The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s premiere series and beloved by gamers all over the world. There is one game in the series though, that tends to be poorly regarded and that is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This was the first sequel in the series but made drastic changes to the gameplay, such as moving from a bird’s eye view like the first game, to only using that for the over world. Instead, the game used side-scrolling gameplay for towns and dungeons, which brought platforming to the series. In addition, the game had an RPG style levelling system that hasn’t really be done in the series since.
I must confess that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, is actually my favourite NES game, and my favourite game in the Zelda series altogether. I first played it when I was twelve, well after Majora’s Mask came out. Playing that classic game long after I played Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask was quite an interesting experience.
I can see the complaints people had about how different the game was, but I do not agree with them. The game is different yes, but at the time it came out, there was only one other game to compare it to. I actually feel the fact that it is so unlike the other games makes Zelda II unique in a good way. This isn’t to mention that the game actually introduced many ideas that remained in later games, such as Dark Link, names of characters in Ocarina of Time being taken from names of towns in this game, and on that point, towns first appeared in this game and have been a key part of every Zelda game since. Furthermore, the magic system in later games is directly based on the magic system in this one. Zelda II contributed a lot more to the series than people realize.
There are issues of course, mainly the difficulty. The game gets very hard very early on, before most would be ready for it. Getting to Death Mountain means reaching a point of vastly increased challenge and its still an early part of the game. The platforming is not especially difficult due to controls but only when enemies get involved similar to the early Castlevania games. But even then, I don’t feel the difficulty is something that should detract from the game itself.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is one of the most underrated games of all time. It has gotten a lot of hatred that is simply undeserved and unmerited. If anything, I would love to see the game get a remake with a modern look, and maybe tweaking the difficulty to manageable levels.I would love to see a company like Int Creates or Lizard Cube remake this game. With their skill, they could turn the game into something even more epic. The UbiArt Framework would be amazing for such a remake but there are of course other engines and styles that could be used for a remake. It would give people a chance to finally see why this game is truly amazing.
If you have only heard the negatives about the game and have never played it yourself, I urge you to try it for yourself. It may not be a traditional Zelda, but neither was Breath of The Wild. It is a truly excellent experience. The game is available via Nintendo Switch Online’s NES App and I encourage you to try it out.