Legend of Zelda (NES) - wow, it's hard

[gtmtnbiker]

I finished LOZ Link to the Past a few weeks ago which I really enjoyed. I decided to play the original Legend of Zelda (NES) on an emulator using the Saturn USB pad.

Wow, the game is hard. At times it seems more like an arcade shooter to me. I'm glad that I'm playing on an emulator where I can save/restore states. The Saturn USB pad seems to work decently. I did place an order for an NES USB adapter as well as an SNES one. I'll see how those controllers compare to the Saturn one for this game.

[vash23n]

Yes it is especially hard when you get to the last dungeon and your game mysteriously erases, but that's a topic for a whole other post that I already made...

[blackmagepwns]

I'm taking the challenge of beating Zelda and Zelda 2 using just hints from a strategy guide, not a walkthrough, and it's pretty tough.

[Incognito D]

The hardest thing of all I found was navigating round the overworld and knowing where to go next.

I ended up printing out a full-on map of the gameworld with dungeon locations and stuck it to my wall.

Still got it up there to this day. Recommended!

[blue_veilvet]

Yes, it really is. I had to look up two of the dungeons (one I could've found by myself, if I had understood that the old men in the dungeons actually give hints for the overall game, and not just the dungeon they are situated in), and some (mostly mid-)bosses are ridiculously hard if you don't have the right equipment/strategy (which, in turn, make them ridiculously easy).

[gtmtnbiker]

What does the original map for the game look like? Is it just a map of the land with nothing (monsters, dungeons, etc) on it? Is the idea that you mark the map up yourself with notes as you play the game?

I've been using this map which has overlays of different things.

http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/LegendO ... ctive).swf

[JordanPlayer]

To me this is one of the greatest games I have played. Granted, I did own the game when I was very young so I had the time and patience (plus friends who owned the game). I remember spending hours going around finding stuff, talking to friends to see if they had found anything new... and then going to get it after they told me lol. I've probably beat this game over 20 times, most on the NES but also on an emulator and Wii Virtual Console. I think it's kind of sad that to this day I still remember where everything is (even the heart containers)

However, I can't say the same for Legend of Zelda 2 hehe. This game seemed really hard for its time. Hell, going through that rock/cave maze to get the hammer is one of the hardest parts of the game! I think I got about halfway through the game by myself before caving in and using a guide for help. I got all the way up to the final dungeon... but holy crap I could barely even make it to the dungeon without getting killed on the path there so I never beat it on my NES. Years later I played it on an emulator and finally showed that game who's the boss

[Breetai]

What does the original map for the game look like?

It's a map with just the screens. No monsters or anything. Also, large chunks of the map, in the top-right and left, are blanked out.

Zelda 2 was a bytch. Especially, as other have said, the caves to get the hammer, the road to the final dungeon and the final dungeon itself.

[Metalcrack]

To me this is one of the greatest games I have played. Granted, I did own the game when I was very young so I had the time and patience (plus friends who owned the game). I remember spending hours going around finding stuff, talking to friends to see if they had found anything new... and then going to get it after they told me lol. I've probably beat this game over 20 times, most on the NES but also on an emulator and Wii Virtual Console. I think it's kind of sad that to this day I still remember where everything is (even the heart containers)

I've beat it multiple times myself, so I guess that to me, it's not too tough. I remember most of the items, dungeon locations, cash locations etc. Even the map for the Lost Woods!

[MrPopo]

Zelda was one of the few games I was able to beat when I was a kid. I was good at memorization, so once I figured out where all the dungeons were it just took some practice to beat everything.

The second quest is sadistic, though. Rooms upon rooms of blue darknuts make me a sad panda.