So Every Princess Is To Be Named Zelda?

In my youth I was lucky enough to make friends with the youngest son of my Grandparents best friends. His name was Ross and even though he was 9 years my senior he was an avid Weird Science reader as well as a huge early console and PC fan. So on Saturday nights I would go with my Grandparents to play bingo at a small town social every week and then afterward we would spend a couple of hours at Ross's house where I would peruse his mass collection of Atari 2600, Intellivision, and PC floppy disks.

So as I grew older our mutual interest in gaming led to us both swapping NES titles every weekend and since Ross had a full time job he was able to secure the newer games as they came out. We both went nuts over the original Legend of Zelda but when the sequel, The Adventure of Link, came out...he was disappointed by the complete change in gameplay from its predecessor. So much so that he flat out gave me his copy of Zelda II.

I didn't get a chance to play the game upon going home and had to wait until Sunday morning until I was able to once more step into Link's shoes and live a life of high adventure in the land of Hyrule. Though come the morn I found I took to the title like a fish to water and was shocked to hear the next day at school as I was going on about the game that my fellow students hated it so much. What was it about the game that I was digging that so many others weren't?

From the Wiki regarding the story of the Advenure of Link:

"

Six years after the events of The Legend of Zelda, the now sixteen year old Link notices a strange mark on the back of his left hand, exactly like the crest of Hyrule. He seeks out Impa, who responds by taking Link to the North Castle, where a door has been magically sealed for generations. Impa places the back of Link's left hand on the door, and it opens, revealing a sleeping maiden. Impa tells Link that the maiden is Zelda, the princess of Hyrule from long ago, and the origin of the "Legend of Zelda." Zelda's brother had tried to force her into telling their recently deceased father's secrets concerning the last of three sacred golden triangle treasures of his kingdom, known collectively as the Triforce. Princess Zelda refused to reveal its location, and the prince's wizard friend, in anger, tried to strike her down with a spell. Zelda fell under a powerful sleeping spell, but it also resulted in the wizard's own death. The prince, unable to reverse the spell, had his sister placed in the castle tower, in the hope that she would one day be awakened. He decreed that princesses born to the royal family from that point on would be named Zelda, in remembrance of this tragedy.

Impa says that the mark on Link's hand means that he is the hero chosen to awaken Zelda. She gives Link a chest containing six crystals and ancient writings that only a great future king of Hyrule can read. Link can read it and it indicates that each crystal needs to be placed in a different palace in Hyrule. This will open the way to the Great Palace, which contains the TriForce of Courage. This, combined with the other two parts, has the power to awaken the enchanted Zelda. Taking the crystals, Link sets out to restore them to their palaces. Meanwhile, the followers of Gannon are seeking to kill Link; sprinkling his blood on Ganon’s ashes would bring Ganon back to life."

Doing a little research shows that 1-up.com has a score of 65/100 and Gamespot bestows 69/100 on The Adventure of Link. IGN gives it a 70/100 and Nintendo Power 72/100.

So what say you? Is the negative reception to the game in fact because the gameplay had changed? Perhaps the title is considered too difficult? Is the storyline just too crazy to comprehend?

Night Moves - Bob Seger

Nintendo Power Hotline. No Gauntlet Advice.

Ah, the joys of that particular Birthday so many years past. I open up my last present and there in my shaking hands is Gauntlet for the NES. I love Gauntlet...heck I even tried to dress up as Questor one Halloween in my youth. It didn't quite work out like I had expected. I was asked if I was everything from Robin Hood to Peter Pan. Sigh.

Back to the point of the post, after about two days of playing the NES port of Gauntlet I found myself stuck. I was facing the Dragon at the end of the game and just could not slay the wretched beast. My Grandmother being a saint of video games suggested I call the Hotline phone number listed in our Nintendo Power magazines.

So I jumped up and using her phone dialed the number with bated breath to see if these gurus of gaming could perhaps give me the one vital piece of information that would help me topple my digital foe.

Unfortunately this was not to be.

It turned out that Tengen didn't exactly produce licensed versions of Gauntlet, Pac-Man, or RBI Baseball for the NES. It seems that the company found Nintendo's license too restrictive and as the Wiki states, Nintendo didn't want their licensees to have more than five game released in a year and those titles had to be console exclusive for two years.

When I asked the Hotline attendant to help me with my Dragon problems...he became quiet for a couple of seconds and then informed me he was not allowed to give any advice on Tengen titles. I was terribly confused, he had to repeat that about three times and this guy was really terrific because even at that young age I could tell he really wanted to help me.

In plain desperation I pleaded with him to help defeat the dragon. His reply though pained was brief, "Shoot the Dragon more." He then hung up the phone. I put the phone up and then went back to the game and as if he was in control of my NES unit I was able to defeat the Dragon...just because a Nintendo Hotline attendant told me to do what I was already doing.

Come to think of it I might have been talking to Dio.

Killing The Dragon - Dio