So, you’ve played a lot of Zelda. You’ve played everything in the mainline series, you’ve indulged in all the spin-offs, and you’ve even played the infamous CD-i games (or at least watched playthroughs of them online; we’ll let you off with that).
But have you played The Legend of Zelda DVD’s Trivia Game? No? And you call yourself a Zelda fan.
There are two major DVD releases of the full Legend of Zelda TV series: The NCircle Entertainment release, and the Shout! Factory release. The former contains all 13 episodes of the cartoon, but the latter goes further by including a number of special features.
The Shout! release is very difficult to find at a reasonable price these days, however, which may leave anyone weighing between these options to question if the special features are really worth the extra moolah. Let’s take a look!
Match Game
This game presents you with 10 cards, each depicting a scene from the show. You have a limited time to look at and memorize them before they are turned over, and you are then be asked to choose a card containing a specific character, enemy, or object.
Depending on your answer, a brief clip from the series will play: If you guess correctly, a clip of Link zapping a Moblin will play, but if you guess incorrectly, you will see a Moblin smacking the shield out of Link’s hand. Two wrong guesses will result in Princess Zelda being carried away by a group of Moblins, and if you get five answers correct, Link will save Zelda and you will be greeted with a “Congratulations!” screen.
It’s far too simple to be even remotely interesting — and fair enough, as this is supposed to be for kids — but it’s not even really playable. You are only given five seconds to memorize all 10 cards, which is insanely difficult regardless of the player’s age. The only way I managed to win was by cheating and taking screenshots of the cards using a computer or smartphone. If this wasn’t enough to show that this feature was rushed and not tested properly, even the questions are incorrect, with one labeling a Stalfos as a “skeleton” and the Witch of Walls as the “Wall Witch.”
This is by far the least interesting special feature on this set, and you certainly won’t miss out by never playing it.
Trivia Game
As you’ve probably guessed, the Trivia Game pitches a series of questions based on The Legend of Zelda TV series at the player. Each correct answer will show Link zapping Ganon, and six correct answers will play the scene from “Doppelganger” where Link zaps a ceiling in the Underworld, causing debris to fall on Ganon. An incorrect guess will see Link getting blasted by Ganon’s Wand of Power, and two mistakes will show Ganon victoriously stealing the Triforce of Wisdom.
This game is much better designed than the Match Game, as the difficulty of the questions is much more reasonable. Many of them, of course, will test your knowledge of the show, but there are also some questions based on The Legend of Zelda game series and Nintendo knowledge. Most of these will be easy if you’re a Zelda fan, but there were at least a couple that had me hesitating.
There are only around 20 questions overall, however, so after a few plays, you will have seen everything the Trivia Game has to offer.
Sketch Gallery
Disc three has a gallery of character sketches of the main cast, including Link, Zelda, Ganon, Spryte, and King Harkinian. There are 16 images altogether, and you can view them all through DVD navigation, but you can also download them onto your computer as a PDF file, which is a nice bonus.
The art itself isn’t anything too special. They are mostly just the final outlines of the characters just as they appear in the series, and while there are a few poses that are new, you won’t see any roughly drawn, radically different concepts from early in the series’ development.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show live-action segments
Finally, we arrive at by far the greatest addition to this DVD set, and it isn’t even Zelda related. The Legend of Zelda TV show aired as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which mostly consisted of Mario cartoons but would feature Zelda every Friday.
This show also featured live-action segments starring Mario and Luigi. The brothers own a company in Brooklyn called “Mario Brothers Plumbing,” which also serves as their place of residence. They are visited by a number of celebrities — although today, 30 years after these aired, you may struggle to recognize these names — including Moon Zappa, Norman Fell, and Eve Plumb. It is presented in a sitcom style, with a laughter track, and there is even a weird and unexpected crossover when Inspector Gadget arrives and asks the Mario brothers to fix him.
It’s all as bizarre as it sounds, and like the infamous Super Mario Bros. 1993 film, it has almost nothing in connection with the Mario games. The comedy is awful, but it’s fun to look back on this wacky era of Nintendo television — even if the company decides to bring the Mario franchise back to the silver screen, I can almost guarantee we’ll never see anything like this again.
This DVD set also includes the animated opening and the credits of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show before and after each Zelda episode begins. Watching Lou Albano “do the Mario” is a treat that never gets old for me personally, but unless you’re very nostalgic for the Super Show, skipping these each time you want to watch Zelda can be a minor annoyance.
Is this Shout! Factory set worth buying for the special features?
Shout! Factory certainly has much more content to offer, but frankly, the majority of the special features aren’t really worth the additional cost over the NCircle version. The two games and the sketch gallery get boring rather quickly, and won’t compel you to revisit them after the first time. The live-action Mario segments are enjoyable, and the DVD menus are very nice, but there is very little to offer strictly Zelda fans. The box that holds this set, however, including lots of striking artwork that may appeal to collectors looking for something nice to display.
If you are only interested in watching The Legend of Zelda episodes, the NCircle release is the way to go. Not only is it the cheaper option, but it offers a much more convenient viewing experience. Every episode is contained on one disc (as opposed to being scattered across three in the Shout! release), and by cutting out the Mario openings and credits, you can enjoy the whole series without interruptions.
