The Legend of Zelda (NES)

I’m just hopping from one massively successful franchise to another, aren’t I??  That can’t be a coincidence.

Normally, I’d be flashing a spiffy box art cover…  but this…  this is legendary.

(I usually apologize for making puns, but not this time.)

I’ve made reference to this particular day before, but on that morning I woke up to a Nintendo mysteriously hooked up to our living room television, three (technically four) games had been rented with it; Super Mario Bros.\Duck Hunt, Ice Hockey, and The Legend of Zelda.  The first three were obvious and instant hits with my sisters and I, and we picked up and played them with great enthusiasm.

Surprisingly, Zelda took a fair amount of convincing before I actually took a chance on playing it.  My sister Tracey enjoyed exploring, going everywhere she could with the little man in green, and I loved watching.  That first time she died, however…  it scared the living daylights out of me.

How can that little man go all the way into a desert, and just die like an animal?  Somehow, I managed to bypass that morally unacceptable moment, and go back to being the care free 5 year-old I was supposed to be.  Maybe it was cutesy music playing after the main character had been cut down, or maybe it was the vast landscape that was all mine to explore, and finding secrets in areas that didn’t seem all that significant on the surface.

A fellow Grade 1 student of mine once told me “You can climb up trees in Zelda!!  I know it, because I did it!!”  I knew this particular kid was full of it, but as gaming evolved, I couldn’t help but remember that statement, and appreciate its irony – especially as I explored the Great Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time.

In any case, this was definitely a game that took me a while to beat.  In fact, it was one simple little guide that helped me get through all nine dungeons and defeat Ganon!

To all the young gamers out there – even the ones who just turned 20 – can you imagine not having the ability to look something up on the internet?  Say you’re going up against Frank Fontaine (the final boss in BioShock, without giving too much away), and you’re just shooting and shooting, and the guy just won’t die.  You don’t understand, and you’re looking for something, anything to tell you exactly what you need to do…  but first, you have to go to a store and buy that information.

Owning one of these Nintendo Power subscription exclusives made me a resource of gaming knowledge, and being able to reference the detailed maps helped me plot my course through Hyrule.

I was King!  Or…  at least I felt like it…  even though the game had already been out for three years…  still, I WAS KING!!

Though I initally started making video game movies out of Star Wars games, I really couldn’t wait to make movies out of the Zelda series.  The 8-bit games are pretty light on content, but all you really need to know is that Link needs to rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon.  Here’s his journey!