Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. Well, here we are at another milestone number for PWP. The 50th review. the fiftieth event is often considered a golden event. And in this case it’s certainly apropos, as we look at a game that is not only worth its weight in gold, but also comes in a gold cart. It’s time to look at one of the most important games on the NES library, nay, video games in general. A game that is so legendary, it even has “Legend” in the title. That’s right, it’s time to talk about The Legend of Zelda.
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1986 (Japan) 1988 (North America)
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
GENRE: Top Down Action Adventure
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most important and successful franchises of all time for Nintendo. To this day, the games and its characters remain major parts of popular culture and among the most beloved games of all time. And it all started in the mid 80’s from the minds of Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. While working on another important Nintendo title in Super Mario Bros, Miyamoto and Tezuka had ideas for another game. Unlike the Mario game, they wanted this game to be non-linear, and give the gamers an open sandbox in which to do whatever they want, and play the game at their own pace, with more focus on having players learn on their own how to solve the many puzzles within the game.
A lot of the inspiration to the adventure feel of Zelda came from Miyamoto’s own childhood, and the adventures he would have travelling the caves and forests of Kyoto, as well as well as childhood memories of his home in Sonobe. The name of the game, and the franchise damsel Zelda was based on Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. And of course, our main character Link, who is very much the standard coming of age hero, who starts young and weak, but becomes strong enough to vanquish all by the end of the story.
Nintendo of Japan was set to release a new peripheral for the Famicom known as the Disk system, a device that would offer finer graphics, as well as better memory storage options. And The Legend of Zelda would be a launch title for the device. Nintendo would have initial worry that the game would never fly, but were proven wrong when the game became a hit for the console. The game would take two years before being released in North America. Nintendo handled the release for the North America extremely well, save for some odd commercial choices. Lest we forget the infamous Zelda Rap, or the ad featuring John Kassir screaming for Zelda in a dark room.
But cheesy ads aside, one of the biggest selling points that helped push Zelda was the gold cartridge.
It was a definite standout, as all NES cartridges at the time were plain grey. But Zelda was different. It looked epic, and amazing, and to this day is honestly still one of the coolest looking carts on the console. The game would prove a hit in the still very stingy North America, and would reel in 2 million copies in its 1988 release. Zelda would become Nintendo’s #2 franchise for the duration of the NES years, as there would be tons of merchandise. Everything from shirts, candy, clocks, board games, and even the legendary Nintendo Cereal System. And of course, who can forget the terrible Zelda cartoon on the Super Mario Bros Super Show?
The game’s popularity went well into the 90’s as the game would spend a whopping 75 month’s on Nintendo Power’s “Power Chart” even reclaiming the #1 spot in Volume #67 in December of 1994, the last time the NES chart would be published.
So, yeah. The game was a hit, but is this classic truly worth its golden treatment? Let’s move forward.
COVER STORY
Nintendo knew how to do Simple but effective covers, and this is certainly the case. All you really get is a shield with hearts, a sword, and a lion on it, on a gold border, and yet, that still works tremendously. But of course, the selling point with the box was that part of it was cut open to reveal the shiny gold cart inside. Of course that was a major draw for anyone. And it obviously worked. While I applaud the idea, a part of me dislikes the idea of cutting a nice box for that reason. Still, another A plus cover from the NES era.
STORY
The land of Hyrule was once a peaceful place, until the arrival of the prince of darkness Ganon, and his evil army. Ganon would steal its Triforce of Power, giving him unimaginable strength. Knowing that he would seek the Triforce of Wisdom next, the princess Zelda would break the Triforce into eight pieces, and spread them across the land. However, in her attempts, she would be kidnapped by Ganon. The only one who can save the princess is a young boy by the name of Link. After hearing the pleas of Zelda’s nursemaid Impa, Link would embark on the quest to restore the Triforce, stop Ganon, and save Hyrule.
GAMEPLAY
The Legend of Zelda is a one player top-down action game. You control the hero, Link (Or whatever you choose to name your character) as he heads through Hyrule, defeating enemies, collecting triforce pieces, and eventually squaring off with the evil Ganon. Link can be moved with the D-Pad, uses his sword with the A button, and whatever item you select with the B button. Pausing the game will give you your inventory, along with all progress so far.
How you go about the game is your own choice, you can choose to plow through the enemies to make it to the first dungeon, or you can play it smart and search for items that can help you out. At the beginning of the game, you have no weapon, and three hearts, but you’ll find a cave on the first area of the game, that will give you your first sword. When Link is at full health, swords can shoot a beam of energy that can help in getting enemies further from you.
The main map of Hyrule consists of many areas to search through, from grasslands, to mountainous areas, graveyards, and even forests that seem to go on forever. Not to mention there’s tons of enemies to deal with. Crawling, rock shooting bugs known as Octoroks, jumping eyeball bugs known as Tektites, pigmen with weapons known as Moblins, and so many more. When defeated, they will often give you one of several items.
First are hearts that fill up one heart point, next are fairies that will fill up all your health. You’ll even get a stopwatch that stops all enemies for a short time period. But the most common item to find are rupees, the game’s currency. You use the amount collected in different caves through Hyrule to either collect weapons like bombs, or items that can help further the game, like meat for a moblin, or a candle that can burn shrubbery that can reveal hidden areas.
Also hidden throughout Hyrule are large hearts. Whenever one is collected, you add another heart to your health. As you progress you can earn upwards to 12 hearts. And with more health can earn you the ability to possess better swords, and even tunics that will increase defense. Therein is what makes Zelda such a great game. The world of Hyrule gives you so much to explore, and so many things to find. And unless you have a walkthrough handy, all you have are hints or your own intellect to seek them out.
And there are the eight dungeons of the game. In each dungeon, you have to make it through the tough maze to find the boss and defeat him, earning you the level’s triforce piece. But it’s not as simple as just walking in. Levels are filled with monsters, like Keese (bats), Gibdos (mummies) Ironknuckles, and stalfos (skeletons). Defeating all of them will often earn you keys that you must use to open doors, and find your way around.
In each dungeon there are several items to find. First is the map, which will give you the scope of the world when pressing the start button. Next is the compass that will point the way around the areas. And finally each level has at least one item you have to find to advance further. Sometimes it’s weapons, sometimes it’s things needed to get to another dungeon.
Some of the weapons you can find include a boomerang that will debilitate enemies, and a bow which will shoot arrows, provided you have enough rupees. There’s also a raft, a red tunic, a whistle that is used to dry a lake, a red ring, and so much else. Each stage has bosses to face off with. You’ll face multi-headed dragons, the dinosaur beast dodongos, destructive eye beasts, and so much more until you finally face off with Ganon himself.
The game has perfect controls. Rarely ever does it suffer from any type of hit detection issue. The difficulty is definitely here. Even if you use a walkthrough to help you, you’ll still find yourself with a challenge on your hands.You have unlimited continues, as well as the ability to save. But don’t forget, hold reset before hitting power. One big plus to continuing in this game is that you will start at the beginning of the dungeon you were in. It’s a shame another Zelda game didn’t do that, huh? We’ll get into that when we talk about Zelda II.
But perhaps the most amazing thing about this game is, for all the content and the size of the game for such an early title, there is actually two games in one. By beating the game once, or using the name ZELDA in the beginning of the game, you will actually embark on a second quest. It’s the same as the previous quest, but the world and levels are changed around, so once again you have a challenge on your hands. Have you the skills to pursue it?
GRAPHICS
While simplistic now, for its time, The Legend of Zelda was an amazing looking game on the NES. The world was decently detailed, all the levels and enemies were designed great, and nothing ever stood out or felt out of place. And it was definitely a sign of things to come as the Zelda series continued to rise in graphical quality with each new adventure. And the first is definitely a solid looking title.
MUSIC
You can’t talk about The Legend of Zelda without talking about the music of the game, specifically the overworld theme. What an amazing track, it’s the epitome of a big adventure, and has remained the main theme of the entire Zelda series, with some tweaks here and there of course. The rest of the game has some great tunes as well. Personal favorites include the dungeon theme, and the continue tune. One of Koji Kondo’s true masterpieces.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
It’s hard to say anything about this game that hasn’t been said before. It’s a perfect adventure game that started a legendary franchise. With perfect controls, excellent sound, and some perfect gameplay on the NES, it truly is worth its weight in gold. While it’s not my favorite Zelda game personally, it’s still one I can play over and over and not get bored with. It’s the very definition of playing with power. So, what else can I say but if you haven’t played it in its quarter century of life, it’s definitely time to go on an adventure you won’t soon forget.
RATING: Thumbs Way Up
Thanks for sticking with Playing With Power for 50 reviews. I personally am always surprised that so many people enjoy these, and are interested in my opinions and views on certain games. It’s been almost a whole year, and I’m still having fun making these for you. And we’ve only scratched the surface of this console. Here’s to 50 more, and reaching the super milestone of 100. But until then, let’s keep playing with power.