NES Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Review

[chronodev]

We've posted a review on Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the NES in our articles section.

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Intro

Anyone who really gets to know learns some facts about me, always.
1) I’m a blonde and love joking about it
2) Legend Of Zelda is one my favorite video game series
Going back through my memories, this was among the first games that I played. While I didn’t understand the game as well then nor know what the series would evolve into, I still wanted to get this game. I never did as a kid though. Still, many years later I managed to find it in a Funco Land (now GameStop). As it was years later and used, the game was notably cheaper, but still somewhat costly because of its popularity. This Zelda is regarded as the Black Sheep (even more than Wind Waker) for a few reasons, some of which do have honest impacts in game play. One last thing of note about this game is that it was the first Zelda to have Magic in it. Still, it’s a good game to play when I want something different from most of what I know as Zelda.

Story

Only a short time has gone past since the event of the original game. With Ganon’s defeat Hyrule was left in chaos thanks to his minions who now bide their time and search for the valiant Link. They know that were they to catch him and sacrifice him over Ganon’s ashes, the King of Evil would be reborn.

One day Link, aiding in the reconstruction efforts, noticed a strange birthmark on his hand appear as he neared the age of 16. Immediately he went to Impa, caretaker of the Royal Family. Impa is shocked and worried at the appearance of this mark, but quickly regained her composure, leading Link to a sealed room which opened to his touch and told Link about the Legend of Zelda.

It was a tale about an old ruler of Hyrule when it was just one land and how when he died the prince, his son, only inherited part of the Triforce. He began to search high and low for it to no result. Then new came from an unexpected source, a Magician whom been close to the King, told him his younger sister, Zelda knew where to find the rest of the pieces. The Prince and Magician confronted Zelda and tried to force her to tell them where to find the remaining pieces. Zelda not relent to the Prince nor did she when the Magician threatened her with a curse of Eternal Sleep. The Magician made good on his threat, casting the spell, sending Zelda into an eternal slumber as he fell dead. The Prince, beside himself in grief, had his sister taken to the room they stood in the hopes she would one day awaken. As an act of penance he made it tradition to name all female descendants of the Royal Family Zelda.

Impa then bestowed on Link 6 crystals and a scroll, written in a text only one with the crest on their hand could read. The scroll spoke of the three pieces of the Triforce: Power, Wisdom and Courage and a spell cast on the whole kingdom to keep the pieces safe from evil. The Triforce and the Hero together would become a beacon of hope for Hyrule. To free it, Link would need to travel to the 6 hidden temples, placing the crystals in the statues, only then would the spell hiding the Triforce be lifted so the people may once again gain hope from it.

Gameplay

This is where the game differs greatly from the one Zelda before and all the Zelda games that followed it. This game can be broken down into a few different parts. The towns, random encounters and temples all use a side scrolling style of play while the Over-world is done solely through a top-down perspective. These two modes had very different things that you could do in each. This is also what marks the game and makes it the Black Sheep of the Zelda series, this is the only entry in the series that took this unique approach. For better or worse, it wasn’t well received and the style was dropped, though several innovations carried over to future Zelda games.

Read the full review here:
The Black Sheep of the Zelda games

[kangaroo]

I've always enjoyed playing the Legend of Zelda Series Games