Why is this game so maligned?

User Rating: 8.4 | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link NES
By Mugen76 | Review Date:
When it comes to the Legend of Zelda series, the queen mother of all "save the princess" franchises, there has been a lot of great games like A Link to the Past, and also crap, but those games aren't real Zelda games anyway, so they're not mentioning. In the true Nintendo-developed series, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is always seen as the ugly duckling of the series. Because the gameplay was so radically different and because it strayed from the first Zelda's winning formula, many people (including one co-worker of mine who shall remain anonymous) see it as a horrible Zelda game. The truth is that it's not. I think us Zelda fans have been spoiled by the extremely high quality of all the games. Not to say that this one isn't, but it certainly doesn't retain much of the good qualities of the original. The problem with this game is that it did a lot of things different, something we saw a lot of in NES game sequels in the United States (case in point, Castlevania II, Super Mario Bros. 2).

The game starts with you playing, once again, as Link, a young man who is Hyrule's savior after he sent Ganon to the grave and restored peace to the land. However, not all is well because gangs of Moblins are running all over the place, and Zelda has been put in an eternal sleep from which she will not awaken unless Link returns 6 crystals to their respective palaces. This is all part of the Moblins' plans, however, because if they are able to kill Link, then the Moblins can use his blood to resurrect Ganon. A much more intricate story this time around, but what it boils down to is another "save the princess" game.

The graphics are much advanced from the original, which is to be expected since the sequel was 2 years removed from original in 1986. Link looks good and even more elfish than his rookie appearance, and the enemies are not all cookie-cutter, and pallette swaps are a bit less common, but are still rampant.

What really made some Zelda purists sick when it came to Zelda II was the radically different combat system. The old top-down screens? All gone. What we have instead is a hybrid of platforming and RPG leveling up elements. The new battle system is not perfect, though. Once you get to a certain amount of experience points, you have a choice of leveling up either your life meter, your magic bar, or your attack power. There are no new, more powerful swords to collect, no Heart Containers to be had. This really makes exploration a real moot point, especially when you consider the non-linear nature of the original Zelda. The leveling system is also such that it unbalances your character, which is a real pain. For every 2 levels you gain with your life meter and magic meter, you only gain 1 with your attack power.

At the end of the day, this game is indeed the ugly duckling of the true Zelda series, but the game by no means horrible. The challenge will keep you coming back, and, as with all Zelda games, once you're hooked, you're hooked until you beat the game.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link gets a 3 out of 5.

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