Defending Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
The Weird NES Sequel Was More Important Than You Remember, But It Also Was More Fun Than You Remember.
The Nintendo Entertainment System in the mid-‘80s went supernova on American culture. Although the library of games in 1985-86 was impressive out of the gate, two games stood out above all the others: Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Unsurprisingly, those two franchises stood the test of time and became two of the company’s four pillars at present day, the other two being Pokémon and Animal Crossing, both introduced much later than the heyday of that archetypical system. The original games, however, were cultural events, and their sequels were both highly anticipated and both highly divergent from the original games. Well, to be technical about it, the sequel to Mario was just like the original, except way HARDER. It was too hard for Japanese gamers, which means for American players, it would be nigh impossible.
Both Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link made a lot of Nintendo diehards question the viability of each as a franchise. Well, I can only imagine going by apocryphal and anecdotal evidence that was backed up by the preponderance of people who have gone online to admit that both games weirded them out. The general consensus seems, though, that SMB2, which was the game Doki Doki Panic with Mario skins put on it, became well-liked by the series’ fans. Zelda II though? I’m not sure it ever got critical rehabilitation. It’s a shame because it’s a damn fine game and one of the best to be released on that original system.
Zelda II is unlike any other game in the series, at least main thrust of the series, in that it eschews the 3D paradigm that it adopted with the first game. Sure, the original Zelda is 2D, but the overhead model is about as close to 3D as one can get with 1985 video game technology, and it gave way to the pseudo-3D overhead utilized on Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening. The world map deceives the player at start, as all the action takes place as a 2D side-scrolling platformer. Link moves the way Mario did. Was it a way to homogenize the series to be like all the other big-selling titles to date? Was it esoterism for the sake of being esoteric? Was it an attempt at warding off stagnation before the series had established a voice? All these reasons feel valid for why it has been rejected.
Honestly though, the game comes off as an attempt at evolving the JRPG until you realize it predates both of Square-Enix’s landmark entries in the genre, Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy by four and 11 months, respectively. Think about what the mechanics of the game for a second; Link travels around a world map and engages in random encounters with monsters in a discrete, compartmentalized setting. His options in battle are either fighting, casting magic spells, or running away if he can. There are fixed locations where he can enter, either as sancta (towns, faerie encounters) or as battlegrounds (caves, cliffs, temples). The difference is that the player controls all the action directly. You aim the sword at the enemy rather than entering a command. In a way, it was Nintendo’s way of jumping the trend before it became a trend by taking the formula of both pen-and-paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons and the earliest JRPG games and turning it on its head before the genre became super popular. In that way, Zelda II might be one of the most important games ever, even if its influence never grew beyond the boundaries of its own code.
Then again, that influence didn’t necessarily extend to the genre it tried for which it tried to set an early tone. If you’ve ever played the Super Smash Bros. series, you know Link is one of the original playable characters. Since day one, half of his actions and movements in that series were informed by how he was playable in Zelda II, from the sword movements on the ground to his two signature jump attacks, which were lifted directly from that game. Basically, Link in the Smash series is owed half to Zelda II and half to the first true 3D entry in the series, Ocarina of Time. For a series that has hit supernova levels the way Smash has, I’d say Zelda II is worth more than a footnote.
But who cares about importance, right? The Beatles are the most important rock band in history, but that doesn’t stop people from shitting on them on Twitter Dot Com. Really, who am I to blame anyone for what they like? I don’t like Zelda II because it was important. Fuck to your influence, really. I love the game because it was an integral part of my childhood. I sunk so much time into that cartridge, and then even more time when it became available on the Wii Virtual Console, and then even more time when it hit the NES Online on the Switch. I regret zero seconds of the time I spent playing it. The game challenged me in ways that the original didn’t, and that really, every other game in the series failed to do. It was a different kind of experience, one that grew the mythos of the series. The music in it slapped too, as the kids would say. Both the normal Temple theme and the theme to the Great Temple are among the best pieces of dungeon score to exist across the series, and they were done with the 8-bit sound generator. How fuckin’ badass is that?
Nostalgia is a powerful opiate for sure. I’ve looked back at games I loved in the past and got bored with them with the speed of an Olympic distance runner. I can’t finish a race in Excitebike anymore. I will get bored playing Galaga or Bart Simpson vs. the Space Mutants. Zelda II, however, holds up, like any classic title would. You could say that my overarching love for the Zelda series might cause me to give it more patience, but at the same time, what is enjoyment but the pressure at which it can hold your attention? If a game feeds your attention span for longer than seconds at a time, is not worthy of undying praise? That’s always the question. You want to feel like you haven’t wasted your time. No matter what anyone said in 1987 or what they say in 2020, I love Zelda II, and I will defend it with all my breath. Find something, anything, that allows you to say the same, and you will have found something worth sinking time into.
Screenshot from my Nintendo Switch