A Retro Review – The Legend Of Zelda

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presents a 

 
by

	(NES)
	(Role playing)
	(Single-player)
	(Coolness not guaranteed)
	(Great game)
	Most free-feeling game on the NES Controls handle beautifully Multiple quests
	Simple graphics A little too cryptic Boss battles are somewhat forgettable
	The unequivocal standard-bearer and pioneer of the action-rpg genre, The Legend Of Zelda will forever be my absolute favorite NES title of all time combining rewarding gameplay, memorable aesthetics and unrestrained freedom in a beautiful orchestra of virtual harmony

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Story

The land of Hyrule was a peaceful place full of old hermits and pushy merchants living in caves until the evil Prince of Darkness Ganon came along and stole the Triforce of power while also imprisoning princess Zelda. Before she was captured, Zelda had the Triforce of wisdom broken up into 8 pieces to hide them from Ganon since his power would become unimaginable if he were to obtain both. Now it’s up to Link to find the pieces that Zelda hid so that he can gain equal strength to Ganon and destroy him in order to save Hyrule and princess Zelda from a plundering reign of terror!

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Overview

The Legend of Zelda is a world exploring and dungeon conquering adventure game where you take control of Link, the hero of Hyrule and search the land over for the 8 pieces of the Triforce that have been hidden away in various temples. Your main attack is your trusty sword which you’ll get after entering the first cave you see but you can also obtain various items to help you in your quest such as bombs, fire-starting magical rods, boomerangs and a bow & arrows just to name a few. The world is completely open to Link right away so feel free to explore the land at your leisure in order to discover the location of the dungeons that contain the hidden Triforce pieces. 

Enemies can be found all over the world of Hyrule including heavily-armored knights, lion-headed centaurs and many more plus every dungeon includes a unique boss that must be defeated before collecting the Triforce piece that lies within. Though linearity is critical to progression, the pathway forward is not always clear and you’ll have to use your wits in order to decipher the way to find all the necessary treasures in order to save Hyrule. Discover and obtain all 8 pieces of the Triforce that have been hidden away and meet your destiny on Death Mountain to destroy Ganon, rescue princess Zelda and save the land of Hyrule once and for all!

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Cast

Link (main protagonist) Bright-eyed, pointy-eared young hero

Princess Zelda (in distress) Kidnapped by Ganon… knew JUST where to stash the Triforce pieces

Old Man (protagonist support) Though not much is known about this mysterious old fogey, he does give you the sword at the beginning which covers him for future endeavors I suppose

Old Woman (protagonist support) Provides service with a smile making life-relieving potions that assist Link in his quest

Merchant (protagonist support) Taking advantage of the impending doom in Hyrule, this gouger unapologetically profits off everything and anything he can come across placing him very close to the “antagonist support line”

Aquamentus (antagonist support) Having nothing to do with water whatsoever, this dopey unicorn-dragon spits fireballs at Link while begging to be stabbed by him directly in the snout

Dodongo (antagonist support) Stubborn and pressing are the best ways to describe this Triceratops-like creature who cannot be defeated traditionally but does have an appetite for bombs

Manhandla (antagonist support) A horrible amalgamation of botanical chaos, Manhandla attacks wildly and gains intensity with every limb lost

Gleeok (antagonist support) Attacking with multiple heads and an immobile body, this hydra-dragon engages with unpredictable movements, projectiles and defeated severed heads requiring Link to keep on his toes more than usual

Digdogger (antagonist support) Hater of sound but lover of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings series, this slow moving eyeball-sunflower is way less scary as soon as soon as Link toots on his recorder

Gohma (antagonist support) Hideous in every way, this spider-eyeball winks and creeps as it scutters about requiring you to deal with it like you would any giant spider in your house… shoot it with a bow and arrows!

Ganon (main antagonist) Power hungry pig-man seeking Hyrule’s domination

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Worth More Than Its Weight In Gold (XL section)

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this .” GEEZ… where do I even begin with the grandiose epic that shaped my love for video games as much as any other- The Legend of Zelda? First off… the commercials are HILARIOUS  and totally worth a trip down memory lane (or first-time avenue if you’ve never seen any of them) by themselves as they instantly transport me back to a simpler and more shameless time. Personally, I’ll always think of that stupid Zelda rap  EVERY time I boot this up (the creatures in the game ARE really rad)… so good! For such an epic release, it’s pretty funny to see advertisements that are THIS cheesy (the Japanese ones might be even better go check em’ out) which bears mentioning especially to the uninitiated few that look upon this great series with fervent reverence and nothing else.

That gold cartridge was awesome too and seeing it shine among the multitudes of grey Nintendo games was instantly tantalizing and would have motivated anyone to at least try it if they were interested in the NES even a smidgen. What a cool map and instruction booklet that came packed in as well! Its always felt like embarking on some grand journey when playing a video game that required a map and both it and the instruction manual contained so much information that was fun to learn about. Man… I haven’t even played the game yet and I already love it! What’s this? There’s a SAVE FEATURE !

The Legend of Zelda is a role playing game (or an action/rpg to be more specific) where you take control of the hero of Hyrule, Link , and travel your way across a rectangular map to discover the location of the 8 pieces of the Triforce  in order to meet the evil Ganon  head-on and save Princess Zelda ! Your main attack is your sword which stabs in front of Link with a simple button press  and also shoots a very helpful screen-traversing blast when your health is full . Link also carries a shield  which can be upgraded later on to defend tougher projectiles at one of the many shops found around Hyrule. Balancing your approach between offense and defense with these 2 components are the main key to success overall as you romp your way about the land however many more objects become vital as the world crystalizes around you. 

Along the way, you can fill up your pouch with a ton of helpful treasures such as wall-blasting bombs , enemy-stunning boomerangs , Heart Containers to raise your max health plus a whole lot more and the sheer variety of item complexity combined with your sword & shield is mind-blowing for a game of this generation. Some areas might require the use of an item to proceed further such as setting a bomb off to blow up a cracked wall or crossing a stream of water with the ladder   to reach the other side while some simply give you more offensive firepower like the magical rod which shoots a projectile out in front of you or the bow & arrows which (along with the silver arrows ) you’ll need to defeat Ganon in the final battle. If there’s an obstacle blocking Link’s path, then there’s probably an item that will help him overcome it so don’t fret too much if you get stuck since your pouch is/will be full of useful goodies!

The level design is compiled of a main overworld with nine different dungeon sections discovered in-between and right away you’ll be loving the fact that your path is not linear so feel free to roam in any direction that you like and uncover any path that you want at any time but some locations are tougher than others so beware meandering around too far without the proper equipment. Populating this robust world is a very nice collection of enemies ranging in difficulty like pieces on a chess board with tons of smaller adversaries and a nice mixture of bosses. Regular foes like Octorok’s ,  Stalfos’ , Tektite’s   and Gibdo’s present a modest challenge and keep Link occupied throughout a majority of the game but it’s the many tougher enemies like Wizzrobe’s , Lynel’s , Like-Like’s (… I don’t like em’) and Darknut’s who give me the most satisfaction when they’re defeated.

The dungeons are non-linear as well which is great and once you’ve made your way through one of these labyrinth like stages (after finding the special item hidden inside each one of course) you’ll encounter a room with a sequential roar letting you know that you are one screen away from the boss of the level. Unfortunately, even though there’s a pretty good variety of bosses (like Aquamentus , Digdogger and Gohma ) I don’t find their challenge to be as satisfying as some of those enemies that I mentioned before which is a little bit of a letdown. Even the final battle with Ganon is underwhelming in my opinion but this critique turns to vapor pretty quickly when I begin stacking up all of the pros to the minuscule cons.

The gameplay of The Legend of Zelda is absolutely incredible and will forever remain a blast! Perhaps the most free-feeling experience on the entire NES, The Legend of Zelda lets you go at your own pace and travel wherever you want which made it completely stand out from the restrained pack of its current-gen counterparts. No other game from this era felt or feels as grandiose as this one and the level of quality overall is unrivaled across the board. Though it does get a little confusing at times due to its cryptic nature, The Legend of Zelda never gets frustrating which is a testament to its fun factor and overall adaptability, rewarding the player for every second of time spent learning its nuances.  

The controls feel perfect whenever moving Link and the overhead perspective works nicely to navigate him around many of the “screens” especially when your battling a bunch of enemies at once. It’s also very impressive that there’s as many items as there is in the game and they all execute properly and feel great to use. No matter if your dodging multiple incoming projectiles or engaging an end-level behemoth, the excellent handles never stray from your side accompanying your adventure with welcome gusto. Bottom line, the controls are as tight as anything you’ll find on the NES and really put you in complete command of Link in every way.

The sound department rates very high with memorable tunes and effects. The music ebbs and flows wonderfully when transitioning from the lighthearted overworld theme to the dark and dingy riffs inside the dungeons (sound bar at top) though you’ll be hearing these 2 songs more than any other which limits the variety a bit. The sound effects are extremely pleasing for me from the tings of hitting your sword off of a Darknut’s shield to the ominous yelps heard from a nearby stage boss and everything in-between. Shout out to that whistle jingle as well it always gets me!

Visually, The Legend of Zelda has an interesting blend of colors and sprites that ultimately work fine but some of the dungeons are strange looking (neon green walls… really?) as well as some of the enemies . Despite having aged some over the years, I still find this “pixely” look to be appealing overall though. There’s not a ton of detail found throughout the world which is another small gripe (kind of wish there was a town with houses instead of everyone living in caves for example) but everything with the graphics just kind of pulls together and has a charm to it that still looks good today. In the end, the best way of summing it up is simple- The Legend of Zelda might not be the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen but its graphics are more than serviceable displaying a wonderfully woven world confined by the restraints of the time which obviously couldn’t keep up with the rest of its greatness. Hmph… maybe it wasn’t quite as simple as I thought but hopefully you get the point. 

Scanning The Legend of Zelda with the ‘Tude Meter results in a moderate rating as it doesn’t rely on blood or gore in any way while providing a kid-friendly story but it does have that ominous dungeon score as well as tons of gritty enemies most notably the highly intimidating Darknuts. It’s worth noting too that there’s a lot of dumb looking adversaries as well that help to reduce this rating down further than its potential would dictate like the “evil” Hershey’s Kiss-looking Gel for example. More than anything though, it seems impossible for the ‘Tude Meter to achieve a maximum rating on a game that contains faeries in it since they basically represent the exact opposite of what ‘tude is. No worries though since this grand adventure requires no gimmicks whatsoever to be awesome.

Quite simply, The Legend of Zelda is an absolute marvel and a bucket list must-play for anyone and everyone across the board regardless of your endearment towards the series. It has so many high points that it makes perfect sense for the cartridge to be draped in gold. The challenge is right-on, the aesthetics are top-notch and the progression feels completely rewarding the longer you play justifying its addictive quality as much or so than any other title from this generation. Bottom line, don’t go it alone (it IS dangerous after all), grab your trusty sword and hastily embark on a quest to the nearest NES you can find and pop in this shiny golden treasure today!

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 Critical Analysis

5/5 The free-feeling nature of The Legend of Zelda combined with the extremely satisfying challenge overall make this one of the best gameplay experiences that you’ll have on the NES. Without a doubt, there’s plenty to do to keep you busy in the land of Hyrule but just to ensure that the replay value column is stamped with approval the creators made a more challenging second quest complete with a rearranged overworld, tougher enemies with new attacks and revamped/more difficult dungeons. Now that’s quality assurance!

5/5 No real complaints at all in the control department as Link responds exactly as you need him to and tightly reacts to all of your commands with great execution. The impressive amount of different items that can be used feels great also and combines nicely with your sword attack to give Link a plentiful bag of tricks with which to thwart Ganon and his minions. Timing and patterns are the key and a game like this with great controls serve the patient players well who approach a room full of enemies with a strategy in mind instead of the impatient ones who barge in swinging their sword willy-nilly!

5/5 I would dock points for a lack of variety in the music department but when it’s this good and memorable I just can’t bring myself to avoid the “hang 10” overall especially when additionally the sound effects are some of my favorites that I have encountered in video games. Right away the title screen theme gets me appropriately pumped then the overworld jams me out with the old faithful followed by the creepy and somehow never stale dungeon theme climaxing nicely with the intimidating Death Mountain theme in the final dungeon of the game. It’s a killer score worthy of high praise alone but it also happens to be accompanied by some of the most memorable sound effects in the history of gaming such as the many different “hisses” and “roars” of the bosses in the game, faeries, the memorable Zelda jingle when you find a new treasure and much more.

4/5 While I do love the sprites and colors of this very first trip into the world of Hyrule, the game dates itself with its lack of detail as many of the boards in the The Legend of Zelda contain some kind of redundancy (yay… another screen with bushes) which does cause it to fall back for me in the overall score. However there are way too many positives for these slants to bring the total down any lower as I like the distinctiveness of all the different characters and enemies in the game, the colors are bright and easy to look at and without a doubt extra points will be applied for looking this nice considering the release date (1986). It may not be perfect visually but it more than gets the job done and helped spark a generations worth of gamers into dissolving out of their boring normal world and escaping into the magical and dangerous land of Hyrule.

The ‘Tude Meter peaks and valleys at many different intervals throughout the game and finds this one to be one of the more interesting specimens that it has encountered. On the one hand, the game is relatively “kiddie” with its safe premise and blatant lack of gore when using an obviously sharp sword but on the other hand, the dungeons rule and feel perfectly “crypt-like” while including a massive cast of ‘tudey characters such as Darknut’s, Lynel’s and the badass Old Man  who laughs at your futile attempts to stab him in the face and retaliates in kind with his twin pet campfires (no I’m not making that up)! Even with this (and many more examples of attitude to be found in the game) the ‘Tude Meter nearly shuts off whenever faeries are around which would make it near-impossible for the reading to ever be in the max no matter how much was found elsewhere in the game.

Great game One of The ‘Tude Dude’s personal favorite NES games of all time There’s simply no greater honor I can bestow onto this masterpiece other than to say that this is my favorite EVER NES game! With no time limits or predetermined paths to follow, The Legend of Zelda broke new and exciting ground in the video game world and provided gamers with an amazing introduction into the sword-slashing, treasure-finding, dungeon-plundering backdrop that would eventually become one of the most beloved franchises in the entire gaming universe. I still remember playing this with my next-door neighbor as a kid, adapting our young brains around this engrossing concept which required a much more thorough strategy than anything else that we could have imagined at the time, propelling our fun factor comprehension into the stratosphere! Further analyzation reveals a beyond-extensive list of pros for The Legend of Zelda – awesome gameplay, great controls, catchy music, interesting characters, a golden cartridge, compelling challenge that raises in tempo perfectly, multiple quests with new map layouts, etc. SHEESH, it almost seems criminal now to have charged a similar price with other titles that didn’t even deliver a fraction of what this one did.  Observing the downfalls of this luminous splendor requires a microscope since they’re few and far between to say the least though I would say that The Legend Of Zelda is a bit too obscure at times when it comes to in-game direction (a common problem especially among early-release NES titles) virtually guaranteeing a spike in strategy guide sales. Beyond that, the graphics could be brought into question I suppose depending on perspective (I like them just fine but can understand if anyone else finds them too rudimentary) and most of the bosses peter out with ease after a grueling trek through the much more engaging and difficult dungeons themselves (especially Digdogger he’s a total putz) but that’s literally all these peering eyes can come up with after extensive combing. To put it bluntly – this is one of the single greatest video games you can ever play in your life… PERIOD harnessing as many positive tropes, good times and pleasant memories that can fit within one single cartridge. In other words… It’s dangerous to not play The Legend of Zelda and experience the fruitful, 8-bit, bush-burning, Triforce-gathering, overhead viewpoint of Hyrule yourself so go now and play it if for some unbeknownst reason you haven’t yet.

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“I don’t recommend pulling on these leevers !”

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