The Legend Of Zelda
The Legend Of Zelda is a 2D Adventure game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it's the debut game in the Zelda franchise. The Legend Of Zelda is regarded as one of the most important and greatest videogames ever made. It revolutionised its own franchise by combining elements of action, adventure and exoploration with elements of roleplaying. It was voted seventh in a list of the 200 gtreatest Nintendo games of all time and it received unmatched success upon release in 1987 and was regarded by many as the greatest game ever made up until that point in time.
As with most latter incarnations in the Zelda series, The Legend Of Zelda was set in the fictional world of Hyrule. And also, as with most latter games, the main protagonist is Ganon, who has gained the Triforce of Power. Using his new power he imprisons Princess Zelda and her nursemaid Impa. Impa manages to escape and comes acrtoss a boy called Link who she tells her story to. So Link decides it's his duty to save Zelda from Ganon's lair on top of Death Mountain. But first he must find and piece togeather the 8 shards of the Triforce of Wisdom that Zelda smashed because without it Link would be no match for the pig-like Ganon.
The Legend Of Zelda lays down the blueprint for most of the later Zelda games, and if you play it now for the first time you may be suprised just how similar the newer games are to it, while been that much different. The Legend Of Zelda is more combat oriented than other Zelda games. While you have to locate and work your way through the games 9 brilliant dungeons, there isn't that many puzzles in them. But what puzzles are in the game, most of them appearing in the later dungeons, they will test your brain and will prove to be very tricky for any new Zelda fan who hasn't played any of the earlier Zelda games. But for most of the game, the dungeons only require you to kill enemies to recieve items like keys and dungeon maps, while the weapons may need abit more then just fighting to acquire, like blowing up a wall to reveal a hidden room, or pushing a block to reveal a hidden stairway.
If you look at the game now from a technical point it does look very, very dated, but in 1987 The legend Of Zelda was top of the range visually and it sounded a treat. The games visuals are just basic block inamges in a few different colours, just what you'd come to expect from an 8 bit game, and the games music is all bleeps, kid-of like early mobile phone ringtones, but suprisingly the music does sound fantastic despite it been like this, especially the 'classic' Zelda overworld theme.
The Legend Of Zelda is a quality game. It layed the blueprint for the later Zelda games and it's the most important game in the series. If you're a Zelda fan, you owe it to yourself to play this game as it's one of the greatest games you will ever play.
Review by: James Widdowson