User reviews

The Legend of Zelda marked the birth of a series that is highly regarded in the gaming community as one of, if not the best series of games in existence. No review can really do the game justice but give it a try and find out for yourself! Shigeru Miyamoto (Creator of Zelda) is a Genius!!! Nintendo is simply the Best!

Having the regular NES and being able to go back and play this masterpiece feels amazing. After almost all the other games from that era which could be tossed in the dumpster, this and Dragon Warrior were cornerstones of two golden empire series. Well worth having- this is the first of a great series.

I read somewhere in a magazine that "The Legend Of Zelda (1986)" is one of the greatest video-games of all-time. I wouldn't be shocked if it was the greatest. It is certainly my favorite video-game. I have played thousands of video-games, and this easily tops them all. Old games and new. This game has no genre of the tops, it tops all of the genres.

I remember crying when I was seven years old because my kid brother (who was about 3) deleted my Link. As I look back on that moment, to this day, it still seems logical to cry, because as a little boy, I put a lot of work into getting where I was. I think anybody, old and young, puts a lot of work into "The Legend Of Zelda (1986)". You spend so much time playing this game, and the game grows on you more and more. This game kind of becomes a part of your life. A classic never dies, my friend; and neither does a legend. :) It took me over five years to beat both of the quests together, while at the same time I was using Game Genie and a Walkthrough for some of it. This game is for the PROS ONLY! The score is unforgettable; I love the music so much. There is not one thing wrong with this game. I find it very shocking that they could've fit all this data into a NES game. 10/10. I don't think I'll ever see a video game, that tops this one.

The evil Ganon invades the land of Hyrule and steals the Triforce of Power. Princess Zelda, sensing danger, splits the Triforce of Wisdom into eight pieces and hides the pieces from Ganon and his minions in eight separate dungeons. Enraged, Ganon imprisons the princess, but not before Zelda dispatches Impa to find a savior. Impa finds the young Link and gives him his task: Reassemble the Triforce, defeat Ganon, and rescue the princess Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda's underworld was a tangled mess of deadly traps - a maze of twisty passages, none alike. Rooms were connected to the north, south, east, and west by open doors, locked doors, switch doors, one-way doors, and even bombed-out passageways. Old men (and hungry Goriyas) lived in these dungeons and dispensed poorly translated advice to would-be adventurers.

Link could wield a wooden, white, or magical sword and wear a blue or red ring to increase his defensive strength. A regular shield repelled most projectiles, but a magical shield defended against fireballs and magic. Heart containers (either found or won) increased Link's life force. The boomerang retrieved items from afar, while bombs damaged foes and opened blocked passageways. Candles burned bushes and lit up darkened rooms. Wooden and silver arrows could be shot for the cost of a rupee apiece. You could cross rivers with a ladder; cross lakes with a raft. The power bracelet let you push heavy things. A magic wand and book let Link send Wizzrobes packing with a taste of their own medicine.

Imagine what video games would be like without Zelda! Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, and many other great RPG and adventure series would probably never exist! Zelda is an excellent game that really shows how much more powerful the NES was over the Atari. There are no games on the Atari that can ever match the skills of searching and exploring needed in Zelda. Everyone should try this game at least once in their life!

Just thought I'd put in a few cents on this video game masterpiece, as I rarely pipe in about video games (I rarely play them anymore). Somehow, likely as much for nostalgia as for pure enjoyment, The Legend of Zelda for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (and now available on the Game Boy Advance XP in the 'classics' edition un-changed), is one of the all-time great RPG's ever. It's relatively simple, and for some it's probably winnable and over-and-done with in a night's playing. But there's something addictive too about playing such with such simplicity and (by today's standards) primitive kind of software. The whole task of the game is to get more coins, get more hearts, defeat dragons and dancing fires and ghosts and red/blue knights and so on, in order for Link to save the title character. Whether or not this is the very first Zelda game I'd leave to research, but it is the first that really broke through and has a lasting impact as also being the very first that one could save their game on NES. In other words, if you get tired, save and come back to it, and keep on playing to get all the triangles and top level 9. As someone who has a definite bias from having played the game for nearly my entire life (ever since Nintendo first came into my life and now on Game Boy), it goes without saying that I recommend it to those who may have forgotten it in the smoke of the several new Nintendo systems and even the new (possibly better) Zelda games. But even to the younger ones who already have Playstation 3.14, it's worth a try to get a glimpse of the really nifty days when all you had was a sword, 2-D, and some very typical- in a good way- music for the show. It's a treasure of its time.

(www.plasticpals.com) The first Zelda was so well conceived that it set the stage for innumerable sequels. The fantasy setting of Hyrule, populated by the elf-like Hylians, is a world made up of forests, deserts, mountains, rivers, ruins, cemeteries, and dungeon fortresses. Familiar creatures and conventions, such as fairies and rupees rule the day. At this early stage, the mythology wasn't well developed but the Triforce plays an important role, fragments of which are the prize and the goal of each dungeon.

The evil thief Ganon has kidnapped Princess Zelda and used the Triforce of Power to summon evil monsters into the otherwise peaceful land. To prevent Ganon from abusing the power of the Triforce of Wisdom, Princess Zelda has scattered its pieces throughout Hyrule. It's up to Link, a young boy clad in green, to take up the sword and save the day. One would be forgiven for assuming Nintendo took some inspiration from the cult classic "The Dark Crystal" – with its Elf-like Gelflings and a quest to restore peace to a troubled land.

Miyamoto wanted to create a game world where players could feel the excitement and wonder of exploring strange new lands and finding hidden secrets; the kind of feeling he had wandering around his hometown as a child. To this aim, the land of Hyrule was unmatched in size for its time, composed of 128 unique screens. That was like having a whole world inside your television – you'd come to recognize areas like you do your own neighbourhood.

Adding to the complexity of the landscape are its many secrets, which can only be uncovered by using one of the many items in the game. With the right equipment, Link can bomb open walls, burn bushes, push boulders and gravestones, and ferry across rivers. Now, this all sounds pretty typical of adventure games these days, but there are no words to describe how awesome that was back when this game was new!

Even with all these items, Link will sometimes need directions from locals to find his way through the labyrinth of the Lost Woods or Death Mountain pass, which seem to keep unwanted visitors out with some kind of magic! Sometimes the locals will proffer goods (at a price), play gambling games (rigged, I swear!), donate rupees (it's a secret to everybody), or shout at you and demand payment for damaging their humble abode!

Every now and again as Link fights his way past the minions of Ganon, he will come across ominous ruins. Venturing inside, he is faced with a labyrinth seething with enemies, hidden passageways, traps and puzzles. The game automatically fills in a dungeon map to help you find your way, an innovative feature at the time. If Link perseveres he can find a complete map as well as a compass which points to the location of the Triforce. These make the going a little less tough, but they don't reveal the location of keys, locked doors, or essential items.

As he gets closer to the Triforce, Link will hear the unsettling breathing of an enormous beast through the dungeon walls, and in the next room a boss battle awaits. Bosses in the first Zelda game are fairly tame compared to the sequels. Gohma and Dodongo would put in appearances in later games, and Link uses similar strategies to defeat them here.

There are 9 dungeons in total, gradually becoming more complex and difficult to find. Unlike future iterations, there are usually no tell- tale clues as to what walls can be bombed, what shrubs can be burned, or what blocks can be pushed. Despite the sometimes punishing nature of its game play, especially in the master quest (which features different dungeon locations, layouts, and items), Zelda was a sensational success. Players everywhere relished the riddles that Hyrule posed.

Some twenty years after its initial release, I decided to pick it up again just for fun. Within a couple of hours I was absolutely transfixed, and couldn't stop playing it! I ended up finishing it for the first time in my life. Zelda had always stumped me as a kid because I always entered my name as Zelda – triggering the much harder, more cryptic master quest. I really feel bad for people who haven't played it – or won't, simply because it's "old".

Although I have beaten 14 Zelda games, the older ones are my least favorites. They are excellent for their time, but by today's standards they are pretty dated. The graphics are very bright and hard on the eyes for the first two Zelda games. The difficulty is also much, much harder. There's also not nearly as much of an emphasis on story, and overall the older ones just aren't as enjoyable. This game does get better the more you play it, and you do get used to it, but I found myself just progressing in it a little bit at a time, partly due to difficulty, but mostly just because I got tired of it and wanted to play something more contemporary. I mostly played and beat this game because it was a Zelda game, and I want to beat all of them.

Yes, this game was a bit ground breaking in its day. An action game like no other I had played at the time as it was the first game I could save in and stop playing and pick up the game at another time where I had left off. It was also the first game I had personally played that had ending credits. It was also relatively simple to pick up on as I was rather young when I first played it. The story is rather simple, a boy named Link goes on a quest to save the princess Zelda from the evil Ganon by collecting pieces of an object known as the triforce. He goes through numerous dungeons to find the pieces and also must traverse a very large over world filled with many monsters and locales such as desert, sea, and cemeteries. He receives help from various people including an old man who provides him with a wooden sword to begin his quest. You also have grouches who proceed to take your money if you damage their door. You are also given life by faeries. The combat is simple for the most part, strike your enemies down with your sword. You usually collect objects in dungeons that help you continue further in your quest all the way to Death Mountain. The game could use a bit more depth and the enemies get rather annoying near the end, however this game was a game I could not put down when I first got it to the point I saw that screen shift when I would first go to bed after playing it so much.

Zelda 1 without a guide is a cryptic mess you will walk around in for five minutes and then turn the game off frustrated not knowing what to do. Now on the other hand Zelda 1 WITH a guide is like a giant treasure hunt and you're exploring a vast world with fun secrets and dungeons to be found everywhere.

This game is truly great when you kinda have an idea of what you're doing, but not really. Trying to find your way to the next dungeon in the maze like world only kinda knowing where it is and then actually playing through the dungeon barely surviving out the other end is where this games true fun is at.

The game is heavily outdated though, only really ever playing three songs on loop, difficulty balancing being off, having to grind for rupees etc.

I would never recommend anyone touch this game without a guide but with a guide it is a really fun way to spend an afternoon with a cup of coffee.

When I first played this video game, I thought, 'Boy, what a dog of a video game! The graphics are terrible, the animation is slow (Compare to Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Metroid), and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.' Not only that, but the combat is pretty trivial - all you have to do is dodge everything, and you'll pretty much escape all the rooms without a scratch. But I kept on playing, and after getting the first triforce piece (which took many days, since I didn't understand the point of the game), I started getting into it. The challenge was't in the battle; the whole point of the game was to find secrets and items(like the Digdogger, the Pols Voice, Ghoma, Dodongo, etc.). Once I finally understood the point of the game, I began to enjoy it, though it was more engrossing than it was exciting. I still don't think it was the best game made for the NES (I think Metroid, Punch-Out, and Castlevania were superior title), it was certainly one of the most original, and for that reason alone deserves to be rated as the classic that it is.

Back in the day when there weren't 32-bit processors and 10 button controls, there was The Legend of Zelda. I grew up on the game and it still remains(to this day) my favorite video game of all time. I still have an original Nintendo and a Zelda cartridge, but the Nintendo doesn't work all too well. If it did, I would spend more time playing that game.

The Legend of Zelda is the ORIGINAL Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider.

Even though this game is more then 10 years old, it still is a classic. I never played it till 96 and I thought it was bad a first. But now I think this game can go into video-game hall of fame.

Zelda was released in the Summer of 1987 and was hailed as an immediate classic. The game was the first of its kind. A sorta RPG with hand-to-hand combat instead of turn-style battles. The Game was challenging and fun, while it could also be very frustrating. It is and will forever be one of the conerstones of video gaming and personally...my childhood

This game; the story of a boy, a girl, and a pig, is one of the most enduring video games of all time, and it's easy to see why. One moment you're exploring the huge over-world, the next you're fighting a boss which is 3x bigger than you are inside of a dungeon that could be the size of the entire over-world.

All in all. This is the best game of all time because it puts game-play before anything else.

This is a game that begs to played by anybody, and I would recommend it to anybody.

Please go out and buy this game. 10 out of 10.

This is my favorite video game for the NES and it's one of my favorite video games of all time, I honestly feel this was a game that was just made for me.

This game was revolutionary in many ways as it was one of the first action RPGs as well as one of the very first major video game console franchises for the NES as well as another great video game franchise in general.

It made sense a game like this would be made as RPGs along with movies and TV in the fantasy genre was one of the big booms of the 80's. I played this game when I was about seven years old, I got into this game because I'm a big fan of the cartoon "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" along with others like "Dungeons and Dragons", seeing and playing this game felt like a dream come true.

Everything about this game is just beautiful there is just so much to love about this game. As I mentioned this game was one of the first action RPG's, most RPGs at the time were always table top, more based on strategy than doing, you took action but it was mainly after a decision or even a roll of the dice, and the vast environments and creatures were mainly alive more in your own imagination based on the narrative story.

In this game you are constantly doing which made the game a lot more engaging and interactive (well sort of), most importantly this game felt more accessible for non-fans of RPG; and I use to be one of them as I've never played RPG's or even knew anything about them at the time, this game was a great introduction to them.

I really like the plotline, it's true this game doesn't have a running storyline like the further entries do, but that was video games back then as they weren't concerned about story but focused more on action and fun. And that's what this game does and that's a good thing, you are set on what you need to do, and you simply just jump into the adventure and just have a good time.

The graphical presentation is beautiful, and I still think it is in a historical art appreciation sense. From the amount of color, character designs, but mainly just the vast environment. Which was very different because video games back then never really had vast environments only levels with scenery.

But in this game, there are different sections of scenery all interconnected to give you the feel of a vast environment. Each of the environments depending on where you go are always different from the forest, mountains, beach, cemetery and anyplace else you see.

This gave the game so much to explore and secrets each of them carries, sometimes when I play the game again, I find some new things. And of course, there are the Dungeons which are a lot of fun as their pretty much maze puzzles by their nature.

Each section you go through is always a different challenge, it's a mystery at first because you just never know what the next section holds. And like in all mazes it's your point A to B linear approach but it's not quite as simple as there is a bit of a nonlinear elements where sometimes you have to find certain room with a specific tool you need to or even finding and making secret passageways, all to get to point B.

The action in the game is solid, you have a very good variety of enemies each have different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, like those really strange evil armadillo creatures, bats, moblin solders that are literally dog solders, mummies, ghosts, evil knights, and other fantasy baddies all trying to kill you. And there are the bosses that are solid and slightly memorable like one that's a Triceratops, by their nature are puzzles themselves as each of them you have to take out in a different way.

The character you play the main hero Link is cool he's one of my favorite video game protagonists of all time. Though this makes the title of the game inaccurate as Zelda isn't the main character. Maybe naming it "Legend of Link or Hyrule" wouldn't of been very catchy so oh well whatever title works. From that Robin Hood like outfit, he wears he pretty much has hero written all over him. His character is armed with a sword and shield, both items have their strengths and weaknesses.

The shield block works when you refrain from attack however this shield can only block some attacks. The sword is awesome it was the closest equivalent to He-Man's power sword; you have the typical thrust attack but the best feature about it is that it discharges magical blades toward enemies at great distances.

It's so awesome because those magical blades destroy anyone it touches instantly or for stronger enemies drains their energy quicker, let alone I love the sound it makes which is just music to my ears. However, you can only discharge magical blades as long as your life gauge remains full, if half a life or a full life is gone from the gauge, they you sword is depowered.

And as usual the game has the RPG elements from leveling up which happens once you defeat the boss and find the Triforce piece. I always love that moment in the game when you raised that Triforce piece over your head with that music of triumph, it just gave you a feeling that you accomplished something great. But the moment this happens another heart is added to your life bar.

Also, throughout the game you collect rupees to fill up your currency which you'll need for the usual shops to purchase all kinds of things, food to replenish your life bar if you can't fill it up by any other means faster, tools like bombs or even a raft, but also weapons like different kinds of swords that increase your attack power.

And of course, there is the music which is just superb and is a timeless classic that is still being played today.

The game mainly consists of three tracks, but all three tracks are memorable, from the open environment, the dungeon which has sort of this mysterious and creepy tone to it, but the theme song which is one of my favorite theme songs of all time and pretty much the theme that still plays for the franchise today. It's such a beautiful theme as it just the right music that sings out epic fantasy adventure.

It's not just a game, it's an adventure.

Rating: 4 stars.

Wow, when I got this as a kid it took FOREVER to play and the draw was the exploration, tracking down the different levels, beating the ones that you could as you progressed, finding the hidden passages by attempting to burn every single tree, bomb every portion of wall, and move every stone that you came across.

That was just amazing... and it took literally forever to uncover everything piece by piece.

And then, as an adult, you remember where everything is, so when you go back to playing it, the thing is kind of a race to uncover every little thing you remembered and play it through as fast as possible.

One of the earliest and first classic NES games was "The Legend of Zelda" a travel and journey adventure thru a magic world in which you as the player "Zelda" were on a journey to save and find a princess, yet your travel and journey took you thru many different lands of water, sand, and dark hidden dungeons as you faced all kinds of foes in the form of creatures and warriors. The key was obtaining magic, and learning spells and unlocking treasures and finding maps to guide you thru new lands and meeting new people to obtain knowledge and survive. Really a tough complex game as I never mastered, yet a friend of mine did after many times. Still a difficult mind numbing addictive travel journey classic that was a maze of thought and skill.

One of the larger landmarks in the history of gaming, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda broke away from the mold of nearly every other game out at the time, adopting an unprecedented, overhead action/RPG interface which shocked and amazed on its early NES debut. To say it was one of those innovations that ''worked'' and was passable would be an understatement. It was really and truly an amazing first effort by Shigeru Miyamoto, head of Nintendo, which along with Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong, helped propel rapidly not only Miyamoto's own career but the direction and pace gaming was moving at.

Two of the features which set this esteemed Zelda precursor apart from other games out at the time, interestingly, appear even before the game has begun! What's this -- a detailed story in the same vein as the questionable follow up to Super Mario Bros., before the title screen even comes up?? A map, abundant with hints and tips, just vague enough not to rain on the parade of exploration and discovery??? And a Save Battery???? You don't see this kind of stuff every day, folks!

And who could forget the main theme of Legend of Zelda? Quite possibly the most enjoyed and remembered tune in all of video-gaming, the fittingly titled ''main theme'', plays throughout the whole game except in dungeons(where an equally enjoyable tune plays). I don't know of anyone who has heard Zelda's main theme and not gotten in stuck in their head; it's just that enchanting.

If the name of the game and the series which it is in didn't recommend this game to you already, then let me do so now! Legend of Zelda is a fabulous action/RPG that does wonderfully what no other game could at the time and that is create a challenging, exciting hybrid-RPG with enough thought and work put into it to keep its legendary status and appeal afloat for years and years in the ever-developing sea of electronic gaming. Relatively few people still play older games in this day and age, but let me tell you that Legend of Zelda is one of the first choices for anyone who does. Every gamer worth his salt in that era had played and beaten this game -- most of them doing so multiple times. What's not to like?

The Legend of Zelda lures you in with fantastical beasts and mystical sorcery. It is about solving problems and overcoming obstacales. If you can play this game and beat it, I believe that means that you can beat the game of life because, whether you know it or not, you thrive on challenge. I could list all the great weaponry like the three swords, the silver arrows, the wand, the candle, and the whistle but that is not really the point. The Legend of Zelda is a magical world in which I wish I could live.