Oh crap, THIS game. Hydlide on NES. Ugh... Hydlide. It's like Shaq Fu, it sounds worse every time you say it. This game is known for one thing: it's a rip-off of The Legend of Zelda. But, you knew that because it's in the title. If you remeber my Kid Kool review, it's like how that ripped-off Super Mario Bros. Let's play this piece of crap.

   --- What does Hydlide even MEAN? ---
So, in Hydlide, you play as some knight called Jim (Link). He is naturally equipped with a shield and sword. Jim (Link) is trying to save Princess Ann (Zelda) from Boralis (Ganon). Boralis sounds like boring, WHICH IS WHAT THIS GAME IS. So, after the game tells you to "PRESS BUTTON !", you see Princess Ann get... burned by Boralis. Then... she explodes into three faries, and you have to collect the three faries. Makes no sense. What I really like is the menu on the side, especially wnen it tells you the name onf the enemy. But it doesn't matter because I'm never playing this again. Starting the game, not only do you think of Zelda, but the music is just a slightly altered version of the Indiana Jones theme. Could the people who made this game come up with ANYTHING original? Like Ghostbusters, the music plays through the whole game, until the ending. The ending has a diffrent part of the main theme. 
 
   --- How do you attack? ---
What took me forever to figure out, was how to attack the right way. You hold down A and run into the enemy. Yeah, in Zelda, an EXCELLENT game, a sword comes out and attacks the enemy it a way that you could EASILY fgiure out. But here, they have to program it to make it seem like they made anythng original. And the enemy just gets to dissapear. No explosion, no anything. But princesses, they explode into faires. I bet they would heal me if I touched them. Further explaining all the meters on the side, the Health is... you know. I have no idea what the STR does. It never changes, though. The experience... you know. But the experince goes up slower than Pokey in Super Mario World. Another rip-off of Zelda: the Magic bar. However, the first game with a magic bar was Zelda II... but this was in 1989. Zelda II was in 1988. So, now they're ripping off the sequel. The magic attack is used by pressing B. But, you have to hold down A, press B, select the attack, and then use it. it's like the menu in Metal Gear on NES. It takes WAY too long to do this. If you die, you get an instant Game Over, but unlike Zelda, you get no continues. You have to use the password. But, you have to get the password DURING the gameplay. Might as well have no password.

   --- How weird could they make the menu? ---
Let's explain the menu. Item brings up the things you've collected, as usual. Save saves your game... or does it? The Legend of Zelda saved yuor progress... but this doesn't. What Save does is make a Password appear in the Password selection. How cryptic can they make it? Even then, they have a Load option, which... acts as a svae state. Yeah, even if you're playing on the actual cardridge, unless you die, you have save states.. Speed adjusts the speed of the game. When it's on high speed, it's actually a lot better. Especially the screen movement. Zelda did it great, but unless you have it on high speed, Hydlide looks really bad. If Game let me pick a good game, it would be worth it. But it does nothing. Maybe it means return to the game. Even though I could simply press Select again. There are dark caverns that you need a light in. Hmm... I wonder what that sounds like. ZELDA. Yeah. You get the lantern by killing vampires with crosses. I thought that had something to do with Religion. They had to edit out the crosses in EarthBound Zero in the CEMETARY, but not here? In reward, you get a stronger sword. Upgrading the sword. I'm thinking of a word that starts with Z and ends with A. If you can't think of it, re-read this review 10 times. I'm not even going to bother seeing how much more this game is going to rip-off Zelda. That's the biggest complaint for this game: lack of original ideas. I mean, Kid Kool was more original. I mean, that doesn't even look like a rip-off anymore. Have you beaten every Zelda game? Well, here's Zelda III: Jim the Hydlide. You haven't beaten this. Oh, wait. Zelda's good. This isn't. So it couldn't be Zelda 3... maybe they could edit the graphics and music and make it the 4th Zelda CD-i game. I've had it with this pile of crap. I guess I'll see you in my next review.