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RELEASE INFORMATION Official Title: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Relese Date: Japan: 1987 USA: December, 1988 System: Nintendo Entertainment System |
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Synopsis:And they sequels don't come fast enough: Hardly a year after the original, Nintendo relesed the sequel to the smash-hit video game the Legend of Zelda. When people first played this though, they were confused. Where was the farmiliar battle system (or lack there of)? What's up with this side-scrolling deal? Welcome to Zelda II ladies and gentlemen. After much thought, I've concluded that Nintendo wanted to try and make Zelda an RPG, and this is what we got. On the topic of side-scrolling: Zelda II didn't entirely sell out to the 2-D world. You were still "free" in the overworld, but in towns, dungeons, and when you fight any sort of enemy, the screen does a freaky pan sequence, and you're stuck going left and right. The other thing that screams RPG to me were the meters. With a wide array of spells Link had a magic meter, and each spell took a certain amount of MP. When Link hit an enemy, or was himself hit, he lost HP.
As for the solidity of ZII as a Zelda game, that's a whole nother ball park. This game was mostly Nintendo seeing how far they could go. They changed the name from the farmiliar "Legend of Zelda: (Subtitle)" to a rather sequel-esque "Zelda II" with big scary Roman Numerals. They also developed a little bit more of a relationship between Zelda and Link, which you'll see in the screens. Past that, Link got to talk to other people (even though they were just clones of the same 4 people) and he got to see some pretty crazy new enemies. In the end too, it is a Zelda game, and it was a lot of fun to play, even though it veered from the traditional style we've come to know and love. If you've got a day or so to kill, play this one through not just for the sake of saying you played it, but for the enjoyment of the first Zelda-Sequel ever. | ||
