The Legend of Zelda

Name: The Legend of Zelda
Year: 1986
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Action Adventure
Hours Played: Countless
Beaten: Yes, countless times

Nowadays, the story behind Miyamoto's inspiration for The Legend of Zelda is well known - he wanted to recreate the feelings of exploration and discovery he had when exploring mountainsides and caves near his home as a boy - but when I first read this in the early 2000s, it made complete sense to me.  Gamers today complain about the game's cryptic nature (made seemingly more antiquated by the tutorials and hand-holding nature of so many modern games), but The Legend of Zelda was designed as a mystery for players to slowly unravel.  To this day, it's the only game series I know that marks the occasion (with a special sound effect) whenever the player uncovers a secret - not an item or a tool, but an entrance or passageway that was previously hidden.  It creates a sense of exploration that makes you want to keep scouring Hyrule and plump it's hidden depths.

If I had to use one word to describe The Legend of Zelda, it would be "immersive".  To the casual passer-by, the graphics aren't overly impressive - certainly not the game you'd use to show off the prowess of the NES.  But pick up the controller for five minutes, and the game's rich atmosphere sucks you in.  While complaints about the game's cryptically aren't completely invalid (especially in the second quest), if you're attentive you'll notice the subtly placed clues and the paths designed to lead the player in a particular direction.  It's a testament to amazing level design that the game starts you off in the middle of a maze, and yet most players stumble across the entrance to the first dungeon in their first five minutes of playing.

The Zelda franchinse has went in a lot of different directions since it's debute in 1986.  Some games are more puzzle heavy, some more story heavy; few of them retain the emphasis on combat from the early games.  Every gamer has their opinion on what a Zelda game "should" be like.  But if you're willing to put aside your preconceptions and give it a chance, you'll find a game that still holds up after thirty years.

Graphics & Animation: 3 (Good)
The graphics in Legend of Zelda are iconic, and everything is nicely detailed. A lot of creativity went into the game's enemies and bosses - you won't be fighting rats and crows here.

Music & Sounds: 4 (Excellent)
Zelda games still use the overworld theme from this game today, thirty years later - that's how memorable and iconic it is.  The hits and deflection sound effects all sound just right, and the jingles that play when you find an item or uncover a secret are just as memorable as the theme song.

Controls & Level Design: 4 (Excellent)
People who cut their teeth on Link To The Past tend not to think too much of the original Zelda's controls, but I disagree.  Link (and most enemies) move only in the four cardinal directions, no diagonals, and the game's combat is built around this; for instance, standing around a corner waiting for the enemy to waltz past.  It always gives me the impression of grid-style combat with tabletop miniatures, only in real time.

Story & Presentation: 3 (Good)
When the game first loads up, there's a text-only cut scene (including a cool day-to-night transition on the title screen) which brings you up to speed on the story, and a list of all the items you'll find on your adventure.  At the end of the game, there's the awesome (albeit brief) Ganon death sequence and a cut scene epilogue.  It's all great; but unfortunately that's all the story you'll get.  Zelda II found a way to give you bits of backstory through townspeople dialog and location names (such as the destroyed and relocated town of Kasuto), but there's not much of that here.

Length & Replayabilitiy: 4 (Excellent)
So much to do in this game! Legend of Zelda is already one of the longer games on the NES, with all the secrets to uncover and dungeons to explore, and then once you've completed the game, there's a second quest with remixed dungeons and rearranged overworld locations.  All in all, this game will keep you coming back for a long time.

Total: 18 (Excellent)