A good start to the Zelda series, but a little rough around the edges.

User Rating: 7 | The Legend of Zelda NES
By Jugem | Review Date:
Unlike most of the later Legend of Zelda games, this game focusses more on action and exploration rather than on puzzle-solving. However, it's still a Zelda title at its core. You'll search for dungeon entrances in the overworld, and traverse your way through the dungeons looking for the dungeon boss and ultimately a piece of the Triforce. This Zelda experience is a lot less linear than most. You're free to explore any dungeon at any time (with the exception of the final dungeon), as long as you have the means of finding its entrance. As is customary in the Zelda series, the dungeons hold key items which open up new possibilities. But there is less of a sense of organization with them. Often times, you won't need the item to complete the dungeon. Sometimes, they'll allow you to find another dungeon entrance in the overworld, while other times they may just seem like a helpful tool. Then there are some dungeons whose completion requires items from the overworld. In the recent Zelda games, if you need an item in a dungeon, chances are you'll need that item to enter the dungeon. But not so in this case. This can lead to some (well, one in particular) head-scratching moments when you need an item that you don't have and can't get in the current dungeon. The dungeons themselves are pretty straightforward, and consist for the most part of enemy-filled rooms. There aren't a whole lot of puzzles; just a "defeat all the enemies and move on to the next room" kind of deal. For the most part, the only type of puzzle you're going to get is in finding bombable walls, or pushing the odd block to open doors or reveal staircases. The dungeon bosses are more difficult than most enemies (as you'd expect), but aren't really all that menacing. They seem more like glorified enemies more than anything else. Much of the game will be spent in the overworld, searching for dungeon entrances. For the most part, this has been done well. Many of the dungeon entrances can be found without much trouble, possibly requiring items found in earlier dungeons. However, there are a few in which you'll need to resort to bombing walls or burning bushes. And this leads me to my main gripe with the game. Bombing every part of every wall and burning every bush gets tiresome. Especially with a limited bomb supply. Picture yourself bombing every spot in one location until you run out of bombs. Then you reset the game to start with all your bombs again. Then you spend a few minutes trying to get back to that location. Then move to the adjacent location and repeat the process. It may be fun for a little while, but then just becomes tedious. (*possible SPOILERS in the following paragraph*) Thankfully, this isn't a huge problem in the first quest if you're lucky. But upon completion of the game, you'll be presented with a second, more difficult quest. And it's here where the game really falls apart. The dungeon entrances are not in the open much anymore, and you'll need to constantly bomb walls and burn bushes to find them. Never have I been so turned off from a Zelda game before. Some people may find this fun, but I find it dull. On the positive side, the first quest is a lot of fun, so the tedius second quest doesn't detract much from the experience. The action can get quite intense, but it's never overly-challenging. The later dungeons have quite a few rooms filled with tough enemies, but keep your wits about you (and a life potion) and you should make it through without too much trouble. Spending time searching for weapon/defense upgrades can also make things much easier. All in all, the game isn't very easy, but it's also not terribly difficult. Most people will probably look at the graphics and automatically say that they aren't very good. And to those people, I'd have to disagree. While the graphics aren't very impressive from a technical perspective, since when did graphics need to be state of the art to be good? The backgrounds may be simple, but they are effective. This is one game where I actually feel like I'm part of the game world. There could be a little more variety from area to area though, as there are a few locations that look just a little too similar to each other. And there is a little bit of flickering with the enemy sprites. No major concerns though. On the audio side of things, the music is great for what little there is. I can only recall four or five different tunes throughout the game. But the music is catchy, especially the traditional "Zelda theme". It's very easy to hum along to the music while you're playing the game, and the dungeon theme really creates a great atmosphere for the dungeons. The sound effects are also nicely done. They sound like you might expect them to, and I can't recall any sound effects that didn't sound right. Hearing the dungeon boss' shrieks (or heavy breathing) when you're in the next room is a nice touch, and helps to make this game special. Overall, this game doesn't disappoint. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of the Zelda series, or to those old-school gamers who for some reason missed out on this title back in the NES era. I'd be a little more cautious recommending it the newer, more casual gaming crowd. But even those gamers may discover the old-school fun of this title. Overall score: 7 / 10 (Great)

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