The Legend of Zelda

When I was 8, my best friend and I had a sleepover. That night, when we were alone, he pulled something out that I'd never seen before and it blew my mind. That's right... this game.

There's joy to be had in the exploration of the "world grid" of Hyrule here. Yet I doubt anyone sincerely has the patience to set fire to every tree and bomb every rock icon - let's remind ourselves, not to find Hyrule's secrets, but to just progress through the game. So, a revolutionary save system was invented, and to hold interest, music so iconic we're still creating orchestral versions.

I have to balance nostalgia and how much I love its many sequels with how frustrating it can actually be to play. Certainly no player could ever seriously spend the dozens of hours trying to burn every bush in the map it would take to beat it guide-free these days. But still it's iconic simple Zelda and still fun to walk around and battle some monsters and do a dungeon or two to this day.

Take this you'll need it. *Hands you a nintendo power player's guide* "WUSS. "

Mostly a fun game, but the save system needs work (a common problem with NES games) and the final dungeons are just too trolly and annoying.

Played it in circa 2009. Still good fun. /completed

Only liked it a little when I was a kid. Didn't beat it until high school. Don't crucify me for this one. Searching for secrets was a chore if you weren't part of the Zelda in-crowd.

Extremely good even though it's brutally difficult. It's a while before you even find out there's a story. "Just go out in nature and explore" is really fun and I'm surprised more games don't do it. You're supposed to play it with the map in the instruction manual!!

The most over hyped game that is a well established series. I don't get what the appeal is for these games. Will play this in the future with a original map. This way I can boost my rating up.

Not bad for back in the day, ahead of its time, but I sucked at it so didn't like it much LOL

Despite the very simple and stripped-down nature of this game, The Legend of Zelda manages to create a sense of adventure and weave tension through exploration unlike any game before it and only a few games since have matched it.

There aren't many games that you still want to pick up and play through decades after release, but Zelda is one. Old school players who really tackled this game know the map, know the secrets, but still, there's something satisfying to going to Death Mountain and doing it all over again.

As the original, obviously the graphic quality suffers to modern eyes. And the game doesn't do to much to explain itself. It offers a true and real challenge for those willing to be patient.

It may not be the Zelda most people would like to play now, but it's the Zelda that helped crystalize the action-adventure genre and made way for the Zeldas of today. Though, even back in the day, having a nicely-printed official guide was an integral part of really enjoying the exploration in games like this.

Not super fun nowadays

Great game.

I was so fucking psyched when I got this game as a kid. I remember my brother got a copy of World Cup Soccer, and I got this, and shit, man, that was a good Christmas.

Really hated how overly cryptic puzzles could be and I'm a lazy asshole who can't be bothered to draw maps, but the original Zelda's combat is solid. Enemies and bosses are very basic but they're elevated by a lot of disparate movement wherein the varieties of enemies actually cover each others movements preventing the encounter design from becoming overly stale. Otherwise, I don't really think the combat mechanics are horribly interesting nor do I care much for its world, but this isn't bad.

While I do think it's overrated it's still a highlight on the NES.

of its time.