From the desk of Kevin James Breaux

The Legend of Zelda was the first Action RPG game I ever played and I was instantly and forever hooked on the genre. Little did I know Ultima Exodus was around the corner, but that's a story for later.  Zelda was one of the greatest games released by NES.  It sold 6.5 million copies!  That's amazing when you think of the time it was released, 1987.  The industry is vastly changed, and now a game like Halo will sell millions.  In fact Halo sold 5 million copies during its first five years worldwide. See that weird comparison? In the past five years I have started up a few new games of Zelda.  Each time I played it on a retro game emulator and lost my save game for one reason or another; normally due to me reformatting a HD.  That’s being said, about two years ago I played all the way through from start to finish.   Does Zelda survive the test of time? Hell yeah!  Ready for this shocker… I played the game on my original NES, and yes the cartridge battery was still working.  It's astounding all the things I have forgotten in the past 20 years, but I remember where to use my candle to burn down trees and reveal hidden rooms.  I remember where the hidden ring is, and I remember the paths through some, not all, of the dungeons.  What I forgot was how much of a memory game Zelda was. North, West, South, West (up, left, down, left), through the forest maze I went... in search of all the hearts I could find early on in the game.  The quest was treacherous. Zelda's graphics are just as good as you remember them.  Man, do I hate putting in a game I used to love, only to be like yuck these graphics suck now. It's like the gamer equivalent of beer goggles. Twisted Metal 2… oh how I used to love you, but now you just look bad! After all these years the challenge of playing Zelda is evident.  It's no easy or quick task.  Sit down and start fighting and you too will miss that kick-ass blue boomerang, trust me.  Zelda gets a score of 9/10.  The game is still a ton of fun.  That said, when playing Zelda I could not help but wish there was a little more to it. More what? Hard to say; probably character customization and leveling up, I do love distributing new points. Kevin James Breaux

Kevin James Breaux

Award-winning author of SOUL BORN - an epic fantasy novel

Author of A Way to a Man's Heart is Through His Stomach and Dark Water: Beaming Smile

www.kevinbreaux.com

www.soulborn.net

twitter @KevinBreaux