Have you ever had someone look at you in shock and say “I can’t believe you never played ___!”? That’s what this column is about. I’m an old fart gamer experiencing some of the classic retro games for the first time – and rather than having something profound or meaningful to say about it, I’m just going to share my initial thoughts upon playing a game most others have already deemed a classic. Hope you enjoy my newcomer insight – and ignorance – to games I should have played by now!
This week, I cover Zelda II: Adventure of Link for the NES.
Zelda II: Adventure of Link is by no means a hidden gem I just naturally didn’t find in my childhood years. It was everywhere. Well, everywhere except my childhood home because my parents were far more likely to buy me the game with the fat jumpy guy than the game with the green elf thing. When I was older, I would grow to love the Legend of Zelda series, but I never went back to Adventure of Link until just now. And let me start with this: it is the only game in years where saying “This game is utter BS!” is in a good way.
It’s no secret that, as the years have carried on, Zelda fans and video game fans as a whole have experienced a little more hand-holding, especially in Nintendo games. Heck, even the Majora’s Mask remake that just came out is bombarded with small hints from Tatl that didn’t exist before and a hut prior to entering Termina that you can revisit any time you want a hint on where to go. These sort of niceties did not exist back then. I knew this from my days with Link’s Awakening and A Link To The Past, but I had forgotten just how this feeling can go: you rip your hair out when you’re stuck, you feel exhilaration and rush of adrenaline when you have an idea, and you feel insanely rewarded for having accomplished anything.
This was made in a time before GameFAQs even, for the record. There are tons of moments where the game does try to help you, but it is in vague, cryptic information that just creates more questions – like “Return the crystal to the palace in Parapa.” Well, sure, no problem. But what crystal? Where is Parapa? Also, how do you know this, old lady? Then, you go into the next hut and there’s a man who says, “If all else fails, use fire.” When should we use fire? Where do we get fire? Or are you just suggesting we light the game on fire if we get too frustrated?
Of course, not every NPC is helpful.
Much like Earthbound that I played a while back, it’s extremely easy to get lost if you’re not really paying attention – heck, scenes like above make it easy to get lost even if you are paying attention. Historically speaking, this is the first Zelda game to have the NPCs actually play a significant role in the quest – they existed in the first The Legend of Zelda game, but nowhere near this capacity. And because the NES was more limited in space, they could only give you short messages, which all but guaranteed memorizing them until you can interpret them. Veteran Zelda fans will also notice that remakes are starting to make the text speeds faster (this is also a thing in the aforementioned recently remade Majora’s Mask for 3DS), so playing this game led to a lot of frustration there. I can’t tell you how many times I read something, then went back to read a certain part again, got frustrated, left the area, came back for text, and then remembered I just doomed myself to another slow scrolling text simply because I forgot something.
Then, of course, there are all sorts of things where the game doesn’t feel the obligation to explain something to you. Take the lantern in the early stages of the game: when I tried this game for the first time a few weeks ago, I repeatedly kept finding caves that would murder me, and I would have no idea why. I knew there was some item I needed, but instinct from older games forced me to consider the possibility that I had to tough it out and survive one cave long enough to get the relevant item, rather than just come back later. Time and time again, this mentality tortured me. ,
You’ll be sorry when I can see.
Of course, I wasn’t completely dying due to incompetence; some of the frustration came from the early, primitive fighting mechanics. The ability to hit things is extremely limited, and until you learn the way to kill each individual monster they will hurt you. A lot. Luckily, I found these nice ladies that invite me in to their hut, close the door, and do something to me that makes my life bar go up. No explanation there either, other than “Please let me help you. Come inside.” Okay, this is a scene that I probably would have considered innocuous had I played this as a child, but years of Grand Theft Auto have ruined me.
At least the game becomes a little more manageable as you go. Monsters that were an enigma before eventually become easy to kill, and continuing from a Game Over allows you to keep the level ups you obtained prior, giving you a better chance of surviving the next time around.
This game is ideal for someone who has been spoiled by modern day Nintendo, and needs to be taken down a peg. The next time you have a friend who tells you Zelda games are too easy, shove this in their direction.
A screenshot really doesn’t do justice to the laugh of Ganon that torments you here – this may be more frustrating than laughter of the dog from Duck Hunt.