Month: September 2012

Anatomy of a Game: Zelda ~ ALL OF TREASURES ~

So the big deal about The Legend of Zelda was that it had a ton of items to collect. Some were instant consumables, some were weapons, some were simply passive tools. Some dropped randomly from enemy mobs, whereas others appeared in fixed locations, and yet others were deliberately tucked away as key acquisition points to enable […]

Anatomy of a Game: Zelda IV

On to Zelda‘s third dungeon, assuming you’re going in the order God intended and not sequence-breaking. Which you can totally do up until this point. Not that sequence-breaking is necessarily a good idea for the third dungeon, Manji, given that it’s specifically designed around two weapons: The White Sword and the Bombs. The level nudges […]

Anatomy of a Game: Legend of Zelda III

The Legend of Zelda‘s second dungeon ups the stakes a bit. There’s only one room with foes that, objectively speaking, are more dangerous and powerful than any that appear in the first dungeon. On the whole, though, the difficulty level climbs here as you face off against foes that appear in larger numbers and observe […]

Anatomy of a Game: Legend of Zelda II

You would think that, as a baby-easy cakewalk, The Legend of Zelda‘s first dungeon would merit very little discussion. But you’d be wrong! The game treats this level as training wheels for much of what is to come; the dungeon navigation tricks you learn here, where the challenge level remains gentle, will guide you through […]

Anatomy of a Game: The Legend of Zelda I

  I have powerful, lasting memories of The Legend of Zelda. Along with Metroid, Zelda taught me a great deal about the potential of video games and helped cement my tastes in the medium. Exploration, depth, freedom, and just enough challenge to keep things interesting: That’s Zelda. And that’s what I like. Yet I first […]