4. Link's Awakening.

Original Release: June 6, 1993, Gameboy. Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch, 2019. Platform Used: Nintendo Switch.


THE PLOT:

Link is on a ship, traveling by sea, when he's caught in a huge storm. He is washed ashore on Koholint Island, where he is found and tended by pretty young Marin. The people of the island are warm and friendly, but they have no ships to take Link home. Indeed, they seem confused by the very notion of a home that isn't on their island.

When he retrieves his sword from the beach, an owl flies down to tell him that he has only one way back: to wake the Wind Fish that slumbers within the giant egg at the summit of the island's highest peak. Doing so will require the eight Instruments of the Sirens, each of which has been locked within a different, monster-infested dungeon, and each of which is jealously guarded by a beast known as a Nightmare.

Link embarks on his quest, defeating the Nightmares and recovering the precious instruments. However, as he progresses, those monsters give him a warning: Even if he succeeds and makes it home, his victory will come at a steep price!

Link and Marin on a date, staring out at the ocean.

CHARACTERS:

I didn't bother with this section for the earliest Zelda games. Unless you delved into the instruction manuals, the NES titles had no characterization to speak of. A Link to the Past had a bit more, with actual character conversations - but the dialogue was entirely focused on plot and gameplay mechanics.

Link's Awakening changes this. The people on the island have personalities. Sunny, upbeat Marin has a clear crush on Link, and she muses about wanting to see the outside world. Old Man Ulrira gives hints by telephone, but he is too shy to speak to Link in person. Papahl, the father of quadruplets, is kind but befuddled. When you first talk to him, he'll outright tell you that he'll get lost in the mountains later (sure enough, he does). There are several other people and animals you'll meet, and they are all just quirky enough to be unique and endearing.


GAMEPLAY:

A Link to the Past introduced mini games to Zelda. That's taken further here. An optional seashell hunting mini game yields various rewards, notably a stronger sword. A fishing mini game can net you rupees as well as an extra bottle for the storage of health-replenishing fairies. There's also the opportunity to create your own dungeons, with prizes for successfully building and navigating them.

There's also an extended item collection side quest that runs through the game. Basically, you solve characters' problems, gaining items to then deliver to other characters who need them. A glance online tells me that not everyone was a fan of this, but I liked it a lot. The added interactions help to make the characters and their island that bit richer and more real - and I admit that it was nice to have something to do other than battle enemies and spelunk through dungeons.

The rest of the gameplay is similar to A Link to the Past. Explore (and destroy) terrain and defeat overworld enemies to find rupees, bombs, arrows, and health. Find the dungeons and solve puzzles until you make your way to the dungeon boss. Defeat the boss to gather the next Thingie (in this case, the Instruments of the Sirens). It's all very familiar - but then, after A Link to the Past refined the core mechanics, upending them again would have been senseless.

Link agrees to recover a villager's kidnapped dog, kicking off a lengthy side quest.

VERSIONS:

Link's Awakening was first released for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1993. Five years later, it was effectively replaced by Link's Awakening DX, a Game Boy Color version that was faithful to the original but also added new features. For two decades, the DX version was widely seen as definitive.

It was remade again, in 2019, for the Nintendo Switch, the version that forms the basis for this review. The Switch release is again faithful to the original version. I compared it against videos of the 1993 release and was satisfied that I was effectively playing a prettier version of the same game.

This release adds quality-of-life features so that players won't have to constantly swap items around while playing. The wider display allows Link to cover more ground before moving from one screen to the next, and the transitions between them are handled by the camera moving in the appropriate direction, rather than Link just entering a new screen.

The art style is gorgeous. It's the same top-down perspective, but the detail brings the world to life. Link is particularly expressive. For the first time in this series, I felt like I was playing as a full person, rather than just a generic video game hero.

Link battles the caterpillar-like Moldorm, the "Nightmare" boss of the first dungeon.

OTHER MUSINGS:

In case it's not blindingly obvious, I thoroughly enjoyed Link's Awakening. I was drawn in immediately. The island is so vibrant, and the whole atmosphere is extremely pleasant. If Koholint Island were real (and monster-free), it would be a perfect vacation spot.

Link's Awakening is enhanced by thematic elements. Notable is the repetition of situations involving sleeping and waking. Link starts the game regaining consciousness on the island. Repeated upgrades are a "punishment" by a being who's angry at Link for waking him. Then there's a bit that's the game's entire story in miniature: Link's quest is blocked by a slumbering walrus, with him enlisting Marin to rouse him by singing a song. These and other examples are artfully woven throughout the game.

I'd rate this as the most accessible entry in the series thus far. It's relatively short, but not too short. The story and setting feel fully mined, but nothing is allowed to overstay its welcome. It's also the easiest Zelda title to this point. I died only a handful of times across the full length, mostly because weaknesses of certain bosses and mini-bosses can only be found through trial-and-error.

Oh, and the game ends beautifully. I won't spoil it, though the game drops increasingly heavy hints throughout the second half. I'll just say that the final minutes are among the best dramatic scenes I've seen in a video game.

Link plays the Instruments of the Sirens in an attempt to wake the Wind Fish.

OVERALL:

What more is there to say? Link's Awakening is energetic, likable, and fun. I lost one full night's sleep to it, because I simply got wrapped up in exploring the island and didn't notice the time slipping by until it was suddenly 4 AM. As I've gotten older, that's not something I tend to do anymore - but that's just how good this game is.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Game: A Link to the Past
Next Game: Link - Faces of Evil/Zelda - The Wand of Gamelon (not yet reviewed)

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3. A Link to the Past

An evil wizard seizes control of Hyrule, using
sinister rituals to free Ganon from the Dark World!

Original Release: Nov. 21, 1991, Super Nintendo. Version Reviewed: NES Classics, 1991. Platform Used: Nintendo 3DS.


THE PLOT:

It is a dark time for Hyrule. The evil wizard Agahnim has seized power and has captured the descendents of the Seven Sages who imprisoned Ganon, Prince of Darkness, long ago. One by one, Agahnim subjects his hostages to a dark ritual from which none return... and soon, it will be Princess Zelda's turn!

A desperate Zelda sends a psychic cry for help to young Link. Following her instructions, he sneaks into the palace and, armed only with the most basic sword and shield, fights his way down to the dungeon to free her.

He takes Zelda to a Sanctuary, believing his part is done. Instead, the priest informs him that his adventure is only beginning. Agahnim has been using his magic to send the descendants of the Sages to the Dark World. There, they become Ganon's prisoners - and the key to his freedom.

Link will need the help of the elder, Sahasrahla, to find the Master Sword and defeat Agahnim. Even then, he's far from done: He must travel to the Dark World to free Ganon's prisoners and to face the Prince of Darkness himself!

Exploring the overworld while fighting (or avoiding) enemies.

GAMEPLAY:

The Legend of Zelda series, at least up to this point, is all about the gameplay. The original Legend of Zelda had challenging but fun gameplay, and it stands up as a terrific game. Zelda II's gameplay was intensely frustrating, and it quickly became unenjoyable.

A Link to the Past seems far more modeled after the original game in terms of atmosphere and gameplay style. As in the first game, you play from a top-down perspective, both in the overworld and in dungeons. There's an element of exploration in the overworld, with many hidden items and power-ups to be discovered by finding the right secret paths or by solving the right puzzles. Dungeons are focused on finding keys to allow you to move forward while defeating enemies and avoiding obstacles.

This game moved the series from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the far more powerful Super Nintendo, and the developers had some fun with the gameplay mechanics. You gather a fairly extensive range of equipment and spells as you play, and these open up new strategies and even new areas. The "hook shot," for example, is basically a grappling gun, allowing Link access to areas that would otherwise be unreachable. Other items allow you to pick up heavy objects that otherwise block paths, to get through obstacles without taking damage, and even to create platforms in thin air.

The cleverest ability is the game's most famous: hopping between "The Light World" and "the Dark World." There are several points throughout the game in which shifting between worlds will open up a new passage or lead to a new bit of treasure. The late game palaces can't even be reached without a few dimension hops! As a result, the concept of the twin worlds becomes not just a plot point, but a cornerstone of the game.

Link faces a group of heavily armored
knights in one of the game's first boss battles.

DIFFICULTY:

A Link to the Past is a challenging game, but it's noticeably easier than the two NES titles. Enemies are rarely overwhelming, and almost all of them can be defeated just with Link's sword, close attention to movement patterns, and a bit of patience. Spells can also clear all the enemies in a room ("Bombos" is very useful for this) - although doing so will use up Magic Points, which I personally prefer to save for boss fights.

One thing this game does have in common with Zelda II is that the boss fights at the end of each of the palaces end up being the most enjoyable combat encounters, with different bosses requiring different tactics. Your first boss is a guard with a mace; dodge the mace, run in for a couple quick hits, and run out before he swings it again. The second boss is a group of armored knights. If you've been paying attention to Sahasrahla's instructions, you'll have already gathered the item to most effectively deal with them.

The only actual hard boss, in my opinion, is Ganon himself. The fight is never unfair, and attentive gamers should figure out the correct strategies for dealing with both stages of the fight (and the game gives you a chance to scout around for "hearts" to heal with in between stages). Still, it's a good idea to go in with multiple health potions, as Ganon can knock your health down pretty darn fast!

Link is made the scapegoat for the evil wizard's crimes.

THOUGHTS:

A Link to the Past is often regarded as one of the best of the Legend of Zelda series. Since I'm only three games in, I can't yet comment on that. It is certainly a very good game, though, and it represents a big step forward in complexity, not just in gameplay and graphics, but also in storytelling.

The stories for the two NES games were more or less reserved for their instruction manuals. Anyone buying these games digitally is left to go online to search for .pdfs of the manuals if they want to understand exactly what Link is doing and why.

By contrast, A Link to the Past offers a complete, three Act narrative. A prologue on the menu screen gives you backstory before you even start the game. Once you do begin, you get a scene in which Zelda's cry for help reaches Link before you actually begin playing. There's also a fair amount of dialogue as Link interacts with other characters. Some will give gameplay tips, others exposition, and still others will offer up tiny side quests and mini-games.

My Final Fantasy reviews have already convinced me that I just plain like the look of Super Nintendo games. There's enough detail for environments to feel distinct. The settings are bright and colorful in a way that's genuinely charming. Oh, and Koji Kondo's soundtrack is excellent, with different themes for different settings, for overworld exploration, for dungeon crawling, and for boss battles. The music and the way it's used gives a tremendous boost to the overall atmosphere.

I do have a few quibbles. The story is quite strong for the first half, with Link's rescue of Zelda leading to an evolving quest, with a new goal ready to meet his every accomplishment. This continues right up until Link gains the ability to travel back and forth between Hyrule and The Dark World. At this point, the gameplay grows more complex... but the story flattens out.

Once Link is in the Dark World, the rest of the game could be summarized as: "Go to palace, defeat boss, rescue prisoner and collect TriForce piece. Repeat until final boss fight." The second half is actually the stronger in gameplay terms... but as someone who responds more to plot and characterization, I couldn't help but be disappointed by the way the previously well-developed story just sort of "stopped" at this point.

An NPC has a mini game for Link. There are
a few of these, and even a couple of side quests.

OVERALL:

A Link to the Past brought the Zelda series into the Super Nintendo era with more detailed graphics, more complex gameplay, and an actual story that exists in the game and not just the instruction manual.

I would have liked a bit more story in the second half, as the narrative seems to run out just when the gameplay becomes really interesting. Still, across all three Zelda games I've played so far, it's clear that gameplay is the primary focus - and A Link to the Past's gameplay is flat-out excellent, varied and clever and consistently staying on just the right side of the line separating "challenging" from merely frustrating. 

A very good game, and a major step forward for the series.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Game: Zelda II - The Adventure of Link
Next Game: Link's Awakening

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2. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Link embarks on his quest to wake the comatose Princess Zelda.

Original Release: Jan. 14, 1987, Famicom Disc System. Version Reviewed: NES Classics, 1987. Platform Used: Nintendo 3DS.


THE PLOT:

As with the first game, the plot basically resides in the instruction manual...

It's been a year since Link saved Hyrule from the evil Ganon. The wise Impa shows Link the kingdom's greatest secret: Zelda, the original princess whose name has been passed down to all of Hyrule's princesses, still lives - slumbering in a magically sealed chamber as a result of a long-ago curse. Impa tells Link that he must wake the princess by placing six crystals within statues at the centers of palaces located throughout the kingdom.

Unfortunately, Link's task will not be easy. Ganon may be dead, but his followers remain. They are now hunting Link, plotting to thwart his quest and to use his blood to revive their fallen leader!

An early enemy encounter.  You'll spend a lot of time with these...

GAMEPLAY:

Zelda II is so regularly referred to as "the black sheep" of the Zelda series, it feels like a cliché to repeat it... but that doesn't make it any less true.

For the series' second entry, the guiding principle seemed to be to make it as different as possible from the original. While combat was a large part of The Legend of Zelda, here it's pretty much everything. When Link isn't simply traveling from place to place, he will be battling enemies, many of whom can only be damaged by jumping and slashing at roughly the same time... or by using a spell to jump over the enemy's head and thrust downward, which is satisfyingly devastating but limited by the extremely small amount of magic Link is able to use.

The game utilizes RPG elements. Link gains experience for killing monsters and for completing palaces, allowing him to level up his attack, magic, and health - one change of which I wholeheartedly approve. However, the trade-off is that there are far fewer health drops than in the first game, which immediately makes it more difficult. I found The Legend of Zelda to be hard; Zelda II is much harder, often to (and past) the point of frustration, and I doubt I would have finished it without the Virtual Console's save state functions.

NPCs not only exist, they're actually somewhat helpful.

IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE ORIGINAL:

There are many things to admire about Zelda II. Graphically, I think it makes significant improvements over the original. By separating the action into side-scrolling "events," all the settings are more detailed. The forests have trees that actually look like trees. Caves feel suitably subterranean. The palaces have doors and elevators.

There is also more variety in the monster designs than in the original, and Link is allowed a greater range of attacks. This can sometimes be quite satisfying, such as when I was able to annihilate the game's third boss simply by casting the "Jump" spell and using downward thrust to obliterate his entire health bar in seconds. The boss fights are a lot of fun in general, with each one requiring a different strategy to beat.

Goals and navigation are less obtuse than The Legend of Zelda. I have no idea how anyone ever completed the first game without a guide, as there was often no in-game way of knowing where to go or what to do to advance the story. In this game, dialogue cues from villagers are genuinely helpful, and objectives are more straightforward.

There's only one serious problem. Unfortunately, it's a big one - and yes, I'm aware that other views are available, but in my personal opinion the majority of the game is...

Link fights his way through enemies to reach the Palace Boss. 
The boss fights are fun.  Getting to them... not so much.

EXTREMELY AGGRAVATING AND NOT AT ALL FUN!

For my first couple of hours with Zelda II, I thought I was in for a treat. I liked the look of the game, I liked the RPG elements, I enjoyed exploring the first couple of palaces and figuring out how to defeat the first couple of bosses. In contrast to most player comments that I've encountered, I didn't even mind the Death Mountain maze - Yes, I got killed off a couple times; but Death Mountain is located very close to the game's starting point, so in my opinion the aggravation of pushing through the maze has been substantially overstated.

But somewhere between the second and third palaces, the fun just drained away. By the end of the game, even sitting down to play felt like a particularly unpleasant chore.

The game is extremely repetitive: Find the next town, learn a new skill, find the next palace, defeat the boss, repeat several times until the end. In fairness, much the same could be said of the original game (find dungeon, defeat boss, collect TriForce piece)... but somehow, the original didn't feel repetitive. Though it was visually cruder, the dungeons in the first game felt different from each other, while all of this game's palaces gradually blended together.

I played on the 3DS, so my second complaint may be a function of that platform. Still, I found the controls to be often clunky and unresponsive. Combat is highly dependent on Jump + Slash, which for whatever reason I could only make work about 50% of the time, leaving the results of many battles feeling like a matter of luck. That said, this issue might not apply to the NES, Gameboy Advance, or Switch versions.

Then there's the "unidentifiable extra" quality that the original had. The Legend of Zelda is clearly an old game - it looks and plays and even sounds like it - but it's absolutely charming and addictive throughout. Zelda II, though technically superior in most respects, doesn't have that quality. There's more detail, and some interesting new gameplay mechanics. However, I found very little charm, and I got very tired of it a fair bit before the end... A fair bit before the midpoint, really.

Link makes his way across the World Map in a Hyrule
that looks far better populated than it did before.

OVERALL:

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is an admirable effort in many respects. It introduces new gameplay mechanics, adding RPG elements to the mix. Graphics are more detailed than in the original game, Link has a greater variety of spells and attacks to use, and he even has (limited) interaction with NPCs who aren't shopkeepers! The story background detailed in the game's manual also begins to add some detail to Hyrule, which I fully expect future games to build upon.

As a game to actually play... Well, I enjoyed it initially, but I grew weary of the side-scrolling combat/platform combination as it wore on. Boss fights were fun - but it became a trial to get to each one. As for the game's ending? Well, the less said about that the better.

I give the game points for being willing to experiment. It's just a shame I didn't end up enjoying it very much.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Game: The Legend of Zelda
Next Game: A Link to the Past

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1. The Legend of Zelda.

Original Release: Feb. 21, 1986, Famicom Computer Disc System. Version Reviewed: NES Classics, 1986. Platform Used: Nintendo 3DS.


THE PLOT:

The peaceful kingdom of Hyrule is invaded by Ganon, the prince of darkness. Ganon kidnaps Princess Zelda, but not before she divides the Triforce of Wisdom into eight pieces, hidden in underground dungeons.

Now it's up to young Link to find the fragments and assemble the Triforce. It will be a long and perilous quest. At the end of it, Zelda awaits rescue - while Ganon awaits his next victim!
...All of that's pretty much from the original game manual (thankfully downloadable online). The game itself gives only the minimum of context before dumping you out onto the world with your three hearts and your wooden sword...

Link fights enemies on the Overworld.

GAMEPLAY:

The game is divided into two main settings: The Overworld and the dungeons. You travel one screen at a time. With the exception of the starting screen and shops, each new screen offers bunches of enemies. Evade their attacks, kill them, and collect whatever rupees (cash), health, or bombs drop from them.

In the Overworld, after you've grinded for enough rupees, you can drop by shops to purchase shields, bombs, and health potions. In dungeons, you'll battle your way room by room through waves of enemies. Uncovering secrets (usually hidden staircases) leads you to new items and weapons that will make you stronger. Each dungeon ends with a final boss; after defeating that monster, recovering a Triforce fragment restores your health and returns you to the dungeon entrance.

The entire game follows this basic pattern. It's all very simple. It's also extremely difficult, particularly the last three dungeons. You run into Darknuts, enemies who must be hit from either the back or side to sustain damage... and who have a way of sharply turning to face you just as you're about to attack. Even more aggravating are Wizzrobes, who shoot beams that devastate your health in seconds. Worst are the rooms with Stone Statues: Not only are they firing on you the entire time you're in the room, dodging other enemies; there is no way to disable them.

In short: Dark Souls (which actually isn't as hard as its reputation) has nothing on the original Legend of Zelda.

Link faces a dragon with his sword and his trusty boomerang.

THOUGHTS:

After a very brief text introduction, The Legend of Zelda opens with Link on the Overworld. There are three paths he can take, and one cave he can enter. If you send him into the cave, an old man will hand him a wooden sword; if you send link in any other direction, then he will be instantly attacked with nothing at all to defend himself.

This sets the tone for the entire game. Buyers of the NES cartridge in 1987 (and, presumably, 1986 buyers of the Famicom Disc System release) received the benefit of a manual that described the backstory in detail and identified the various items and enemies. Modern gamers, downloading it from the Virtual Console or playing it on the Switch's Nintendo Online service, don't get that benefit.  The game leaves you to explore blindly, killing enemies and hoping to stumble across secrets.

I will confess: After a couple hours of aimless wandering, I gave in and resorted to an online walkthrough to get me from one objective to the next. Without it, I would have lost interest and abandoned the game. With it, the game was still difficult... But there was a structure to it, and I knew what I was doing at any given moment. I would heartily recommend any but the most masochistic of gamers do the same.

At a glance, it's hard to see how this game led to such an impressive franchise. It looks and plays much like an old-school arcade game, except that it allows you to save your progress (only when you get killed... though Virtual Console save states allowed me to cheat in this regard).

However, even before I gave in to the temptation of Internet walkthroughs, I found myself really enjoying myself. Hyrule may be very blocky and simplistically rendered, but it's also bright and colorful. The Overworld score is jaunty and the little "beeps" and "whoops" as you kill enemies and collect loot almost act as a counterpoint to that score. The music becomes moodier in the dungeons, and the designers find ways to vary the patterns you use in different settings so that it never gets stale.


OVERALL:

36 years on from its original release, The Legend of Zelda remains an attractive package: Brightly colored sprites, a catchy score, and a mixture of exploration and frenetic combat. It looks primitive, and it takes up a laughable 47 blocks of 3DS memory - Less than half a gigabyte. But its simplicity hides a surprising level of difficulty.  A lot of fast movement and on-the-fly strategy is needed to survive and progress, particularly in the late stages.

Incredibly well-made for its time, The Legend of Zelda stands up as a fast-paced, fun reminder of a simpler time in gaming. More ambitious tiles were to come... But this is a game that accomplishes everything it sets out to do, and it can be held up as one of the very best archival video games.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Next Game: Zelda II - The Adventure of Link

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The Legend of Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda
Release Date: Feb. 21, 1986

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Release Date: Jan. 14, 1987

A Link to the Past
Release Date: Nov. 21, 1991

Link's Awakening

Release Date: June 6, 1993

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