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The Legend of Zelda (NES)
1986

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The stuff of real legends.
While this may seem like an odd choice--considering there have been about eight other Zelda games released since the original game made history in 1986--the first in the series still possesses a bit of magic that no other Zelda game has captured. The original Legend of Zelda was an overhead action RPG that put you in control of a young warrior named Link on a quest to save the land of Hyrule from the clutches of the dreaded Gannon. To do this, Link needed to collect powerful weapons and pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, an ancient and mysterious artifact. The game was an instant hit, since it introduced so many new elements, like the magic of battery backup saving, which let you save and resume your journey at any time without using passwords.

 
 In the original Zelda for the NES, Link's most powerful weapon was the

Master sword
Magic boomerang
Silver arrow
Red candle
Magic Wand
"Zelda" code to skip to the second quest

 
But nearly every sequel that followed The Legend of Zelda was much more like a conventional RPG--Link would wander from town to town speaking with characters, getting clues, and going on quests. The original game focused mainly on the action and the adventures that lay before Link; instead of spending a lot of time walking around and talking to people, he was constantly fighting for his life, searching tirelessly for the Triforce and for magical weapons that would help him survive. In later games, Link's adventures would require him to seek out ancient wizards and fortune-tellers, but in the original game, just finding the final dungeon in the deadly Death Mountain area (where some of the game's toughest enemies lived) was a unique challenge.

Almost all the games in the Zelda series have been played from an overhead view, but in 1998, the series made its way to the Nintendo 64 with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This 3D action adventure brought the land of Hyrule to life in a whole new way--Link and his companions looked a lot better, but somehow, they lost some of their individuality. In a way, shifting from the classic overhead perspective to a fully 3D world made Zelda look like any other 3D game--sure, the N64 game looked great for its time, but it was missing the original game's distinctive look and feel. Perhaps an isometric overhead view would be enough to bridge the gap between the original game and today's world of 3D gaming. While digital storytelling has changed dramatically since 1986, the original story and characters of the Zelda series still remain as the core of the series, but the gameplay does not. And while we're completely happy with the latest adventures that feature the cast from Hyrule, we do miss the original and would love to see it brought back in some fashion befitting what was truly one of the greatest games of all time.

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