A biased review: The Legend of Zelda

[Zarkho]

Some more comments:

- The game was originally meant to be played with the help of the printed map and the manual / hints booklet. They played the role tutorials play today, but they were way more exciting since, rather than telling you how to do things, they would throw hints or basic tactics and you would have to use them in every possible way and place to get rewarded. It is because it that today players find it difficult; they play emulated or digital copies that just put you in the middle of the world without any clue about what to do. And even with that, if you start exploring the overworld you will start learning and figuring out things by yourself.

- It is still about puzzles. In fact, a lot of them. But they're managed in a different way here: in future Zeldas they would base the puzzle mechanics in items, but in the first Zelda the puzzle "thing" was about exploring rooms to see if there was a block to push, a wall to bomb or a hidden key, along with the overal challenge of getting oriented in a big maze and figuring out how to reach rooms that were in the map but apparently didn't have any connection with the rooms around you. It was more about exploring, figuring things and getting oriented than using an item to solve a puzzle. So... they're still there, but in a different way.

- Combat played a more important (and challenging) role. As you mention, being only able to stab also requiered being much more accurate, since the "slash" of future Zelda games would cover a bigger area, making things easier. Furthermore, every enemy had a distinctive behavior that made them (specially in more advanced labyrinths) a puzzle themselves. For example, Octoroks and Molblins would move slowly and stop to throw rocks or spears at you, Peahats would fly around really fast, Leevers would merge from the sands directly into you and go under the sand again, Darknuts would never stop moving, couldn't get damaged in his front part due to their shields and were inmune to the bumerang and other items, Wizzrobes would apear and dissapear or teleport around the rooms throwing magic waves at you, the big worm-like lanmolas would move extremely fast around the labyrinths rooms... Somehow they were all special, challenging and harder than the enemies in other titles of the series (except for Zelda II), adding deep and challenge to the game.

In my opinion, when played as it was meant to be played (with your own map and booklet), it deserves a 9.5 (Not perfect since graphics, even if they were varied, detailed, colorful and full of personality, specially in the case of the enemies, could have been a little better). The "limited" mechanics (like the one direction stab) were positive since forced you to plan your strategies and develop your hability controlling Link, adding challenge and deep to the gameplay.

So... Yeah, that's it. For me, a 9.5 over 10 =)