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Classic Games (Games) Nintendo Games

The Legend of Zelda Turns 25 98

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-dangerous-to-go-alone-take-this dept.
harrymcc writes "The Legend of Zelda originated 25 years ago today, when Nintendo released the original game for its Famicom console in Japan on February 21st, 1986. Benj Edwards is celebrating with a look at some of the franchise's odder sidelights, from a version broadcast by satellite to the unexpected true story of where the game got its name." If you're in the mood for more nostalgia, 1Up has a collection of articles delving into the past two and a half decades of Zelda. And since it's cool, here's a link (sorry) to a guy who hacked an oscilloscope to display Gameboy games, using 1993's Link's Awakening as a demonstration.
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The Legend of Zelda Turns 25

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  • I bought the Legend of Zelda Collection, which included two NES titles and two N64 titles, and the only one I truly liked was Ocarina of Time because of the elaborate back story and time travel elements. (I was unimpressed with Wind Waker too.)

    And yet this series has rabid fans.
    Maybe I just don't like puzzles.
    (shrug)
    Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.

    • Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.

      For what it's worth, that was the only title in the franchise that I ever actually enjoyed. So, maybe you just missed the diamond in the rough. ;)

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Twinbee ( 767046 )

        Same here. Only tried the 3D version of Zelda64 though. Too much roaming, not enough action, lack of detail in the graphics, and general 3D unfun compared to the SNES 2D version I find.

        Are the other 2D variants (which I haven't tried) not as good ad Zelda 3 on the SNES? Any idea why?

        • The GameBoy ones are very classy, following in the footsteps and formula of A Link to the Past. Zelda 2, which has the distinction of being a sidescroller with a Dragon Warrior-style overworld, is generally considered the dark sheep of the family. The original Zelda 1 would probably feel very archaic to you, given that it's an ancient NES game. But later 2D games, like the Oracle of Seasons/Ages and Link's Awakening are great stuff, and newer DS games borrow even more heavily from A Link to the Past in styl

        • Re:Anybody think LOZ is kinda boring? (Score:4, Informative)

          by VGPowerlord ( 621254 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @05:56PM (#35272326)

          Are the other 2D variants (which I haven't tried) not as good ad Zelda 3 on the SNES? Any idea why?

          As good? No. Zelda 3 is still the best 2D Zelda.

          That doesn't mean there are no good ones, though.

          Of the 2D Zelda games, the one other that is closest to Zelda 3 is likely:

          Minish Cap - Game Boy Advance - The art is nice, the music is a throwback to earlier Zelda games, and it uses abilities to lock off areas of the world map until you have the equipment to deal with it.

          The transport bird from Zelda 3 makes a reappearance, although you have to unlock its target locations by finding specific stones on the overworld.

          One of the dungeons is actually a throwback to Zelda 1, right up to the music and sound effects in it.

          It also uses a number of new items rather than just rehashing the same items from every other Zelda game.

          ------

          Other good 2D Zelda games are.

          Oracle of Ages - Game Boy Color - Upgraded version of the Link's Awakening DX engine. Graphics are still somewhat more primitive than Zelda 3.

          The item trading sequence unlocks the level 2 sword.

          Uses the time portal mechanic instead of the Dark World mechanic of Zelda 3, but it works out much the same.

          Has a few new items to the series, but most are shared with Oracles of Seasons.

          Makes one continuous story with Oracle of Seasons.

          --

          Oracle of Seasons - Game Boy Color - Same engine as Oracle of Ages, but the game isn't as good. Instead of the previously mentioned time portal mechanic, it instead allows you to change the season for the current area; there are four versions of every outside area.

          The two Oracles games form one single storyline with two final bosses after each game's respective boss, but you will only encounter said bosses if you finished one game and used the code it gave you when starting a new game on the other.

          --
          Link's Awakening (DX) - Game Boy (Color) - DX version is in color. Graphics are somewhat more primitive than Zelda 3.

          Uses a lot of the same of the same items as Zelda 3.

          Engine features (these are also found in the Oracles games):
          Has two item slots instead of one, but the Sword is now an item you have to equip. Shields are no longer automatic.

          Rooms do not scroll, each room on a map is exactly one game screen wide and one game screen tall.

          Item Trading sequence, which in this game is required in order to locate the last boss in the final dungeon.

          Link does not start with the sword. It must be found first.

          Some dungeons require keys before you can enter.

          If you have a dungeon's compass, the game will play a tone if you enter a room that has a key in it.

          Every dungeon has a mini-boss. Beating the mini-boss unlocks a portal to the dungeon entrance.

          --
          The Legend of Zelda - NES - Fairly good, but very unintuitive in places. Badly in need of a remake.

          Most items from the NES Zelda went on to appear in the same or upgraded form in Zelda 3. Best example: The Red Candle was upgraded to the Lantern in Zelda 3.

          ------

          And the other 2D Zelda games that you may or may not want to avoid:

          The Adventure of Link - NES - Exchanges top-down view for side-scrolling view. Black sheep of the family. OK, but doesn't feel like a Zelda game.

          Phantom Hourglass - DS - Sorta fun, but the touch-screen controls means you may have a bad case of handinthewayitis. Areas are separated on the world map, and you must navigate by boat, but it doesn't suck like Wind Waker's boat did.

          Has one really irritating, timed dungeon that you need to visit repeatedly.

          Spirit Tracks - DS - Somewhat fun. Same as previous entry, but without the tedious dungeon, plus your main mode of transportation around the world map has changed from a ship to a... train. Also involves teaming controlling a second character at certain points using the touchscreen.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Raenex ( 947668 )

        So, maybe you just missed the diamond in the rough.

        That phrase doesn't mean what you think:

        http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diamond+in+the+rough [merriam-webster.com]

        The "rough" part refers to an uncut/unpolished diamond.

    • Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.

      You really should. The first three Zeldas were the only ones I liked. The third is basically a refinement of the first. The second one was a bit of an experiment with the side scrolling, but the physics and play control were great.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by morari ( 1080535 )

      The original Legend of Zelda was fabulous for it's time. I still enjoy it today, but that is undoubtedly influenced by nostalgia to some degree or another. That said, "A Link to the Past" has always been my favorite. All of the 3D installments feel pretty much the same, even if Wind Waker was fantastic to look at.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by grumbel ( 592662 )

      The biggest problem with the Zelda series is that it hasn't really advanced, it still uses at its core the same game mechanics and story elements that it did 25 years ago and while that wasn't a problem for say the first 15 years of Zelda (tech improved, 3D, etc. made it still feel fresh enough), the series really shows its age by now, not so much because its bad, but because we have seen the same old stuff for the last two decades. Fighting Ganon again and rescuing Zelda again, just is kind of a snore by n

      • That really depends on what you want out of your gaming experience though. While I find that yes, the Zelda games aren't incredibly innovative per se, they are probably the most well put together single player games in existence. Everything from start to finish feels polished and you just want to explore. Thats as much the mark of a good game as anything that is "innovative"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by grumbel ( 592662 )

          Everything from start to finish feels polished and you just want to explore.

          Polish doesn't make we want to explore, it is the mystery and the unknown that makes me want to explore things and Zelda games spend far to much time in very familiar "been there, done that" territory, devoid of any mystery or surprise. For example there is no doubt that Zelda:TP was an masterfully crafted game, but playing it where also the most boring 35h I ever spend with a brilliantly designed game.

          • Well for me it was the first Zelda, so I have fond memories of TP probably as most people have of Occarina of Time, but now having played a bunch of other Zeldas I can see the point of most people. Very polished and well done but once you played one newer Zelda there are no real surprises and even in every Zelda since occarina there is one part of the game which is so annoying that you want to stop playing and want to put the thing into the garbage bin.

      • The last time Nintendo tried to really "innovate" with The Legend of Zelda, we wound up with The Adventure of Link, with its mix of top-down maps and side scrolling. Though I personally enjoyed the hell out of Zelda 2, as it turns out, that sort of change just wasn't the proper formula for popularity. Tangentially, for those who forsake it, I'll point out that it did introduce a number of elements which persisted or re-appeared, including metered magic use, the hammer, and the downward jumping sword thrust.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by grumbel ( 592662 )

          In any case, I for one, have no issue with old franchises maintaining their core mechanics from one release to another.

          The problem is that they maintain to much of the core mechanics. Pushing blocks around on a grid for example feels really really old, why haven't Zelda games taken some inspiration from other modern games and use a proper physics engine instead? That was one of the things that really impressed me back when Tomb Raider: Legend came out, you still pushed blocks, but they where no longer fixed to a grid, they could be thrown around, used to block traps and many other things. It felt dynamic and fresh. That's w

      • Actually the game has progressed until 1995 or so.
        The first zelda purely action, second one incredibly hard 3d, third a link to the past was basically an action game with a storyline and npcs. From that one. Oracle of Seasons etc... added a heavy puzzle element and Occarina of time added 3d.
        From a game mechanics side of things, however Zelda has stalled. The puzzles now are repetitive and are recycled over and over again so is the story.
        From a graphics perspective it still is progression. But it is noticabl

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by grumbel ( 592662 )

          But it is noticable that the Heydey of Zelda was 1995 when Capcom have released the best handheld Zeldas under Nintendos Name and Occarina of Time borrowed a lot of the Capcom elements and added 3d to it.

          You got your dates wrong, the Oracle of Ages/Season games where released in 2001, over two years after Ocarina of Time (1998) and they borrowed very heavily from Links Awakening (1993), as they used basically the same engine and graphics.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      I'm sure other people feel the same as you, but I have enjoyed them all except the 2nd one (side scrolling). The early games had puzzles but plenty of action as well. I think they have always had a pretty good mix.

    • The first LoZ game that I played was Link's Awakening for the Gameboy. That one is amazing, and has a lot of interesting items and even has some platforming elements (it's fun to use the Pegasus boots and the feather to jump across huge gaps, and I think it had side-scrolling elements as well!)

      I think playing one that's "good" first really pulls you into the series. Not that the first one isn't "good", but I don't know why'd you ever play it over Link to the Past at all. LttP is easily the best top-down

      • I think playing one that's "good" first really pulls you into the series. Not that the first one isn't "good", but I don't know why'd you ever play it over Link to the Past at all. LttP is easily the best top-down version in the series.

        I dunno, I still think it's fun, but certainly I go back to play LttP the most.

        As for the 3D ones, I don't know why people hate Majora's Mask so much. It kept all the things that made Ocarina of Time so great (innovative Z-targeting controls, unique fighting, fun puzzles) and added tons!

        Because the central mechanic is an interesting experiment but in practice pretty annoying. Okay, time is a real factor, you have a limited time to get things done, and certain events only happen at specific times and places. And yeah, Impending Doom staring down at you from the sky. Neat. But then you realize that, outside of your inventory, things you accomplish will be undone when you go back, so if you have to do a series

        • I played MM first, then OoT, so I saw it from a different perspective.
          And objectively, Majora's Mask is indeed the better game. The world is richer with more things to do. Despite technically being smaller world and only half the number of dungeons.
          In Ocarina of Time the dungeons felt more repetitive. Sure, the epic nature of the game combined with the music and memorable events like getting Epona of traveling through time, and the fact that it actually had a somewhat interesting story really made the game

          • And objectively, Majora's Mask is indeed the better game. The world is richer with more things to do. Despite technically being smaller world and only half the number of dungeons.
            In Ocarina of Time the dungeons felt more repetitive... Put from a pure game-design perspective it was inferior to it's successor.

            Heh, I can see your point about the difference versus Ocarina, but I'd think an objective pure game-design perspective would also have to take into account the new central game play mechanic. Which I think is kind of a mixed bag, and certainly explains why a lot of people had trouble getting into the game. Yes, there's a lot of things to do, but it's I think understandably annoying when you have to do them again simply because you're not moving fast enough towards a specific goal.

            So, basically I think it'

            • The quests were always the right length IMO. You were able to complete most of them with enough time to spare. I do remember running out of time seconds before the clock ran out on a few occasions.
              But on the second run you were more familiar with the quest and was able to do it much quicker, and some parts of the story became clearer. Sometimes it's good when a game lets you fail. The challenge in Zelda games is relatively limited, particularly for sidequests the trading sequence. I think the countdown adde

              • The problem is that in a game series that is traditionally about allowing relatively free-form exploration and sidetracking, having to do a series of quests in a "run" or risk having to do them all over, even the ones you actually finished, is contrary to the whole point. And since they stuck to traditional Zelda design for the game world, with plenty of things to do and see that are tangential to your current "run", this is particularly onerous. Oh look, a tantalizing mystery, but, gotta stay on task!

                It'

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by grumbel ( 592662 )

        I don't know why people hate Majora's Mask so much

        The problem with MM was that it required far to much planing and provided far to much room to screw up. Forgot to use that spell that slows done time? Have fun seeing time run out and playing all that stuff over again. It also introduced one of the most horrible mechanic ever seen in a Nintendo game: It delete your savegames. You can store your state an an owl statue, but when you load that state the game deletes it, thus you have to go back to another statue to save again. If you forget that you can lose m

    • You, sir, are afflicted by a detectable lack of taste.

      Oh, and get off my lawn!

    • I remember wanting to rent the game because of the gold colored cartridge. When I finally did rent it damn what a let down. After 5 minutes I got bored and turned it off. Now keep in mind I loved the King's Quest/Space Quest series of games from Sierra but Zelda, wtf?

    • If you liked Ocarina of Time, then what did you think of Majora's Mask? It's the same game engine, but I found its world to be much more expansive and detailed. Characters didn't just stand in one place waiting for you to interact with them. They moved around and had their own lives that you could learn about and influence. And the world was so sidequest-heavy that I didn't feel like I was on a prescribed linear path through the plot. I'd just do a bunch of sidequests and one of them would eventually give m

    • The original Zelda was revolutionary for its time, but it's obviously dated by now. So if you didn't play video games back then you might not be able to appreciate it. The second game is a mysterious oddball of the series which even divides fans, so it's not a good place to start.

      I'm surprised you liked OoT but disliked the others.
      BTW I seem to remember more story in Wind Waker, but maybe my memory's failing me.

      In any case the series is very unique (I don't recall any game quite like it) so I think that exp

  • Minor correction (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Although sounding a bit pedantic, the game was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986. The cartridge version for the Famicom didn't get released until a few years later, well after the American NES version's 1987 release.

    • Although sounding a bit pedantic, the game was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986. The cartridge version for the Famicom didn't get released until a few years later, well after the American NES version's 1987 release.

      Who cares? She looks at least 25.... matter of fact, Zelda [fab1.net] looks a *lot* older than 25. Did she have radical cosmetic surgery after she appeared in Terrahawks?

  • Zelda on philips CD-i (Score:5, Funny)

    by mehtars ( 655511 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @04:16PM (#35271294)
    Wow-- they completely missed out on the CD-i games.

    Boy were those bad.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-i_games_from_The_Legend_of_Zelda_series [wikipedia.org]

    • "After Nintendo decided not to have Philips create a CD add-on to the Super Nintendo....." -wikipedia.

      .....Philips and Sony took their R&D and developed it into a new console called the Playstation, leaving Nintendo 64 and Gamecube in a distant second place.

      • It was probably for the best, really.

        Suddenly being trounced by their former partners made Nintendo revise their absolutely draconian content policies, loads and loads of Playstation games would have never seen the light had the original partnership gone through.

        Being beaten at their own game with the N64 and GC also made Nintendo get their act together and gave us the Wii, which still sells like the proverbial hotcakes.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We don't talk about those pieces of shit around these parts.

    • It's like E.T. and Pac-Man for the Atari 2600-- the Games That Shall Not Be Named.

      Or was that The Games That Nailed The Coffin Shut For the 2600...?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        Say what you want about the Atari 2600 version of Pac-man -- while okay, just wasn't pac-man. (Not because of the limitations of the system, see this homebrew 4k Pac-man [atariage.com] done right.

        E.T., on the other hand is an excellent game. It's a complex and involved adventure that is challenging without being frustrating and extraordinarily well developed. The controls are very responsive, collision detection is pixel-perfect, and the NPC sprites are bright and colorful. As an added bonus, the game is loaded with s

    • Based on the youtube hits, I can't imagine why

      Wand of gameleon intro [youtube.com]

      Pretty much -anything- on newgrounds would make a better intro to a game than that.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Gameboy on O-scope (Score:3)

    by commodore6502 ( 1981532 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @04:20PM (#35271332)

    I'd sooner:
    (a) Use the Gameboy Player w/ my Gamecube.
    (b) Use the o-scope to play old vector games like Asteroids, which really aren't as good on regular displays.

    Like his ending: "About Craig - Craig is getting towards the end of a PhD in experimental nanotechnology. Arguably he might be finished by now if it weren't for all the crap described on this blog."

    • I'd love to do the scope thing but mine has a round screen. I guess it would be a cool project to do roundsteroids. Or maybe round star castle.

      Also I prefer the Super Game Boy... or in the real world, my Xbox. But I like Super Nintendo controllers more than 'cube ones. The SNES with the SGB is one of the few vintage gaming setups I've actually kept through the years. I'm getting ready to divest myself of the last generation now...

  • Maybe they will do what they did with Mario and release a horrible 25th anniversary edition of Zelda. For those that do not know: for Mario's 25th anniversary, Nintendo release Super Mario All-Stars on disc form for 29.99. Nothing has changed from that version and the version that came out on SNES. It is seriously the same exact game. What makes it even more messed up, is that every single one of those games is available within the Wii Store (sorry, I forgot the proper name of the Wii store) for cheaper

    • >>>Super Mario All-Stars on disc form for 29.99

      So Nintendo's learning from Disney and Lucas and the record companies - just rerelease old stuff in new formats to make more money. Brilliant.

      >>>Nothing has changed from that version

      Good! I hate when people mess with masterpieces. Ya know, like making characters shoot first, or inserting lame CGI creatures, or pointlessly upgrading graphics that were already perfect. - Better to keep everything intact like was done with the Sega Collecti

    • I think that is a bit unfair. Plenty of anniversary editions for products are released with minimal to no changes from the original. Think about movie series or box sets. Sure you could have bought LOTRs individually when they came out but buying the box set costs way more and gives the buyer a slightly different feel for their product ("I have the whole set!"). What makes limited edition or anniversary products cost more is exactly that... they're limited. You can't buy the 25th anniversary edition of Zeld

      • You guys are missing many things I have already put in. All games are currently available on WiiWare. This is just Super Mario All-Stars, and not the Super Mario All-Stars/Super Mario World release (since both are emulated, it would cost Nintendo the same amount to release either one). They chose to release the downgraded version of Super Mario All-Stars, and not release the best version, which is a cart that was Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World on the same cart. Remember, if you are emulatin

      • Plenty of anniversary editions for products are released with minimal to no changes from the original.

        But they come with plenty of extras.

        Sure you could have bought LOTRs individually when they came out but buying the box set costs way more and gives the buyer a slightly different feel for their product ("I have the whole set!").

        The games are still available individually. Can't deny the subjective feel of having the special box, though.

        What makes limited edition or anniversary products cost more is exactl

  • Nostalgia (Score:5, Interesting)

    by screwzloos ( 1942336 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @04:33PM (#35271484)
    I remember going to the local toy store to get The Legend of Zelda with the original gold cartridge. It was my second console game after I had played out Super Mario Bros.

    When did "Those were the days." become "Damn, I feel old."?

    On another note, Hindsight is 20/20, but nostalgia is totally blind.

    • >>>It was my second console game after I had played out Super Mario Bros. When did "Those were the days." become "Damn, I feel old."?

      You always remember your first (and second).
      1 - Combat
      2 - Breakout
      3 - Space Invaders
      Those were my first video games. Those were the days known as the 70s ("I love the nightlife - I love to boogie.") I am older then you. ;-)

      Never owned an NES.
      I bought a Commodore instead.
      Then a 32-bit Amiga which made NES look... well, 8 bit. My next upgrade was the PS2.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tmack ( 593755 )
      Also one of the first I got with my NES (for xmass), along with the 3pack cartridge of Super Mario, Duck Hunt and Track Meet (yeh, had the powerpad combo pack). Still have it all here, except the powerpad, right under the PS1 (most modern console I have). Grew up playing neighbor's 2600 until I got the NES.

      tm

      • The year we got our NES for Christmas, we ended up opening Zelda before the system. We were so upset that Santa didn't realize we had a 2600 and not an NES. Obviously it was a big deal when we did unwrap the actual system.

        Then we played Zelda all night. My sister couldn't stay in the same room. The dungeon music made her so nervous she had to go to the bathroom!

        When I got the GB version I was so excited I was shaking in the car outside the video game store. Definitely my favorite franchise ever.

  • A quarter-century of corrupting our youth... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @04:37PM (#35271518) Journal
    Playing The Legend of Zelda sent me down the path to a depraved life of home invasion and malicious destruction of pottery...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ae1294 ( 1547521 )

      Playing The Legend of Zelda sent me down the path to a depraved life of home invasion and malicious destruction of pottery...

      But can you tri-force while doing it?

    • Don't forget the desire for fresh hearts to keep your energy levels up.
    • Huh. There were no homes in Legend of Zelda, and there were no pots either. Maybe you're thinking of another 25-year-old game?

      • well there was that witch lady that told you how to get through the maze...east/east-west/west...i don't really remember...anyway wasn't that her home?

        I think the pottery throwing first appeared in the gameboy/SNES version though.

      • Lots of old men with caves as homes.

      • Playing The Legend of Zelda sent me down the path to a depraved life of home invasion and malicious destruction of pottery...

        Huh. There were no homes in Legend of Zelda, and there were no pots either. Maybe you're thinking of another 25-year-old game?

        1. dur dur dur reading comprehension fail
        2. I suppose that witch in the cave lived on the other side of the map and fought off the dodongos on her morning commute.

        P.S. Thanks for breaking OL slashdot. Your command of HTML continues to impress.

        • P.S. Thanks for breaking OL slashdot. Your command of HTML continues to impress.

          (oh good it's only broken in preview. I am now twice as impressed.)

    • Obligatory classic Penny arcade:

      http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/03/21/ [penny-arcade.com]

  • Anyone ever play Zelda on TI-89? (Score:3)

    by TheRedDuke ( 1734262 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @04:41PM (#35271566)
    It wasn't an official release, but man, it was great fun. I used to play that and Tetris in class all the time...instead of paying attention. Good times.

  • I first played the game at the age of 11 in early 1989. I'll never forget this game. Mostly, I'll never forget that feeling of being completely absorbed into the game, as if the outside world no longer existed. I remember finishing an extremely long session (maybe 4-5 hours, which is kind of a lot for a kid), and going outside into the warm springtime. I recall thinking..."wow, the outside and fresh air and sunshine still exist. what IS all this?"

    Making that experience all the more special is the fact

  • Wow...I'm old. And games were MUCH harder back then.
    No youtube tips. No cheats.
    I remember the Zelda cartridge was one of the first (if not THE first) to have a battery built into it to save your game state (no more stupid passwords!). I checked mine about 5 years ago and it still had juice....I wonder....

    now get off my.....meh.

    • Yeah. The Magic Sword was hidden in one of a hundred gravestones which caused damage when you touched them.
      My Bro and I searched and searched, bombing every wall on every square, but to no avail. Months later we found a guide in a magazine and I remember thinking "what the fuck!"

      • If you pushed on the tombstones or Armos knights from above, you wouldn't get damaged. Touch them from underneath and Link's in for a hurtin. Learned that from simple trial and error.

  • Unfortunately for Western players, Pols Voice are much more challenging to defeat without that special ability.

    They're one-hit kills with a bow and arrows. Not only that, the arrow pierces through, which allows multiple kills with a single arrow-- no other monster in the game is killed this easily by that weapon. Probably not as bone-headedly easy as yelling into a microphone, but a lot easier than the author lets on.

  • The original ZELDA Gold Cart I purchased new when it first came out. And it is still in really good shape!
    I think I will setup my NES today and play it again.

    ( I have already modded the cart to make replacing the batteries easier. It has 2 battery spots now. I can change the battery without loosing my save games)

    • Got a howto link handy? My game battery is still good but I would like to know how to fix it later.

      • I just used basic soldering skills. I de-soldered the old battery, then I purchased a couple of CR2032 (CR1026 will also work) Batt Holders from Radio Shack. I connected them in parallel and soldered them to the circuit board. I used some double sided foam tape to secure them so that they do not bounce about when handling the game. I replaced the security screws with standard phillips head screws.

        Here is what they have available now... It might solder straight to the cart, but you will only be able to

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday February 21, 2011 @06:44PM (#35272880)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Until I played Darksiders.

    People, do yourself a favour, go check out this game. It's generic looking in screenshots but brilliant to play and frequently called a 'dark version of zelda'
    I've played about 10 hours of one of the zelda games and actually did quite enjoy it but gave up, in hindsight they most certainly are similar.

    Some call it 'zelda grown up' as well, since it has blood, darker themes etc. Really good stuff, I finished it and rarely finish games nowadays.

    • It's not purely Zelda, it's more like a melding of Zelda with God of War. Great game though.

      • That's actually one of the downsides to it. I enjoyed Darksiders overall, but it's trying to have a combat system the size of God of War mixed with the item-based puzzle solving of Zelda all at once. There are simply far too many controls in that game. It takes three button presses to fire the gorram boomerang weapon even when you have it equipped. When clicking the analog stick (you know, L3/R3, remember those?) is one of your primary action buttons, I think you need to look at simplifying your control

        • And just to be lame and reply to myself, my other major complaint about Darksiders is the completely out-of-whack difficulty curve. Combat in the beginning of the game is brutally difficult because enemies can take out half your health in one hit. Each major "dungeon" you clear nets you another full life bar, basically their version of the Zelda heart containers. By the time you get to the final dungeon, you've got about 10 life bars and the enemies are still doing the same amount of damage. It's been a

  • I love the idea of Zelda games, but something that bothers me is how easy the puzzles are. Even the dreaded Water Temple from OoT, while a bit drawn out, didn't seem very difficult, and I was in middle school at the time. It's as though Nintendo is catering to the Youtube commenter crowd in regards to the difficulty of the puzzles. I was excited before Spirit Tracks came out, because I read something about the game's programmers helping to design puzzles in order to make them more difficult, but if that

    • Actually i did not really like spirit tracks, I stopped it at about 50% it felt like its predecessor fully all over again but without the annoying you have to go through all levels of the temple over and over again, but they kept the annoying temple you have to go through for every segment finished.
      Overall it was a rehash of its predecessor or lets say almost a copy, just the ships were replaced by trains (which i hated, I never liked to toy around with trains, which took away the free roaming to a big deg

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