The first video game I ever owned, thanks Mom and Dad !
The Bad : I will never have such great memories of playing a game ever again.
When writing a review, it's obvious that you are rating a game, from sound to graphics and so on. I don't feel like I'm reviewing a game here though. It feels as if I'm reviewing my childhood memories, and those can't be rated. I've played a lot of games in my life, some were great, and some were special. For example, I played Disgaea for the PS2, and I found it to be great. Unfortunately, I did not share this great game play experience with anyone else. So I really don't have a point in talking about Disgaea with friends or relatives. I actually think that game is better than Final Fantasy X, but, I played FFX with my brother and close friends. We were all really into that game when we played it, it was like a bond, and with that comes a lot of special memories. To me, it's not always about what game is better, it's about your memories with a game, and you can't really put that into a rating.
That brings me to Zeruda no Densetsu ( Legend of Zelda ). I actually feel that Zeruda no Densetsu : Kamigami no Triforce ( A link to the past ) is a better game than this one. To a new Zelda fan, I would recommend that title over this one. But the original LOZ is the first game I ever owned. I was eating Nintendo cereal ( which may of well been called Miyamoto Cereal ) at the time, and I saw LOZ and Link for the first time. They showed a couple screen shots on the back of the box, and I thought the game looked so interesting. Not just the graphics, but the top down view, the dungeon designs, and of course, the young boy dressed in green. I believe this was in August of 89, as I asked for the game for my only birthday present, which was on my first birthday. This was it, MY GAME. My sisters had their games, they had Super Mario and they had their friends to share games with, but I had the only game I needed, The Legend of Zelda !
Now take that into account, and you can see why no game will ever be as good to me. The game blew me away immediately. Right when you turn it on and you see the LOZ title screen, with the classic music, and a brief introduction to the plot alongside all the items you can collect. In the game, you start off by entering a cave, where an old man gives you a sword. After that, it's up to you. When legendary producer Miyamoto Shigeru ( yes, his last name goes first ), made Zelda, he wanted it to be a completely different playing from his other smash hit, the Super Mario Bros. Series. This was really a unique game play experience at the time.Typically, all games up to this point had been score based, or you start from level 1 and progress to the end. LOZ on the other hand could be played in many ways. I remember this turned off some casual gamers, as they had no idea what to do or where to go. Which in turn is the beauty of the game, going out and exploring the fields of Hyrule, while listening to possibly the most recognized song in gaming history, the Overworld theme. I remember coming across secrets and exploring dungeons completely on my own. There was no internet to guide you on your way. I have literally bombed every piece of wall in that game, hoping to find a hole where I would be rewarded with a heart container, or an enemy who would give me 30 rupees. Unfortunately sometimes, there would be an old man who would tell you to pay you for the damage you have done.
Nothing beats finding a new item or heart container. Funny how 20 years later gamers are still given that feeling. I think this game is under appreciated in a sense. Typically, people consider The Orarina of Time and A Link to the Past to be the best games in the series. Well I won't argue, those games are amazing, but will someone give this game more credit ? Look at these trends that are STILL used in Zelda games today, that were started with the original :
The characters : Link, Zelda, and Gannon.
The memory : First game to feature a save feature.
The music : Kondo Koji's first LOZ appearance, not only did the Overworld
theme start here, but so did the secret and item acquired jingle sound effects. Dungeon 9 may have one of the best Zelda tracks ever made.
The dungeons : Dungeons are awesome ! This is where they began for the series . This game also featured a 2nd quest where all the dungeons where changed completely.
The items : In almost every Zelda game you get a better sword and shield, you get the boomerang, bow and arrow, bombs, rupees, compass, dungeon map, heart containers, some sort of recorder of flute, potions, power glove, master key, and fairies. All of these are still used in games like Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass.
The plot : The Triforce started here, and just about every LOZ title involves the Triforce and Hyrule to some extent.
The view : All 2D LOZ titles use the top down view, except of course with Zeruda II : Link no Bouken ( The Adventure of Link ).
Difficulty : This game had it's share of difficult moments. There were no quarter hearts to be taken away. In fact, there's almost no chance of completing some dungeons without the blue ring. Zelda games to follow like Zelda II and ALttP were both difficult like this game. Unfortunately more recent titles have become a lot easier.
So not only did this game innovate ideas used for over the past 20 years and counting, these ideas were all brand new at the time. I am not taking anything away from other Zelda titles, as they all add something to the series, but just look at the list of ideas this game added to the Zelda formula. Each game follows this layout to a certain extent. Start off with no sword, explore your way through Hyrule, find secrets, explore dungeons, defeat bosses and become stronger through items and heart containers.
So to fans of The LOZ series, if you have played other titles ( I noticed Ocarina of Time is the first game a lot of Zelda fans have played ), your going to have to give credit to the original. Play it realizing the era that it came out in, and all the things it did for video games. DON"T compare it to later or recent Zelda games. Thanks for reading.