonderfully darker and more morose, than the first game. The plot is clearer and better written. And this time Hyrule feels like a real place. There are towns and villages this time! So people no longer live in caves. The world is more fleshed out. And not just endless screens that all look the same. The dungeons are more unique as well instead of just a palette swap.

The combat is more visceral and realistic. But it is also much more challenging. More on that later. Link learns to use magic in this adventure a first for the series and it plays a significant role in the game. Gone are the heart containers, now Link levels up, like a real RPG. Many items and weapons return this time. As well as new one like the lantern, to see in dark dungeons.

The Graphics are not good per say. But at least you can tell what things are supposed to be which is not always so with NES games. This is a late NES game so they are decent overall.

The Music is good, but no where near as good as in more recent Zelda games. The sounds are sub par.

The controls are almost identical to those of the original game. So needless to say they get the job done.

The Bad
This game is hard! Easily the hardest in the series. But at least the difficulty is consistent. The sound effect are kind of lame. And the graphics could have been a lot better. Why do most fans hate this one? It is actually an RPG unlike the other Zelda games. Nintendo tried to make the series better but every one hated it…why?

The Bottom Line
Overall, there is fun to be had here. If you can get over lame sounds bad graphics, and the unforgiving difficulty.

The Good
I like side-scrolling games such as Mega Man and Super Mario Brothers 3, so naturally, I'm going to enjoy a well-designed action game with well-balanced elements, and intense combat(for the most part). The graphics are quite good for a late 80's NES game, but they aren't the best on the system(crisis force comes to mind). The sound is not as great as it was in the original Zelda, but it's still solid nonetheless.

The Bad
Zelda 2's main problem is it's rather difficult game play, especially when it comes to combat. Remember when I said the combat is intense? This is the reason why. Enemies have difficulty patterns to follow, especially the Iron knuckles, Link's sword is WAY too damn short, and most of the magic is only used in certain situations. Again I say, the music isn't as good as the original Zelda.

The Bottom Line
Zelda II is a underrated gem of a game that gets too much bashing just for being a lot different from the original one. It's a solid game that is recommended and very playable, but it's not without flaws, especially where the difficulty is involved. I own Zelda II on Zelda:Collectors Edition on Nintendo GameCube(I play it on my Wii, actually)and I think it's pretty good. One of the better games in the NES library.

                            ***GOOD STUFF***

                             Really fun combat
                      Excellent mix of RPG elements
                               Decent music

                             ***BAD STUFF***   
                           Really freaking hard!!!!
                         Inferior music to the original

Overall, I give Zelda II:The Adventure Of LINK about..... 8.5 out of 10

The Good
The world is a lot smaller compared to the first Zelda game and I appreciated that. The world is a lot smaller, but also has more detail. The original had an impressive size, but everything just looked the same with only a few changes per screen. Here the screens have been removed and you just walk around Hyrule's areas, There are; swamps, forests, mountain and of course water. I'd say that sacrificing size for detail is a good thing, especially if the world is still quite huge afterwards.

The gameplay is a lot faster compared to the original Zelda, not only do you walk faster, but the fights are also a lot faster and harder. You have to duck, jump and stab in order to kill your opponent. Later on you also discover magic spells and new moves that make the fights even bigger and of course you run into new enemies with different tactics. Nearing the end of the game, each screen I left without taking damage felt just like beating the final boss.

The game has a nice balance between puzzles and fighting, for me at least, which means barely any puzzles and a lot of fighting. The only "puzzles" you do encounter are the temples which are very hard to navigate through and some areas like Death Mountain. This is the NES, so you can't really demand anything else. There are still a lot of secrets to find though and some are mandatory if you want to progress through the story.

The fact that Hyrule is at war is emphasized more in this game, in the original Zelda there weren't any villages or soldiers or anything else to give you the impression you were really saving something. The people in Zelda II beg for help when you talk to them and the soldiers try to help you by teaching you new moves. It's sad that Nintendo didn't keep using this because it's really nice to have the feeling you are doing something worth doing, Zelda games are still pretty awesome, but why say no to even more atmosphere?

The overall story is a little bit more original than in the first Zelda. In the first Zelda game all you had to do was save the princess from her captor, which wasn't really the best story ever written. Here you are trying to find the Triforce in order to wake up a Princess from a very long time ago. It's still not the most amazing story, but certainly an upgrade. Also nice is that you no longer play as a kid, but as an older Link, this way the evil that threatens to take over the kingdom seems just a little bit more threatening.

The Bad
The difficulty curve is all over the place, you start of pretty easy, aside from having to go through a tunnel which requires you to have the item you'll find in the temple on the other side, but after that there is a giant peak in the middle. After that peak (Death Mountain) it becomes easier again. The final boss is very hard, but it doesn't beat Death Mountain. A lot of people may not even make it to Death Mountain, so if you are planning to play through this, I wish you good luck.

It's you against an army of enemies and if you die three times, you are sent back to the start of the game. This is very annoying because it doesn't make the game harder at all, you just go back to what you were doing with fresh health. In the original Zelda you would just respawn at the start of the dungeon if you died, that was a good way to punish me for dying, this however is way too cruel. It's also a problem that the extra lives you find do not return after you picked them up, so if you die, that live is lost forever.

The Bottom Line
Zelda 2 is (one of) my favorite Zelda game(s) out there and for good reasons; the action is fast, the story is better and the puzzles are do-able. Aside from an unreasonably difficulty curve and some weird choices regarding lives, this is a very good game.

However the difficulty is still too much to ignore, so I have to warn people that unless they truly want to play this and know it is very hard, they might want to stay away from it. It's never fun to buy a game and feel like it wants to punish you for playing it, so if you don't want to put up with that, you might want to stick to the (not as hard) Legend of Zelda.