This was my first Cane & Rinse play along and was great fun
, sorry if it's a bit long, I just had so much to say about it !!
My Zelda history really kick starts here, It's one that for the early part of my years revolved around things being too far out of reach and my cousin that lived in Cardiff and was 2 years older than me.
I also blame ‘this’ Zelda, for introducing a luring depth to computer games that I'd previously never experienced, knew was there, or even knew I wanted. It was I think the first computer game that I really started to think about after I’d turned the console off.
I feel that a slight back story is necessary to underpin my unconditional love for this game, I’ll try and keep it as salient as possible.
1991 - My very first serious knowledge of Zelda, (apart from the side of my GameBoy Box) was from a Nintendo sticker book that I must have had when I was about 7. It was filled with various first party Nintendo games, focusing mainly on the back end of the NES generation and it's library of games, culmination in an obvious Super Mario Brothers 3. Amongst other games I'd never heard of, or played, there was a full double spread page dedicated to Zelda. It looked odd and hard to understand but I remember being totally mesmerised by the shiny for that game - Link's shield.
1993 - I'd had my Gameboy for a few years now. It had pride of place next to my Master System II and helped me bridge the gap between the Sega and Nintendo camps. I was aware of Zelda:Links Awakening, mainly from accidentally playing Mystic Quest (one of my all-time great games - Palm Trees and 8) on the Gameboy and being blown away in what was my first experience of an RPG. Being close to 10 years old now, the whole idea of an RPG was starting to become clear to me and something I liked the idea of more and more. One day I collected all of my Gameboy games, my pocket money and convinced my father to drive me into town where there was a game exchange centre. I think it may have been called 'That's Entertainment' or something similar. It was sort of an early Cash Convertors I think. Anyway, they had a Zelda cart and I wanted it. Much to my father’s misunderstanding and anger, he witnessed me trade in most of my games and all my money for this game. Loved it, totally. It was everything I wanted, needed and expected from it.
1994 - By now I was well aware of Zelda and needed more. I needed the next step. One day I was visiting my cousin (which was a 30 minute drive away, or more integrally rather around how often I could convince my mother to go visit her sister.) We were getting tired of playing Super Mario World and the other games he had at the time. We were dreaming up ways of how we could play Zelda:Link To The Past. One day, in our quest to get hold of a cartridge (outside of Christmas or a impending birthday celebration) one of us came up with the idea of checking the Free Adds paper, to which there was an advert for a cartridge swap for a number of other SNES games, one of which being Hook. Hook had a dusty place in my cousins library of SNES games and after much egging on and persuasion, we got our act together and begun the trade finer points. Being about 11 and my cousin being about 13, the idea of effort for no immediate reward was perplexing but being old enough to understand that this was possibly the only realistic way we could get hold of the cart, was a sobering one and focussed us in organising the trade and essential postage dramas. I left my cousins that time with the hope that by the time I'd get back, possibly a few months or even longer, that the trade will have been completed and I could witness this wonderful game.
1995 - By the time I'd managed to get to my cousins again he had smashed through the whole game and was very blasé about it, sort of in the manner, "yeah, I've played Zelda and finished it, it was good" then started talking about something else, possibly a Simpson's episode or another new game he rented or borrowed. All I wanted to see and play was Zelda. He loaded it up for me and as soon as I saw the top of the pyramid with the cracked big hole in it, red tunic, colossal mirror shield and the plethora of hearts across the top of the screen, I nearly died with enthusiasm and questions. I just needed to play that game for the story, the weapons and how he managed to collect all of those extra hearts. It was at this point that my cousin was beginning to pine for my goods that I had brought with me. I'd often bring my Master System, or in later years my Mega Drive, up to Cardiff on visits so we could play each other’s games. At the time I'd just managed to get my hands on NHL '94, an incredible game, truly great sports game that I had played the buttons out of. He wanted that. It was at that point our eyes lit up with enlightenment and we decided to swap consoles until our next encounter. The details of which we happily skipped over, in excitement of both agreeing on a trade of which I could play Z:LTTP and he could play NHL94, solely and under no family get together time frames. I took home with me a SNES and a copy of Zelda:LTTP.
That feeling of extreme possibility and excitement that grew from such a trade, or one that’s completed in the playground at break, is something that you’ll never manage to precisely re-create in adult life is such a wonderful, memorable feeling of childhood.
Because of all of this I was filled with trepidation going back to LTTP, I’ve played a lot of older games from this age and not always came away with the taste in my mouth that I was looking for. The last time I played this was on a SNES in the late 90’s, not even to completion either, just to show someone it that had perhaps missed out in it. I’d managed to fend off the urges to emulate it and when tempted put off by the rather expensive cart prices available online. I honestly don’t know what happened to my original copy, more than likely it was traded in for a PS1 game a long time ago.
I played through on the Wii U virtual console this time, both on the big screen and on the gamepad with headphones, when the TV was unavailable.
The first thing I considered after the famous rain, castle, sanctuary intro, was the SNES colour palette and graphics really played a strong game here, you feel that the whole scope of this system was pushed and even perhaps designed with this sort of title in mind; it’s a perfect marriage of system capability and art design. Things just look so perfected, little details are enough to give personality to almost every non-mob character, caves, hills, trees, dungeons all still look fantastic and have a soft, almost slightly 3D feel to them, like it was all made of Haribo.
I did, however, find the main Zelda series adventure theme quite jarring and repetitive this time around. I couldn’t remember it being so intrusive and remember liking it at the time. Coming back to it I had to turn it down in the end as it was just giving me a headache. Thankfully, once you crack the Master Sword mission and then spend a large chunk of the game in the dark world, the music switches and is much more sedate and easier to handle in large doses. Now, this may be something to do with that fact that this time round, instead of a mono sound 12” CRT I’m using a 50” Plasma with 5.1 surround speakers. This may have caused the discomfort to the SNES chirps and pips as when I was playing it on the gamepad, the music wasn’t half as irritating. So with all things considered, the score is still great, just maybe not designed to be amplified in such a modern way.
The first 3rd of the game, collecting the amulets and then the master sword are sort of tutorials upon reflection, which would prepare you for the serious chunk of the game afterwards. Here, saving the princess’ would push you in new ways and challenge you in ways that the first 3rd wouldn’t. The 1st third teaches you combat, movement and items. In the 2nd third, it’s actually thinking, trial & error and adventure that gets you through the rest of the game – this is where you‘ll spend the majority of your time in LTTP. A good balance of; here are the tools, play the game and you’ll need your head to play this also. Brute force need not apply here like in some modern day RPG’s Skyrim for instance and was extremely refreshing to have to rely on skill and thought as opposed to leveling up a weapon or grinding to make a damage push.
This I think for me, in terms of style and graphics, is the best example of an old 16bit game still holding up today, it stands the test of time very well. In terms of delivery and relevance it still hits all its marks and numbers. It wasn’t trying to look real, it was trying to tell a story and create a world that would best tell its tale. If this was remade in today’s technology, it wouldn’t be any better of a game; it wouldn’t be any clearer in terms of story or application. This game was created by a team where design, graphics, storytelling hand holding all managed to plateau at the same point and arrive together to bring a perfectly rounded gaming experience. Not one point for me is standout better than anything else. The world was large enough to hold mystery and surprise but small enough to feel manageable and able to manipulate with your actions. Small encounters make the world seem larger than the initial feeling would suggest, Ki Ki the monkey that grants you access into the first Princess dungeon is an example of variety to what is a common procedure of entering new areas. Small bits of programming that could have easily been cut out, make all the difference in the long run. The programming seemed to offer reward for time spent, having to trudge all the way up the river to the waterfall to meet with Zora, only to find out that you needed 500 rupees (which at that point you probably didn’t have) seemed fair and adventuring, then making the trip back later to get the flippers and swim back or investigate all the waterfalls and islands seemed genuinely rewarding. This is before the times of mission icons and overly obvious markers which can sometimes dilute the actual thrill of adventuring. It was a great balance of world, rumours and accessibility.
I hold an extremely fond place in my heart for the whole franchise but more importantly this game. It was something that brought family, excitement, expectation, delivery and reflection on a series and ultimately a whole genre, that I haven't and possibly never will, feel in the same way again.