Zelda Versus: Best Soundtrack Tournament — Round 1 — The Adventure of Link Vs. Oracle of Seasons

Our best soundtrack tournament continues with two new titles. As A Link Between Worlds and Spirit Tracks duke it out in yesterday’s poll, The Adventure of Link and Oracle of Ages step into the fray.

The Adventure of Link Vs. Oracle of Seasons

To this day, The Adventure of Link stands as one of the strangest and most divisive Zelda games, bucking many of the trends established by its predecessor. Even the title’s music deviated from the Koji Kondo compositions heard in the original Zelda. Rather than recycle the same tunes from the first game, Akito Nakatsuka created a score bereft of — aside from the opening notes to the classic Overworld theme — anything we’d heard or will hear in other Zelda games. But that doesn’t mean Zelda II lacks great music; far from it. This game has some wonderfully crafted 8-bit tunes. The title’s Palace theme in particular has had staying power; just ask the folks behind Super Smash Bros.

The Oracle games were given a tough job. They had to deliver Zelda-level audio all the while restricted to the hardware of the original Game Boy. And despite a few missteps here and there, the soundtracks for both Ages and Seasons were quite excellent. OoS‘ soundtrack is particularly excellent, as it holds a number of ambitious songs that you wouldn’t expect from the handheld it calls home. The themes of Horon Village, Dancing Dragon Dungeon, and the Subrosian Dance are just a few of the standouts. And in re-listening to the soundtrack, I noted that Seasons‘ music has an almost Arabian influence, fitting perfectly the game’s themes of dance and Link’s new gal-pal Din.

So, it’s time to decide which game has the better soundtrack: The Adventure of Link or Oracle of Seasons

Here’s some important tournament information:

• If you receive a “Failed to Verify Referrer” message and you are logged into a version of WordPress, try logging out.
• We will post a new Round 1 voting page each day, Monday through Friday.
• Voting for each game will be open for exactly one week.
• Every Saturday, we will post a wrap-up article explaining the results of the prior week.
• Once voting pages for all Round 1 bouts have been posted, there will be a one-week break before Round 2 begins.

See you tomorrow!