The Legend of Zelda was released on the NES in North America on August 22, 1987. The Legend of Zelda was originally released in Japan on February 21, 1986, so the game had been out for more than a year before Nintendo brought it to the United States.
Nintendo re-released The Legend of Zelda in digital form through the Wii's Virtual Console service on November 19, 2006 for 500 Wii Points, which is $5.
How many hours have been spent in the land of Hyrule, during the last 4 years with Link's first adventure? Let's take a look!
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| Link, does he take coffee and cake? |
Approx. Number of Players Reporting Data:
The Legend of Zelda has 230,769 Wii owners reporting their game-play hours through the Nintendo Channel, with 1,556 days reported.
Average & Total Game-Play Hours Reported:
The Legend of Zelda has 1,454,030 Total Hours of game-play reported, with an average play-time of 6 Hours 18 Minutes "Per person" reporting data. The Legend of Zelda's average play-time per session is just over 50 Minutes.
Sales Information:
The Legend of Zelda is currently in the top 20 on the Virtual Console's "Popular Titles" section, sitting at the #7 spot, and it has the highest spot of the "Zelda" games in the "Popular Titles" section.
The Legend of Zelda's North American WiiWare version has made Nintendo about $1,153,845 (before taxes!), based on the approximate number of players reporting data and the game's $5 price point.
Filtered Thoughts:
I honestly can't remember playing and beating The Legend of Zelda, but I do remember watching it being played when I was younger.
Many of you may have seen posts this week noting that The Legend of Zelda turned 25, which I thought was interesting mainly because Nintendo didn't release any special edition Zelda game disc, like they did for Mario's 25th birthday.
If you don't remember what The Legend of Zelda looks/plays like, here's a very brief video showing some footage from the game:
Perhaps once I complete my Video Game New Year's Resolution, I can attempt to play The Legend of Zelda, and at least then KNOW that I beat it.
While I've enjoyed some of my time spent in the land of Hyrule, I hope the Zelda series continues to mature in ways other than age, like perhaps trying new game-play elements not normally in the "Zelda" games(FPS shooting style elements) and perhaps a more involved story, with character development.
Questions:
Have any of you played through and completed The Legend of Zelda in the last 4 years? If so, was it as good as perhaps you remembered in the past?
Also, are any of you surprised, like me, how Nintendo didn't seem to do much for The Legend of Zelda's 25th birthday?
If any of you are interested in The Legend of Zelda, you can still download the game from the Wii's Shop Channel for $5 using either Wii Points(pictured below) or a credit card:
I actually have this on the Gamecube collector's edition disk that came with both NES games and both N64 games. I got an itch to replay it a few weeks ago and I actually ended up re-buying it on the VC, just because its more convenient to suspend the game at any point. I went through 2 dungeons so far. It's fun. I'm playing it old school, complete internet blackout, no maps, though I might scribble some of my own if notes don't help me enough.
ReplyDeleteQuick question for you and anyone else who's playing, do you take the dungeons in a weird order, not 1-8 numerically? I've always wondered if you could do that with this game.
I remember quite well one thing about LOZ. When it came out I asked my father to buy it for me, for my birthday. At this point he wasn't in my life more than a phone call every once in a while.
ReplyDeleteWhen one of his cronies appeared with Mario Bro's 2 in hand. I knew then that he was dead to me.
I was a big fan of LOZ when it came out and remember beating it, but can't recall if I went on and completed the second round.
ReplyDeleteSo far it's been sitting on my Wii for two years now and unfortunately I haven't gotten very far. I'm trying a similar new years resolution and it should be interesting to complete some of these classic games without maps or instruction manuals. :)
I was a bit surprised that we didn't see anything for the 25th, but am hopeful as there's plenty of time until the US 25th next year. It would be quite cool if they officially released the BS Zelda series with freshly recorded narration (and obviously translation) as part of a commemorative pack.
@Chuckpebble:
ReplyDelete"...I actually ended up re-buying it on the VC, just because its more convenient to suspend the game at any point."
Thanks for sharing that about the VC version's more convenient suspend/continue feature.
Once I finish my backlog, I may have to start with the NES games I don't really remember playing, so it's good to know the VC is pretty loyal to the original.
@Amado (Den) Bustos:
Whoa...craziness! At least the game you got was a pretty good game, and not something terrible, I guess that's a positive from the situation?
So, did you ever end up with The Legend of Zelda?
@Robert:
Hopefully you can finish your New Year's resolution! Mine is coming along slowly, but surely...so I'm hopeful at this point I may finish at least half the games before mine is broken!
Thank you all for the comments! BTW, does anybody perhaps have an answer to Chuckpebble's question?
Not that one in particular. Eventually my neighbor and I split the cost for LOZ: The Adventures of Link. That game was insane. I still own it, and I can't get anywhere. I can't believe a child beat that game.
ReplyDeleteIf the child I was that beat that game saw me now... he'd slap me for being angry with Demon's Souls :'(.
Good to see you posting so heavily again. :) I can't comment on most of the games, but this one I can - I played through it a few times. This includes both the original and the 'changed' second play through where the dungeons and some item locations are different (I believe if you enter your character name as either Zelda or Link, you can go straight to this 'remixed' version? It's been a couple of decades though...)
ReplyDeleteI have the original gold cartridge sitting around my upstairs living room someplace, though most of those old games that relied on the batteries don't old info reliably at all any more, so I haven't touched it in ages.
As to Chuck's question... and again, it's been a very long time since I've played, but it seems like you can access some dungeons out of order, but the progression relies on you getting certain items before you can complete them or access them all. My memory is really foggy on this one, but things like needing the bow from level 1 to kill a boss in a later maze - things like that. :)
@Coffee I'm with Chuck on the VC suspend feature as it's very handy with games that don't save. So far I've also found VC to be very faithful although I'm not trying to scrutinize it to death.
ReplyDeleteI have 8 NES VC titles and one TG16 which all deliver the classic experience I remember from 20+ years ago. Yes, even LOZ does it's typical slowdown on some screens under emulation.
One caveat is with N64 titles that use rumble or the memory pack. For whatever reason they just didn't tune the emulator enough to work properly which is a shame as some games like Mario Kart 64 requires the pack for ghost saves.
Now if I can just hold off on the 30+ VC/wiiware titles I have my eye on until more in the current line up are complete. (except for solomon's key. I'm never beating it, what was I thinking?) Oh wait, then there are a few dozen PC titles to complete. gar!
I fired up Zelda for about an hour or two today and started a new game again. Made it through the obligatory level 1 as usual, then wandered all around hunting for #2. Ended up at least finding the better sword and surprised myself how many secret areas I remembered.
ReplyDeleteFunny part was that I found dungeon #5, 6 and 8 then finally #3. Needless to say I got my lunch handed to me and there was at least one that was impossible as I didn't have the raft yet. (also forgot how much the Lynel's can tear you up in the graveyard area)
So to follow up on Chalgyr's comment, it looks like there may be some flexibility in order, but there are some definite prerequisites. I'm going to try completing 3 before 2 and see how that goes.
http://www.zeldadungeon.net/
ReplyDelete^^ A very cool Zelda site with all kinds of info and walkthru's.
I put another hour into Zelda last night and got through 3, then 2 and 4. Certainly can't do 4 without the raft so 3 is required.