Daily Debate: With Modern Quality-of-Life Improvements, Do You Think Adventure of Link is an Enjoyable Game?
Posted on February 03 2022 by Andy Spiteri
After reading the fantastic editorial my colleague Mike Midwood penned about enjoying Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, I felt compelled to go back and visit it, maybe not playing from start to finish, but at least doing a dungeon or two. There were two options available to me: playing on my Switch, or playing on my Zelda Game & Watch. I remember a few months ago while I was reviewing the Game & Watch thinking about how… unplayable and joyless Adventure of Link seemed to be, so I made the easy decision and decided to play on my Switch, complete with all the bells and whistles like save states, rewind, and luxury mode.
Playing this infamously difficult and defeating game under these conditions wasn’t actually too bad. In fact, despite having to rewind more times than I’d like to admit, I dare say I had a pretty fun time. But it did make me think of people like Mike, people who enjoy the original game for what it is. I realized that I just couldn’t count myself as one of those people. Without the quality of life improvements, I would never want to play The Adventure of Link, and frankly, I know a lot of people who still don’t want to play it even with all these upgrades.
My question is where do you fall? Are you able to enjoy this game as it originally released, lunching difficulty and all? Or are you more of a Switch Online kind of player? Or maybe, no matter what, Link’s sophomore adventure just isn’t for you? Let us know in the comments below!
Andy Spiteri is a Manager of Zelda Dungeon, Host of The Zelda Cast podcast, and Owner of Omega Metroid. Probably drinking a Tim Horton’s Double Double as you read this.
Business: andy.spiteri@zeldadungeon.net
