Link: The Faces of Evil is similar to its counterpart, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, in many ways. They share some of the same enemy assets, the art style is similar and there are some shared power-ups. But where the Zelda game is focused a bit more on puzzle solving, Link's game is much more focused on combat. The problem is the combat is not these games' strongest point.
This pig balloon man is supposed to be the "Face of Evil"
This is pitched more as a "dark" Legend of Zelda game. Some strange guy on a flying carpet spouts some nonsense and takes Link to Koridai to fight the faces of evil. The map suggests these bosses will be menacing, but that's not the case. They are laughably stupid. There's a strange clown-pig that deflates like a balloon. There's also an old man inside a suit of armor. The only creepy one is Glutko, a monster that is eating people alive. I think there would be a place for a creepy Legend of Zleda game, but this misses the mark.
Okay, this guy is actually disturbing
The combat in this game is incredibly cheap. You can shoot a beam out of your sword as long as you have full health. That's great because the enemy and Link hit boxes are way too big. Unfortunately, it seems like most levels start with something programmed to hit you in the first second and negate that beam. Like the other game, this one starts difficult and gets progressively easier.
Like Wand of Gamelon, the soundtrack is great. There's one part where this game is better: Link doesn't have to do nearly as much jumping.
The game literally ends with a close up of Link saying, "I won!"
In the end, this game is slightly worse than Wand of Gamelon, with much more obnoxious bosses and characters and a bit less of the charm from the Zelda game. It was still fun at times and not nearly as bad as it's reputation. If you had to play one, I'd choose the Zelda game.
Here's my updated list:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 3. The Legend of Zelda 4. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 5. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon 6. BS Legend of Zelda 7. Link: The Faces of Evil 8. Zelda (Game & Watch)
Next up is the infamous CDi games. Having now finished the first two, I feel a lot of the opinions of these two games is based solely on a small handful of YouTube videos that people have viewed and repurposed as gospel. For starters, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Link: The Faces of Evil are nowhere near the worst games of all time. There are actually a lot of parts that are pretty fun. Given the difficulty emulating these hard-to-find games, I believe most haven't given them a fair try (which is something I'm working on here).
First up for me was Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. To save resources, it was developed simultaneously with Link: The Faces of Evil and they were released at the same time. They often get lumped together as the same but are actually quite different. The Zelda game is a bit more cerebral, focusing on collecting items from people around the world to outsmart bosses. If you have the right item, most of them go down in a single hit. Link's game is more combat focused (which I'll describe more in the next post).
Most of this game's notoriety comes from these infamous cutscenes:
Indeed, the animation is a special kind of terrible. It was farmed out to a Russian-based animation group as the soviet union was falling. I have two huge complaints. First, most of the people look hideous. Every person in every village looks disgusting. Some of the scenes would also be okay, except the animations had to have every body part of every character moving at all times. Link can't just talk to the king, his eyes have to be spinning around in his head while his arms twerk around and the camera zooms in and out. It's so strange. Half the scenes would be fine if they just stood and talked to each other.
Why couldn't they just make Zelda act normal in this scene?
There's a couple elements where I give the cut scenes a pass. First, the video quality is amazing for the time. Compared to video compression on contemporaries like the Turbografx CD and Sega CD, the video is crisp and pretty smooth. I also don't think the developers can be blamed for some of the characterizations and dialogue. You have to remember this was being developed at the same time as Link to the Past. That means the most recent work the developers could look at was Zelda II on NES and the Zelda animated cartoon. Indeed, the characters all talk and act like the cartoon characters (like Link desperately begging for a kiss at all times). In that regard, the game seems to be succeeding at much of what it set out for.
What most of the game actually looks like
I mentioned Zelda II, that is the game that plays the closest to Wand of Gamelon. This game is a side-scroller. The levels would not be bad if not for the limitations of the console. For starters, the CDi only has two button inputs. This game needed many more. Because of that, up on the control pad is jump. Thankfully, I've been playing a lot of MSX games in the past year with a similar control style so that wasn't too bad for me but I know is tough for others who have played the game. Button 1 is your sword and everything else is on button 2. This leads to confusion when trying to go through doors (button 2), use items (button 2) and open the menu (button 2 while crouching).
The levels look pretty and are hand painted. But there is no telling at times what is the background and what you can interact with. Some levels (like the terrible Washubi Swamp level) require precision jumps but you can't tell where a ledge begins and ends. Sometimes you can also wander around without understanding what is and isn't an entrance to another area. Exploring the second half of the village of Sakado requires you to enter a certain home, stand on a specific window ledge and press button 2. Seriously, don't attempt this game without a guide.
Thankfully, the levels, while tough, are short enough you can beat with practice. The game starts very difficult and gets much easier when you upgrade your sword to shoot projectiles and gain a cloak to make yourself temporarily invincible. It all comes together in a challenging and fun final battle through Reesong Palace. I felt accomplished when I beat Ganon and am happy I played this game.
I should also mention the music. While it doesn't sound like much of the series, it is frequently fantastic. I've had many of the songs stuck in my head since completing the game.
Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon was fun at times, challenging and sometimes humorous. Yeah the animation was bad and some parts felt cheap, but honestly no more cheap and vague than parts of Zelda II. This would be the CDi game I would recommend if you can only try one. Someone even put out a version for the computer recently that fixes many of the problems (and will run on your PC). Either way, I think these games are worth a try for fans of the Zelda series.
Here's my updated list:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 3. The Legend of Zelda 4. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 5. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon 6. BS Legend of Zelda 7. Zelda (Game & Watch)
Next up, we're jumping back to 1989 and Zelda Game & Watch. The original Game & Watch systems were some of the earliest handhelds; using LCD technology to play simple games. Eventually, they got more complicated. The Zelda system uses two screens (the idea was later reused for the Nintendo DS). Unfortunately, these systems have become collectors items and prohibitively expensive for what they are (we're talking hundreds of dollars for the Zelda one). But, I recently learned the Zelda game is also included on the Game Boy Advance cart Game & Watch Gallery 4, which is cheap online and also on the WiiU Virtual Console.
About $250 cheaper than the original.
Getting to the game isn't easy. Game & Watch Gallery 4 requires unlocking stars as currency. Getting them requires insane scores on difficult, cheap and tedious games. It's one of the most brutal unlocks I can think of in a Nintendo game. Of course, Zelda is the final game unlocked. Thankfully, I was able to download a full save online after frustratingly trying to unlock games and realizing I would never have enough for Zelda.
The Zelda playfied. The dimensions are changed a bit for the GBA.
The actual Zelda Game & Watch game is surprisingly deep and complex for an LCD game. On the bottom screen, you have to defeat an enemy on the right hand side. There are other enemies trying to stab you from below and one shooting projectiles from behind that you are required to block (this guy felt cheap at times). You then have to work your way through the dungeon. Along the way you can unlock a map, water of life (will refill your health once in the dungeon) and a tomahawk. The tomahawk allows you to do triple damage on the boss. You probably won't beat the boss without the tomahawk and therein lies the biggest problem with this game. There are branching paths in the dungeons and you can't backtrack if you miss something. This means you need luck or multiple playthroughs to make sure you don't miss the tomahawk and make the boss supremely difficult.
Fighting the boss
The boss fights are cool. Each one is against a dragon. It takes place on the upper screen so you have a completely different playfield for the fight. As long as you have the tomahawk, they aren't too bad. When you finish, you get a piece of the triforce. Collect all 8, and you move to another screen in the upper left where you rescue Zelda.
Grabbing a triforce piece
The GBA is able to mostly reproduce the experience, from what I've learned researching the game. For an LCD game, it's pretty amazing and gives you an experience that feels a bit like Zelda II. I'd put it at the top of a list of LCD games, but it doesn't quite stack up to the rest of the Zelda experiences so far. I'd love if we got a re-release of this LCD for Zelda's 35th anniversary year so more people could experience it.
My list now stands as:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 3. The Legend of Zelda 4. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 5. BS Legend of Zelda 6. Zelda (Game & Watch)
This Epic Zelda Quest became bogged down with the weight of life over the past five years. Now, with the 35th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, I've decided to pick up the master sword and continue the quest.
I can hear this image
I'm now determined to include ALL the games. I'll only rank each game once (so not 3 different ports of Ocarina of Time) and play whatever I deem to be the best version of the game.
First, let's catch up on the past few years. Like the rest of the world, I played and enjoyed Breath of the Wild. I'll save my verdict on it for later in the quest.
Link's Awakening continues to get better with age
I also played through the Switch version of Link's Awakening. It reminded me of just how great the original game is, enough that I bumped it up ahead of the NES version of Legend of Zelda. That means as we resume the quest, my current ranking stands as:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 2. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 3. The Legend of Zelda 4. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 5. BS Legend of Zelda
As part of
this Zelda Quest, I really wanted to try one of the Satellaview Zelda
games.If you’re not familiar, the
Satellaview was an add-on for the Super Famicom in Japan.
The Satellaview
It was a service run by the satellite company
St.GIGA.The games, some exclusive
and some standard games, were broadcast like a TV program for download (the B
in BS stands for broadcast).There were
two Zelda games available for the service, BS Legend of Zelda being one of them.This game is often called a 16-bit remake of
the original Zelda game but I don’t think this is accurate.It’s much more like a spin-off.
Because of the downloadable nature of the games, many on
the Satellaview have been lost to time.. Thankfully, people are working to change
that.I played an English translation on
a repro cart.During the actual
broadcasts, there was spoken dialogue helping guide the players.That hasn’t been fully reproduced (but people are getting close).
The same (but different)
The game takes place over 4, one hour broadcasts.One was played each week.As such, there are some changes from the
original Zelda game.The map is more
condensed.In addition, the difficulty
is lowered to make sure you can get through in enough time.Despite that, you always feel kind of rushed;
almost as if conducting a speed run.Pressing select brings up a list of all of your goals for the week, you
can only get two triforce pieces each week.
Your goal for the week
In addition, there are timed events that take place.At a certain time, you will get unlimited
bombs for a few minutes.Near the end,
there is a limited 10 minute window which is your only chance to get the most
powerful sword and ring.I believe the
original vocal tracks would alert you to some of this.
On Zelda time
SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE GAME FOLLOW
At the end of the game, you enter the cave where the old
man gives you the sword in the first Zelda game.Gannon comes in and breaks up the fun leading
to the final boss fight.It’s a neat
subversion for longtime Zelda fans.
I’m very
happy I played this and it’s a very unique take on Zelda.
Much as Link became stuck on Koholint Island, this Zelda Quest has been stuck for the past year as life
got in the way. I’m going to try to
begin his mission again with the goal of getting caught up in time for The
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (this didn’t have a title last time we
posted). I finished Link’s Awakening
tonight. I’m always amazed just how much
is packed into every inch of the map. The game's charm also holds up. My biggest criticism is the game is very easy. As
a kid, I guess I never really noticed this. Anyway, like the Wind Fish, I am now awakened
and ready to move on to the next game.
Like Lindsay and
Blake, I’m going to start ranking the games.
This is the game that started my lifelong love of video
games.
My first game (which came with my
new SNES) was Super Mario Brothers, and that was a pretty great game. But Link to the Past was about more than just
mastering the moves… there was puzzle-solving, exploration, story, characters,
ambiance… it was fully-immersive. I also
played almost all of the first play-through with my dad, so this game will
always be tied with fond memories and nostalgia. In fact, Dad and I have had a great time reminiscing
about the game over the last couple months as I've played it again.
Literally one of the first things I did... for old time's sake.
Link to the Past does an excellent job of letting you figure
things out as you go. Unlike the first
two Zelda games, it doesn't just plunk you down with zero guidance. It instead introduces you to new elements
slowly, without lazily relying on tutorials like some of the later Zelda
games. Also, a single play takes just
long enough to make you feel like you got your money’s worth, but not so long
that you get bored or frustrated. Basically,
it’s the Goldilocks of Zeldas.
One of the most epic moments in video game history.
One of the great things about playing through again is trying new things, like defeating Agahnim with the bug net.
When Dad and I played we didn't have a walkthrough guide, so
we just explored and usually found everything we needed. However, the game did come with a little
booklet called “Top Secret Messages from Sahasrahla”, which also had the Nintendo
Help Line phone number on the back. You
know… because this was back before you could just use the internet if you got
stuck. Dad did end up calling the help line for us –
twice I believe. I specifically remember
us being stuck in the Ice Temple, so I made Blake play it this time to see if
he could figure it out. He got stuck in
the same spot, so our pride is intact.
Overall though, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I remembered
most of the tricky secrets, even so many years after my last play. It was kinda nice to show off my expertise of
the game, since it’s usually Blake who remembers old games so well.
Blake begging the Ice Monster to open the door.
Beating the game felt nearly as rewarding as it did the
first time, and we even stuck around for the credits to see how all our
favorite characters fared. I was glad to
see that (in my biased opinion) the game has held up well over the years,
meaning it was just as enjoyable as it was when I was a kid. As an adult, I have decided that that’s the
real test of a genuinely good vintage video game.
