GENRE
	Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Nintendo
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

The greatest Legend in gaming. The ultimate Zelda collection. The disc includes the following games:

• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
• A 20-minute playable demo of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Plus:

• Special The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Movie Experience
• Exclusive The Legend of Zelda: Retrospective Movie experience
• Progressive-scan capability
• Saves totaling 36 blocks

Being developed in the previous millennium, these past Zelda games have come a long way, but they still hold up to today's standards in videogames.  Being released on one complete package, excluding A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening (but wait, they're Game Boy Player material!), we can now enjoy these fine nostalgic titles in this extraordinary deal through either deals with Nintendo, or the rumored over-the-counter sales in certain retailers.

It's obvious these are all totally different games, with Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask skipping a generation ahead of The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II.

The Legend of Zelda is the game that launched the legend.  With an innovative and unique gameplay system, remarkably deep puzzle solving, and an epic score, the appeal of this groundbreaking classic is still going strong, as you may see in the popularity of its current incarnations.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link adheres to the majestic story and puzzle solving elements of The Legend of Zelda.  While it does that, this second game expands on the action sequences and introduces a new magic system, pushing the series in a new direction.

Introduced in 1998, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time moves into three dimensions with gorgeous cinematics, hordes of hostile enemies, the revolutionary targeting system found in action/adventure games today, and the freedom of traveling on horseback.  Ocarina of Time leaves all who play it breathless and impressed.

Two more years down the road, the series again takes a dramatic turn from tradition as Link wonders into a three day journey into a mysterious parallel world in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.  It challenges players to don magical masks and save a town threatened to be crushed under a menacing moon.

We all know what The Wind Wakeris, and how this beautiful babe plays, but with the demo only being 20 minutes long, there isn't much to explain.  For those of you who don't have the game, it goes a bit like the legend normally goes: whenever evil has appeared, a hero named Link has risen to defeat it.  That legend, furthermore, continues on the surface of a great and mysterious sea as Link sets off on his most epic and awe-inspiring adventure yet.  Aided by a magical conductor's baton called the Wind Waker, he will face unimaginable monsters, explore puzzling dungeons, and meet a cast of unforgettable characters as he searches for his kidnapped sister.

With that said, get ready to spend hundreds of hours playing all four of these classic games!

visuals

It's obvious there's a large difference in visuals between the four games included in this amazing package.  These graphics are certainly not beautiful by today's games; The two earlier games work off sprites, while the later two 3-D games utilize only primitive ammounts of polygons by today's standards. Graphics aren't what we're here for, right?  Right.  That's the ugly.

The Legend of Zelda was introduced in 1986 on the NES, and gamers were pleased to see large, wonderfulworlds filled with many enemies, fire, water, and our classic hero, Link.  With the limited color palette, and super-low resolution, The Legend of Zelda did what it could for its day.  It's what gamers needed from the blistering ugliness that were the Atari games.  This game was huge.  This game was beautiful.  This game was BLISS.  The Legend of Zelda has an overhead, top-down view like the next incarnations of the series.  With scrolling area to area, gamers were blessed with the freedom to beat up any enemy and marvel at the freedom this lush world had to offer.

Some years later, Zelda II offered the same limited color palette, super-low resolution, overhead, top-down world view, but added something different in dungeons and towns: side scrolling.  A lot of people didn't like this, but its different style has garnered Zelda II cult status among the die-hards; I for one am a fan of this game.  Differences in view aside, it features a bit more handy artwork and coloring, and the same effects you'd come to expect following The Legend of Zelda.

Let's take a step forward about a decade.  We have the Nintendo 64, the polygon-pumping-with-all-effects-on machine, introducing a totally new line of Zelda games.  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time introduced three dimensional graphics for the series like nobody's business.  Large, expansive worlds, and marvelous fire effects and cinematics... it had sparks even!  Link's shimmering sword, the Gorons' blue eyes, the heat waves -- it was astonishing.  Watching the sunset, and the sunrise -- it would have given my grandpa a heart attack if he knew there were machines in that day and time that could pull off such things.  If graphics were the top thing to worry about in this game, graphics whores would be turning plenty of tricks. Period.  Watching Link blink tops it off.  As an added bonus, the GameCube version runs in higher resolution with added texture buffering and progressive scan.

Two years later, as previously mentioned, came the release of a game to possibly top Ocarina of Time in graphics in the third dimension -- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.  It would only play in a RAM-pack equipped Nintendo 64.  However, it's on the GameCube now, and it'll be a fair comparison to those who couldn't play it on their N64... but let's see it in N64 view for retrospect, shall we?  This game pushed the N64 to its limits.  The addition of RAM-pack-added visuals made for larger worlds, richer textures, and more enemies on screen.  Obviously it shared the same style and engine as its Ocarina of Time sibling, so it's still going to be pretty to begin with.  The mood of the graphics is a bit darker, and in some places, more rich in colors.  Lighting is a lot better in most cases.  Slowdown is seen in some areas, but doesn't hinder gameplay.  On the GameCube side of things, progressive scan is added, and is a plus, as is the higher resolution.  A darker, grittier, prettier Ocarina of Time.

audio

Sporting one of the most classical soundtracks of all gaming time, this series has come a long way as far as music goes, but has also stayed to its roots, orchestrated by Koji Kondo.  The two NES incarnations convey the might of the NES's sound chip, which was king in its day.  They showed mighty impressive beats and tunes, like the original theme that's still heard in today's Zelda games.  For the two Nintendo 64 games, you might want to turn up your stereo to hear the rich orchestrations and the life-like sounds of the Zelda world.  Nothing is muffled, and the N64 MIDI chip was put to great use with the these latter incarnations. One of the greatest soundtracks of all gaming, bar none.

gameplay

Gameplay has made these games some of the best games of all time, with everything from journeying through canyons, walking through water, swimming through lakes, horseback riding, photon-tipped arrows, carrying yourself through the air, house to house, with the hookshot, and many, many other things.  With this being a collection and all, I can only spend a small amount of time on each game, but I'm hoping it will convince you dear readers to check it out, get more psyched, and possiblyinspire you tell your friends about it, spreading the Zelda fanbase even further!  I also believe that many of you are well aware of what the games are like, but truth must be told again, in this glorious form.

The Legend of Zelda, has an overhead, top-down view, allowing the pleasure of seeing Link's whole world spread around him.  You are Link, and this game fundamentally introduces elements that are still used in today's games, such as on-screen button mapped weapons, like bombs and arrows.  The puzzle solving introduced in Zelda kept us hooked for weeks on end, until we solved them and completed this game thoroughly.  Let's not forget the second quest included if you (spoiler begin) name your character ZELDA (spoiler end).  Ground-breaking as it gets.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link does the whole side scrolling thing, whichoffers expanded action sequences and a new magic system. Enemies are visible on the map before a battle, and when Link runs into them, they are transported to a separate battle screen, like an RPG. Winning a battle gives experience points that increase your life, magic, or attack power. Magic plays an important part in this game, as it provides offensive and shield capabilities as well as special abilities, such as flying.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a whole new ballgame.  Not just because of a change of dimensions, but because of the opportunities for storytelling afforded by that dimension change.  Ocarina of Time has "inspired" countless games since its release, because of the freedom it provided your character. See a mountain? Go climb it. Talk to everyone you meet. Most will have an impact on your quest at some point.  Like the other Zelda games, logic plays a big role in this game, but not only must you use common logic, but some things in this game take time to think out.  Zelda in the third dimension is heavenly.  From hunting the overworld ghosts in the future, to boomeranging yourself through Jabu Jabu's Belly, there is so much to do.  The targeting system and auto-jump feature are also well-implemented, and have been copied many times in this generation's worth of games.  On a certain level, this is my personal favorite of the whole entire series.  The atmosphere and the drama it creates are mesmerizing. A truly unforgettable gaming experience.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask takes the Ocarina of Time engine and adds a more refined and specific way of using masks: they give you specific abilities you need to use to get where you're going.  Want to do some damage?  Use the Goron mask.  Going swimming?  Cool! Equip the Zora mask.  Need to get somewhere high?  Equip your Deku mask.  Masks, obviously, play an important role in this game.  Majora's Mask has also been designed with many side quests (many important to the game) that revolve around the masks.  Nintendo has designed the title so that you cannot just walk into any temple, finish a set of puzzles, and defeat it. 

Like Ocarina of Time before it, you can learn songs.  The songs you learn can be used to alter time, warp from place to place, heal, awaken, and even change the weather.  If you've played Ocarina of Time, you'll get an idea as to how it's used in Majora's Mask. All in all, a great side story to the Zelda universe.  Some may be like me and think it's a bit too ambitious for its own good, and call it a great game, and there will be some who think it's the best Zelda yet.  Depending on what you like, this is the Zelda II of the Nintendo 64.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

This is a keeper.  You know it, I know it.  John Ashcroft knows it, and he's about as Ganondorf as you can get! Heck, Robin Williams named his kid Zelda because of these games!  This is the greatest collection of games, ever, bar none.  It may not have the extra content like DVD movies have these days, but these are four classic games that you may have missed, and that's extra content in its own right.  Plus, it's free!  Register your GameCube and two applicable games to get this awesome compilation.  Go buy another GameCube.  Subscribe to Nintendo Power with the Zelda Disc offer.  JUST GET IT.  You will thank yourself, and one day, you will realize while you're playing your hologram games using only your alpha waves to control them, that this is was what gaming was really all about -- Zelda.  It just doesn't get any better than this.

10/10