Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

"The demented black sheep of the Zelda series"

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the sequel to Legend of Zelda on the NES. Unfortunately, Zelda II is radically different from the original Legend of Zelda and ultimately was not reviewed well. This is why the rest of the Zelda series used the formula derived from the original Legend of Zelda and not from Legend of Zelda II. I don't mind when a game strays off from the main series as it sometimes ends up being a masterpiece. But not this game. This game was horribly frustrating and unbelievably unrewarding.

The storyline is a direct sequel to Legend of Zelda. So this is when the Zelda timeline still made sense. Ganon was defeated by everyone's personality-devoid hero, Link but evil still lived on. Ganon's minions were alive and well and they had the desire to resurrect their dark lord. They had to do this by sprinkling the blood of Link on Ganon. Looks like Link is wrapped up in another adventure. Link starts off next to an unconscious Zelda on her bed. No, it's not what you think it is. Zelda has been cursed. The only way to break the spell was the third piece of the triforce, the triforce of courage. Unfortunately, getting this piece of the triforce would not be an easy task. This piece of the triforce was located in the Great Palace and the only way to enter this Great Palace was to use the power of the crystal statues which were located, and heavily guarded all around the world. There was six of them so I guess this is was like the dungeons of Legend of Zelda. Link's ultimate goal was to save Zelda from her terrible fate. But considering that the minions of Ganon were around, this would not be an easy task. The story is kind of lame. Was it really necessary to make Zelda worthless again despite not being kidnapped? Cursed? Come on… I guess it's an improvement over the original Legend of Zelda but that is not saying much.

The game play is what kills this game. It mixes some Zelda elements with RPG elements and combines it with side scrolling elements. Basically, this game took these aspects and threw it in a blender. Platforming elements should be left ro Mario, RPG elements should be left to Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda should not use a watered-down version of Zelda elements. Like LoZ, you can walk around in a world map. The difference is when you see little shadow-like enemies walking around, you can't do anything to them unless you run into them in which you will be engaged in an RPG-esque battle. When you enter a battle, this is where the joke side scrolling elements comes into play. You can walk around in a small area jumping and fighting the enemies you encountered on the big world map. This is incredibly stupid. The platforming elements suck as there is very little Link can do. He can jump and crouch and move left or right. You have no control compared to say Mario from the Mario games. If you jump up to attack a spider or something that is higher up, half the time you'll run into the enemy and loses life because it's hard to be precise with this game. Admittedly, you'll get better as the game progresses but this won't stop the game from being hard thanks to the poor control. The whole system is stupid. You gain experience points for killing ae enemy and you can sometimes pick up items by defeating enemies. When you grow a level, your stats will increase but you only have like three stats – life, strength and magic. So really, you get piss-poor side scrolling elements and RPG elements. This also means that exploring on the world map is useless since you can't do anything. This is a big reason why Zelda II is looked down upon by most Zelda fans. You will get weapons and magic spells but they don't make the game any more fun.

There are actually people in this game unlike the original LoZ. No, an old woman in a cave doesn't mean the game is filled with people. You encounter these people in towns, one of them being the famous Error. You can talk to them and thy can be helpful because some of them give clues on where to go. Some people will heal your life and/or magic. How nice of them. The palaces which are actually the DUNGEONS of this game actually aren't that bad. A lot of them do feel like a maze which can get slightly irritating but there are some decent puzzles and exploring to be done in these. There are some items to get in this game which is what one should hope for in a Zelda game. First is the magic jar which fills up the magic meter. Fortunately, this is actually a fairly common item enemies drop. Another item is this bag thing which gives you experience points. I don't how you get a bag of experience points but whatever. These are god because as you know, you need experience points to gain a level and when you gain a level you get to increase a certain stat. There are also the classic Heart Container in this game but there are only three or four or them. Any Zelda fan should know what this does – it allows you to gain an extra heart. The actual tangible items you get include a hammer which can smash boulders, a cross which can let you see invisible enemies and candle which lets you see in the dark. The items are basic and boring, but they are there and they are necessary. There are more too but these are just some of the main ones.

Graphically, I guess the game is okay. Link looks a little goofy and the enemies are really basic NES enemies but I guess its okay. I can't really say this game was s step up from the original Legend of Zelda. Maybe it was, but it is hard to compare them because they are both so different with styles. The world map is pretty boring which I found to be a flaw of the original Legend of Zelda. I know it was NES but I also know it was possible to not make it so boring. The soundtrack is forgettable. There is nothing this game has to offer in the soundtrack department much like the classic Legend of Zelda. LoZ actually had a pretty crappy soundtrack, it just managed to be saved by classic tunes that would be used throughout the series. This game is the same, but with less classic tunes. As for replay value, I don't understand how anyone would want to replay this but if you're a person who liked this game for whatever reason, then I guess this game would be decent on replay value. Fighting all those enemies again for experience points would be a hassle though. Even on regular RPGs, leveling up on a second playthrough is not something that is desired.

Scoring Breakdown:

Storyline: 7/10
Game Play: 3/10
Graphics: 7/10
Soundtrack: 3/10
Difficulty: 2/10

Overall: 22/50 = 44% = 4.

Sorry, but this game is no good. It's obvious this game was a failure because the Zelda series ignored what this game had to offer and reverted back to the good, original formula. The game is very difficult – too difficult. When I beat the game, I did feel a big sense of accomplishment t but all the frustrations of getting a game over negated that. LoZ was a cakewalk compared to this game. But besides the game being too hard, the game play was just terrible. I don't know what Nintendo was thinking when they decided to butcher LoZ. I am just glad Nintendo realized their mistake and never again tried to make a game like this. Worst Zelda game ever? Besides the CD-I games, yes, this is the worst Zelda game out there.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/07