Zelda's Adventure: NES Zelda in CD-i style

Gannon has returned! Link has been captured. The land of Tolemac (aka Hyrule) is being overrun. The Celestial Signs have been stolen. Now who's up to the challenge? Zelda! No longer the damsel in distress, she's ready to rock. And this version finally does the CD-i & the Zelda series some justice. It's about time.

With the earlier incarnations of the LEGEND OF ZELDA series on CD-i really stinking up the CD-Rom drive, you'd think there's no way they'd make a third for the machine. Suprisingly they did, and MAN! what a difference. While not on a par with the new Zelda 64 or the SNES' A LINK TO THE PAST, it really does shine. Returning to the original top down display of the NES games, it adds a freedom of movement & removes the rigidity of control that the side scrollers had. Zelda's Adventure regains the respect for the CD-i the other two took away.

Graphicly, the CGI rendered backgrounds really look stunning. Really sharp. However, character definition and animation is just mediocre. Often times the monsters seem really chunky & not well defined. Not overly distracting, but not un-noticable. Another complaint is that there is so much data to load for each area that often there is a very noticable pause between screens. This isn't so bad, excep occasionally durring sequences where you have to cross several screens quickly. It can slow down the fun. I also have to applaud them for switching away from the terrible animated versions of the chacters. Though to be honest, she's not my idea of what Zelda would look like human. Oh Well! It's still better than before.

As to sound, the voice-overs are pretty decent, as is the music (what music there is). The sounds of combat seem a bit dated, even by CD-i standards, but really that can be overlooked. Control is very good with very few problems, except with some menus. Nothing really bad. Play is easy with the 4-Button Gravis pad, but the 3-button will do. I highly reccomend AGAINST the thumb stick, it makes combat & menu operations very tedious.

Overall this game seems like a return to the original NES style of Zelda play. You move off the edge of the screen, you go load another screen. No large scrolling areas. This game is for the real Zelda fan. A decent story. Great control. Good (albeit sometimes muddy) graphics. If you're a fan of the "Old School" Zelda, this game is definitly for you.

Pictures thanks to Quebec Gamer