The NES Cat: Review #15: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. A weird Zelda game that is actually good. Give it a chance...

Zelda II box and golden cartridge

"Oh why", I thought about 20+ years ago when I first played Zelda II. Why didn't they just follow the recipe to make another gem like the 1st part? Nintendo decided to do a little experimentation with the 2nd release of the Zelda franchise. You get the top-down view only in the Overworld, but all levels, battles, interaction etc. is side-scrolling.

The back of the box

The title screen

Αs I played on (hey, it's a Zelda game, I HAD to beat it, even if it was the worst game ever) I liked the game more and more. The battle system was excellent. Link can dodge an enemy attack, stab up or down, use spells (in quite a variety), interact with people in villages and more.

The story is that Zelda is under a sleeping spell and Link has to do the dirty work and wake her up. He has to go 6 palaces to return 6 crystals, so he can get the Triforce of Courage to wake up Zelda. Why the f*ck don't they keep the Triforces locked up so Ganon can't take them? Get them to a bank or something...

The game's first screen. Zelda snores
and you have to do the dirty work.

This game is THE most difficult Zelda game of all. The enemies are smart and dodge a lot of your attacks, especially on later levels. The palaces are HUGE and demand lots of time and effort to complete them, even the 1st one! As you progress through the game and kill enemies, Link gains XP and gets level-ups to his life, magic, or attack. When you have enough XP to level up, a screen pops and you can select which ability you want to upgrade. Also this game introduced spells and a magic meter, elements that will be used on SNES's Zelda and more sequels after that.

Link becomes as social as he would
ever be in this game. Tons of interaction
in the game's villages.

The visuals are nice, with clear, big sprites when you are on side-scrolling mode with pretty good detail for an 8-bit game. On the Overworld on the other hand the graphics are ok, I guess, and they get the job done. I suppose Nintendo didn't bother much with the Overworld, as most of the game takes place in side-scrolling mode.

The sound is fantastic. On the Overworld, the beloved Zelda theme got an upgrade and became more orchestral (for the NES's standards) and the music within the palaces is great. The sound effects are not superb, but get the job done.

Overall, Zelda II is a true Zelda game, but has a twist. If you like this twist, you will enjoy this game very much and it will challenge you like no Zelda game did before. If you don't like the twist, my opinion is that you have to play it through, but don't think it as a Zelda game. Think it's just a great game for the NES and you'll get many hours of fun (and frustration, because of the difficulty) out of it. It is rated D (common) on the NES Rarity List and you can get it on eBay for about 50$ full with box and manual. I also have a sealed copy of the game that you can too find on eBay for about 300-400$.

-NES Cat