"Total Games Played - 054"
The End.
So I died that many times? Thirteen times in Skull Dungeon. Nine in Misery Mire. Seven in Ice Palace. Only five in Ganon's Tower. I didn't quite catch the whole count, but damn, this one turned out to have taken more effort than I'd imagined. Still, totally worth it. After all the pain and frustration of Zelda II, this one was very fun.
I revved up the ol' Virtual Console to discover that I was wrong, I hadn't actually beaten the sixth Dark World dungeon, which I now know to be called Misery Mire. I had gotten to the boss, but hadn't actually beaten him. So I went back in and found that my measly sword swipes weren't cutting it. So I looked up potential upgrades, and whaddya know, I never got my sword tempered at the smiths'. Upon my return to that boss with my new red sword, I cut his balls off. His eyeballs, that is.
Dungeon seven, Turtle Rock, was a bit of a pain in the ass, but I got through. I had another case of finally reaching the boss only to get wiped out once again. I just dislike having to retrace my steps all the time (except for in Metroid, but even then it gets kind of annoying). I took out that big old fire/ice rock-turtle and set my sights on Ganon's Tower, which was conveniently right next door. Funny that a rock turtle would be in Turtle Rock, who'd have thought?
Ganon's Tower was kind of hard to navigate around, and thank God for the red mail to reduce my damage more. Enemies that take three hearts from you for one hit are a little bit ridiculous. Once I finally found my way to the big key, everything else went by pretty smooth, and I managed to beat Aganhim with little difficulty. But wouldn't you know it? It turned out that damned wizard bastard was just Ganon in disguise (and before you roll your eyes at me, I knew, it was just a little joke).
Fighting Ganon in the pyramid proved to be a little annoying. Not because of Game Overs, but because I kept getting knocked off the arena. Unfortunately, getting knocked off means restarting the whole battle. Once I beat him, I realized that a couple of the times I got knocked off, I was probably about one more Silver Arrow hit away from killing him. Damn.
But soon he was dead, and the Essence of the Triforce spoke to me - which was weird cause I don't remember the Triforce ever speaking before. Then I got some flybys over Hyrule, seeing what people were up to now that peace reigned once again. Cute.
So where does this game stand in my analyses? Well, it definitely went much further than the original in establishing the Zelda mythology. I can't speak for Zelda II, since I wussed out on it. A lot of the hallmarks that would appear in the progressively more substantial Zelda narratives made their first appearances here. That Ganon, the King of Evil, was once Ganondorf, the King of Thieves, is first mentioned here. References to the Seven Sages appeared, though they were the Seven Wise Men in this chapter of the Zelda franchise. The wishes granted by the Triforce appear here. All that we now consider the classic elements of a Zelda story are here. While the rest of the main Zelda games would take their gameplay cues from Ocarina of Time, they would all take their story cues from A Link to the Past.
Speaking of Ocarina of Time, that's coming up next.
- Nate
P.S., While I was searching for screenshots to put up on here, I found this picture.
I'm sorry, but the nerd in me would have to take a double-take at that tramp stamp.
3 comments:
WOULD.
TOTALLY WOULD.
Replay the games, that is.
After banging that girl.
Except if she's a butterface.
No.. probably even if she was.
The number of games is not only how many times you died, but also how many times you saved and quit.
ALttP is a great Zelda game.
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