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I suppose my thoughts would apply to Link The Faces of Evil also, but anyway ...

First things first, obviously compared to the Nintendo Zelda games these are awful. I'm sure even the biggest CD-i fan agrees w/this, yes? On their own though, I think they are average, in some respects above average especially considering the console they released on.

To start, the background art is absolutely gorgeous! I was truly surprised to see such beautiful works of colorful art. I can ignore the stiff animation and (almost) the laughable (and creepy) cut scenes because the style and detail in the backgrounds is so good. Likewise the musical score is very well done. Not up the Bug N standards, but it easily stands on its own w/out the direct comparison. It is rich sounding, and has plenty of variety. It seems to me these were the two areas that had the most professional work done, so as an audio/visual package Zedla fares very well.

The control though is well below average. In fairness, in not using a real controller, but still. I've perservered through it w/only mild anoyance, but I've reached a point where it is really getting to me. My gripes stem at 2 areas/levels in particular ... Hanyu Forest, and Washubi Swamp.

In the forest, I hate how the enemies can just spawn out of nowhere! I'm standing and all of the sudden one of the slugs (or whatever they are ... they look like midget Darth vader's) pop up literally under my feet. And the constantly regenerate no matter what! And I got stuck more than once at the end where a barrage of flying creatures attacked me and I couldn't attack them back. The reason? A feamle character was standing in front of me and every thrust of my sword triggered the same conversation. I was defensless and got slaughtered quickly. This is really inexcusable ... a "smart" sword to talk to people?

In the swamp, collison detection seems to have gone out the window. Not just w/attacking enemies either ... some jumps seem to be blind chance. I fall through solid branches left and right, only to land safely on them next time. And if you land on one of the tree beetle things (not sure what they are called) forget it. Stuck in place until you die. I finally beat it only to see that I have to replay the entire area over becasue of a stupid fetch quest.

As you can see, I am torn. Any idea how far into the game I am? Have i already seen the worst of what this game offers, or is more in store? I'll stick w/it cause I dig the look & music, but I'm hoping future levels are less annoying.

I'm bumping this old post of mine only to say what a big difference there is playing this game w/a real controller! Sadly all of my above complaints still stand, but at least now its far less frustrating to make progress.

Try out Zelda's Adventure (somehow, some way) if you can, Trev. From what I've tried, it's a good step up from the first two. Hardly great compared to the Nintendo-developed ones, but it's actually kind of fun.

I actually have Zelda's Adventure! Haven't spent too much time w/it yet (my model CD-i is picky w/copies ... it only loads up about 1/2 the time) but I do prefer that it tries to copy the original Zelda unlike the other two which copy Adv. of Link.

The main things that bug me about Zelda's Adv. are the transitions between screens and the lack of music. But I'll need to play it proper. I imagine it has to be an improvement over the side scrollers.