The Adventure of Link

My first exposure to the Zelda series was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Because of it, I didn’t understand the appeal of the series. The game was a strange mix of overworld map exploration, and sidescroll fighting. My game attitudes were closed minded: Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy took care of the overworlds, Mario and Metroid covered the sidescrolling. The game was also a bit too difficult for me, which always tends to piss me off rather than motivate me.


The only real attraction I had to the game was its gold cartridge. I remember that being a selling point. I was with my mom, picking out a game, and the man in the store opened the box, showed me the unusual shiny casing, and I was sold. You really felt like you owned something when you had that solid piece of golden plastic in between those dull gray games.

It wasn’t until last week that I put Zelda II back into my now 22 year old Nintendo. The load screen made me laugh. I found that a former user of the cartridge named themselves Jazz Bo. What kind of name is Jazz Bo? I know that it wasn’t me. The player has almost complete attributes, and I had never made it past the first castle. I think that it was a friend, Chris Martin, who was one of those kids that could beat any game. He taught me the submarine trick in Jaws, which lead to my eventual success. This is also the kid that had the classic silent issue of GI Joe, which introduced Storm Shadow. He was the son of my parents' close friends, and as they visited in the living room, I would sit on the floor in front of his box of comics, reading what I could. He was a pretty cool guy, until he followed the same path as my brother, deciding that he was a make-believe Eastern Oregon cowboy.

The long-abandoned game has turned out to be good. Different from the rest, but at least as good as the first. Though the overworld is bland, I’ve learned to appreciate its mix with the sidescrolling. The leveling up is comforting when you hit a hard spot, as it is with any RPG. It has pretty cool character design, the best game over screen ever, and a calming 80s charm that I miss.

This may be sad, but being able to successfully maneuver a game that was giving me so much trouble as a kid makes me feel like I’ve made actual progress in the last twenty years.