The Legend of Zelda [ Page 3 ]

The History of Zelda Documentary

Nintendo Published a History of Zelda Documentary that was originally released to Japan. A few years ago some members at Zelda Informer translated it and posted it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. It's a really great run through of the series and winds things up talking about Wind Waker and a very lengthy discussion with the games creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The captioning isn't large so you might have to squint some but it's a good documentary I recommend.

Head on over to the time machine because it's time to hit the nostalgia button!

Would You Be Convinced To By The Legend Of Zelda By Reading The Back Of The Box?

Uh hell yeah I would have. My parents? They'd take some convincing but eventually I was allowed to by The Legend of Zelda. The premise of RetroLiberty's convinced series is to see if you'd buy the game based on the box art and description yet The Legend of Zelda was featured in many issues of Nintendo Power, conversations with my friends and in store kiosks so I find this one hard to say for sure. Young me would have wanted this one due to the gold box art, art and dungeon screenshots but Zelda was so huge it's hard to say what I would have chose aside from all that.

What about you? Were you convinced?

Take This Play Through of Retro Classic Legend of Zelda

I've been feeling pretty horribly recently after coming down with the flu for the second time this year. Having the flu is a miserable process during which you find out how much unfortunate material can come out of your nose. I've been spending quite a lot of time resting and have had a few hours of time to fill. I've wanted to replay some classic NES titles, something Travis inspired me to do after he started his recent series 80's reruns(looking forward to the next installment). I decided to not cut any corners and head back to the grand daddy NES classic The Legend of Zelda. I am not going to spend much time aggrandizing the game, we all know how awesome it is.... Read All I've been feeling pretty horribly recently after coming down with the flu for the second time this year. Having the flu is a miserable process during which you find out how much unfortunate material can come out of your nose. I've been spending quite a lot of time resting and have had a few hours of time to fill. I've wanted to replay some classic NES titles, something Travis inspired me to do after he started his recent series 80's reruns(looking forward to the next installment). I decided to not cut any corners and head back to the grand daddy NES classic The Legend of Zelda. I am not going to spend much time aggrandizing the game, we all know how awesome it is. Instead I want to talk a bit about how I play the game and how that process went this time around.

First things first, The Legend of Zelda can be completed quickly if you have a good guide or know what you are doing. I spent about 5 days of an hour here and there and I had it completed quickly. As someone that is now enjoying smaller games, The Legend of Zelda shines here. I don't believe Nintendo set out to create a short game but due to NES limitations the game isn't very long.

The Legend of Zelda is an open world game such that you can complete certain dungeons out of order and spend a lot of time in the overworld before you start dungeon one. My typical play through finds me collecting the blue candle, shield, blue ring, blue sword, bombs, arrow, letter and red potion and bait before I start the first dungeon. When I was young I used to go directly to dungeon two to get the silver boomerang as that was MUCH more useful than the wooden one you get in dungeon one. From there I'd nab the bracelet and keep going to each dungeon until I could nab the master sword.

One useful thing that helps out quite a bit is overpowering yourself by collecting a bunch of stuff when you have the ability to as opposed to a bit at a time. The game ramps up pretty quickly in dungeon 6 and at that point you can't get the master sword yet so the dungeon is just really hard. So do yourself a favor and get everything you can before you enter a dungeon, it will help considerably.

The Legend of Zelda contains some really interesting dungeon design. The first few dungeons are good at dropping you into the game and to my taste get a little samey during the middle runs until dungeon seven, eight and nine which are superb. Dungeon seven is a standout in that instead of giving you something entirely new as most of the dungeons did to that point, it combines many things you've already seen. It also takes the difficulty down and I found it a very nice change of pace. Dungeon 8 brings the difficulty back and enforces that you must kill room after room of blue knights, which are in my view the hardest enemy in Zelda until you get the red ring.

http://www.gamedynamo.com/images/galleries/photo/966/the-legend-of-zelda-nes-screenshots-09.JPG

The final level mixes things up even more by bringing maze like mechanics to bear. It also contains the red ring, something you should immediately try to get as it makes completing the rest of dungeon much simpler.

The Legend of Zelda is a great game but has a few design points I thought might not have worked as they may have intended or I haven't seen in any Zelda game since. For instance you can collect keys and those keys will work in all of the dungeons. You can also purchase keys in shops. The Legend of Zelda also has dungeons where you don't need to visit every room to collect the important items. What this has the effect of doing is giving you a glut of keys if you know which rooms are useless. For instance, after dungeon two I had about 6 keys. This meant that I had to spend little time collecting them in later dungeons, which is part of the Zelda puzzling mechanic. Later on you receive a magical key in dungeon 8 that allows you to unlock an infinite amount of locked doors. This is handy for dungeon nine and made it a much speedier process but practically speaking, you can get this behavior after dungeon two by hoarding keys.

One element I noticed this play through is how hard it is to hit enemies without taking damage yourself. I realized over time that one of the reason the boomerang exists isn't just to collect hard to reach items but make it so you can kill enemies without taking as much damage as you would otherwise. The stun first and sword attack is critical in this game as it isn't in later Zelda titles. For instance in The Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past the boomerang can be used to stun and it's useful but it's not as critical as it is in this game to stay alive.

If you have any thoughts about the Legend of Zelda or anything i've written about let me know in the comments.

Should The Legend of Zelda Franchise Feature Zelda?

In this recent episode of Game/Show Jamin asks "Why can't Link be a girl?" And whereas that's not a bad question, i'd rather flip it to ask why Zelda can't be the hero of a game named after her? She seems capable and I bet Link could use a vacation. Jamin asks the question if people may be turned off by Link being a female and as I thought about it I imagine some would be. That said those people are more rare these days and getting a great Zelda game featuring Zelda or Femlink would be too interesting to avoid.

I was talking about this the other day with friends and one of them mentioned Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon as a game that features Zelda as the main character. I... Read All

Netflix Is Developing a Live-Action ‘Legend of Zelda’ Series

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-GV709_zelda_G_20150206133146.jpg

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/02/06/legend-of-zelda-netflix-series/

“The Legend of Zelda,” one of the most popular videogame series of all time, is in the works as a television show at Netflix.

The video streaming service is in the early stages of developing a live action series based on “Zelda,” about an ordinary boy named Link who must rescue a princess named Zelda and save a fantasy world called Hyrule, said a person familiar with the matter. As it seeks writers to work on the show, Netflix is describing it as “Game of Thrones” for a family audience, this person said.

My first thought "Oh no... this can't be anything but bad." But, who knows. I will check it... Read All

vdogmr25 wrote on 02/06/2015 at 11:06pm

With 10 being optimistic, I'm gonna give my excitement for this about a 4. I really, REALLY hope this turns out well, if it happens, but after all the video game movies and such that have completely flopped (looking at you Uwe Boll), I find it hard to be hopeful. I want to be proven wrong, though.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/06/2015 at 11:46pm

Sounds cool and I get your reference at the end of your post. The thing that doesn't make sense to me is the "describing it as a 'Game of Thrones' for a family audience." That's because Game of Thrones isn't what I'd call something for a "family audience" since it's rated "Mature" or similar due to it's graphic language, violence, and nudity. Still, if the series can be as great as Game of Thrones, then it will be totally awesome, though I think it will be very difficult to achieve such awesomeness.

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 02/07/2015 at 12:05am

I'm hoping by Game of Thrones, they're meaning it's epic and sprawling with multiple story lines weaving throughout it. But that's a really lofty goal.

I too want to be proven wrong!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 02/07/2015 at 02:01am

Whaaaaaaaaat? How... How are they planning on making a live action Zelda movie? I mean I could see an animated or CGI Zelda movie being cool if it was done right because you can get away with a lot more stuff that way. But live action? And saying it's going to be like Game of Thrones sounds terrible. You can practically see some Netflix executive being like "Hey people really like these Zelda games and they really like that Game of Thrones stuff too, so if we just mash them together people will love it!"
What the hell? Like you guys I really would love to be proven wrong here, but I'm setting my expectations pretty low here. Considering how protective Nintendo is of their IP I won't be surprised if Nintendo ends up killing the project.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/07/2015 at 10:17pm

Game of Thrones is more than graphic language, violence, and nudity. It's a medieval-style action/drama, and as Adam said, has an epic and sprawling world.

And yeah, my anticipation for this is quite low. Kudos to them for trying something, though. And since I already pay for Netflix I'll give it a shot. But this doesn't seem like something that would work on paper or in practice.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 02/10/2015 at 01:04am

I'll play the optimist. Netflix has a solid track record with series shows (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Bojack Horseman), which is a good reason to believe they aren't simply trying to capitalize on the Zelda name. I think they'll take that same quality into whatever they do next, even if that's a Zelda series. With Powers coming to PS4 and the pending Halo series coming to Xbox One, this might actually be a good move for them. The thing that seems most sketchy is the article from the original post. A lot of speculation, and a caveat that "they could end up canceling" gives a click-bait vibe.

jaelte wrote on 02/15/2015 at 05:01am

I would be interested, but I'm not sure I can trust the source. We'll see if this gains any traction, I guess.

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The Legend Of Zelda Monopoly CE Unboxing

Oh that sweet Hyrule board game unboxing. The game looks beautiful, I just wish it weren't Monopoly and I would actually pick it up. Like some kind of Hero Quest adventury game featuring different colored Links working together in some kind of threaded mission based game?

That said, if you are a Monopoly and Zelda fan, this seems like the right kind of Christmas gift for you.

Link's Style Over The Ages

How Nintendo has drawn Link has changed from game to game. This image references the different stages of his design and sort of shows off how his style varies from consoles to handhelds releases. It seems that the console versions feature a much more adult Link as the consoles have him at a younger age.

I imagine when we get a Zelda game supported by the Oculus Rift Link will be well into his late 30's.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 02:23am

Is this art from game manuals?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/25/2014 at 02:34am

Not entirely sure, it may be culled from a few sources like manuals and Nintendo Power art.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 03:15am

Ah, that makes sense. I had forgotten about Ninetendo Power.

..I had forgotten about Nintendo Power?!? How *old* am I now?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/25/2014 at 03:33am

Too old?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:34am

Awesome!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 04:26pm

You know, for as much of a Zelda fan as I was/am, I just realized that I've not played hardly any of the games! I've only played The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening... that's less than a quarter of all Zelda games.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/26/2014 at 04:38am

Yeah, I haven't played many of the modern Zelda's since Twilight Princess and I didn't beat it. It was great, I plan on coming back to it.. Someday.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/30/2014 at 06:23pm

I'm glad Link got past that awkward no pants stage...

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/31/2014 at 06:59pm

Hahahahaha, yeah me too.

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ZeldaVR: The Legend of Zelda BETA on the Oculus Rift

This is a VR clone of The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The gameplay and artwork are virtually identical to the original NES classic, however in this version you see the world through Link's eyes, in all of it's virtual 3D 8-bit glory. Explore the world, find weapons, kill enemies, collect items, discover secrets, buy upgrades, delve into dungeons, defeat bosses, restore the Triforce, and rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon.

First thought:
Zelda in VR? That's so rad!
Second thought:
Hmmm, 8-bit graphics don't translate well
Third thought:
Has this guy never played Zelda before?
Final thought:
I'd like to see more

Any thoughts on this? The... Read All

Game/Show: Does Legend of Zelda Exploit Nostalgia?

"The Legend of Zelda has been massively popular for over 30 years running. People LOVE the series, creating fan art, cosplay, and diligently purchasing each new release in the series. But does this Zelda series exploit our feelings of nostalgia? We remember playing as kids, and the music, world, and even sounds bring back warm fuzzy feelings. Are the creators riding that success and using our childhood memories to their own gain?"

I would say that the Zelda series is absolutely aiming for nostalgia. That said, like Jamin states, Nostalgia isn't a bad thing. Personally i'd like the Zelda franchise to take a bit of a different direction occasionally BUT then they release... Read All

Pacman Mashed Up With A Slot Machine!

A very cool video that explores the random paterns of enemies and more in The Legend if Zelda.