All right here goes. This is my first game review ever on any site. So be kind with ratings please

I will say before I begin, that my ratings are probably much higher than just about anyone. I may be looking at this game through an extreme set of nostalgia goggles but I just love this game. I've replayed it a few times in the past couple years (including some hacks) and it never gets old for me.

Let's rewind to 1990ish and I was 4 years old. My mother was a stay at home mom and I remember playing Nintendo with her frequently. My girlfriend refused to believe it but I remember beating Super Mario 3 when I was 5. She claims "I didn't have the motor skills" at that age. She's a cynical lady...

Along with the Mario series and Kid Icarus, I played Zelda 2 frequently. We never owned the game and would just rent it from the video store constantly. Now, I was only 4 or 5 years old but I still have vivid memories of playing this game. It's crazy to think about but it really is true.

Now, we all know the difficulty between Mario and Zelda 2 isn't even close so to be honest; I'm not sure how much I was playing or how much I was watching my mom play. In those 20 year old memories, it almost doesn't even matter to me. The thing I remember most is the game itself and all the great moments that came with it. I remember crossing the falling bridge in the first dungeon. Using the hammer to smash the rocks. Walking across water. And YES, I remember fighting shadow Link. How we made it that far on a rental in 1990 still blows my mind.

For all these reasons and more as I will discuss in the rest of the review, this is not only my favorite Zelda game, it's probably top 3 in all games of all time. I played so many games in my life where I get bored halfway through and never finish. But for some reason that I can't quite explain, this game doesn't get old to me and I just can't get enough. It gets the highest possible score I could give a game and that's a 9.9. LOVE IT.

Graphics: 9. Yeah the overworld looks kinds crappy with a doll like Link running around wagging his hips but it still looks really good to me. The side scrolling view is even better and Link likes a real person instead of a child. There is typically very little slowdown even when there are a lot of enemies on the screen. I think it's aged really well over the years.

Sound: 10. I wish I could go to 11. That tune that plays when on the world map never gets old and I vividly remember hearing this as a young boy. I'm not really big into sound in video games personally. I don't get what all the excitement is over the sound of FFVI. But Zelda 2 is different for me and for an NES game, they really made the most of it. I can barely remember of the sounds with the original LoZ but Zelda 2 is stuck in my head on repeat.

Addictiveness: 9. For me, it's really high. It's a frustrating game, you can get lost and you die a lot. But I don't know, it's easy to play in my opinion. I rate the addictiveness partly on the fact that I’ve played through this so many times and I’m still not bored with it. And this is not typical for me at all. I’ve picked up some games, played them for 30 minutes and just get bored. Even widely respected games like Earthbound or Secret of Mana!

Story: 9. I was going to go lower but perhaps the thing for me was that as a child, I still kind of knew what was going on. You always started at the same palace with Zelda asleep laying there. Okay, so Zelda is asleep and you need to wake her up. Fight monsters and gain weapons. Pretty darn easy to follow for even a 5 year old!

Depth:10. I looked up a world map the other day and I was like, damn, this overworld is huge! Not only that but the way to access each new part of the world was new and interesting. This was the beginning of the Zelda legacy so you didn't know what power up did what so it was cool to learn as you went.

Difficulty: 7. Okay, this game is pretty tough but I don't think it's THAT difficult... Is it? My MOM was able to beat it on a rental. And this was before the days of the internet where you could look up where to find the next item/dungeon. Or how to beat a boss. She did that all on her own! I was 5 and I couldn't beat the game on my own but I could at least PLAY it. I think the difference is nowadays we just have no patience. Games that were long and challenging which required us to re-do areas, I most likely don't feel like dealing with. Back then, we had nothing else to do! Literally nothing!

So there you go, I love this game for a variety of reasons. We played the original LoZ around the same time back but we always rented Zelda 2 a lot more and those memories have always stayed with me a lot more.

Very nice first review, make a few more of those and you'll be swimming around in Viz! Sections, always keep the sections though. Those will get your review rated more times and higher. Nice review though, it points out all the good parts and all of the flaws in this title.

Thanks for the feedback! Hope you enjoyed it

benis : This is a pretty good review and a first timer to boot. Way to go! I personally dislike this game and prefer the overhead style, but I won't hold that against you in my rating! 

In the interest of trying to help your future reviews.. I'd just call attention to this little bit of digression..

"Let's rewind to 1990ish and I was 4 years old. My mother was a stay at home mom and I remember playing Nintendo with her frequently. My girlfriend refused to believe it but I remember beating Super Mario 3 when I was 5. She claims "I didn't have the motor skills" at that age. She's a cynical lady...
Along with the Mario series and Kid Icarus, I played Zelda 2 frequently. We never owned the game and would just rent it from the video store constantly. Now, I was only 4 or 5 years old but I still have vivid memories of playing this game. It's crazy to think about but it really is true.
Now, we all know the difficulty between Mario and Zelda 2 isn't even close so to be honest; I'm not sure how much I was playing or how much I was watching my mom play. In those 20 year old memories, it almost doesn't even matter to me. The thing I remember most is the game itself and all the great moments that came with it. I remember crossing the falling bridge in the first dungeon. Using the hammer to smash the rocks. Walking across water. And YES, I remember fighting shadow Link. How we made it that far on a rental in 1990 still blows my mind."


This part sticks out as overlong to me. You want to post some background about how you played it, I understand, but suggest doing some editing.  Its just not being relevant to the review's scores.