Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

"All your base belong to us! Nah...it's a surprising sequel of hybrid action and RPG...truth..."

When I came across the second game to the Legend of Zelda, I at first thought that I was seeing things, or that this game was a mistake. The same gold casing along with the crest on the front really made an impact on me in which, I decided that I was going to pick this up and see just what the game had to offer over the original game. What I found from the minute that I powered up the trusty NES, is a game that took the original theory of Zelda and improved upon it ten fold with a brand new adventure in a brand new world! Taking control of Link, you are no longer in a world that is seen from overhead, but rather in a world that is up close and personal, journeying through the world of Hyrule in an attempt to save Princess Zelda from the sleeping spell that has been put upon her. At first, the game seems daunting, with the new role playing elements that you would find in RPG games, brought to life in an action game setting, but once you’re into the game, there is no turning back or shutting the power off. You’re hooked into a story that is rather old, but retains that nostalgic and inviting appeal to it that is hard to retain in sequels in any other series!

The game play has changed drastically to the point of where the only thing that is tied to the original Legend of Zelda is the name of the game and the characters that are placed in it. No longer looking at the world through an overhead view, your battle sequences are now in side scrolling two dimensional, in which you will go toe to toe with your enemies! The elements of RPG gaming are apparent from the start, in which you will level up, collect different items and weapons as well as collecting different spells through finding and defeating boss characters. You’re also looking to go through villages and towns, all of which are full of people who are willing to talk with you and help your quest {or outright lie to you depending}, which also adds another element of RPG. The battle system in the game isn’t limited to the items in your item screen, but rather to head on battles that require a bit of strategy and luck as well as the use of magic that you didn’t have in the first game! Continues are unlimited, and the save feature is back in place, so if you’re tired of questing and looking for items as well as leveling up your character, then you can save and come back to Hyrule another time.

The control is twitchy in some aspects of the game and doesn’t quite handle precision control the way that you would hope it to do. This comes more with the side scrolling stages in which you have to be able to either jump or battle with Link, only to have him not do what it is that you need him to, and cost you life! Ghost Control runs rampant through much of the game, so be prepared to take some time and learn the control and how to strum the directional pad, because in plenty of cases, you’re going to need it. Use of the magic is only a menu click and press away, and most of your special items are used on the overhead map, so you won’t have to equip them at all and learn to use them with a different button. Once you’ve gotten through learning what all of the controls and menus are for, then you should have no problem with getting the control to do what it is that you want throughout the rest of the game!

Visually, Link has taken a huge step forward over the years, and you’ll see this immediately from the beginning of the game. Once, you were stuck in an overhead view that had no other changes and plenty of good detail to it. Now, you’ve got a side scrolling, two-dimensional world where all of your enemies are larger, more detailed and full of life and action! Truly, the only problem with the game is the lack of intricate detail with some of the enemies and the different towns, but still you’ll see what a vast improvement the game is over the original in the visuals aspect, and not find too much wrong with what it is that you see now. Different examples of the visuals has to do with the battles that you take on against some of the boss characters in which you face off against large and rather detailed characters that have some serious attacks to whip off on you. All in all, the biggest improvement in the series and with this sequel can be found here in the visuals department!

Audio wise, the game has taken a wrong turn somewhere. Where the adventurous music of Zelda was playing in the background, instilling this wave of action and adventure on the gamer, it has been replaced with something far less inticing! Even though the music isn’t half bad, the constantly looping track that you find here doesn’t do anything for the ears, but rather draws on the nerves after a few minutes. Add this in with some rather uninspired sound effects that really have no bearing on the game or effect what you hear throughout, and you’ll find that there is nothing in this portion of the game that shows any improvement, but rather a step back!

Adventures of Link was a pleasant surprise to me in several ways, in which I had expected to be playing another version of the original Zelda game and had been guard off guard by a totally new view of adventure gaming! Giving you the same characters locked in the strife of fighting the ever-present evil, you’ll find that the pleasant mix of RPG and action all rolled up into a little gray cart. If you’re a Zelda fan or even an action/RPG hybrid gamer, then you’ll find that this title is more than sufficient in every way. However, if you’re a Zelda purist, then you may find that this title isn’t for you, and move onto the later versions on the Game Boy and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/01, Updated 12/10/01