AoL Review by Me

[zeypherlink]

The Adventure of Link Review


Overview:
The Adventure of Link is considered by many to be the "black sheep" of the Zelda franchise, mainly due to the RPG and sidescrolling aspect of the game. On another note, AoL also had many things that were unique to the Zelda series, and aren't used these days. The game also introduced Magic into the series, which has been used a lot in most of the games.

Gameplay: 9/10
Ah yes, gameplay. One of the many factors that makes a game great or horrible. The reception of The Adventure of Link's gameplay was good and bad. Fans hated it because of the sidescrolling and RPG elements, and others loved it because of those two things. Another thing that makes this game's gameplay so great, is the overworld. In The Adventure of Link, you traverse the world of Hyrule and encounter enemies RPG style, level up like an RPG, and enter towns like an RPG game does as well. Another great gameplay aspect is the battles. The battles are so different than any other Zelda game, which is what makes it so great. There are also gameplay aspects in this game that have returned, such as the hidden sword moves.

Story: 7/10
Like The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link's story is fairly vague and told very little. The game kept the "save the princess" aspect that many games had back in the 80's, only The Adventure of Link's was more in depth. It consisted of Link gathering the 6 fragments of the Triforce of Power, and awakening Princess Zelda from her eternal slumber.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics for The Adventure of Link were quite superb for its time. It was really an upgraded The Legend of Zelda. Because it was a sidescroller most of the time, Nintendo was able to make the sprites and tilesets larger, thus putting more details into them. Link also looked very nice, as well as the various enemies and bosses.

Sound: 7/10
The music and sound effects for the game weren't too good, but weren't too bad either. The overworld music was choppy at times, but the dungeon music was amazing.

Fun/Replay Value: 9/10
The Adventure of Link is a great game to play over and over again. The world is so big in the game, and theres a lot of extra content. After you beat the game, it starts up a file similar to the Second Quest in The Legend of Zelda, only the game is exactly the same except you start off with your stats maxed out! Training can also be fun too, if you have a longer attention span.

Overall Score:
8/10

Closing Comments:
Although The Adventure of Link has been critisized for being so different from all the other Zelda games, it is still a great experience, and never gets boring because of how in depth it is, and its immense difficulty.

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Yeah...tell me what you think. And don't use this on any site...

[Alder Dragon]

Ironic, I also wrote a review on AoL. Along with LoZ, LttP, and just finished LA as you posted this. I like it - although I personally would have rated the story higher, but it's my opinion, probably because I own the manual as well, and the manual goes into much detail on the storyline. Are you going to put this on Gamefaqs? If you do check mine at the top under AlderDryad.

I'm trying to write reviews for each and every Zelda game, then branch off into other Nintendo series.

Good review :)

[zeypherlink]

Ironic, I also wrote a review on AoL. Along with LoZ, LttP, and just finished LA as you posted this. I like it - although I personally would have rated the story higher, but it's my opinion, probably because I own the manual as well, and the manual goes into much detail on the storyline. Are you going to put this on Gamefaqs? If you do check mine at the top under AlderDryad.

I'm trying to write reviews for each and every Zelda game, then branch off into other Nintendo series.

Good review :)
Thanks :D
I also own the manual, but I rated it lower because it doesn't tell a lot of it in the game.
And idk about putting it on GameFAQs. I'm writing reviews of each Zelda game for my website, so thats where they'll be for now.

[pieking]

Thanks for this review. When I first started playing AoL.. almost immediately I stopped. I didn't like the side scrolling, part of it and when I played I was like 10. Because of this review I might have to get this game and actually play it, if its as good as you seem to think then it will be worth it. But if not... I will shoot you with a fire arrow ^^

[Avenged]

Ok, so now that you're a couple years older you should try at it again. His review is not exaggerated, I actually give it a better score than what he gave.

[Mike Pothier]

One thing AoL did that was excellent was expand on the Zelda mythos. Aside from a few lines of text, LoZ had nothing to really explain the world.

AoL added hundreds of years of history, a complete backstory, and a huge land with villages and people.

[TimeLag]

Good Review. From the way i usually see it alot of people dislike this game due to the RPS Style-ness, along with the fact that it's fairly difficult to avoid all the incoming projectiles, though it seems the game is atleast more than slightly popular towards this Topic.

By the way, I think the Sound deserves better rating like a 9/10 or perhaps 10/10. Based on my opinion, the Temple Music (Hyrule Temple) was the best tune ever out of every Zelda Game.

[Mases]

Pretty good review. I agree for the most part. However, in the NES era I don't know if these categories are evenly waited. Other than Ninja Guiden... I can't think of a single NES game that went into series storyline detail IN GAME. (Ninja Guiden set quite a standard for in game cut scenes).

I'm not sure if the end score is an average or it is just coincidence, but I really enjoyed Adventure of Link.

One thing that is lost in context sometimes by modern fans who have gone back and played old Zelda games is that when Adventure of Link came out... there was only one other Zelda title. So while it is pretty drastic than the original Legend of Zelda gameplay, it still was great.

[El Bagu]

Nice review!

But I do agree with you people who wanted to give it a bit higher rating. Especially the music deserves a higher score.

[Mercedes]

AoL is, basically, the one Zelda game I havn't played I dont think. Its obviously a good game after those scores and from people saying it should have gotten a higher score :p Nice work! Keep it up.

[Shadow Goris]

It's a reall shame i played the game for only like five seconds and couldn't apreciate the whole thing....Oh and by the way when you said it was consideered the black sheep, that came straight from the ign zelda retrospective...

[Inflexus]

I've just gotten the fairy magic, lol.

Anyways AoL gave me nightmares when I was 4. It's been almost 13 years, and I think it's time for a reunion tour to finally finish up this game. It's my nemisis.