ZELDA RETRO

Video Gamer X is going to take you on a Time Warp back to the middle '80's. Console gaming systems like the CollecoVision, Atari, and Intellivision had failed to attract much of an audience beyond hardcore enthusists. The whole idea of playing Arcade games at home was generally thought of as absurd until one company changed the face of home entertainment and Video Games to come. In 1985 Nintendo appeared and brought the Video Game industry out of the doldrums it was floundering in and made "Mario" a household name. The company name and the games became profoundly popular with millions of systems and games being sold by 1986. Remember the commercials, "Now Your Playing With Power!" Indeed, power is what gamers felt they had with the NES presenting some of the most state of the art home electronic technology of it's time. Then in 1987, The Legend of Zelda appeared. It was a game that was like no other and is perhaps the direct ancestor of today's goliath adventure and RPG epics. Zelda presented new challenges and a new world to explore. It had transcended the clunky text based adventure/RPG's of the Commidore 64 and Atari bringing in full interactive action into playability.

THE GAMES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

It's been so long hasn't it? 12 YEARS since we first laid our eyes on the game called Zelda. The Legend of Zelda was touted as THE game to have when it was released in 1987. Zelda featured an all new battery back up system that allowed players to save their progress during the game, a feat that had never before been done on a video game. This allowed for gamers to go on quests, explore dungeons, meet inhabitants, and find valuable items to add to their quest. The popularity of Zelda in Japan and America was quite astounding. Shortages of this game became frequent during it's first few months of release. I played this game and completed it long ago. Today I keep an extra copy (actually one of four extra copies) of this game I just so happened to buy at a garage sale wrapped in plastic to maintain it's store-shelf quality (no scratches, perfect condition in the sleeve w/instruction booklet, save battery still works). When I look at this shiny (Much shinier than Zelda 64) golden game in my hands, I think about all the things I did when I was a kid and all the fun times I had playing games and hanging out with my friends. I think of the times I would reinact battles Link would have while wielding his sword and saving princess Zelda and getting the Triforce. This "Old School" game remains in my shrine of the greatest games ever made.

Zelda II: The Adventure's of Link, The Legend of Zelda's sequel, was a VERY anticipated game in 1988. Due to a shortage of chips this game was hard to find when it first released and limited copies were made. Zelda II was so deviant from it's predecessor that gamers to this day either praise it or condemn it. In my opinion, this game was revolutionary. Before the dawn of the Era of RPG's brought about by games like Crystalis and Final Fantasy this game set the premise of RPG's to come with it's "experience point" system, and character levels. Link could learn spells, and new sword abilities from the inhabitants he met, and travel across a vast overworld consisting of various terrains, towns, caves, and dungeons. Contrary to The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II deviated from it's counterpart's overhead scrolling environment to a side scrolling view that some say was is what makes this game the oddball of the series. I used to play this game day in and out until it was too easy then it got put away for a year and I would play it again. Even today I take out one of my copies of this game and fire up the old NES and start whacking away at those Iron Knuckles, or Fighting those unique bosses like Dodongo, Horse-Head, and The ThunderBird. It is a fact that many of Zelda 64's bosses and names of Sages and characters come directly from this game. These include Saria, Nabooru, Darunia, Mido, Impa, Ruto, Rauru, and of course all the bosses and many of the enemies. This game is without a doubt a Retro Gaming Masterpiece.

Remember those Zelda Cartoons. Man, I sure do. On Fridays of every week on the Super Mario Brothers Super Show they would play a Twenty Minute Zelda cartoon staring Link, Zelda, Ganon, A fairy named Sprite, and many other characters and bad guys from the game. It actually was one of my favorite cartoons at the time. There were never very many episodes of this series made as far as I know of, perhaps somewhere around 15, but I'm not entirely sure.

If you've never seen the cartoons, then today I have a treat for you. Video Gamer X and "The Odyssey of Hyrule" present an excerpt from the cartoons that aired back in '88 and '89. I wonder if they'll EVER bring these back!

One thing you'll notice about the Zelda Cartoons is that they are so '80's stereotypical with link emulating the fashionable "Bill and Ted" language of the day. "Awesomely Bodaceous Man!" "What a Bummer!" "Dudes..." "Radical!" and "Bogus!" as well as Zelda sporting that 80's Lots o' Hair look, tight sweatpants, and a sort of similar to denim mini-jacket. Ahh, yes if memory serves I remember repeating these words on numerous occasions with my friends. This is the time when I got my first skateboard and tried to be like the rising Skateboarding Legend Tony Hawk long before the X-Games were a gleam in anyone's eye and skate parks were called parking lots. (I can just remember those twisted ankles and scraped knees now...ouch!) I remember so many songs of the day by stars like Cindy Lauper (Girl's Just Want to have Fun), Bruce Springsteen (I was Born in the USA..) and Michael Jackson, (Oh yeah I'm bad, I'm Bad, You Know it! OWWW! *Crotch Grab*) Looking back on these times I get that kind of dreadful feeling that I'm getting old and growing up, but even today I must say that I will repeat "Awesome, Bummer Dude, and Bogus" just to keep that part of my childhood memories alive.

What I just don't get is with the popularity of Zelda, why this franchise hasn't gone the way of Poke'mon? Don't get me wrong, Poke'mon has quite a few fans out there, but it just isn't my thing at this time, and I think gamers above the age of 13 think similarly. If I were seven years younger...maybe. Yet Poke'mon has a cartoon starring that Lightning Squirrel Pikachu and all his buddies. Zelda is a game with far more depth in terms of storyline and characters, but where's it's cartoon? Somehow I don't think Nintendo is just going to let this go by, and we may very well get to see a Zelda movie or cartoon series someday soon. We'll just have to wait and see what turns up this year.

When I watch these old cartoons it really gives me the feeling of Zelda's roots. The sounds of the sword, the Triforce, Ganon, the Moblins. THAT is classic Zelda. That is what zelda feels like. Ocarina of time was good but did it have that epic adventure feel of past Zeldas? Maybe not as much. Zelda 64 would have been so much better if it had even the kind of storyline of these cartoons. Action, and adventure, new stuff with loads of classic Zelda baddies, and most of all the memorable Overture of Zelda. *sigh* Oh well, such is the way of progress I guess. Man I miss the old days.

Yes, Nintendo had it's own brand of Cereal called Nintendo Cereal. I used to remember the jingle of the commercials for it that went like, "NIN-TEN-DO it's for breakfast now! NIN-TEN-DO it's a cereal WOW!" or something like that. This cereal featured sugar-covered marshmellow (I think they were marshmellows) Mario and Zelda objects like Link's Sword, Moblins, Link Himself, Mario, Mario's Power Up mushroom, and Power Flower. Really I don't remember much about this cereal or the way it tasted since my parents would never buy it for me. It came in a small box with the back cut into two panels with info about Mario and info about Zelda on each side. Anybody out there got any pics of this cereal? Probably Not, but it's worth a shot. If you have a pic of the front and back of the cereal feel free to send it in.

Oooo...Lookie what Video Gamer X found! Thanks IGN.



You've Got to Read This!


ZELDA LUNCHBOXES

Yep, they made these too. I remember seeing kids at my Elementary School with 'em. They had that original Logo from the First Game on the Front and link with his sword and a moblin or princess Zelda on it or both. I unfortunately had a Super Mario Bros. Lunchbox that I still have today to store old markers and pens in. I wish I had gotten the Zelda one, that would have been a real unique item today. Geez, I remember the days when kids would beat each other over the head with these things, and now people collect 'em. Irony, I tell you.

ZELDA COMMERCIAL

Long ago during the 80's when the Nintendo debuted there was a commercial floating around for the Legend of Zelda during about 1987. The following is the audio from the commercial, don't be shocked by it's cheeziness. This was the Pre-Rap rap era so it's pretty bad. You'll also recognise the "Bill and Ted" usage of the words "awesome" "intense" and "rad."

LISTEN TO THE COMMERCIAL More to Come...


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