Adventure of Link: Zelda 2

This is a game that a reasonable human might play and enjoy, which puts it in an entirely different league than the games we’ve looked at so far. It was actually pretty fun, in a 1980s kind of way.

There’s a world-map mode, where you’re wandering around a two dimensional map from village icon to village icon. Random battles are handled in a kind of fun way – you can see the enemies, and try to run away, but they’re really fast, so running takes, well, more skill than I really had. If they catch you, you go to a side scrolling battle mode where you take on a number of the enemies using a variety of different combat moves – a surprising variety, given the number of buttons available to you.

Villages and dungeons are also side-scrolling. Dungeons in particular feel pretty Mario-esque – you’re jumping and dodging and taking elevators. It’s all challenging but understandable and playable, as opposed to some other games I could name.

All through it, you have that great Zelda music. If you’re me, you also have Henry enthusiastically singing the music beside you, which adds a certain... something.

Ratings:
Retro return-to-your-RPG-youth feel: 7
Gamplay: 6
Henry’s singing ability: 4