Welcome to thing where I'm gonna try to play/replay every mainline Zelda game before TotK comes out even though I'm working and in school!

First up: The Legend of Zelda (Played on the 2021 Zelda Game & Watch).

I probably own 7 copies of this game across platforms, between VC and online and whatever else, and I have picked it up and put it down 20 minutes later as many times. This time I was determined to finish it (for the sake of the marathon)- and it could be because I'm older, or because I was playing it on portable, or because I've platinumed Celeste and am legally a pro gamer now. But my guess is my eventual successful completion of this game (and rest assured I completed the hell out of it) is because of my favorite game of this year- Tunic.

The UNBELIEVABLE satisfaction and sense of accomplishment I got from figuring out Tunic's biggest secrets without ever opening a guide or walkthrough made me want to re-examine my approach to LoZ and complete it the way I would've in the 80's. So I downloaded a PDF of the manual, got out my trusty graph paper notebook, and got to it. And for the first half of the game, it was REALLY fun.

I was marking secrets, I was learning things from the old mans (mens?) cryptic phrases, and the game play was less frustrating than I remember it being. I was having a grand old time. Then, I filled the last square of my map. Having found every secret I or the manual could help me find, I found myself entering dungeon 5 woefully under-powered with no idea how to resolve it. I knew there was a better sword, I knew there was some pricey ring I had seen, but I was largely at a loss for what to do next. And that gets you to the part where unfortunately you can't emulate the experience of playing this in the 80's, which is to say none of your friends are playing it at the same time. I had no one to ask about secret bomb-able spots or enemy tactics and as a game designed by it's nature to encourage those things, I had to concede and turn to my internet friends at Zelda dungeon (who are still my friends so I think it's fine).

With some power-up paths now illuminated, I was able to complete the rest of the main quest. Dungeon 9 brought me back to my pen-and-paper mapping for a nice final push. Is this my favorite Zelda game ever? No! Do I have WAY more appreciation for it now? Absolutely! And if this Game & Watch happens to be in my pocket next time I'm on the train I'll definitely be taking a crack at the second quest, which to me is a pretty good review.

And as an aside, the Game & Watch RULES. This is some of my favorite Nintendo hardware to date- great screen, saves exactly where you left off when it powers down, light and super compact so that even the sorry excuse for pockets they put on women's pants can hold it- a really great way to play this and probably lots of other games. If they made one of these with Super Metroid I would buy 12. Nintendo let me give you my money.

Anyways, break time for Crisis Core and then onto Zelda II which I know virtually nothing about!

I finally beat the first Zelda! I tried it a couple times growing up, but quickly got frustrated and gave up. This time I decided I would really take my time with it and push through to the end. I figured it would be a great quarantine activity. Oh yea, and I didn't want to use a walkthrough.

As much as this game really does live up to its reputation for giving you absolutely no information and expecting you to try everything and talk to everyone to figure out what to do and where to go, I did make it through the whole game by myself. However, I would not recommend attempting to do so unless you build your own map and write EVERYTHING down. The first thing I did after beating Level 1 was open an Excel Spreadsheet, create a 16x8 grid, and start filling out the map. Then I didn't even go into Level 2 until I filled out every square of that map.

The other thing I found very helpful was reading the original guide. When this came out in 1986, it came with a guide that, while containing lots of useless information for anyone who's ever played Zelda before, also contains hints about how to to find certain levels and what some of the treasures do. I found this really useful. It can be found online with a Google search.

If you do those things, beating this game by yourself is definitely possible, even if it's incredibly frustrating at a couple points. And though I did get frustrated around levels 6 and 9, I actually found the game quite enjoyable. Once I had my map, it was fun going around upgrading my equipment and collecting triforce pieces. I will admit that I cheated a little bit with the Switch's rewind feature, but only when I felt the punishment for making a mistake was ridiculous and would be too time consuming to do otherwise. I tried to keep everything on the level for the most part.

One final tip: bomb walls. That is all. If you're worried about running out of bombs and aren't bothered by a little cheating, use the rewind feature to get your bombs back if the wall doesn't come down.

With four and a half months or so left until Tears of the Kingdom, I thought this was a good time as any to start trying to cram as many Zelda playthroughs as I could, starting with The Legend of Zelda. I've always considered the first Zelda to be a title that holds up shockingly well for a 1986 NES game. I've had a dirty little secret though--the first and only time that I've played through The Legend of Zelda, I used walkthroughs to guide me through some of the game's secrets. My past self was an impatient and dirty little cheater.

It's been many years since that first playthrough, so I decided to try a run of the game with no outside help, other than a PDF of the game's manual and Save States. You can pry my Save States from my cold, dead Gibdo hands.

I feel pretty happy that I did manage to forget the details of most of the game's riddles and objectives, because I had a lot of fun unraveling it again. Much has been said about this, but I have to state it because it's so true: If you take notes and make your own maps of Hyrule as you play, it's really not that difficult to find where you need to go. Most everything you need to know is provided to you through the many clues given to you by the many cave-dwelling denizens of Hyrule.

When you're out exploring and finding the locations of new dungeons and shops, Zelda truly feels like an immersive adventure. This version of Hyrule has a danger to it that not many Zelda games could replicate very well, as they rightly explored a more accessible gameplay style. Still, I feel like that sense of complete freedom was lost for a bit when they designed Zelda games to lead you through a more curated linear path through the world, so I really enjoy revisiting it here.

It's also completely true that some parts of The Legend of Zelda are dead and buried for good reasons. Later dungeons become confusing labyrinths that expect you to bomb every wall to trial-and-error your way to that Triforce piece. Combat works well enough when you're fighting Octoroks, but when you face the 10th hair-pullingly frustrating room of Wizzrobes or Darknuts, it becomes much more understandable why they felt the need to reinvent the series with Zelda II.

The first Zelda is a must-play, and not just because of how important and influential it was to most video games since. Despite its shortcomings, the game design beneath it all is amazingly timeless and modern-feeling, even 35-plus years after its release. If that's not amazing, then I don't know what is.

This one is by far the hardest Zelda game I have ever played and finished. I know that the Adventure of Link is supposed to be harder... but I have not played it yet so it doesn't count on this review.

I am currently going to challenge myself to tackle at least the best 50 games on the NES... which I think sounds good for a New Year resolution for 2021, besides losing weight, getting fit and all the usual stuff we never do.

I challenged myself to complete this game without looking at guides on the internet, only reading the manual that comes with the package (which is very easy to find a digital copy on the internet). It really gives very useful hints, especially for the first levels.

If you want things to be easier, do not be a lazy ass like myself and wander throughout the world without drawing a map of your own on a piece of paper or on your computeR. I got REALLY lost in some parts... but eventually after wandering a lot I kind of memorized the locations of the dungeons... but this is the hard way.

Play this because this is the game the started it all, and you will find more than what you expected. Trust me!

(PS. Damn you enemy bait!)

History:

My real history with the Zelda franchise doesn't really start until the N64 era. Still, I've rented this entry more than a couple times and have never made any real progress with it. Every time I play this game I get lost, then get bored. Come to think of it, I don't know that I've ever even been in a dungeon!

Expectations:

I recently tried to play Link to the Past and just couldn't really get into it. I feel terrible for it, but it's true. The original game is even worse in that regard. Still, I'm going to give it best effort, and plan on at least seeing a decent chunk of the game.

Day 1:

I hope I remember to touch on this in my NES roundup, but part of playing through all these games almost feels like going on a scavenger hunt for key memories. "You jam bananas in your ears!" "I am error", seeing Samus at the end of Metroid. It's all great to hear about and read about, but actually seeing these bits of history in their original environment is special.

It's dangerous to go alone... here's a stick.

I explored 8-bit Hyrule (Am I in Hyrule?) for about 20 minutes before the inevitable frustration and boredom set in, at which point I grabbed a guide, leading me all over the field in search of hearths, rupees, better equipment and a magic candle. In doing this, I actually had a lot of fun!

Knowing where to go and what to see has helped my enjoyment of the game immensely, though I'll likely ease up on the guide when it comes to dungeons, which I still haven't encountered.

Currently I'm at 198/250 rupees I need for the Blue Ring, which I'd really like to have before fighting the bigger bads. I managed to get myself killed in the field which made for a good stopping point for the night. Looking forward to picking it up again tonight though.

Day 2:

Didn't take too long to farm up the rest of the Rupees I needed for my Blue Ring, which incidentally turned me blue, and I was off to my first dungeon!

The first dungeon was actually pretty fun, though not very challenging. Navigating through the dungeon, finding keys and other items, and eventually taking down the boss and claiming the Triforce piece all went very smoothly without the need of a guide.

Before I knew it I was tearing through dungeons, using new items to access heart pieces and generally just having a great time.

Dodonga... I remember you being bigger...

I lowered my camera quality to save on upload space... maybe not the best idea.

In any case, I found this dungeon entrance completely by chance, which was really cool, in addition to just being a really cool dungeon entrance in and of itself.

Before I knew it I had blasted through almost the entire game... The Overworld was conquered and I had become geared to the teeth!

I did need to use a map to navigate through Death Mountain, otherwise I doubt I would have had enough bombs to test every wall! Eventually, I reached Ganon...

So what I was NOT expecting was that I'd be fighting an invisible boss! I ended up with about 5 hearts left before I finally got the final blow in, and had the opportunity to stick him with a magic arrow. Ganon is dead! The princess is saved!

Conclusion:

I... really enjoyed playing through Zelda. Once I really got started I couldn't put it down until the credits rolled. The world felt larger than it actually was, allowing me to feel like I was exploring while never really getting lost. The graphics were varied enough to be interesting and the music is timeless... sort of... As much as I love the Legend of Zelda score as a whole, that classic Overworld theme really started grating after a couple hours. Even still, the atmosphere created by the game was great, and it's easy to see how incredible a game like this would have been at the time.

My biggest complaint about this game is how there's no way I would have found half the things there were to find without a guide! At least, I think that's true... In all actuality the dungeons did an okay job of gating you through content, often requiring an item found in one dungeon to access another. That said, there's little stopping someone from accidentally finding an entrance to a later dungeon and getting rolled by the monsters inside. This can be disheartening. At the same time, it also makes the idea of speedrunning this game really interesting.

Another observation I couldn't help but make about this game was the actual difficulty. While getting stuck or not knowing where to go next was a real possibility, Legend of Zelda never actually gets "hard". So long as you have the right items and weapons, again almost requiring the use of a guide, slicing, shooting and bombing your way through dungeons can actually be fairly leisurely. This isn't particularly a bad thing, as it helps to keep the game enjoyable and progressing.

I didn't go back and play the alternate world after beating the game, but I think one day I will.

Liked:

- For an early NES title the graphics were decent and the sound and music were great.
- Seeing game concepts originating in this game that would become trends for all Zelda games moving forward was neat.
- Finding new items and weapons added a really strong sense of progression to the game. By the end I felt like a Hyrulian badass.
- Relaxed difficulty made dungeons flow smoothly, making them feel more exciting than like an obstacle.
- Game world felt like the perfect size, and game length felt just about perfect.

Disliked:

- Playing this game without a guide would probably be possible, but would have been an exercise in frustration.
- Difficulty could feel all over the place. One of the late game bosses was the same boss you fought in Dungeon 1!
- Darknuts.

Conclusion:

Now it might be different if you grew up with it because you would've had a different mentality when it comes to games. The NES version may very well be the best one as well. I don't know.

What I will say is that playing the game on the Nintendo Switch mainly left me confused in the beginning, I explored a bit and managed to get to the third dungeon before I just gave up on it and looked up where the first dungeon was. I cleared the first dungeon, found the second dungeon, wasn't enjoying the game, instead I found it very frustrating to trek through the worldmap and find the dungeons. I ended up following a guide in order to beat the game to it's fullest without wasting any time doing so. I found most bosses beatable by just walking up and spamming the hit button, the same thing goes for most bosses except for the Digdogger where you have to blow a whistle first and then spam hit. Gohma being the one actually unique boss because you have to wait for his eye to open before firing an arrow.

The dungeons are all recolors of eachother that get gradually more complex but also gradually more cryptic with secret bombable walls that have no indication as to being bombable which is especially frustrating since you only have a maximum 8 bombs in storage at the start and I found their droprate to be fairly low in some dungeons (The final one especially). I don't know if there's any way of finding out if a wall's bombable except through trial and error, if there is, I didn't find it in-game and the guide didn't tell me. You can increase the bomb storage by +4 bombs via a store that shows up in two of the dungeons, but they also cost 100 rupees and since you only find green and blue rupees i.e. 1's and 5's it can take some time to be able to purchase them. If I wanted them I'd have to grind for quite a bit. Having the bombbag upgrade I assume will make it easier to find bombable walls without having to replenish your bombs, but it's still just through trial and error, you just have a larger chance of finding said wall without running out of bombs.

Too many of the enemies are ridiculously hard. I think the blue darknuts and blue wizzrobes are the ones I'm thinking of in particular. The blue darknuts can't be hit straight-on meaning you have to maneuver around them and hit then from the side or behind them, which would be easy if not for the fact that they move around randomly so they may as well decide to move towarda you, negating your attack and hurting you in the process. The only reason I didn't find red darknuts as tedious is because they're the same enemy, but they go down in one hit with the master sword rather than two like the blue darknuts. The blue wizzrobes are of a similar caliber except the yellow/orange wizzrobes are one-hits, they'll teleport to a spot, stand there, fire a spell and disappear. You can move out of the way or run to them and try to kill them before they hit you. The blue wizzrobes instead will move around erratically, phasing through walls, run towards you, fire several spells and will go down in three hits with the master sword. This would all be fine if it weren't for the fact that they'll give you rooms with 5 darknuts or wizzrobes with maybe some stonestatues shooting fireballs at you and 2 of those "bubbles", electric clouds moving around the floor that don't hurt you when you run into them, but they'll push you and disable your attack. It wasn't enjoyable to fight those types of battles, it didn't feel challenging, it felt unfair.

The overworld was maybe the most fun part just because it's the most varied part of the game, but there isn't a lot to do, it feels like a means to an end. I at least found the enemies in the overworld to be a lot more "reasonable" than the ones in the dungeons. There are a lot of secrets to be found, but again I don't know how you'd find them without knowing where to look with the help of a guide. Burn a particular bush or blow up a particular wall and you'll find a secret store, or a dungeon etc. I don't know how you were supposed to find any of it. The game gives clues, it might even give clues to all of the secrets, but I found that the ones I saw while playing were too cryptic to be usable. I'm aware that a huge part of finding these secrets as well used to be just through word of mouth, a friend found a secret and told you, that's gone today and instead you have to look up a guide which feels disingenuine in comparison and almost like cheating despite it really being the same thing. Someone tells you where a secret is and you look it up in the game. I largely made it through the game's dungeons without the help of a guide but I had to in the final level because I felt it was ridiculously annoying. So many rooms with unfair battles, really unintuitive progression, loads of bombable walls, staircases that get you to a random part of the dungeon which ends up confusing you. This is also where I found what I might consider the most fun and engaging battle as well as the least fun and tedious battle.

The blue gohma with 4 stonestatues shooting fireballs at you. So you have 5 fireballs at most heading towards you that you have to dodge and shoot an arrow at the gohma when it opens it's eye for a short period. It felt like I had to use skill to beat it, in order to dodge all the attacks and attack back when prompted. Three arrows and it's over though, but that was a very fun and challenging part of the game that I didn't find one bit unfair and instead had me properly fight without feeling too overwhelmed (Like with 5 blue darknuts or wizzrobes).

Ganon might be the worst battle in the game. He's invisible and gives you one second to hit him where he's shooting his fireballs from which also move in a random pattern. It's just trial and error when trying to hit him as well because you can see the fireball but you don't know where he is, you just know he's in the vicinity of the fireball and if you're not close enough, you'll have to wait for him to get close enough because there's zero point in chasing him down. Beat him by hitting him 5 times I think (No clue how many times I hit him) and you will have to shoot him with an arrow and bam, you've won the game.

I haven't attempted the second quest and I don't think I will. I think the game has aged poorly, I love Zelda and I understand the importance of this game, but in a modern perspective, I think it should be sort of left in the past.

I wrote this review as someone who's part of Gen Z and hasn't touched the original Legend of Zelda and who also thinks it's important to give contemporary reviews. Don't let my take on it destroy your fondness for the game or any nostalgia/sentimentality around it.

I'm happy I played it and experienced it, it's an important part of gaming history, and if you care about the origins of Zelda and the early history of modern video games, go ahead and play it, maybe you'll even enjoy it. I don't see myself replaying this game any time soon.

I'm on a quest to play every Legend of Zelda game in the main series. Last year I finished the last of the 3D games and now I'm onto the original 2D games. And being released 8 years before I was born, this might also be the oldest game I've ever played all the way through. I was cautiously optimistic about playing a game so old, but I enjoyed this game much more than I thought I would.

Some might take issue with this, but I used a guide for the overworld and did the dungeons myself without one. I know a major part of this game was the lack of hand-holding, but this aspect hasn't aged well with time. In the late 80s, this game was played by kids with lots of free-time who only had a small handful of games to play. Simply put, they had time to mess around in the overworld and learn its secrets. As an adult in 2021, I don't want to spend 6 months running around bombing every single rock and tree I come across just to find a secret cave with 10 rupees. I have many other games I want to get to. While I appreciate this game not wanting to hold your hand, this is overkill. But again, this was made in a different time and played by kids who would converse at the lunch table to tell each other the secrets they found, so really this is only an issue when playing it in today's world.

That being said, I thought the concept of the overworld was really cool and one of the more innovate and influential aspects of the game. I appreciate it for it's time and I also appreciate that this concept has been built upon in the decades since. I also thought the simplistic combat was really fun and all of the items added a lot of unique touches to the gameplay. The sword beams were particularly delightful and losing it because you took one hit of damage was agonizing in all the right ways. It provided the fun challenge of trying to avoid any damage for as long as you possibly could.

The dungeon designs were also delightful and much different than any Zelda dungeons I'd played before. They have light puzzle aspects, but it's here the combat really comes alive as some rooms see you taking on a ridiculous amount of enemies in a tiny, claustrophobic space. In these, the idea of bombing to find hidden passages also makes a lot more sense as there are only 4 places a hidden passage could be in each room. You aren't just mindlessly bombing every nook and cranny. The boss fights were a little lame and often obnoxiously easy. They were often significantly easier than many of the rooms leading up to it, but hey, it's the first game. I'll give it a pass here.

One thing that really irked me about the dungeons, though, was the inconsistency with which rooms stayed clear. Some of these dungeons were freaking hard and, as a result, I died a lot. Sometimes when you died, the rooms you cleared before stayed clear. Other times, they would re-populate with enemies each time you died. I couldn't find any rhyme or reason as to why some rooms stayed clear while others didn't. It was ridiculously annoying to be 15 rooms deep into a dungeon and then die only to find you have to re-clear the really difficult 3rd room over and over again. This is probably the most frustrating part of the game to me and one issue that I can't really just chalk up to the game being old. If there is a rhyme or reason as to why some rooms stay cleared and some don't, then please tell me lol.

All in all, I can see why this is such a classic and I can definitely still see its influence in games today. I deeply appreciate it for that alone. I like to see the origins of features we just take for granted today. If I was a kid in the late 80s, this game would have blown my mind and might perhaps be my all-time favorite.

Rating a game this influential is tough because it feels like the type of game that has a "correct" review I'm suppose to give because of how important it was to the hobby. I don't know how to do that though so I'll just talk about my own experience through my modern lens having now beat the game for the first time.

I think as a kid who had infinite time to chip away at this game, share secrets with friends, and draw my own maps, I would have been obsessed. But as a 30 year old who doesn't have all that time I decided pretty early to follow a guide rather than playing blind and it was definitely for the best enjoyment-wise. I can tell you that in the time I am capable of giving this game I would not have found half the "optional" upgrades that make the difficulty of the game a little less grueling at times.

One thing that did surprise me is just how fun the game still is, I've been playing video games since the late 90's so I'm used to a lot of old games but I did go into this kind of expecting it to be a slog but I fell right into it and enjoyed the simple but challenging combat with a couple exceptions like trying to fight several of the living armors in a single room. In those exception moments I had to resort to save state scumming on the 3ds virtual console in order to keep my patience.

This is the start of my wife and I trying to play through the whole main Legend of Zelda series in 2026 and although some might find my score a bit heretical, just judging the game from my own enjoyment, I'm giving it a...

3 / 5 Stars with a guide

That's 1 of the 20 Legend of Zelda games we're going to play this year down

All the blessings -- and frustrations -- of the overall Zelda series already. Definitely grows on you, and much more enjoyable with a guide (zeldadungeon website was great and fun to navigate)

Look: 8/10 Nothing special, even for the time. Nonetheless, love the Triforce symbol, and I like some of the little things like the fish statues lol. The overworld map with its different terrains is kind of interesting. I did really enjoy the inventory, its icons, and the map imagery, though. Plus, this set the precedent for so many enemies, items, etc., including such things that have affected me deeply, e.g., their posterity in Link's Awakening.

Sound: 7/10 Classic tracks, and some are catchy, but don't strike you. That Overworld song gets a little overplayed haha. I did not include this as a factor, because I mostly played with it muted as I usually do for this era.

Play: 8/10 Frustrating controls at times. Really enjoy the item upgrades and efficient equipment screen. I love the rudimentary map system for dungeons (the dungeons in general have been a blast, up until the last few dungeons). I bet I would despise a lot about this if I didn't have a guide to keep me "looking forward," but if you are like me and enjoy playing games with guides, you'll enjoy this. The gameplay itself is challenging yet enjoyable (I don't consider maps/getting lost part of the gameplay, I mean the fights and controls etc.). Biggest complaint is the clunkiness of the controls, like trying to enter a door or staircase and it's ultra petty about your placement, and the repetitiveness of "challenging" rooms, like, I just proved myself against such a situation why againnnn. The secrets are fun with a guide, but I would probably find it annoying blowing up a wall just to find an Old Man telling me about another secret. I could see it having been fun back in the day to have friends/others tell you about it, but it's funny when people act like that's any different than having a guide/videomaker tell you. While the gameplay remains addictive enough to get through, I didn't find myself wanting to push through to the second quest enough to actually do it, especially with how dull/repetitive the last few levels/dungeons got.

Feel: 8/10 The storyline is bland as all get out, though again, gotta love the Triforce imagery and concept. The dialogue is excessively spare, but I like that it's functional. Even with the occasionally frustrating controls and clunky mechanics especially of, say, throwing a sword then having to just slash it in between the throws, the game still pushed me to retry (thank God for that relatively forgiving gameover aspect and relatively small overworld to just return to the challenge) and make up for my mistakes, even when they stemmed from the clunkiness. I love the special boomerang, wish it could damage rather than stun more enemies because I enjoy its mechanics, but still love when you get a bat kill on the boomerang's way back to you lol. This game had phases of being addictive. An important game that set the precedent for a lot of action adventure and ARPG games, with a lot of those best components. Definitely gets a bit drier later in the game, especially with the amount of reused enemies. And now that I know they added the second quest more so because they didn't fill up the available memory, all the more odd they didn't add some new enemies instead of former bosses.

Attachment: 8/10 for now I like that they tease you with the Second Quest aspect--I'm always a fan of having a reason to return to a game; I particularly like the way/screen they do so after the credits. Plus, if I hadn't used a guide, I'd likely be returning to the game to try different orders of dungeons, speedruns, or 100% completion of getting all the dungeon items (which I did this time, but that was thanks to a guide). Again, without a guide, there are more than enough secrets to keep discovering, so this definitely has a high replayability score. Nonetheless, the difficulty and confusion of the Second Quest may deter that from being a meaningful replayability; like many other reviewers have said, you start to feel dry by Level 7 and 8, let alone ready to take on the Second Quest. Nonetheless, I know myself, and I like how many pseudo-collectibles and secrets there are, in addition to an outright second quest, that this deserves an 8. On future replays, and now that I've actually played this, we will see if this 8 comes to fruition by me actually replaying it.