NES Review: The Legend of Zelda

Review by: Pierst179

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most revolutionary game ever. It was released at a time where most games where short, linear and had a simple goal, but as they did with Super Mario Bros in 1985, Nintendo decided to take a risk and when The Legend of Zelda arrived at the stores a new genre of games had been created.

By the time you start playing this game you will be overwhelmed by the huge overworld you will have to explore. It is something you will not find in any games of the NES era, you will just go exploring, you can head to wherever you want.

This game is also the first one to give players the chance to save their progress in order to keep playing it at another time, this is a proof of how lengthy is this game’s adventure.

The storyline is simple yet compelling, the evil Ganon was chasing Princess Zelda trhough all Hyrule in order to get her part of the Triforce, fearing that the king of evil would succeed our Princess decided to shatter her piece of the Triforce and hide it in dungeons spread through the overworld, so it is your duty as a hero to explore and find all pieces to save the kingdom from Ganon's evil hands.

You will play as Link and as you advance through the vast land of Hyrule you will find some pretty familiar items such as bombs and the boomerang. During your adventure you will find many enemies, fighting them is really nice and all the controls are responsive and simple. Hyrule has many hidden caves and shortcuts, finding them is another amazing challenge that gamers will encounter in the first installment of the series. If you are a Zelda fan you are probably now wondering how many dungeons there are on this game. There are eight of them, it is fun to go through them and see where everything started, how were the puzzles made 20 years ago, actually some of them may seem really stupid if you compare them to Twilight Princess’s ones, but in 1987 those dungeons were challenging and compelling.

The best thing when it comes to these dungeons is that you can enter them in any order you would like to, of course finding the first one is much easier than the others, but if by any chance you encounter the third one first you can go in without worrying, you will eventually have some problems with the enemies as they will probably be much stronger than Link but as every Zelda fan likes a good challenge such as finishing a game with three heart containers, this option to explore the dungeons out of order sounds attractive.

The sound is amazing, although the quality of the NES sound isn’t great when compared to nowadays’ standards, most of the songs are really addictive and you will catch yourself humming them while walking on the street or taking a shower. Another fact that shows how perfect is this soundtrack is that up to now most of these songs can be heard at any Zelda game the only difference is that those songs are usually remixed versions.

The graphics are nice. However they are not the best in the system, I believe that this game world is so big that Nintendo couldn’t do much more for the graphics, but they are amazing anyway, some enemies could have been better designed and some textures could be more detailed, for example, the only thing that changes when you go from a forest to a mountain is the color the scenario has, although it sounds nice for that time this game's graphics just feel outdated when compare to the ones in Super Mario Bros 3, a game that was released only 2 years after this one.

In a nutshell, The Legend of Zelda is indeed a revolutionary game that set the bar for any game that would follow in its footsteps, it changed the game world in many different ways and it was the first installment of one of the best series ever created. With a huge overworld and many hours of challenge, thrill and exploration you will be amazed by everything Nintendo managed to do such a long time ago, and believe me this game isn’t getting any old, it will still be a classic when our children start playing videogames.

NES Review: Kirby's Adventure

Review by: Pikaboo

I'm sure you've played as Kirby in Super Smash Bros, on the handhelds, and maybe even on the virtual console. But have you played the game that first introduced Kirby on a home console and made the successful Nintendo franchise it is today? That game is Kirby's Adventure on the NES, the second game in the Kirby franchise (Kirby's Dream Land being the first). You can purchase this game for 500 Points on the Wii's Virtual Console, the equivalent of $5 US. It has also been remade on the Game Boy Advance as Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land. Kirby's Adventure is the game that made Kirby's copy ability his main move throughout the next Kirby games to come.

The story starts when Kirby wakes up from his sleep without any dreams. Kirby soon discovers that King Dedede has stolen the Star Rod, the Fountain of Dreams' power, and separated them into 7 pieces scattered across 7 different worlds. To get those 7 pieces back, Kirby must venture across those worlds and defeat six bosses that hold the Star Pieces, and then eventually defeat King Dedede who hold the seventh piece. However, when Kirby obtains all 7 star pieces and puts them back together into the Fountain of Dreams, a dark creature named Nightmare appears from the fountain. Kirby then discovers that the Star Rod had been corrupted by Nightmare and King Dedede only broke the pieces for the good of all Dream Land. Kirby must then use the Star Rod to defeat Nightmare and save Dream Land.

The thing that separated this game from Kirby's Dream Land was the ability to copy your enemies' powers. Kirby could just suck them up and swallow them to gain the abilities of the monster he consumed. For instance, if he swallowed a fire enemy, Kirby would be able to breathe out fire. If Kirby were to swallow a sword-wielding warrior, Kirby would now be the one with the sword in his hand. You get the point, right? Alongside his copy ability, Kirby can also puff up by inhaling air and inhaling more air, causing him to be able to fly. To release this flight, Kirby can just exhale.



Kirby is the basic platformer where you start at Point A and you have to go to Point B. Of course, in Kirby's Adventure going from point to point is as fun as it can get. Eat monsters, use their powers to kill more monsters, take down the occasional boss or two. Kirby's Adventure took everything that was great from Kirby's Dreamland and added the twist of copying abilities, a concept that only Megaman really used at the time. The best thing of the game was its autosave feature. Most NES games used a password system to start at certain points in the game, which, as it sounds, is a boring and tedious chore.

For its time period, Kirby's Adventure was one of the best looking games on the NES (probably because it was released towards the end of the NES generation). This is a game that is colorful and fun to look at, while still doing a good job of keeping upbeat and flavorful. The amount of different colors and tones used to bring the scenarios to life is astounding. Some may even say it looks almost like a Super Nintendo game, which I partly agree with: just not as detailed. Kirby's Adventure is basically a journey that has colorful environments, enemies, and levels.

Kirby's Adventure holds some of the most catchiest tunes in all of the NES history. Much like its graphics, Kirby's Adventure has many upbeat and light-hearted songs in the bunch. Even when fighting the bosses, it feels as though the song could just be a little too up-tempo. As far as sound goes, it is always happy, no matter what. I just wish they could have given some parts a more darker feel to it, but not too much as it should feel fitting with its level design.

The controls are very basic as one button is to jump and another button is to suck. You can press the down on the D-pad to swallow. You use the D-Pad to move and, if you prefer, the up button on the D-Pad to jump. To consecutively fly, repeatedly press your prefered jump button. Simple, very simple.

As far as replay value goes, even after you're finished you can go back to previous levels and replay them all you want. Alongside levels, you can also play minigames including a crane pick-up game, a Wild West Shootout, etc. If you want to complete the game 100% I can almost guarantee that you will have to go back to each World at least twice, so if you're a perfectionist gamer go for it, if you're not you may come to this game in a couple of years just to replay some old levels. If you're a new fan of Kirby, buy this on you're Virtual Console. If you have Super Smash Bros. Brawl, check out your 'Masterpieces' section.