The glorious game that started it all for one of Nintendo's favorite characters, Link.
THE GOOD
-Great boss fights
-Excellent level design
-Great music
-Challenging puzzles
THE BAD
-Later dungeons have a perfect combination of annoying enemies
OVERVIEW
The Legend Of Zelda was the game that started Link's fantastic career with Nintendo. In this adventure you play as Link in his quest is to rescue the Princess Zelda of Hyrule from the evil Ganon. Now Ganon became all powerful by obtaining the Triforce of Power and wanted the Triforce of Wisdom which was in Zelda's hands. Before Ganon captured Zelda she divided the Triforce of Wisdom up into 8 pieces and scattered them all over Hyrule. Link has to obtain these pieces to put the Triforce of Wisdom back together in order to have enough power to defeat Ganon. But this is going to be a difficult task because Zelda put the pieces in 8 unique dungeons.
GAMEPLAY
The Legend of Zelda was one of the first "top-down" viewing type games. The level design for Hyrule and each of the dungeons are very good. As an added bonus if you beat the game once you have the option to play again with a completely different Hyrule. As you control Link around Hyrule you will encounter enemies, puzzles and other helpful people along the way. You'll have to fight knights, dragons, mages and other monsters but don't worry because you have the ability to wield a sword and shield plus some other items like a boomerang, bomb and bow. Items and weapon upgrades and be purchased or found all across Hyrule. Some of the upgrades consist of increasing the size of your shield to repel more projectiles and a better sword to do more damage.
The dungeons is were you will fight all the bosses. Ganon, along with the other bosses, are very challenging and require different weapons and strategies to defeat them. Every dungeon has at least one unique item to find and an elder to help guide you so you are going to want to search each of them thoroughly. Unfortunately the elders's clues aren't very helpful. Another added feature to the gameplay is that this game is part puzzler too. There will be times in the game where you have to use your brain to figure out what to do and where to go next. This mixes up the action in a good way.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
The graphics are very good for this game on the NES. Good graphics plus excellent level design makes for a good visual experience.
The music is awesome in The Legend of Zelda and very catchy. Plus the sound effects are very good too.
CONCLUSION
This game is a must for anybody who likes an adventure. This game has a lot to offer and has plenty of replay value. So what are you waiting for? Go save Hyrule and rebuild the Triforce!