HRRRRRNNNNNG OH MY GOD, ZELDA!
I Fuckin' love this game. Let me strum you a tale of my youth, an epic tale of one young man's endless quest through the land of Hyrule!
I was born in 87, a troubling time with the industry of video gaming just coming to a rise in a tide that's still washing over us today, and basking us in it's glory. My first system was the Nintendo Entertainment System. That was purchased for me upon the Christmas of 92' My first games for the system? I'm glad you asked! Super Mario & Duck Hunt, Mega Man 2, and The Legend Of Zelda. Ahh, how I loved this game birthed from the 8-Bit Eighties. I spent hours searching for the third dungeon! Blasting away random pixels of this eternal land called Hyrule in search of Pieces Of Heart and other hidden goodies! That golden cart of plastic still so fresh in my mind even to this day! The location of the fairy fountains, the method to walk free in the lost woods, all of it forever embedded into my mind.
One year later I managed to get my little fingers on The Adventure Of Link! The plot made no sense at the time, but as a child still in my youth I didn't much care about that. I was captivated by the Mario inspired side scrolling mechanics of it all. The complexity of the dungeons, and I AM ERROR still cause me to smile on the most stressful of days. I do believe that many of the towns in this game are actually names of the Sages from Ocarina Of Time! Fun fact there... The temple music has always been iconic to me from this game also!
When I had saved enough money for my first Game Boy, you're damn right the first game I purchased was The Legend Of Zelda: Links Awakening. Having Zelda on my portable was simple the best thing in the world to a kid like me! I remember searching that wind fishes island for dungeon keys and seashells all to power up to the lv 2 sword so that I could shoot laser beams, and only knew of this at the time because a friend told me it was awesome, and you know what? It was awesome! The combination of the bow plus bombs to create bomb arrows, or how about running circles around the shop keeper in the town while holding an item then running out! I stole the bow, and was forever known as THIEF. Best Mini-Boss? Last dungeon and the boxing kangaroo, that dude was hard! But the reward of the Fire Rod after that? Ohhohohohoho, Moblins best be running from me now!
Soon after conquering the Game Boy zelda, I manged to talk my dad into buying an SNES at a local pawn shop. We got with it Street Fighter II, and two controllers. Soon after learning how to spam Hadoken with Ryu, I was already doing extra work to save for the best Zelda title ever created, the final be all end all of Zelda games in my personal opinion. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past graced my SNES console two months later, and glancing over at my set up right now. The same SNES is plugged in, and the same Link To The Past cart is inside. Always ready for more action.
I'm just...gonna spaz about this game for a second. I mean it's a masterpiece... Just..
UGH, You remember that part when you had to use the Book Of Mudora to move the statues in the Desert Palace!? That shit was sick! Or what about wandering around the graveyard and stumbling into the hiding place of one of the cheapest magic items in the game, The Magic Cape! Did you ever find the secret room in the US version called the "Chris Houlihan Room"? Full of Ruppies and a panel that told you It was a secret to everyone?! I about flipped out when I found it! Using that big ass bomb on the pyramid in the dark world to get to the forever obese fairy woman who gives you brilliant stuff? What about the Magic Boomerang from behind the waterfall as well as the Red Shield?! The Bosses? Oh god the bosses! I always dreaded and still do dread fighting the giant Fire Moth in the forest. How about that feeling you get when you trash the Wizard Agahnim in Hyrule Castle after getting the Master Sword! This game just... I don't know, I love it so much.. It still is the best Zelda title to date. E3 sold me on getting a 3DS for Between Two Worlds it's self, a LTTP remake?! Yes, a million trillion times yes.
Basically, since this is getting WAY too long, I've played and conquered every Zelda game to date. I do not see myself as a gamer anymore, barely touching most games honestly. The Legend Of Zelda however? I will always take the time to play those, I will always love Hyrule and the legacy it's created for it's self. I think it's honestly because It is a fantasy that has grown with me over the years. I was born around the time the first one was made, I've lived long enough to see this franchise grow from the small seed they started with into an international treasure of gaming and story telling. I likely seem like a screaming fan boy right now, and honestly I could give two shits. The Legend Of Zelda is something I will be playing twenty years from now, and even well into my elderly years as I tell my grand children the early stories of Hyrule and how Link vanquished the Evil with the sword of evil's bane.. A true fan of The Legend Of Zelda, is right here. Sorry for the long post!
