It’s no secret to anyone that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is hard. The tricky part about that, though, is the question of if it’s hard hard or just NES hard. Back when the Adventure of Link released in late 1988 as the much anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda, it was in very high demand. Sadly, that demand would highly outpace supply due to a worldwide shortage of ROM chips, so most might not see a copy of the game for almost a year…like me.
So, a little background is probably due here. See, I came from a family of very modest means, which basically meant that disposable income was rarely ever a thing. So, growing up in the 80s meant that I had to live vicariously through my friends once the age of the Nintendo Entertainment System arrived. And when I say it arrived, it hit hard.
When my neighbor got the NES in 1987, I probably gave him permanent damage in his spine by poking him in the back every day and asking if I could come over and play. Fortunately for me, he didn’t kill me. Unfortunately for him, his parents had also bought them The Legend of Zelda. Being the type of kid I am, as I watched my neighbor play, I pored over the manual and map trying to help him figure out the next places to go. I loved every minute of it.
From television ads, Nintendo Cereal System, and playground bragging, Nintendo was everywhere, and I couldn’t escape it for three years. But finally, at Christmas in 1989, my parents unveiled the biggest of surprises, an NES Action Set. This guy came complete with two controllers, a Zapper, and a Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt duo cartridge. The bigger shock for me was that they had also gotten us that elusive golden treasure, The Adventure of Link.
My stepbrother and I immediately tore into it, trading the controller back and forth any time that we lost all of our lives. Which was a LOT. Now, by this point, I’d gone to many of my neighbors’ houses to play video games as often as I was allowed, and I’d gotten fairly adept at them. Ask my stepbrother about my infamous trigger finger, and he might actually wince. Well, that is, until he got a turbo controller, and I’d call him out for cheating. Surprisingly, I’d still manage to beat him with a normal controller, but that’s another story.
The more we played The Adventure of Link, though, the more it turned into my stepbrother watching me as I’d find some of the hidden items in my exploration or the secret passages in the Palaces. When I’d come back to visit on the weekend, I saw that he was beginning to catch up with my save file. It was becoming a race to see who could finish the game first. This back and forth went on for some time, that is, until we’d finally made our way to the dreaded Great Palace.
Now, we were working together. Graph paper was brought out as we mapped our way through the massive labyrinth, with its pitfalls, dead ends, and dreaded Fokkas. Seriously, that’s their name, and if you’ve played this game, you and I both know that they’re more difficult than modern day Lynels.
Finally, our progress came to a standstill. We couldn’t make our way through the Palace with all of our lives. We’d end up getting hopelessly lost despite our maps, trying every space over and over again until our enemies overwhelmed us. Honestly, it was getting to be something of a grind. Nintendo Power was no help with barely any tips that we didn’t already know, and we certainly weren’t going to get permission to ever call the Nintendo Power Hotline with how much it cost.
That’s when fate stepped in. No one at my school had beaten the game yet, so there had been no headway there. Then, on a random trip to Toys “R” Us, that’s when it happened. Any time I visited, I always went down the video game aisle, but this time, they had a new display unit that was playing demo reels from all of the newest Nintendo games. As I watched, they showed a clip from The Adventure of Link and my nine-year-old mind was blown. There, on the screen, was a sequence that showed Link going over a disintegrating bridge with a small chasm between the lava. I’d never seen that before.
The next weekend I told my stepbrother about it, and we immediately got back to work. If there was one secret pit, there had to be more. We tried breaking some conspicuous blocks on the floor that we had passed before and fell through. We were amazed. We continued on and, sure enough, found the bridge with the chasm. Then we got completely obliterated by the Thunderbird. Granted, thanks to the demo reel, I knew that we’d have to use magic on it before we’d be able to fight it. It was just a matter of figuring out what. And of COURSE, it would be Thunder magic.
Eventually, we figured out the pattern and moved on to one of the most iconic Zelda final battles of all time: the duel with Link’s Shadow. I used every trick I’d learned while fighting Stalfos, Iron Knuckles, and Fokkas to try and overcome him, but nothing was working. What was even worse, though, was that my weekend was over, and it would be another two weeks before I’d get to try again.
Fast forward and I’m met at the house by my stepbrother who has a smug look plastered on his face. “I beat the game.” He claims. “Bullcrap.” I retort. I’m sure the language was more colorful and less intelligent than that, but I’ll let your imagination fill in the blanks. So now I was more determined than ever. I went to our room, slapped the gold cart into the NES, and fired it up.
Making my way back was like muscle memory at this point, and I made it to Link’s Shadow with lives to spare. This time I was less anxious and more focused, as I had something to accomplish. Soon enough, it was over. I had defeated the Shadow, gained the Triforce of Courage, and awoken Zelda from her endless slumber. I had a sense of satisfaction as the credits rolled…only slightly soured by my stepbrother who continues to claim he beat the game first to this day.
This brings us full circle to the question at the beginning, is The Adventure of Link hard? Sure. But is The Adventure of Link fair? Absolutely. For those that grew up in the NES heyday, we were surrounded by games that were phenomenally hard, but a high percentage of those were due to poor game design. Nintendo designed and published games were a different type altogether and could always be overcome with perseverance. The Adventure of Link is definitely one of those worth revisiting for those who have never completed it to it’s final curtain call.
Also, no cheesing Link’s Shadow by standing at the edge of the screen and swiping his feet. Then how did I beat him? Well, that really IS a secret to everybody, isn’t it?
