Zelda’s Adventure speedrun in 1:37:11 by MC Gamer

MC Gamer, one of our good friends most known for his involvement in founding Zeldathon and Fun For Freedom, has recently put out a rather interesting Zelda video. This is a full blown speedrun of Zelda’s Adventure, the not so highly acclaimed Phillips CD-i Zelda title.

Throughout the speedrun, MC Gamer provides audio commentary that is both interesting and informative as he progresses through the game. All in all his run of Zelda’s Adventure lasts just over an hour and a half, coming in at 1:37:11. Go ahead and make the jump to see the video embed as well as some of my own commentary about the playthrough.

Having played through Zelda’s Adventure a full three times myself, I can understand how awful of a Zelda game this really is. Surprisingly, MC Gamer seems to have a slightly different take on it, stating that he thinks the game really isn’t that bad. Obviously this is a relative statement and he isn’t comparing it to any of the major Zelda titles.

Personally, I almost find it appalling that this game gets thrown in with Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon as ‘the three CD-I Zelda games’. None of them are exactly award winning games by any means, but I actually think Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon are certainly playable. Easily two of the best games to ever release on the Phillips CD-i. They’ve got great music, hilariously bad cut-scenes, some decent background graphics, and games that I think are worth playing.

Zelda’s Adventure on the other hand, I just find the game to be absolutely miserable. The biggest quirk I have is the pure loading and how broken it really is. Just going from screen to screen, you’ll have to wait a good 6-7 seconds between every single screen that you move between. Toss another 6-7 seconds in when pausing to switch items and this game becomes a waiting nightmare.

When you actually are playing, the gameplay is horrendous as hit detection is terrible and enemies just get on top of you so quickly. From a more Zelda perspective, it has one of the worst uses of an inventory system with a seemingly endless amount of weapons, in which a good portion of them seem to do absolutely nothing. Toss in some broken Map mechanics (seriously how did they mess that up), the fact that the music cuts between every load screen, and the strangely confusing storyline, and this makes for one of the worst game experiences.

If you are a crazy Zelda fan like I am, or like MC Gamer is, than sure, give Zelda’s Adventure a try. (If you can track down a console, a copy of the game, and the $400+ that you’ll need to purchase that combination). However, in my opinion Zelda’s Adventure is Significantly worse than both Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon, which in turn are Significantly worse than virtually any other Zelda game. Putting Zelda’s Adventure in the same sentence with Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon is a sin in its own way, just as comparing Wand of Gamelon with A Link to the Past is. It’s just not right and shouldn’t be done.

If you are one of the few folks out there that have actually played Zelda’s Adventure feel free to chime in! Let us know if you think the game is as bad as I think it is, and how you think it compares with Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon.