The Legend of Zelda

System: NES
Release Date: 1987
Published By: Nintendo
Reviewed by: Darien
Rating:

The famous series began here, and has not, to my mind, ever surpassed it. The Legend of Zelda is a top-down adventure through a large and varied overworld, featuring nine dungeons of increasing difficulty and complexity and a sizable assortment of items and monsters. The game is mostly freeform exploration; it doesn't force you to proceed in any particular direction, or to play the dungeons in any particular order (save for the last).

The gameplay is genuinely top-notch, whether you're fighting, exploring, or solving one of the game's marvellously organic puzzles. Link's arsenal in this game is three levels of swords, plus bombs, a bow, two different boomerangs, and the wand, along with several other items that aren't generally used for combat. Hidden treasure is all over, in the form of rupees, heart containers, or increased carrying capacity. The monsters don't act with any type of intelligence, but that hardly decreases the diffculty; you will often find yourself fighting whole crowds of them in very narrow areas.

Graphically, the game could hardly fail to appear dated, though it bears noting that it wasn't outstanding when it came out, either. There are, however, very few flaws in the visual design, and there shouldn't be any difficulty in recognising important sprites. The sound is similarly dated, but was stronger to begin with; the music and sound effects here form the basis for the music and effects of the entire series.

To talk about the story of a game from 1987 is somewhat ridiculous; in keeping with most of its bretheren, The Legend of Zelda presents you with one screenful of tolerably-translated exposition and sends you on your way. The several talking NPCs you'll encounter are, as a rule, translated just well enough that you'll be able to figure out what they're talking about, but the space is limited, and does yield some famously nonsensical text ("Grumble grumble").

In all, there's not really anything bad to say about this game. It may seem a bit easy to the true veteran, but then, once you've beaten the game, you'll unlock the second quest. Best of luck with that.

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