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If anybody needs help on a Link To the Past, let me know. I can give you information up to the flippers. this includes all 3 amulets, the master sword, defeating aghrihm,temple of darkness, then the flppers. anybody suck? just ask. Ps. im working on getting to the second dungeon

Cruising

A quick hint for anyone wanting to work through The Adventure of Link: level up - Make sure as you go through dungeons that you level up at least once in each dungeon before you beat the final boss of that dungeon.  After you beat the boss you automatically level up again, so following this strategy makes the going so much easier.  If you do this it's pretty easy to max out your levels well before the final dungeon.  I remember being so frustrated as a kid by how hard this game is, but when you make sure to level up it actually is much easier than I remember.  Right now I've beat dungeons 1-5, and I'm almost done with level 6, which means all I'll have left pretty soon is level 7.  Likewise Zach is cruising through A Link to the Past, and between the two of us we are pretty much beating a dungeon a day.  Hopefully my next post will be about beating The Adventure of Link.

One more thought about Zelda II for tonight:  What is up with the young women in each town who offer to "help you" and invite you to "come inside" their homes to "restore your health".  My childhood innocence is shattered, I always thought Link was a one woman man.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention to check out this walkthrough over at strategywiki if you need help getting through Zelda II.  It's much more informative than the one on Nintendo's website. Yes, I'm using a walkthrough.  No, I'm not proud.  We're trying to get through these by the end of NOVEMBER!

A Link To The Past

So basically Ive been playing "A Link To The Past" for the last 3 weeks. I have the 3 pendents, the master sword, and the 1st crystal. This game is probably one of my favorite Zelda games. It gets hard once you get to the 2nd half of the game. the pendents are labeled on the map. the 1st dungeon-the dark palace is confusing since you have to have keys to get the map and hammer. you will need a lot of bombs to get through this dungeon. the part that frustrated me the most was fighting the three boar things- 2 green, 1 red. the green ones can be defeated by sword or bow. the red one can only be defeated by the bow, but when you face him, he faces you and shoots a fireball. After much dying, we figured out that if you face him like this:-1. shoot an arrow-2. move so the arrow hits him-3. then you just find your way to the boss, take out his helmet w/ 3 bombs or 20 hits from the hammer and attack the green circle on his head with arrows or sword. Be careful of his tail. Aftr you beat him you get the 1st crystal and talk to the princess. Then you are off to get the flippers.

Dividing and conquering

I could tell you that we have decided to split our duties and play different games in order to try to get through the Zelda series more quickly...I could, but that wouldn't be true.  The truth is Zach tried out Zelda II after I beat the first dungeon and decided it was too hard for him.  Zach is moving on to The Adventure of Link, while I'm sticking with Zelda II.  It hopefully will also have the added benefit of allowing us to progress through the series a little more quickly as we won't have to catch up on whatever the other person has done every time we boot up the Nintendo, but we'll see.

On to Zelda II:  The more I play this game the more I appreciate it.  It can be frustrating since the difficulty level is so much higher than the original and A Link to the Past, but the story and play dynamics it adds to the series can not be denied.  Magic, sword techniques, towns (and townfolks) and the third and final piece of triforce were all added to the Zelda series by The Adventure of Link, and have stuck around in future games.  Sure the play control may be different than any other Zelda, ever, but it still is decidedly Zelda.  At this point I have finished the first two dungeons, and collected the candle and glove, two magic containers, one heart container and three spells.  I've also leveled up a number of times and am at least on level 4 of all three skill categories (life, magic and attack).  Yes, this is the first (and to my knowledge only) Zelda to allow users to level up their abilities similar to an RPG.  I'm glad they didn't include that dynamic in future Zelda's, but it makes this game even that much more different than the others, and a nice change of pace from the other games we are working on.

A release date, and a deadline

Nintendo made it official today, and announced that Skyward Sword will be released on November 22nd.  That gives Zach and I just over 3 months to finish the rest of our quest.

It's a good thing then that I started Zelda II a couple days ago, getting a bit of a head start before he gets home from camp.  I quickly remembered why I never beat this game as a kid (though I did finally beat it in college): It's freaking hard!  Enemies require a lot more skill and planning then the first Zelda.  However, there is also a lot more depth to the story and the land of Hyrule than the original.   If you can get past the difficulties of the play control, playing through this game is really a fulfilling experience.

I'll give more thoughts as we go.

The problem with old technology

So the summer is almost over.  Zach will be back from camp next week, and we are hoping to get moving with our goal to finish the rest of the Zelda games before Skyward Sword comes out later this year.  At this point we're a little...ok a lot behind where we wanted to be.

Sad news: As I indicated in my last post I decided to continue playing through the second quest of the original Zelda, and had just finished level 5 when I took a break for a summer class I had to take.  Unfortunately, when I loaded up the game over the past weekend to try to finish it up all our save data was gone.  I guess the battery in that old cartridge finally gave up the ghost.  Oh well, I'll try to finish up the second quest some other time.  I'm bummed I still haven't finished it, but we must be getting on with our quest.

The 2nd Quest

Zach is taking a break from this project for a couple weeks to focus on some school work.  So, in his absence I decided to keep going with the original Legend of Zelda and try to beat the second quest.  I am almost ashamed to admit that despite my love for Zelda this is a feat I have started on a number of occasions, but never accomplished.  Well, after a few minutes of playing the second quest I remembered why I never beat it.  The dungeons are harder...much harder.  Whoever designed them was frankly just evil.  The first quest is hard enough figuring out which walls to bomb, and how to get past some of the harder rooms, but the second quest is practically impossible without a map.  At this point I'm through the first four dungeons, which I believe is further than I've ever progressed before. BTW: What's up with there being no real boss of the 3rd dungeon...not that I'm complaining, but there were two or three mini-bosses, but before the triforce room, just a few boomerang guys.  I'll keep you updated as I go.

The Case of the Missing Gold Carts

As a kid, one of the best things about getting a new Zelda game on the original Nintento was opening the box and pulling out that bright, shiny gold cartridge. As a seven year old it was like having something precious that was just mine. A gold brick of pure, video game bliss. I have to admit, the saddest part of reliving those old adventures was pulling out the shoebox with all my old NES games and discovering that somewhere along the course of life my old Zelda games had been mixed up with someone elses, (probably a roomate, or something) and that my gold carts had been replaced with the later, generic grey ones.

Oh well, I guess no use crying over spilt milk. Besides, we've actually been able to get my old Nintendo and both The Legend of Zelda, and The Adventure of Link working (after lots of blowing into the system and the cartridges), which after 25 years is no small feat.

1 Game Beaten

I beat ganon. I beat the 1st game! 15 more to go! We aren't thinking of doing the 2nd quest. If you think we should tell us. We probably won't do Link's Crossbow Training because its just basically shooting at the screen. Not that exciting. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is next. Tips, Comments, and Questions are all welcome.

Legend of Zelda - NES

I beat 4,5,6,7and 8 dungeons w/ my dad. To get to the ninth, you need the magic key and bombs. I also recommed bying the blue ring; it makes monsters have to attack twice to damage you*. In the 9th dungeon, you get the red ring which cuts monster attacks to x4 instead of twice. We are now headed towards the 9th dungeon, which is in a big rock. *NOTE: blue ring is expensive and costs 250 rubies. The snakes in dungeon 2 give you lots of money, and people in hidden caves will give certain amounts too.

Getting Started

Like Zach said in his first post, he and I are blogging through all the Zelda games.  We are working together and trying to try to finish them all before the next Zelda game, Skyward Sword, is released late this year.  We are going to play through them in the order they were released starting with the Legend of Zelda and ending with Spirit Tracks.  We are also planning on playing the original versions of the games when we can, and playing them on the original systems they were built on.  So yes, we are dusting off the old NES and SNES.  My old Game Boy gave up the ghost a few years back so we'll be playing through the Game Boy games on a GBA, and we don't have an N64, so unless someone wants to loan one to the cause we'll be playing Orcarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the Wii.

Now, the question you might be thinking is: why? and I assure you we have three very good, amazing, outstanding reasons.

First, the boy strongly dislikes writing, and that might be putting it lightly.  This is a not-so-subtle way of encouraging him to write about something he enjoys.

Second, Zach is almost a teenager.  He's starting to become more interested in things like texting, social networking, and the internet in general. This is a chance to introduce him to blogging and social networking in a way that is fun for both of us.  Just so you know, he has total creative control over this site, so any compliments about the way it looks send his way.

Finally, and most importantly: Zach and I both like Zelda!  I just thought this would be a fun way for me to relate to my step-son.

We'll both have a lot to say as we work together through these games, feel free to read along.

Legend of Zelda-NES

Today i started out w/ the 1st zelda game- Legend of Zelda for the NES. i beat the 1st,2nd, and 3rd dungeons. i need to go back and get the rest of the items. My dad helped me with the most of finding my way. after all these years, i still cant believe that he remembers where everything is. we are planning on trying to finish all the games; NES games, SNES games, gameboy and gameboy advanced games, ds games, wii games and n64 games.

-Zachary