As many of you may be aware, I came very late to the Zelda party. In fact, one might say I crashed the party. I tried to get in many times over the years, but it seemed as though the DJ never played my tune. Or in my case, the songs being spun just didn't grab me until I finally understood the lyrics. Whatever the case, The Legend of Zelda finally clicked with me when playing the original game for the August 2016 RF Generation Play Through, and I further cemented my newfound appreciation for the series when I played this game, in January 2017. I revisit it again here for this video review, and still find myself enchanted.
What was your first Legend of Zelda experience, and better yet, when did the magic capture you? Which game was it, and what about it captivated you?
[img width=350 height=576]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-231/bf/U-231-S-00010-A.jpg[/img]
The box art can't even begin to intimate how beautiful this game is.
Ah, The Legend of Zelda series. Legendary to most, and rightfully so, though not for everyone. I consider myself among the uneducated, when it comes to the adventures of Link (sorry, pun intended). I had very little exposure to the original game in the series, as my friends didn't all have it, and it wasn't a good coop or competitive game, so it fell to the wayside in favor of Double Dragon, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario, among many others. One of my acquaintances from school had The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventures of Link that we messed around with once or twice, but with the short sword range and tricky combat, we never got very far the 2-3 times we played it together. As mentioned in my review of Link's Awakening, I've never been a "Zelda guy" in any sense. I bought Link's Awakening DX as a new release for the Game Boy Color, played it some and shelved it because I didn't understand the nature of the puzzles. I played and enjoyed Ocarina of Time on my brother-in-law's N64, but didn't finish it due to not having access. My first real foray into the series was the 2016 RF Generation play-through of the original game. I fell in love with it, and that led me to finally playing through the only original Game Boy outing in the series, linked above (minor pun intended). After anticipating the release of the Nintendo Switch, it only seemed natural that my newfound love of the Zelda franchise would culminate in playing the newly released Breath of the Wild, right?
Continue reading The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild
[img width=319 height=320]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jy4p9ZTyQdA/WJFM9lYXMVI/AAAAAAAAAqw/RmHBIuHj9Eo9e5bTJW_0cVViEUniEzEpACLcB/s320/Links%2BAwakening%2Bbox.jpg[/img] Box art shamelessly stolen from MobyGames.
It doesn't get much more iconic than seeing The Legend of Zelda
in that stylized font, with the Triforce shield and Master Sword.
I was never a "Zelda kid" at all. I played a lot of NES games, because most of my friends had a NES console in their house, and as an introverted, geeky, chubby guy in the early 90's, gaming was the common escape I could share with my friends after school and on weekends. But since we played games together, we usually opted for games that either included 2-player cooperative modes, 2-player competitive modes, or some form of 2-player mode where you would take turns, such as Double Dragon or Super Mario Bros. 3. I occasionally dabbled in other genres when my friends fell asleep at 2 AM during a sleepover, but I usually just stuck with platformers, shooters, and action or puzzle games, because they were the kind of "pick up and play" games that I gravitated toward. For me, the very idea of The Legend of Zelda seemed foreign to me, because my idea of an adventure game was King's Quest, which I played obsessively on my family's home computer.
Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, 1993
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