Zelda1review

Before Ocarina of Time, before A link to the Past, came the first game in the Zelda series. The Legend of Zelda for the NES was a milestone for its time and established the action RPG genre that it created. This is one of the games including Mario and Metroid that brought Nintendo to where it is now, thought of as one of the best games creators in the industry.
The story:-
A long, long time ago, the world was in an age of chaos. In the midst of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being handed down from generation to generation, the legend of the "Triforce", golden triangles possessing mystical powers. One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa. Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do?…But wait! All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skillfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death.
His name was Link. During his travels he had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom to rebuild the mystical triangle. If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived. Can Link really destroy Ganon and save the princess Zelda? Only your skill can answer that question. Good luck. Use the Triforce wisely. This is taken from the manual for The Legend of Zelda, NES.

This game plays like a dream too it immerses you into the Zelda world with it's simple but effective. You assign the item you want to either A or B and fire away, whether it be the magic sword, the boomerang or the magical rod. In the game it is up to you to collect the eight pieces of the triforce of wisdom which Princess Zelda has hidden from Ganon. It is up to you to get these from the eight dungeons in the game, and the last dungeon on Death Mountain where ganons lair is hidden. The dungeons aren't easily found either and some are remain hidden untill you have the correct item to uncover it. in each of the dungeons is where the Zelda games come into their own, there are many unique and innovative puzzles which you will have to figure out if you want to proceed to the next room or to the boss.
This is also one of the more harder Zelda games, maybe not quite as hard as Zelda 2 it is still very challenging especially if you don't know what your doing. You will probably find yourself dieing on quite a number of ocations throughout your quest to recover the eight fragments of the triforce of wisdom.
Although the sound for the NES is quite poor, the Legend of Zelda theme tune for the overworld is very good indeed and makes your adventure feel that much more epic. The dungeons also have their own music too although the music for dungeons 1-8 is the same, the music for the last dungeon is different making you feel your almost to the climax.
The graphics for this game are quite good considering they are for a NES, as they are very colourful and not dull like many NES games. Although link looks a little weird if you look at other Zelda games, he is till quite good considering the graphical capabilities for a NES. The enemies though look quite cool in my opinion, and the boss for each dungeon looks extremely detailed.
I don't care what anyone says, this game is amazing. it looks very simple at first glance but once you get past the first dungeon you are enthraled by this fantasy adventure. In my opinion one of the classic retro games of the eighties. This game is a must buy for a NES owner, or for anyone without a NES just download it and experience the first in the Legend of Zelda series.
GAME SCORE: 93%