Assorted Legend of Zelda Games Reviews

Let me get one thing straight I love The Legend of Zelda but I believe it to be albeit overrated.I prefer Mario,Donkey Kong,and Banjo-Kazooie series more. But as a video game critic,not "The Video Game Critic" but nonetheless a critic of video games it would be a crime against nature to ignore the greatness that is Legend of Zelda. I've decided to review the 1st,the "best" and the newest.

Our first game was based off of the mountain childhood of Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto which he in turn turned into a video game[of course most top Nintendo franchises were started off this kind of stuff,Pikmin came from his love for gardening,Star Fox came from a Fox statue he saw, it goes on] alright to the point

The Legend of Zelda(NES)

Developer: Nintendo R&D4
Publisher:Nintendo
Year:1987

Plot: 20/20 (Like most NES games of the time, the plot is simple but sound,save Hyrule and Zelda from ganon,it's not a real plot today but in those days it was something)

Graphics: 20/20(The best graphics you get for a NES game in 1987)

Concept: 20/20 (This is one of the few games I know that throws you straight into the lions den with nothing but a knfe and a trash bag[or in this case a sword and arrows],and basically you go around Hyrule and explore and collect,sometimes I wish video games were still so simple.Even the inspired RPG genre isn't so simple)

Levels: 12/20 (I was albeit dissappointed with the levels and found SEGA's counterpart Phantasy Star to have more variety,but at least the levels are fun)

Challenge: 16/20 (I didn't give it this score because it was too easy,no,no,no,NOOOOO!!!!! It was ridicoulously difficult,I wish more video games had challenge but this is overdone)

Music: 20/20 (I liked the music,it was perfect for the game and could put you in the right mood if you needed it)

Final:18/20(Can't grade much else in this game,it is so simle that I must stick with the basics.But sometimes the simple video game is the best video game,which applies to books,movies,and everything to some extent)


11 years later,Legend of Zelda went 3D and the game was released to universal praise,to this day most serious gamers are likely to put his game at the top.Me not so much,I always found it to be too much of everything. But it's still a solid Nintendo 64 title

Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher:Nintendo
Year:1998

Plot: 19/20 (I liked the plot but it was somewhat confusing and complicated,it starts off with Link living in the Kokiri Forest waiting to get a fairy which he does but it soon escalates to having to stop Ganondorf from becoming Ganon and taking over Hyrule,oh and then you have to miss childhood,I don't want all this,it was just fine with,SAVE HYRULE FROM GANON!!!)

Concept: 20/20 (The concept is albeit like the original NES game,except rather than getting thrown into the lions den you get thrown right by the lions den with a pocket knife,trash bag,and a pile a prey[or in this case you get some basics done and you get a horse as well])

Graphics:20/20 (Nintendo did a fantastic job turning this into 3D,it's a huge step up from the likes of Star Fox 64 and Super Mario 64)

Levels: 20/20 (These levels were spectalcular,gorgeously animated,completely fun,I really liked the Deku Tree level and that level with Gorons)

Challenge: 14/20 (Not as challenging as I hoped but challenging enough to keep most at ease,Super Mario 64 was harder lets just say)

Music: 20/20 (I love the music,when I first heard it I thought only Mario games could harness such goodness)

Final:19/20(It's a good game but it wasn't as hard as people said it was and the plot was too complicated to completely enjoy otherwise it's amazing)

9 years after ocarina of Time and 20 years after NES hit Legend of Zelda,Legend of Zelda went 3D on handhelds.But rather than starting a mini-saga,Phantom Hourglass completed where Wind Waker left off 4 years ago with even the same graphics.

Legend of Zelda:The Phantom Hourglass(Nintendo DS)

Developer:Nintendo EAD
Publisher:Nintendo
Year:2007

Plot: 10/20 (It's not futile and it's not bad,the problem is it's waaay too complicated for my liking,the plot as I can comprehend is Link ends up on some Island that was once a tall mountain but the sea flooded. He ends up looking for Tetra but instead runs into some mysterious figure,and that's I far as I can understand)

Concept: 20/20 (Basically you use the stylus to create a route for the ship to go while n the great sea and on land it's just like any other Legend of Zelda,except with stylus and touch screen of course,this is in a nutshell all right)

Graphics:20/20(This game really pushes the Nintendo DS to the limits)

Levels: 16/20 (Not a lot of variety but the levels are fun anyway)

Challenge:20/20 (The hardest game I've played so far on a Nintendo DS)

Music:10/20 (The music was extremely mediocre,I didn' care for it at all but at least the music wasn't sinister like Sonic)

Final:16/20(It was alright but it's kind of like the black sheept of the series,and no I'm not counting those CD-i games)



Up Next

Chronologically: Netscape(Browsers)
Video Games: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

Genesis and Nintendo 64

It's been a while since I did consoles my last being a review of the first Nintendo's and PlayStation.I used this order because these consoles had at least 3 things in common

1.All had full support of Squaresoft[now Square Enix](Therefore these were the consoles to come to for RPG's)
2. All sold at least 50 million consoles
3.The other competitors had to mimic with 1st party do o lack of real 3rd party support

However as for SNES and PSX those 2 had bitter rivals that could've come to the top.Because NES was the clear winner with no real competition I shall not compare any of the consoles that attempted to compete but instead the 2 consoles that did.

I already graded the SEGA Saturn(17/20), Dreamcast(19/20) and Game Gear(16/20)

The story of this console began when their 8-bit Master System lost to NES,knowing they had to make a console to take down this monstrosity,becuase NES was 8-bit,they had to make something that was 16-bit[Mattel's Intellivision was 16-bit but you gotta' wonder why no company could make ne like that] but nonetheless they suceeded and called it the MEGA DRIVE but NEC was already marketing the Turbo Grafx 16.In order to take the top SEGA copied Nintendo's policy and made games with celebrity names which ate out TG-16,then to combat the familiar franchises Nintendo and the upcoming SNES they made Sonic the Hedgehog who in America is considered star of...........

Genesis

Games: 20/20 (So much like SNES is has practically the same amount of games and with games like Sonic the Hedgehog,Sonic CD,Phantasy Star 2,Shining Force,Vectorman,Knuckles Chaotix and Golden Axe it was hard to find fault with it)

Graphics:10/20 (This system did not have good graphics,Sonic was alright but really,overall it was mediocre at best)

Design:14/20 (No matter how many revisions,how many sizes, and who knows what, it always looked ugly. However by itself it's also quite durable which is a huge plus)

Technology: 17/20 (Not the best technology,but it was faster at processing games than SNES which is a plus and it was the top man for 2 years,but then SNES came out)

Final:15/20(The system was above average,technologically it was the king for 2 whole years before SNES came out,the system was loaded with some of the coolest games out there,and hey the system was on the market for quite some time,and since there was a flood of system trying to look better,it looked too old within 3 years)

This console is great,so great I named my blog after it most of my favorite games come from it,practically half my top 10 list comes from this system.No console is perfect but this comes pretty damn close to being perfect.This console could've easily won but Nintendo made a few mistakes

1.Cartridges
2.Delayed for too long
3.No real RPG developers were courted

This console was waaay better than anything today and only 3 consoles could even remotely get close to it(Dreamcast,SNES and Nintendo DS)

Nintendo 64

Games: 20/20 (Not a lot of games[especially RPG's] but to make up for it,you've got quality,incredible amount of quality.Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time,Ogre Battle 64,Banjo Kazooie,Star Fox 64,Mario Kart 64,Super Mario 64,Diddy Kong Racing,Turok,Perfect Dark,Quake 64,it goes on)

Graphics:20/20(That system had groundbreaking graphics the later games were comparable to early PS2 titles.Super Mario 64 told you about the system capabilities from day 1.Unlike Jaguar this really was 64-bit.)

Design:20/20 (Durable,most beautiful looking,compact,and attractive console,but it always looked like it needed dusting,though the later colors were great,I for one like the Pikachu N64 even though the game that came with it was donkey crap)

Technology: 19.5/20 (I'd love to give it a perfect score,but Nintendo didn't use CDs because of this the games tended to look albeit blurry and they were expensive to produce.However the N64 controller invented the thumbstick and camera made buttons from day 1,and not to far after to advantage of the hole in the bottom by inventing things like the rumble pack,the controller pack[VMU probably came from this].Internally there was the expansion pack which enhanced the N64's power and graphics even farther(Games like Donkey Kong 64 and Legend of Zelda:Majora's Mask to advantage of this))

Final:20/20(Best system ever and will probably never be trumped but hey there's hope that Xbox 720 or Wii 2 or PlayStation 4 could be on the way to being even more outstanding,but only time will tell)

Favorite Games:

Genesis: Vectorman (20/20)
Nintendo 64: Banjo Kazooie(20/20)

Up Next

Chronologically: Legend of Zeldas (Video Games)
Consoles: PlayStation 2,PlayStation Portable,and Atari 2600

The Parent Trap(1998)

I would've done The Godfather but I don't remember enough about it to do a review,so instead I've decided to replace that movie with a review of The Parent Trap and no not the 1966 Disney hit,rather the 1998 remake.

The Parent Trap(1998)

Presentation: 20/20(Impressive presentation and excellent beginning dialogue)

Plot: 5/20 (This plot has been done and it's so old practically every TV show or book has done some version of it it's like a sibling version of The Prince and The Pauper,but at least it's done in quite a nice style)

Characters:20/20 (Hilarious characters well developed and every character is lovable[except one who is easy to love to hate])

Lohan's Role: 20/20 (This was made back in the day when Lindsay Lohan was actually a good actress not someone known for being drunk,she was maybe 12 at the oldest,either way she totally pulled the dual roles of Haley Parker and Anne James)

Richardson's Role: 19/20 (Almost sound,still she potrayed Elizabeth James as albeit of a dull character at first)

Quaid's Role: 12/20 (Easily the weak one but hey he's always the weak one and somehow he always end up as a father in each movie[of course I've only seen him in The Day After Tomorrow and Your's Mine,and Our's] oh well he does an acceptable job at being the unsuspecting Dad)

Set: 20/20 (Good set work,theleaky cabin was filmed well and the rest was about as good as it gets for 1998)

Execution:20/20 (The plot is a loss but thankfully it's done in a good style,with badass dialogue,and an ending you wouldn't expect)

Final:16/20(It's hard to not like this movie,but it's not without flaws I mean the plot sucks but the movie wouldn't work without it they coulda' found someone better than Dennis Quaid to play Nick Parker)

Up Next

Chronologically:Genesis and Nintendo 64(Consoles)
Movies: Ever After(1998)