The Magic of Hyrule

by Tomm Hulett 

Who can deny that the Zelda series is magical? Anyone who's played a game in the series experiences memories, experiences, and emotions from playing the game. Why is the time spent playing Zelda so different than the time spent playing some other game? What makes Link such a perfect hero? What is this innate drive humans have for gold cartridges? The great amount of effort and sweat that's put into making each Zelda game definitely shows in the finished product.

I personally have several great memories playing Zelda. Unlike any other series, with these golden games I find myself unable to put the controller down until it's completed. I become completely immersed in the world of Hyrule and involved in the lives of its citizens. I'm firing arrows, I'm dodging rocks, I'm running frantically through a dank cavern with my life hanging by a thread (and an annoying beeping to remind me). Some people are worried that Zelda 64 will disappoint them. These people are concentrating way too much on the fact that Yoshi sucked, and that they wanted Zelda last year.

Unlike the later games, the first Zelda didn't glue me to the TV for days in a row. Most likely this was because I got my NES in 1988 and had already played Zelda at my friend's house. However, I still played it frantically. Always I only had five minutes to play before my friends would demand to play because it was their game. Finally it was in my grasp...I could explore at my leisure. That Christmas morning I rushed into my room, hooked the new system to my sister's TV and slammed my new gold cart into the deck. The next words I spoke were when my friend came to visit..."I just got the enemy bait...sit down." I played it for months...discovered it was easier to take dungeon 7 before 6...but didn't beat it.

Zelda 2 is a difficult call. For months I had myself convinced on principle that I enjoyed playing it. Only later did I realize it was totally unlike the original and insanely difficult (considering in the later levels there was NO ROOM TO DODGE). I decided a Mario game with a similar format might be cool...but it just wasn't for Zelda. I was thrilled at the screen shots for "Super Zelda" in the DieHard ad in EGM.

The morning that SNES Zelda was released, I decided to play all the way through the NES game. I knew my battery was dead, so it was one chance. I succeeded joyfully and proceeded to rent the new Zelda (not because I was unsure about buying it--but because I didn't have my allowance yet). Years later I would take this "one time through" approach with Zelda 2... but I died and it actually erased my game before I could continue. I was on the Shadow, too.

Link to the Past amazed me. So vibrant and colorful...there was coherent text. It was top-down view. There were items and secrets up the wazoo and it was so realistic (heh). Plot galore, two worlds, tough dungeons. It was so perfect in every way. I spent four days solid playing the hell out of it. Found everything (except for some reason I can't get the last heart piece. I even looked in the strategy guide and I've found them all but I'm missing one) and did everything there was to do.

I then found out there was going to be a Gameboy Zelda. I was thrilled beyond belief. When I played it I was even more thrilled. It was DEEP and involving. It was the best Zelda to date (yes, better than SNES.. I'll defend that to the death). I beat it in 3 days...I'm not sure if I ate.

The wonderful thing about Zelda is the severely immersive gameplay. You BECOME Link. No other game in history has ever done this for me. Mario was always that chunky plumber on the screen. The FF casts are always players in a movie/story. Link, though...Link is ME..my Avatar. Does anyone else remember the fan written story that Nintendo Power published a long time ago? (issue 5) about the kid who went into Hyrule and hung w/ Link and pondered over how to find dungeon 7? (Tomm Fact: the fairy/flute puzzle is the first spoiler in game history ;) That story personified the fact that playing Zelda WAS like entering another world to battle by the side of an old friend. Inside the gold cartridges we become Link. We downward thrust lava dragons, we hold back powerful lasers with our mirror shields, and we sprint dumbfoundedly through the tower trying to recall where we dropped the iron ball.

A fact that few notice when complaining about Crono and Ryu's silence is that Link never spoke. The Hyrulean never grunted in the heat of battle, never gave Agahnim the old 'you'll never get away with this' speech, never cursed Ganon's name while dodging a clawed fist. Link never reassured Zelda they'd eventually find a way out of the sewers. That was all our imaginations, given birth by the sheer wonder of Hyrule.

So sitting here, only a week away from the night I will drive to wait outside my local EB until opening in the morning, I look to the future in wonder. I await the total immersiveness that awaits, and I yearn to again stumble through a dungeon looking for the key that I missed. Zelda 64 will not disappoint anyone. Fans, newbies, and critics....none stand a chance against its seductive pull. There will be new story, new allies, new foes, and a new feeling of full exploration and wonder. I hope that you, too, can feel this anticipation..and that I'm not alone in my wonder on the eve of Nov. 24, 1998. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go beat Xenogears and I don't have much time to do it..