The lost Zelda games and other related stuff

**NeoZeedeater** · 03 Apr 2005, 02:37 PM

Being one of the most popular franchises in gaming history, The Legend of Zelda series needs no introduction. Almost every game in the series is well known to gamers. This thread is about the few Zelda releases that are obscure to most gamers and some other stuff that might appeal to Zelda fans.

In Japan the Super Famicom had a peripheral released by Bandai called the Satellaview(BS-X). This device allowed the user to download games and other content. Nintendo supported it with a number of games including Zelda titles.

One was a remake of the original NES game. The graphics and sound were upgraded, the dungeons altered and instead of Link the main character was the Satellaview mascot. A female character could be chosen as well. The game had a time limit but there are patches now to play the game without the time limit, in English, and with Link.

BS Legend of Zelda: Kodai no Sekiban(the translated version is called Ancient Stone Tablets) was based on A Link to the Past's engine and locations and was divided into four separate downloads. I only tried this briefly on emulation since it still has some graphics issues and doesn't run correctly.

A Link to the Past was also released on Satellaview, mostly unchanged from the regular cartridge version.

More info and pics of the BS-X games can be found here -http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/bszelda.shtml

Three atrocious looking Zelda games were made for the CD-i multimedia machine. I haven't played any of them although I remember seeing the first one in an infomercial.

Link: The Faces of Evil(1993)
This one was a side-scroller where you play as Link.

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon(1993)
This one was a side-scroller where you play as Zelda.

Zelda's Adventure(1995)
This one was an overhead action/adventure game where you play as Zelda.

More info on the CD-i games - http://www.parnasas.com/PopArena/Articles/cdi.html

Another game I feel is worth mentioning is Nintendo's Marvelous for the Super Famicom. This 1996 adventure game was the first game directed by Eiji Aonuma who is now in charge of the Zelda series. Marvelous was more puzzle oriented and has less action than the Zelda games. You controlled three different characters; sometimes you needed to use one character, sometimes all three. The recent Four Swords games revisited that type of gameplay. There were also BS-X versions of Marvelous like the one shown here.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/pics/marvelous.html

Being immensely popular, the Zelda series has had its fair share of imitators and similar games from Compile's Golvellius to SNK's Crystalis to Nextech's Crusader of Centy. However, I don't consider these rip offs or clones per se, just games in the same genre.

There are a few games that mimic Zelda enough to head into rip off territory although they are of high enough quality that I would certainly recommend them to Zelda fans. The first two were released before Zelda 3 on SNES and in many ways they improved upon the Zelda 1 formula.

Golden Axe Warrior(Sega, SMS, 1991)

Neutopia(NEC/Hudson, TG16, 1989 Japan/1990)

Neutopia II(NEC/Hudson, TG16, 1991 Japan/1992)

Another game that looks like a Zelda rip off(at least the dungeons) is Sunsoft's 1986 Famicom Disk game Adian no Tsue. I haven't been able to find it to try it out though.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/fds/01/2.htm

What are your thoughts on all these? Discuss anything related to the topic.

LOL · 03 Apr 2005, 02:40 PM

First post in a NeoZeedeater thread!

<-- Winner

**Rocca** · 03 Apr 2005, 02:40 PM

I know someone who owns the Gamelon CD-i game. I can't recall how much they bid for it, but it was somewhere in the 100. Biggest waste of money ever.

Oh, and good stuff Neo, once again.

**Jetman** · 03 Apr 2005, 02:51 PM

Wow, those CD-i Zelda games look horrid. I remember seeing pics for the side scroller one with the art for the island with the multiple dungeons on it back in the day

(early 90's EGM?) and getting all excited, then hearing absolutely nothing about it.

I have a friend who payed big bucks for a CD-i and those Zelda games and I honestly think it ruined the Zelda series permanently for him.

I'd never even heard of those downloadable Zelda's though - thats really cool.

Golden Axe Warrior and the Neutopia's were also games I remember reading about,but never tried.How do they play? I mean do they have boss fights and everything like the Zelda games?

**kuro** · 03 Apr 2005, 03:00 PM

I've always wanted to play the CD-i games, just so I can justify my making fun of them even more.

**Glass Joe** · 03 Apr 2005, 03:01 PM

Neutopia is exactly the same style as Zelda right down to the labyrinths and bosses. It even has rocks shaped in arrows showing you the way or pointing to secrets. It is a very quality game and I think it actually surpasses Zelda 1 in many ways.

I felt Neutopia 2 was a much weaker game. It just didn't have that "thing" that separates the men from the boys if you know what I mean.

GAW I actually just found out about around a year ago. I played a little bit of it and it too seems to be Zelda with a different paint job, not that I'm complaining.

**Geen** · 03 Apr 2005, 03:02 PM

I remember reading about the BS-X system about ten years ago and wishing that we had that here in America. Oh well, maybe one day we'll be as cool as Japan.

**Korly** · 03 Apr 2005, 03:22 PM

I REALLY liked the first Neutopia for TG-16. Much like Glass Joe, I thought it totally owned Zelda 1, and it was on my short list of awesome TG-16 games.