|
JennStrummer's The Legend of Zelda (NES)
|
| [January 22, 2008 07:10:35 PM]
|
Classics List Game #1- Zelda
ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY
So for this second round of Zelda, I really tried to get the dynamics of the game down, and it ended up being a lot more fun. I was really just trying to kill things as fast as possible without thinking about it before, and this time I realized some things that I didn’t notice before, for example, that as long as you don’t attack a creature your shield will protect you from their weapons (DUH!). I also realized that some of the things that I thought were unkillable, could in fact be killed, so it was really a lot easier to get past the first level. I also got far enough that it saved to a new part, where you get to fight your first boss as well. Again, there isn’t really much narrative progression, that I have seen yet, but this game was still fun.
It also seemed to me the second time around like I was reaping the benefits of killing creatures because I would get more life drops and fairy drops and was getting more jewels. I was actually starting to feel some satisfaction from this gameplay, and I was actually getting quite addicted to it, regardless of the fact that I probably died 5 times trying to kill the darn dragon at the end of the first level! What was nice though, is that I received a new weapon, a boomerang, and I received my first piece of the triforce.
Another thing that I think made this fun was that my boyfriend was watching my play it, and helped me while I was playing it, so we had the sort of “go team” mentality, rather than me just trying to kill things and getting more and more angry every time I died. I would say this game flows because the creatures get tougher to beat, and because you have more weapons to deal with as you continue on. One thing I thought was strange was that at one point, I went through a little tree-portal and it took me to level 2, but I had not beaten the dragon on the first level and received the first piece of the triforce, however I did not investigate this much further, so I think that that also sort of hindered my idea of flow, especially since there hasn’t been any narration.
DESIGN
It’s really hard to say how innovative I think this game is, considering I was born the year that it came out, but compared to other games of that era, like pacman, I would say the fact that there is a story behind the gameplay is rather innovative. I would also say that considering how limited technology was then, the world does actually seem pretty vast thanks to the panning of the screen, especially compared to a game like pacman where you can only stay on one screen. This game is very similar to games that we have now like Spyro (one of my favorites), because you get to level up your character through upgrades. For example, at the end of the first level you get more life meters. However, this also allows for the game to become more difficult as well. I think this made the game interesting because you have more ways to kill the beasts, but not all of them worked, so you had to decide carefully which method you wanted to use.
Even though I was really frustrated with this game, it was still interesting to play because you have incentives. Since you can only buy items from vendors with the jewels that you received from killing beasts, you have the incentive to kill more beasts and continue on to see what other items you can get. They also had little side games you could play, like a game where you can risk 10 jewels to get 50 jewels. I found that I wasn’t very successful with this though, so that just frustrated me more. Again, the large maze-like quality makes this world seem large, even despite the outdated graphics. This game is very light-hearted because it is fantasy-based, you are greeted by faeries and all the “bad” creatures you fight seem less then horrifying.
Again, playing with someone made this game more fun to me because then you really can rally together to try and beat obstacles, and when you are super frustrated you can watch someone else take over for a while, and still have fun watching them. I would say that I wouldn't really change this game, because it’s a classic of it’s time, and while it was frustrating, that also made it interesting because it wasn’t too easy. I would say this game is a good example of something that is simple, but still engages you.
add a comment 
|
| [January 22, 2008 12:25:28 AM]
|
Classics List Game 1- The Legend of Zelda
Log Entry#1
SUMMARY
The Legend of Zelda is a fantasy, action, adventure and puzzle game all wrapped into one. It takes place in the land of Hyrule, you play Link who’s mission is to rescue the princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. In order to defeat Ganon you must collect fragments of the triforce relic which was hidden by Zelda. There are many beasts and obstacles in Links way, however he gets help from little faeries and wizards and stuff with extra lives, and weapons, each beast you kill also drops gems that you can use to purchase weapons from vendors.
GAMEPLAY
This game has been incredibly frustrating to me in this past hour! I played this game on an emulator on my PC since I don’t have a game console and all the consoles at the library were checked out. I actually had to look on wikipedia for any information on the characters in this game, so the story behind it really was not at the foreground of what I was doing. The game (at least this version) didn’t really give any background into the story, it just starts off with the maze-like play. I remember watching my sisters playing this game growing up so I thought it was going to be sort of nostalgic, but it was really just very frustrating to me.
This game has such simple graphics and commands, so I thought for sure it would be an easy game, but the whole puzzle part of the game and having to start off at the beginning of the puzzle every time I died basically meant that I spent my whole hour in the first level. There are lots of little monsters that you need to kill to move on through each screen, some of which it seems like you could only move, and not destroy. I was able to pick up some bombs, but I found them to be sort of weak as weapons because they disappear after a few seconds if they don't get run into.
I really tried to get a strategy going with this one, although I was so completely frustrated that I kept dying. At first I was trying to kill everything, and get as many jewels and lives as I could, but I think after dying so many times I became so engulfed in killing things quickly that I was getting sloppy. Then I tried to just get as far as I could and just forget about trying to kill things, which got me far, but then the beasts would get harder and I didn’t have any good weapons or anything because I hadn’t collected any jewels. All in all, this game just made me mad, and I’m not really looking forward to playing it for another hour.
This entry has been edited 4 times. It was last edited on Jan 25th, 2008 at 11:38:57.
read comments (1)  -
add a comment
|
|
|
 |
JennStrummer's The Legend of Zelda (NES)
|
|
Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 22 January, 2008
|
|
