Andrew Fisher (697) on 3/27/2024 2:29 AM · Reply · Permalink · Report

As a boy and teen I played Sega games that were probably in the shadow of Zelda in the U.S. and Japan. I finally played Zelda in 2000 when I had my first job and could buy a Game Boy, it was the new colorized Zelda:Link's Awakening, which has the same explore the overworld grid, find and conquer the grid dungeons routine as Zelda 1. I really didn't think Link's Awakening was on par with the action/adventure/RPGs I'd enjoyed in my school years e.g the Wonder Boy/Monster World games or Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I'd always meant to play through Zelda 1 at some point though and now I have. As I suspected it was no better than Link's Awakening, probably worse, but as I played I sensed the roots of games to come like Golvellius (MSX, SMS), Wonder Boy/Monster World(Arcade etc.) and even Landstalker for MD/Gen at the massive final dungeon. I think Zelda popularized hearts as a life bar and adding hearts as you go, a very simplified leveling up. You can forgive the crude/cute graphics today, but the gameplay wears thin pretty quickly, bombing walls and burning bushes till you uncover a secret cave where sometimes the game will give a big middle finger, having the guy inside rob you 20 rupees for door repairs. Otherwise it's gambling and grinding for enough rupees to buy the gear you need. The dungeon routine of finding map, compass, special item then boss is OK, but the bosses are a bit dull, some of them are repeated. The final dungeon took a long time to beat, but it reminded me of the massive dungeon at the end of Landstalker, which I felt really good about completing back in the mid.-late '90s.