..or the other week. A couple weeks ago at least. And it really rocked my boat! It's nice to finally be able to play Zelda AND know what I'm supposed to do. See, back when I was a wee little kid, I tried and tried to play that darn game and I had no clue, absolutely none. Think about it, you start the game, you enter that cave, the stupid old man gives you a frikin wooden sword AND THEN WHAT? I kept running around and around all over the place and I never got anywhere, I never understood the point of it. And the worst of it all, is that the game was good. It had to be, with it being in a gold cartridge! Those of you who were young at the time probably remember that cartridge, the gold really made it stand out. It made the game feel special, like it wasn't anything like the other games on the market, that somehow it was better. And still, I didn't understand shit. And to put shit on the cake, a lot of my friends PARENTS (the hell?) were saying that it was a sweet game. Gold cartridge, people who really didn't play games saying the game was sweet, those truly were crazy ass times. Of course, now that I am old and have played a whole bunch of zelda games, I know what I'm
supposed to be doing, it didn't take me long to find that first dungeon, and then to find hidden heart containers and whatnot. The game also wasn't that hard, except for the wizards. Man I hate those sons of bitches! They're hard as hell! Harder than the bosses! The bosses are pretty easy though I have to admit. Overall, a pretty satisfying playthrough. It stands the test of time!
So then I played Zelda II. It is of course seen as the black sheep of the series, the one that is different. The one with sidescrolling action gameplay! Yay! So how is it? Does it suck like a lot of people think it does? HELL NO! It's good! Real good! But it feels like Miyamoto spent a little too much time in his flower garden before designing the game because it feels like a collage of haphazard elements. The experience point system is broken, no doubt about it. First off, you have lives in this game. Lives in zelda! WTF this ain't Super Mario Bros! The life counter was taken right out of Super Mario Bros 1 too, it looks fucking stupid in Zelda. Second, the way the whole XP system works in conjunction with your lives is crazy. Basically, you lose all of your accumulated XP if you lose your three lives. So if you need 5000 XP to reach your next level, and you have 4000 so far, well if you lose that last life of yours, BYE BYE, you start of at 0 of 5000 again. Now granted, everytime you go up a level your XP counter also goes down to 0, that's the way it works, so at first you need 40 XP to level up, and then 80, and then 160 etc, and you always start at 0 again, but it's annoying to be close to leveling up and then losing that last life. It also greatly influences the way you play the game, since if you are on your last life but are close to leveling up, you start to play it safe and find a safe spot to grind until you level up. And then you kill yourself, to reset your life counter to 3. The only disadvantage to doing that is that you're back in Zelda's temple, but it only takes a couple of minutes to get back to where you were anyway. Also, anytime you kill a boss, you get an automatic level up. But the way the game does that is that it fills out the remaining XP that you need to level up. So if you have 4000 out of 5000 XP, well your XP is going to go up 5000 XP and BING, level up. But it also does the same thing if you're at 0 of 5000...see my point? Often I'd get to the boss, look at my XP counter, and realize that I was quite close to leveling up. So instead of wasting the free level up, I would instead backtrack into the dungeon to grind a little bit, level up, and then go fight the boss and get a huuuuge XP boost for a free level up. It's kind of annoying, I'd rather not have to do that, it doesn't feel natural. On a couple of occasions, I would get to the boss, backtrack out of the dungeon to reset the monsters, get back in, grind a bit to level up, and then make my way back to the boss only to realize that I was close yet AGAIN to leveling up, so I backtracked once again into the dungeon to level up. That's crazy, only a pot smoker would design such a system.
Also, Zelda II is kind of an empty game. You don't really get items in the game per say. You get static items, like the hammer, which allows you to break boulders on the overworld, or the gloves, with which you can break some blocks in dungeons. It's awfully unexciting. You also get spells, like jump, which permit you to jump higher, or shield, which obviously makes you tougher. You don't find new swords, you don't find new armor, there is no boomerang, no bows. It's only you, you small ass sword and your shield for the duration of the game. Personally, I like finding new equipment in games, it's sweet.
Aside from that, Zelda II is pretty sweet. The ending sucks though. The ending of Zelda 1 also sucks. Zelda tells you in both games "You are the hero of hyrule!". Sweeeeeeeet...
So I think both games are pretty fun today still. They're not the best games of their genre on the NES though, I think Crystalis is hands down better. Heck, it's probably the best NES game ever. I haven't played either Startropics games though, so I'd have to play those before passing my final judgement.
Hmmm, I'm done.
So I played Zelda 1 and 2 the other day...
..or the other week. A couple weeks ago at least. And it really rocked my boat! It's nice to finally be able to play Zelda AND know what I'm supposed to do. See, back when I was a wee little kid, I tried and tried to play that darn game and I had no clue, absolutely none. Think about it, you start the game, you enter that cave, the stupid old man gives you a frikin wooden sword AND THEN WHAT? I kept running around and around all over the place and I never got anywhere, I never understood the point of it. And the worst of it all, is that the game was good. It had to be, with it being in a gold cartridge! Those of you who were young at the time probably remember that cartridge, the gold really made it stand out. It made the game feel special, like it wasn't anything like the other games on the market, that somehow it was better. And still, I didn't understand shit. And to put shit on the cake, a lot of my friends PARENTS (the hell?) were saying that it was a sweet game. Gold cartridge, people who really didn't play games saying the game was sweet, those truly were crazy ass times. Of course, now that I am old and have played a whole bunch of zelda games, I know what I'm
supposed to be doing, it didn't take me long to find that first dungeon, and then to find hidden heart containers and whatnot. The game also wasn't that hard, except for the wizards. Man I hate those sons of bitches! They're hard as hell! Harder than the bosses! The bosses are pretty easy though I have to admit. Overall, a pretty satisfying playthrough. It stands the test of time!
So then I played Zelda II. It is of course seen as the black sheep of the series, the one that is different. The one with sidescrolling action gameplay! Yay! So how is it? Does it suck like a lot of people think it does? HELL NO! It's good! Real good! But it feels like Miyamoto spent a little too much time in his flower garden before designing the game because it feels like a collage of haphazard elements. The experience point system is broken, no doubt about it. First off, you have lives in this game. Lives in zelda! WTF this ain't Super Mario Bros! The life counter was taken right out of Super Mario Bros 1 too, it looks fucking stupid in Zelda. Second, the way the whole XP system works in conjunction with your lives is crazy. Basically, you lose all of your accumulated XP if you lose your three lives. So if you need 5000 XP to reach your next level, and you have 4000 so far, well if you lose that last life of yours, BYE BYE, you start of at 0 of 5000 again. Now granted, everytime you go up a level your XP counter also goes down to 0, that's the way it works, so at first you need 40 XP to level up, and then 80, and then 160 etc, and you always start at 0 again, but it's annoying to be close to leveling up and then losing that last life. It also greatly influences the way you play the game, since if you are on your last life but are close to leveling up, you start to play it safe and find a safe spot to grind until you level up. And then you kill yourself, to reset your life counter to 3. The only disadvantage to doing that is that you're back in Zelda's temple, but it only takes a couple of minutes to get back to where you were anyway. Also, anytime you kill a boss, you get an automatic level up. But the way the game does that is that it fills out the remaining XP that you need to level up. So if you have 4000 out of 5000 XP, well your XP is going to go up 5000 XP and BING, level up. But it also does the same thing if you're at 0 of 5000...see my point? Often I'd get to the boss, look at my XP counter, and realize that I was quite close to leveling up. So instead of wasting the free level up, I would instead backtrack into the dungeon to grind a little bit, level up, and then go fight the boss and get a huuuuge XP boost for a free level up. It's kind of annoying, I'd rather not have to do that, it doesn't feel natural. On a couple of occasions, I would get to the boss, backtrack out of the dungeon to reset the monsters, get back in, grind a bit to level up, and then make my way back to the boss only to realize that I was close yet AGAIN to leveling up, so I backtracked once again into the dungeon to level up. That's crazy, only a pot smoker would design such a system.
Also, Zelda II is kind of an empty game. You don't really get items in the game per say. You get static items, like the hammer, which allows you to break boulders on the overworld, or the gloves, with which you can break some blocks in dungeons. It's awfully unexciting. You also get spells, like jump, which permit you to jump higher, or shield, which obviously makes you tougher. You don't find new swords, you don't find new armor, there is no boomerang, no bows. It's only you, you small ass sword and your shield for the duration of the game. Personally, I like finding new equipment in games, it's sweet.
Aside from that, Zelda II is pretty sweet. The ending sucks though. The ending of Zelda 1 also sucks. Zelda tells you in both games "You are the hero of hyrule!". Sweeeeeeeet...
So I think both games are pretty fun today still. They're not the best games of their genre on the NES though, I think Crystalis is hands down better. Heck, it's probably the best NES game ever. I haven't played either Startropics games though, so I'd have to play those before passing my final judgement.
Hmmm, I'm done.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment