THE STORY:-
A long time ago......
Before life began, before the world bad form, three golden goddesses descended upon the chaotic land of hyrule. They were Din, the goddess of power, Nayru, the goddess of wisdom and Farore, the goddess of courage.
Din, with her strong flaming arms, cultivated the land to create the earth. Nayru poured her wisdom onto the earth to give the spirit of law to the world. Farore's rich soul created all life forms who would upload the law.
These three goddesses returned to the heavens, leaving behind the golden sacred triforce. Since then, the triforce has become the basis for Hyrules providence. Where the triforce stood become sacred land.
In the vast, deep forest of hyrule, the great Deku Tree served as the guardian spirit. The children of the forest, the kokiri, lived with the Great Deku Tree. Each Kokiri had his or her own guardian fairy, except one. His name was Link.
Early one morning, Link was having a nightmare. It was the same nightmare he has every night. During a storm, link would find himself standing in front of a mysterious castle. A rider on horseback, carrying a girl, would race by. The girl would look at Link as if to say something. Then, another rider would appear. This big man clad in black would look down menacingly at Link. Link would then awaken.
"Link! Hey, get up, Link! The Great Deku Tree wants to talk to you!"
As Link opened his eyes, he saw a fairy floating in front of him. This fairys name was Navi. Navi was sent to summon Link to the Great Deku Tree.
"Oh Navi, thou hast returned!" said the deku tree. "Thank you, Link for coming. Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless, and full of nightmares. A vile climate pervades this world. Verily, ye have felt it. The time has come to test thine courage. I have been cursed. I need you to dispel the curse with your wisdom and courage. Art thou prepared?"
Link entered the Great Deku Tree and broke the curse.
"Well done, Link! I knew that ye were worthy of carrying out my wishes. A wicked man of the desert cast this dreadful curse on me. Employing his vile, sorcerous energies, the evil one is searching for the sacred realm connected to Hyrule. For it is there that one will find the divine relic, the Triforce, that contains the essence of the gods. Whoever holds the Triforce can make their wishes come true. Thou must never allow the desert man to lay his hands on the sacred Triforce. Thou must never suffer that man to enter the Sacred Realm of legend. Link, go now to Hyrule Castle. There, ye will surely meet the Princess of Destiny. Present this stone to the Princess. In have foreseen that she will understand everything."
The Great Deku Tree gave Link the Spiritual Stone of the forest. Before dying, the Deku Tree's last words were, "The future depends upon thee, Link. Thou art courageous."
This game plays extremely well, you might find that youve spent 3 or more hours playing it non stop without noticing it. Zelda is one of those games that really gets you involved into your characters role, nintendo carry the game along with superb story and atmosphere as well as the playability. One of the unique things about the Zelda games are the puzzles, some you will get straight away but others will take time and you will have to use your brain to think. One of the clever things is that you cannot access a certain area or part of the game untill you have the right item or weapon for the job.
The controls to this game also make it a supreme to others, the trigger is especially clever in the way it works. If you press Z when near an enemy, a target will center around him and you can do flips, sword swings etc but will always be at the enemy. The camera view keeps rotating also when you Z-Trigger which makes it jsut that little bit easier and not annoying like some games. Overall though I would say the playability is pretty much flawless.
The graphics engine, may not be the best but when it came out it was considered quite good. The backgrounds and scenery look quite nice and Link looks good. But some of the charcters do look a bit funny, and slightly blocky....but its a very minor thing and not that bad. The presentation is also very nintendo, being easy to use and clean and crisp, for instance the menu screen etc.
Sound is also very good, although the characters don't speak. One dissapointment though is the lack of the brilliant Zelda overworld theme which is missing in this game.
Overall though this is an essential game for anybody really. A reason in itself to buy a Nintendo 64. Maybe the best in the series, maybe not ...but its one hell of a game. If you don't have it already what are you playing at, GET IT NOW!!!
GAME SCORE:97%
