Videolames review 2 - Zelda: The Wand of Gamelion

[Jiren]

Many people reading this might see the title and think ”Hey!!!!!, he’s reviewing Zelda in the Videolames series” but just hear me out ok.

I love the Zelda series from it’s humble beginning (Legend of Zelda) to it’s epic swansong (Twiglight Princess) and let me just say each has been great and worthy of the Zelda name……………….Apart from two of them which I’m just about to talk about in just a second.

“Zelda: The wand of Gamelion” & “Link: Faces of evil” are two games made for the abomination that was the Phillips CD-I (That’s for another day) and let me tell you they are Zelda games in name ONLY because they SUCK!!!!!!!

“W.O.G” - The story begins with the King of Hyrule going off to fight Ganon. He tells Princess Zelda to send Link to help him if he does not return after a month. An entire month passes without word from the King. As instructed, Zelda sends Link to find him, but he doesn't return either. Zelda then decides to venture forth herself to search for Link and her father.

“F.O.E” - Link, feeling increasingly useless in the now-safe land of Hyrule, has no idea that the far away island of Koridai has been taken over by his old nemesis, Ganon. Ganon has also kidnapped the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda, and is holding her captive there. A mysterious wizard visits Link on a flying carpet to inform the hero of the dire situation. Only Link, with the aid of the Book of Koridai, can defeat Ganon. After being refused a kiss from Princess Zelda, Link then flies away with the man on the flying carpet and moves towards a populated island of stone statues in the shape of diabolical faces known as the "Faces Of Evil".

The stories are largely told through animated FMVs, in an attempt to make best use of the CD-ROM format but I wish they didn’t bother because they are some of the most cringe inducing video segments ever put into a video game, The animation quite frankly sucks they were all done by some Russian animation company and the results were disastrous (An understatement).

Link looks gay and sounds like a whiney teenage ponce, Zelda acts like a stuck up Hootie Hoo! and are totally unlikable morons unlike the previous and later games.
Don’t believe me then watch these:

“W.O.G” – (start) youtube.com/watch?v=9mHw5g55oC4&search=cdi
(End) youtube.com/watch?v=KVe4iF8slms&mode=related&search=cdi

“F.O.E” – (start) youtube.com/watch?v=bNpLXo55yfw&mode=related&search=cdi
(End) youtube.com/watch?v=imlyVV0yYKo&mode=related&search=cdi

These games play very much like the Adventures of Link on the NES. They are side scrolling platformers. However, unlike the tight control in the Adventures of Link you'll find yourself cursing loudly over the control in this game. Your control over Link/Zelda is extremely jerky and extremely inexact. It seems like you have to fight the controller just to move around. Adding in to that that Link/Zelda moves very slowly across the screen and you have a recipe for disaster. The button layout is also inconvienent. The CD-i controller has three buttons arranged like a Genesis controller. Button A swings your sword and pretty much does everything. Button C fires your special weapon. Button B however, does nothing unless you crouch down and THEN it opens up your item menu. To jump, you press up on the control pad. This control scheme is awkward and difficult to use. The directional pad on the controller itself is pretty bad too but you can't fault the game for the hardware.

The actual gameplay Graphics look OK when they are not moving plus the backgrounds are just ripped off from the “Animated Series” (Cheapskates)

I must admit the music isn’t too it’s actually quite catchy but the voice acting and the sound effects are a joke and make the characters sound like rejects from really bad kids show (See the video’s for proof) the only redeeming thing about it is the fact that you can have a good laugh at it’s expense.

As bad as these games are you can’t blame onld Ninty for these abominations because these were due to a contract dispute which phillips won and the result was what you just read.

If you ever get the oportunity to play this do it just to say “I played every Zelda game” and just to see and feel how bad this is for yourself.

3/10

[Byakugan]

What the hell is a CD-i

[Jiren]

This

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-I

[The Raven]

I'm sorry you've had the misfortune of playing this game. But thanks for the review. I love reading reviews of awful stuff.

[Feyrhausen]

There was a third game called Zeldas Adventure released only in Europe. It changed the gameplay style to a top down view similar to the original LOZ and was supposed to be better than the previous two games, but still inferior to anything Nintendo produced.

[K7 - WC's Crowd Extra]

Now lets never mention thse games again.

[Aya Reiko]

thegame243 said:

What the hell is a CD-i

A failed game system that Phillips made after Nintendo abandoned a CD add-on for the SNES. This is why Phillips was allowed to make those to two Zelda games.

Ironically, Phillips was actually Nintendo's second choice to make the add-on. The first? Sony.

From Wikipedia on PlayStation:

Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was struck, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation," was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the 8 channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop another, Nintendo compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

In 1989, the SNES-CD was to be announced at the June CES . However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNESCD-ROM format. Yamauchi was furious; deeming the contract totally unacceptable, he secretly cancelled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Indeed, instead of announcing their partnership, at 9 am the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that they were now allied with Philips, and were planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature — one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

The 9pm CES announcement was a complete shock. Not only was it a hysteric surprise to the show goers (Sony had only just the previous night been optimistically showing off the joint project under the "Play Station" brand), but it was seen by many in the Japanese business community as a fatal betrayal: a Japanese company snubbing another Japan-based company in favor of a European one was considered absolutely unthinkable in Japanese business.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand alone console. This led to Nintendo filing a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in U.S. federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the Play Station, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name[citation needed]. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction. Thus, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new Sony PlayStation was revealed; it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Sony Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, at this point, Sony realized that the SNES technology was getting long in the tooth, and the next generation of console gaming was around the corner: work began in early 1993 on reworking the "Play Station" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software; as part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped, the space between the names was removed, and the PlayStation was born.

[samachine]

Well excuse me, princess.

[nostradumbass]

I'm so hungry, I could eat an altrarok.

[Phosphor Glow]

You mean octorok.


...sorry to be that guy >_>

[nostradumbass]

tristememoire said:

You mean octorok.


...sorry to be that guy >_>

oh

[EvilMasterBetty, Esq.]

These games never happened. You hear me? THEY NEVER HAPPENED!

and BTW good review.

[gsguy]

nostradumbass said:

I'm so hungry, I could eat an altrarok.

Could you do the duck walk after?