Zelda's Adventure was the product of a compromise between Nintendo and Philips following their failure to release a CD-ROM based add-on to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game boasts an entirely unique design in comparison to the previous CD-i Zelda titles, emphasizing the difference in production between the developers. Princess Zelda serves as the game's protagonist, making it the second game in the series where she is playable. Zelda's Adventure incorporates a similar top-down view reminiscent of most conventional 2D Zelda games and it also has dungeons. The game have been subject to much criticism and Nintendo does not recognize it as part of the series.
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After the letdown of the other cd-i zelda games just being mediocre, you would think this one would finally grant one release thanks to it actually being really bad. Unfortunately no, as this game is bad in the way a game found on page 137 of newgrounds is bad. That is to say, there is nothing to say, as this game makes you feel nothing at all.
simplemente XD
While I'll always be an Animation Magic Zelda guy until the day I die, I will always have a underlying fascination with the third Zelda game for the CD-i. Why is that? Why that title, of all Zelda games??
Well, it's quite simple. Pretty much everything in the Zelda series that involves cut content, pre-release or developmental history, or the series being "weird" has been covered to death at this point. Ura Zelda, the Vanpool Tingle games, the Gigaleak material, the other CD-i Zelda games, and whatever else you can think of... you can bet that there's at least five separate YouTube videos covering them.
But Zelda's Adventure is different. Because it's that one CD-i game that doesn't have "le funny Morshu cutscenes!!!", everyone ignores it unless they have to cover all of the CD-i Nintendo games in whatever "EPIC FAILS OF GAMING!!!!" video they spew forth. As a result, Zelda's Adventure is, more or less, the final frontier in the Zelda series in terms of cut content, development history, and overall weirdness. It's such an enigma - such an incomplete game - such an odd insight into the franchise's lore - such a bizarre byproduct of the Nintendo-Philips deal that it becomes a work of art and a rabbit hole worth diving into.
Firstly, does the game play well? No, not really. Everyone talks about the loading screens and how much they slow down gameplay, but there are other aspects - enemies having un-telegraphed weaknesses to certain spells, no proper hit immunity, using Rupees as inventory items - that make it rather impenetrable without a guide. As a result, I can't really rate the game itself higher than a 5/10. It probably doesn't help that the game took about a year to make (and two more to bug-test it and remove bits of content, and ANOTHER year to delay it for the CD-i's 1996 lineup!) and was designed with both a grand vision (the CEO of Viridis once claimed that Zelda's Adventure would take 300 hours to complete, which isn't too far off if you don't have said guide) and a small budget (the fact that developer holiday photos were used for its photo collage-esque backgrounds is well-known by now).
However, you eventually learn the game's tricks, and it ends up becoming a rather fascinating experience - much like the other CD-i Zelda games. Now, you can really start to appreciate and ponder about how odd the world of Zelda's Adventure is. The entire game takes place in Tolemac (Camelot backwards), the uncharted southeastern region of Hyrule. There's a magical talking mushroom you encounter early on that mocks Mobilins and their lack of intelligence, but doesn't do anything himself. There's a lady in the Shrine of Strength that talks on and on about her husband not installing plumbing in their house and some guy you never meet committing infidelity, which ends up giving a pickpocket the opportunity to steal Rupees (sorry, Rubies) from Zelda. Ganon is called Gannon like the first Zelda title, even though a prototype of Zelda's Adventure has the correct "one N" spelling (meaning it was ENFORCED BY PHILIPS OR NINTENDO??).
There are even more oddities in the game's engine, history, and cut content, most of which is covered on the game's TCRF page. The beggars you encounter in the game's opening area were going to curse Zelda for attacking them with her wand. There are only two keys in the entire game, both encountered in the same dungeon, and the first zero on the key counter is a fake number put there to make it seem like there are more keys than there really were. There are more cut voice-lines than used ones. The heart system is actually split up into chunks of 20 HP per heart, and nobody really knows how the damage system works even to this very day. Viridis, the game's developers, had like 20 games in development but only got five or so titles out (Zelda's Adventure included). Two of those titles were stolen ideas from Atari Jaguar developer 4play, and Viridis went bankrupt shortly after a 4play employee called them out on Usenet.
There's the goddamned Food Dude. He has a higher Ryu Number than a surprising amount of video game characters, and his game didn't even come out.
Hopefully, you can see why I'm so interested in Zelda's Adventure, even if I don't think it plays well. Its multitude of oddities is comparable to (and even outclasses) its mainline "canon" counterparts, and I don't think it gets talked about nearly as much as it should. The end point of this review, mainly, is to hyperfixate on an unfinished Zelda game from 1996 and shed some light on this fascinating chapter of TLoZ history. I hope you enjoy reading about Zelda's Adventure as much I do.
And am I biased towards Zelda's Adventure because I've done 95% of the lifting regarding the uncovering of its secrets, including writing the TCRF article and finding the Food Dude? Yeah, lol. But the point still stands.
TL;DR - Zelda's Adventure Remastered when??
Well, it's quite simple. Pretty much everything in the Zelda series that involves cut content, pre-release or developmental history, or the series being "weird" has been covered to death at this point. Ura Zelda, the Vanpool Tingle games, the Gigaleak material, the other CD-i Zelda games, and whatever else you can think of... you can bet that there's at least five separate YouTube videos covering them.
But Zelda's Adventure is different. Because it's that one CD-i game that doesn't have "le funny Morshu cutscenes!!!", everyone ignores it unless they have to cover all of the CD-i Nintendo games in whatever "EPIC FAILS OF GAMING!!!!" video they spew forth. As a result, Zelda's Adventure is, more or less, the final frontier in the Zelda series in terms of cut content, development history, and overall weirdness. It's such an enigma - such an incomplete game - such an odd insight into the franchise's lore - such a bizarre byproduct of the Nintendo-Philips deal that it becomes a work of art and a rabbit hole worth diving into.
Firstly, does the game play well? No, not really. Everyone talks about the loading screens and how much they slow down gameplay, but there are other aspects - enemies having un-telegraphed weaknesses to certain spells, no proper hit immunity, using Rupees as inventory items - that make it rather impenetrable without a guide. As a result, I can't really rate the game itself higher than a 5/10. It probably doesn't help that the game took about a year to make (and two more to bug-test it and remove bits of content, and ANOTHER year to delay it for the CD-i's 1996 lineup!) and was designed with both a grand vision (the CEO of Viridis once claimed that Zelda's Adventure would take 300 hours to complete, which isn't too far off if you don't have said guide) and a small budget (the fact that developer holiday photos were used for its photo collage-esque backgrounds is well-known by now).
However, you eventually learn the game's tricks, and it ends up becoming a rather fascinating experience - much like the other CD-i Zelda games. Now, you can really start to appreciate and ponder about how odd the world of Zelda's Adventure is. The entire game takes place in Tolemac (Camelot backwards), the uncharted southeastern region of Hyrule. There's a magical talking mushroom you encounter early on that mocks Mobilins and their lack of intelligence, but doesn't do anything himself. There's a lady in the Shrine of Strength that talks on and on about her husband not installing plumbing in their house and some guy you never meet committing infidelity, which ends up giving a pickpocket the opportunity to steal Rupees (sorry, Rubies) from Zelda. Ganon is called Gannon like the first Zelda title, even though a prototype of Zelda's Adventure has the correct "one N" spelling (meaning it was ENFORCED BY PHILIPS OR NINTENDO??).
There are even more oddities in the game's engine, history, and cut content, most of which is covered on the game's TCRF page. The beggars you encounter in the game's opening area were going to curse Zelda for attacking them with her wand. There are only two keys in the entire game, both encountered in the same dungeon, and the first zero on the key counter is a fake number put there to make it seem like there are more keys than there really were. There are more cut voice-lines than used ones. The heart system is actually split up into chunks of 20 HP per heart, and nobody really knows how the damage system works even to this very day. Viridis, the game's developers, had like 20 games in development but only got five or so titles out (Zelda's Adventure included). Two of those titles were stolen ideas from Atari Jaguar developer 4play, and Viridis went bankrupt shortly after a 4play employee called them out on Usenet.
There's the goddamned Food Dude. He has a higher Ryu Number than a surprising amount of video game characters, and his game didn't even come out.
Hopefully, you can see why I'm so interested in Zelda's Adventure, even if I don't think it plays well. Its multitude of oddities is comparable to (and even outclasses) its mainline "canon" counterparts, and I don't think it gets talked about nearly as much as it should. The end point of this review, mainly, is to hyperfixate on an unfinished Zelda game from 1996 and shed some light on this fascinating chapter of TLoZ history. I hope you enjoy reading about Zelda's Adventure as much I do.
And am I biased towards Zelda's Adventure because I've done 95% of the lifting regarding the uncovering of its secrets, including writing the TCRF article and finding the Food Dude? Yeah, lol. But the point still stands.
TL;DR - Zelda's Adventure Remastered when??
Genuinely so much better than people give it credit for. At least it tried something new in terms of aesthetics, sound design, etc. No Zelda game looks or feels like this. It is a brief glimpse into a world where Zelda was allowed to be radically different and new: a world where Zelda could be rendered blissfully unrecognizable. Unlike the other CDi games, which were clearly derived from the 80s/90s television show, this game has an identity all of its own, yet is tied to the Zelda IP. Frankly, this game is the bravest and boldest of the whole series and it deserves credit for that.
Given its reputation, it is more fun than one might think as well, with lots of nice secrets and fun items to collect (too many of these, however), although it is also quite severely hindered by its hardware limitations. Ah well. People are too mean to this game.
Given its reputation, it is more fun than one might think as well, with lots of nice secrets and fun items to collect (too many of these, however), although it is also quite severely hindered by its hardware limitations. Ah well. People are too mean to this game.
this one's not funny. flop
a must play