Let me just say up front that over all, I really liked this game. It may not be the greatest video game of all time, as some people would have you believe, but it is just about the only N64 game that I've been able to play for more than a couple hours at a time without getting completely sick of it.

Visually, this game is incredible. I don't think I have ever seen a game that was such a joy to watch being played. The world is filled with massive 3-D environments, and you are able to spend hours just exploring and finding hidden secrets.
The gameplay, however, is where this game truly shines. It took me about 45 min. or playing to get used to the controls, but I was soon able to control Link without any problems. As other reviewers have mentioned, a large part of the game involves finding the tools you need and figuring out how to use them to advance. While the basic puzzles are usually fairly obvious, some of the non-essential puzzles really require you to think and plan how to use the items at your disposal. In fact, that is one of the things that I really appreciated about this game - your items do not become obsolete. Far too many games require you to find item x in order to pass level 1, then you never use item x again. Find item y to pass level 2, then never use y again. Find item z... You get the picture.

There are a couple downsides to this game. The first, and by far the biggest, is the pitiful excuse for a plot. Did Nintendo think we wouldn't notice that it is lifted practically word for word from A Link to the Past (the SNES version)? C'mon - find three talismans, then travel to another world, where you have to find seven more magical doo-hickeys. Did they run out of money to hire writers? And another thing - how come, after 5+ plus games on NES, GameBoy, SNES, and N64, all set in different times, every single one features a boy named Link, a princess named Zelda, and a bad guy named Ganon? It's time for the people at Nintendo to bring in some fresh blood...
The other issue I have with this game is that it forces you to use the stupid joystick thing on the controller. Actually, this is more of a complaint I have about N64 games in general. Who the heck designed that thing? It has to be just about the most inaccurate controller ever designed.

Despite these complaints, Zelda is still a huge amount of fun to play. Nobody really plays these types of games for the plot anyway, and you'll get used to the controls with a little bit of practice. For anyone who owns an N64, or even has a chance to borrow one for a while, I heartily recommend this game.



Recommended: Yes