The Legend of Zelda retrospective: The gold standard | NES Works #047

True story: my first time playing Zelda was the 2nd quest. I assumed Zelda was the name of the hero and entered that as his name. I had no idea that would be automatically unlocking a harder version of the game.

Oh man, my brother and I saved for months, by doing chores, selling lemonade, etc, to be able to buy this when it came out. The commercials were absolutely enthralling to two young boys in the 80s! Oh, and this remains my favorite game of all time.

I remember beating Zelda for the first time. I was so excited I ran to the phone to call and tell a friend who was struggling to also beat the game. His mom answered the phone and didn't sound impressed when I blurted out what I'd accomplished.

That battery is pretty amazing. I can still pick up my cartridge and play games that were saved in the late 80's.

LoZ was the first cart I got after getting my Nintendo for Christmas in '87. What I remember most was just how it was almost an alien experience playing it for the first time. For every kid I knew video games meant action or exploring, not both. There was this whole story you needed to know before you start. It was a very surreal experience.

I recall reading that Japanese arcades left notebooks with their Druaga cabinets where players would leave tips and strategies for eachother for getting through the game. I find this social aspect fascinating and it probably influenced some of the more cryptic aspects of Zelda. Unfortunately it's not really something that can exist again with the internet around, for better or worse. Though I suppose Miiverse came pretty close.

The legend of Zelda. It’s STILL fun to play, and has been a part of my life like no franchise

I've always found the religious iconography that was peppered throughout the first two games really interesting. The crosses on the shields, the bible, the gravestones; it all gave the series a slightly more grounded and specific medieval fantasy feel that was never going to survive Nintendo of America's localization in the long term.

one of my favorite qualities of your content is how you elegantly thread the historical context into the topic. Fantastic job

"Triforce of courage..." *wisdom

You had to start it with the OG Zelda commercial playing in the background. Nintendo’s never gonna live that one down. Lmao

When we were kids, we got the NES and Zelda for Christmas. We also got Simon's quest and Qbert, but Zelda ruled the NES, I remember watching my step dad play and was just floored by how great it was.

Who else remembers looking at the animation cel-style artwork on the manual as a child and wondering about the cartoon from which they "obviously" had to be taken? The feeling that there was even more to learn about LoZ's world just added to the mystique. The manual as a whole and that map really expanded the experience of the game, which makes it a bit sad that younger players don't get access to them in digital rereleases. Sure there are online FAQs, but those don't come with strange clay-sculpted backdrops representing the land you'll be exploring. I've always bounced off the run-and-bump style of adventure-RPG gameplay mentioned here and wondered at its persistence in releases like Fairune, but this video's rundown of that styles prevalence before and after Zelda helped put some perspective to that. I'll never begrudge anyone their Hydlide nostalgia, though I'll always prefer having active sword swinging. That "lone performance artist in an abandoned warehouse" commercial still baffles me to this day.

Been saving this video on my "watch later" for a while. It did not disappoint. Then when I thought it couldn't get any better, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that Metroid is next! KEEP...DOING...THESE!

I think the relative non-linearity is a big selling point for the game that often goes overlooked in many of the retrospectives. Thanks for touching on it.

The Triforce fragments you collect are for the the Triforce of Wisdom (Zelda broke it up), Courage was not introduced until the 2nd game.

Thank you for pointing out the common elements that Legend of Zelda has with Tower of Druaga! Atari's Adventure and LoZ were indelible parts of my childhood, and finding Druaga as an adult, it felt like a missing evolutionary step between the two.

Thank you so much for including some of the pre-Zelda history that helped bring this title into existence. This was a fantastic retrospective that shows a lot of insight on what makes Zelda an amazing game from a design perspective that I feel the majority of people miss, from the way inventory is interacted with and managed to how the player upgrades their strength and defense, and of course the way the player is allowed to traverse the majority of the world without acquiring even a single item.

Still have the gold cartridge in the original box with the maps.

It truly is the Gold Standard, no game captivated the imagination of me and my friends as kids in the late 80's more then Zelda. Hence why it still my favorite series to this day! Hell for my 8th bday party which falls around Halloween I had a costume party and dressed as Link, this was in 1988 and I was obsessed