I Miss the Old Zelda

by Collin Otto

I remember the day when 'Zelda: A Link To The Past' was first released, The first time I played that game, I remember feeling such amazement and intrigue. The first scene was incredible, running in the rain after being awoken by a mysterious voice. Running into guards wearing golden armor. The flashes of lightning, the urgency of the voice, and the rain falling all around you. The openning scene of the game just told you that it would be an experiance to remember. And it was.

When the release of the next generation Zelda game approached, emotions were high, the time had come, after being half a decade since a Zelda game had been released people were eager. Too bad to my opinion many of these die hard gamers were let down. The beautiful trailer of 'Zelda: Ocarina Of Time' was amazing and so were the new 64-bit graphics. Now, let me say this, the game was good... just not good enough.

The old feel of Zelda wasn't there. I remember playing Zelda 64 the day it was released on American shores. I honestly liked the game alot, but as I progressed farther and farther I felt empty. Where was that feeling? The emotions I remembered from the SNES game? Times, like when I pulled the sword from the stone in the lost woods and all the fog faded away to brightness, or the time when I saw the boy in the woods who was playing the flute. What about the first time you entered the desert and read the sacred book. FOR HEAVENS SAKE! WHAT ABOUT THE WORLD THEME SONG! It just wasn't the same animal... the feeling was gone.

Many things about the new game just plain out bothered me. Here's a list...

• The Master sword wasn't in the lost woods. (It would have been cool had Link left it there in the end of the game, but he didn't.)
• What ever happened to the hordes of moblins?
• The theme song wasn't played once! (Music gives a major feel to a game.)
• The world wasn't very big, and took very little time to explore.
• What ever happened to the silver arrow?
• Many of the old school items didn't make a return. (ie, The wands, the book, the lantern, flippers)
• The trees were to realistic looking. (I hoped they would've been round and plump, with big branches, and with round looking leafy tops. Like in Link To The Past. So you could go inside them or something like that ;)
• The mountains had one trail...(That sure makes exploring fun having one path eh)
• No little funky lookin' dwarfs who took turns pounding your sword in their cabin in the forest.
• You never once went inside of the main castle (like into the throne room, or into the princesses room, or into the kings chambers, not even the dungeon, nothing like that!)
• The lost woods felt more like caves than woods. (ie, no big trees to run beneath, just logs... a few logs would have been nice maybe even a few secret caves, but it felt like a cave, not a forest ;)
• Did I say the theme song was missing? (that sucked)
• The graveyard was depressingly small and depressingly ungloomy.
• Not enough hidden items or areas, and the ones that did exist looked pitiful.
• Where was turtle rock?
• I missed the Hobo under the bridge who gave you the bottle. I really did!!
• What ever happened to our friendly everyday 9 headed dragon that had flying heads after they were beheaded
• There are more, I won't exhaust the list any further 8)

But anyway, in closing, I truly did like Zelday:TOOT, but I think it could have been better. And when creating a Zelda for the 'Dolphin' (I'm sure they will) I think they should all replay through the SNES Zelda and try to regain the feeling that they lost in Zelda 64. Because it wasn't there, and I missed it. Beating Zelda 64 left me feeling empty.