As with most successful games, there was a sequel brought out not long after. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was a horizontal scrolling game. A side view rather than an overhead view. This was not what fans of the first game wanted at all! You have lives! There are platforms! No No No this would not do! Zelda II is considered the black sheep of the series, you either love it or detest it.
So now time goes on a few years pass and the Super Nintendo (SNES) is born and one of the early games is Zelda III: A Link To Past. Here was a game worthy of the name Zelda. People still sour after Zelda II, soon forgot their woes when they played A Link To The Past. So many dungeons, so many items, and in the same overhead view as the original Zelda game! It was wonderful and we were all well pleased.
"Hey what about us!," shout the Gameboy fans. "We want a Zelda game for the Gameboy!." In 1993 their wish was granted. Zelda IV: Links Awakening blew us away! We were dubious whether a Zelda game would work on a handheld Gameboy, but WOW! It mixed the best elements of the previous three games, particuarly Zelda III and you could NOT put it down until you had finished it. There is no Triforce, Princess Zelda or Ganon in Links Awakening but you never even noticed, besides Marin makes a fair replacement for Zelda. Oh yeah let the good times roll......
Now we come to the "dark years" a space of time where we see no new Zelda games and our hearts are filled with longing... We must wait 5 years for the 5th Zelda game. Super Nintendos gathered cobwebs..... and then finally the N64 arrived, but it would still be a while before Zelda V: Ocarina of Time (Zelda 64) could be slotted in them and played.
Ocarina of Time makes Zelda go 3D! Us fans were gobsmacked! Nintendo had done it again, our patience had won through. We cooed in delight as we travelled the detailed envoironments and searched for every single Gold Skulltulla spider. Sometimes we would just switch Link to first person view and gawk at the sunrise and watch it pass over and set. How could Ocarina of Time possibly be topped?
It is now the year 2001, and Zelda fans are now playing Zelda VI: Majora's Mask. The big question .....Is it better than Ocarina of Time? The answer seems to be YES! It utilises the 4MB extension pak for smoother graphics. I myself think it is the best game yet. You really feel you are part of the world and the scenery is so detailed and beautiful. Some don't like the time aspect of it, but it grows on you. A wonderful game!
Two games for the Gameboy color have been released! The sister games Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. You can use the link up cable to swap rings that you collect. Kind of like Pokemon! Each game has 8 dungeons and many puzzles, although Ages is harder to complete, Seasons has more action.
Soon the Nintendo Game Cube will be released. There is a Zelda game in the works, but many are unhappy about the style of the characters. Too Disneylike and cartoonish. Let us hope that the next generation of Zelda games will be as good as their eight predecessors. |
