The Legend of Zelda (NES) is Still Epic After 20 Years

Lately I have been playing a lot of games that most people would consider me 'not hardcore' gamer. Lot's of Nintendo games like Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, and pretty much anything classic. Last night, I just had the feeling I wanted to sit horribly close to a tube TV, grab my old players guide, and just play through the original Legend of Zelda. You know what? This game still hold's up REALLY well.

The Legend of Zelda is that game that I associate with my love for video games. I remember receiving the game when I was a kid and I always thought it was cool that the cartridge was 'gold.' It looked so 'godly' among all of my other grey cartridges!

Last night, I got up close with my TV which as a kid I was always told that this was bad for your eyes, and just played the game. These days, I don't have a lot of patience for looking for things and finding secrets, so I had my player's guide with me. Just the amount of mystery and exploration in this game is massive. There are so many things that you would NEVER find if you didn't just throw bombs or blow a whistle. It was just fun to be this little kid named Link running through the land of Hyrule out to save the Princess.

See, nowadays we have the internet. Anything we want to look up is right at our fingertips. Back then, we had to fight to win in video games. If you didn't beat the game, you never knew what happened at the end, until your friends at school told you. It was like a friendly competition to see who could reach the end of the game first.

Legend of Zelda was a perfect example of this. In the Instruction Booklet that you got with the game, the main villain Ganon was a silhouette, so you never knew what he looked like until you figured out how to get to the end of the game. It took patience, problem solving...and did I say patience? Pretty sure I did! Games today show you everything in game, and how to get this and get that. It takes away from what makes it a 'game.' How is a game fun if you are being told what do to all of the time? I will admit, there are times where I like being told where to go (last night with the players guide...), but there are some games that are meant to be explored, and Zelda got that right over 20 years ago. Kids today expect to be served with a spoon in their games. Then when they finally approach a game that is 'difficult' they consider it a 'bad game.' While back then, when there was a significant challenge in a game, we grabbed that little controller and sallied forth until we won.

Lately, video games have been just a cheap thrill for me. Something to just relieve me of everyday stress for just a few moments. Unfortunately, I feel like I have a had to force myself to play video games just so I can say I did! Sounds ridiculous right? Last night though, when I popped in Legend of Zelda into my NES, I could have sat there for hours moving around that little green sprite known as Link. Something just clicked in my brain that made me not want to move.

Everyone has their favorite games, but there are games that you could play over and over, and Zelda is that game for me. Legend of Zelda reminds me of a time where I didn't have worries or stress. It was just me, a game system, and sitting in the glow of a television late night on a weekend exploring a land that I will never see in real life.

For that moment I was playing the game, I was that little green guy in a vast land known as Hyrule.