The Legend of Zelda

don't think there are many gamers out there that haven't even played one of the many games in the Legend of Zelda series let alone the game that started it all. However anyone new to the series probably never experienced this gem - maybe even felt it was inferior. Although the newer titles may muscle this title over with flashy graphics and more massive maps with lots more to do, The Legend of Zelda is one challenging quest for the ages.

Now the plot may not be as complicated and involved as later installments, but for a NES game, it gets the job done. In the land of Hyrule, there is an almighty object called the Triforce. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the land, the Prince of Darkness called Ganon stole a section of the golden object called the Triforce of Power. Princess Zelda feared that Ganon would attempt to steal the rest of the Triforce, so she took the Triforce of Wisdom, broke it into eight parts, and locked them away in eight dungeons. Unfortunately Zelda was captured by Ganon shortly after, so you'll take the role of Link, a young elfin lad. As Link you must venture into the massive land of Hyrule, recover the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, and save the day.

I shudder at the thought, but there are probably a few of you out there - you people that have never played a Zelda game in your life. For you rarely found people, you'd be interested to know Zelda has no experience system like other action-RPGs. Yes, that means there isn't any reason to aimlessly wander around the land of Hyrule and kill monsters in order to improve yourself. Instead you must aimlessly wander around the land of Hyrule looking for items to improve yourself. To add to your health, you'll need to locate giant hearts. Now you newer Zelda fans will notice that you'll obtain more health by finding only one heart rather than the four of the later installments. Link will also pack an extra punch and slaughter his foes more quickly with the discovery of stronger swords, and to take more pain, Link will wear rings that cut the amount of damage your opponents deal. With these items, Link will be one lean mean tunic wearing machine!

So we begin our adventure on the massive world map of Hyrule. On the overhead view of the screen you can flawlessly maneuver Link to a nearby cave, which will contain your much needed wooden sword. Move to another screen and you'll find some beasts to battle. Now it's time to kick some ass! With a press of a button, Link can poke his sword toward any pesky foe. Also if you happen to have full health, then a pure beam of holy energy shoots from your blade to conqueror any devastating baddies it may touch. How can Ganon's minions compete with that?! They won't stand a chance from the awesomeness of our protagonist - especially with his shield. By only standing still, you can deflect projectile attacks that come in front of you. Unfortunately your sides and back are vulnerable to the claws and jaws of any monster you'll meet. Sometimes during a fight an enemy may drop a pocket watch. Moving onto this item will stop every foe in their tracks and make the entire pack of monsters a breeze to kill.

Link can also utilize the items in his petite inventory to combat the evil forces of Ganon. You can equip one item to the B button, while others will work automatically. For example, you'll need to equip your boomerang, but as soon as you touch a dock, Link will get out his trusty raft. The equipable items can be very useful in sticky situations. For example the boomerang momentarily freezes an enemy so you may quickly slash them to bits. The bomb on the other hand creates a huge blast that obliterates everything it touches. Unfortunately the fact that you can only equip one item at a time cause constant trips to your inventory window and pretty much can slow down the pace of combat.

The land of Hyrule itself is gigantic. Not only are there nine dungeons that you must complete, but there are a variety of secret nooks and crannies hidden throughout the area. Sometimes you'll need to ignite a bomb to blow away the rocky exterior of a cave or use your candle to burn bushes that conceals a secret passage. Sometimes you'll unearth a moblin in exile who'll bribe you with rupees to keep quiet, while other times you'll encounter shops selling the much needed staples of the game. Why you'll even find wise old men who'll give you some interesting information - that is if you have the wallet to loosen their tongues. Trying to fully explore Hyrule may be a trying task, but the spoils in the end of it all will greatly aid Link on the last leg of his quest.

Eventually you'll have to venture into the spooky and dank dungeons to claim ownership of the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. Don't be too worried about them because they're the best portion of your adventure. As Link, you'll need to guide yourself through the many rooms looking for several things and killing every monster along the way. The first thing you'll want to keep your eye out for is one of the many keys scattered throughout the area. As you've probably guessed, keys are used to open locked doors, but as soon as you've unlocked a door, your key is gone. You'll also want to find the dungeon's map and compass. The latter reveals the location of the Triforce piece while the map shows you most of the rooms of the dungeon. The last item you can discover is the dungeon's treasure. In each dungeon, there is a special item that you MUST have at some point during your quest. Find this items NOW so that you may avoid a headache later. Anyway, back to finding that piece. Attempting to make your way to the flashing red dot of your compass can prove bothersome later on because you'll discover a dead end. It took me quite awhile before I found out that you can blow up certain walls as in the later installments of Zelda. However there are no distinguishable marks on the walls like the later games making certain dungeons are serious pain. Still, I loved blazing through these dangerous halls of evil.

Link appears in the quarters of the sleeping golden object. You valiantly strut forth and grasp your hands on the Triforce piece. . . . .well that's not exactly how it all happens. First you'll need to defeat one of big nasty boss. What, you thought there'd be this object of power standing out in the open unguarded? Anyway, there will be a boss outside of every piece of the Triforce. Compared to the normal fights in the game, bosses are a piece of cake. They all have relatively stupid attack patterns. For example one boss scurries left and right while opening and closing its eye. To defeat the boss you have to shoot arrows at your foe when its eye is open while dodging slow fireballs. YAWN! I didn't have any trouble at all during bosses - it's the large packs of enemies you want to watch out for.

Now don't get the wrong idea here if you've gone to Hyrule before (on SNES or even N64). Zelda is no walk in the park! This is probably one of the more difficult adventures of Link. The first thing you'll notice is that your sword's range is VERY short. You'll need to move very closely to an enemy and they can quickly just walk into you. Eventually you may take note in the fact that you'll seldom come across stray hearts to replenish your heart. In the newer titles like Majora's Mask, those things can be found like dirt! Not here! Remember those empty bottles? Not one in this game. Instead you can buy healing potions that restore you're health once or twice. New Zelda fans may need to take some time to adjust to the difficulty of this game - especially on second quest. Yes, that's right - the first game in the series had replay. After beating the game, you can play through with a slightly world map and completely new dungeon layouts. Fortunately the new layouts present a much better than challenge than the already "moderately hard" first game. You'll be playing this one some time if you want to tackle second quest.

Graphically Zelda isn't that much better looking than your standard 8-bit adventure. There are a bunch of tiny sprites with plain colors to represent your valiant hero and his enemies. There is minimal animation to flesh out the action and the backgrounds aren't that great. The scenery mostly constants of the same petite square of rock or vegetation over and over again. In addition there is some slight slowdown in the game, but it's so rare that it shouldn't pose too much of a problem.

The music is excellent. . . .the first time you hear it. Unfortunately like many NES titles, there are very few tracks in the game. They're all awesome tunes and all, but you'll have to listen to them over and over and over and OVER again until you just want to throw the cartridge out the window and let the neighbor's dog drop a big load on it. . . . .but then you get to the final dungeon with new music and all is well. The sound effects are fantastic. I absolutely adore abundant cool little noises from killing monsters, zapping foes, throwing your boomerang, and even collecting a shiny new rupee.

The Legend of Zelda has to be my all time favorite NES game. The dungeons, the combat, the items, the entire experience - you must feel it all! All you newcomers to the series should most definitely play through the game that started it all. Hell, I started with Zelda: A Link to the Past and I still found this to be an extraordinary title. So try it out -it'll be quite rewarding.