I’ve loved the Zelda games ever since playing the 1st one as a kid! I’ve only played most of the older titles up to the 2 N64 titles, and having recently finished GB Link’s Awakening DX via emulation and needing to finish GBA Minish Cap. I still have my copies of Zelda 1 and 2 for the NES, Ocarina of Time for N64, and Link to the past for SNES! I could never quite get into N64’s Majora’s Mask sadly. I figured for the series 35th birthday this year in 2021, I’d write out my thoughts on those 4 titles i still have, and some thoughts on Link’s Awakening and Majora’s mask as well! One my next goals is to finally play the Game Boy Oracle series since those are the last of the older games I haven’t sat down with. In the future I may finally give Majora’s Mask another try and try Wind Waker via the Dolphin emulator if my pc can handle it! At the end of this post will be a few snapshot of pages from the Nintendo Power comic trade, and the Hyrule Historia to share.

NOW ONTO THE GAMES!!

ZELDA 1:

Zelda 1 I received with my NES and other games in 1989(?) I think I had played it briefly before with friends, but after receiving it I was able to get down and dirty and discover everything this quest had to offer. I loved it! I loved figuring things out with and without maps from Nintendo Power for both quests, and learning a few little tricks here and there, and making up a few of my own to nail down how i would play both quests! Finishing both quests as a kid was a big accomplishment to me! I wanted to try something more, so I tried runs through both quests getting only the White Sword and the Blue Ring, not bothering with the Master Sword or the Red Ring in Death Mountain. Took many many lives but i did it, and did this feat many times before. Earlier in 2021 I finally did a 1st quest run with only the White Sword and Blue Ring, and as of this writing, prepping for a 2nd quest run in the same way!

ZELDA 2:

Received this for Christmas one year, and though it was different than the first game, i still ate it up! Loved how it brought more to the table on Hyrule’s history and the world we first explored in the first game, and loved the rpg elements with your stats. Wasn’t a fan of the difficulty then or now, especially the later palaces or the long slog to the Great Palace. Never finished this as a kid cause i couldn’t beat Thunderbird. Picked this up again a couple years ago as a recommendation and finally beat Thunderbird and Link’s Shadow (I cheesed him, so sue me) and finally put this unsung classic to bed!

LINK TO THE PAST:

I honestly don’t remember when I first played this, either when i first owned it or borrowing it from a friend, but I loved this title! It really felt like the right upgrade and sequel to the first game with an amazing soundtrack and such beautiful graphics, and keeping the Zelda tradition of exploring and using new items to find other items. This is the kind of game i keep going back to every so often, and I can 100% complete it, which is nice. Even if i do get stuck on the heart container pieces sometimes. Finished it for the first time years back with advice from Nintendo Power and friends, this became the new standard of Zelda titles for a long time. i even loved the Link to the past comic from Nintendo Power, even if the plot took a number of different turns from the game itself.

ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME:

Ocarina of Time really made use of the N64’s abilities to really expand the world of Hyrule, and the lore of the Zelda games. At the time, Ocarina was the earliest game in the Zelda timeline, which later became a timeline with a split of 3 different ones due to the events of this game. Exploring Hyrule, doing minigames, exploring the dungeons was great in 3d! The aspect of changing from child to adult Link to solve puzzles and being able to use certain equipment was welcoming and made you think if an obstacle could be bypassed as a child or adult. The Water Palace still sucks though. This game is really long too. The controls can take getting used to, especially the Z-targeting. The N64 controller being claw shaped and the control stick able to break easily didn’t help. I should really replay this in full sometime too. Try comparing pics of this on a native N64 to some emulators that improve the system’s graphics like Project64, or any the remakes too!

LINK’S AWAKENING:

First time I played this on a real Gameboy was in college when a friend lent me his Gameboy to play this and others when I had to go to a hotel for awhile due to the heat and the AC failing at my house. It’s been years so I don’t remember how far I had gotten but I loved it, it really built upon what worked for Link to the Past! I had recently finished the colorized DX version of this and loved it all over again! What a charming plot!

MAJORA’S MASK:

This one the first times i played it…I couldn’t quite get into it. It’s Groundhog Day the video game, lol. I couldn’t quite get into the plot or the going back in time 3 days after accomplishing goals. I get what the game was trying, but didn’t feel it was for me. I’m thinking of sitting down and retrying this one at some point honestly after seeing some streaming friends playing this. The graphics and music were great though and built on what Nintendo accomplished with the n64 with Ocarina of Time.

BOOKS:
So here’s a few photos of the inside of the Hyrule Historia and trade for the Nintendo Power Link to the past comic:

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