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Run the Series 6: 2D Zelda Games.

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Khushrenada:
Hello NWR Forum users. Welcome to the 6th edition of Run the Series, the latest installment in one of the most favorite series of threads among NWR Users. There was so much demand for another installment after the last edition over a year ago that I just don't have time to cover all zero posts asking when this next installment would be released. :'(

Run the Series Mission Statement

From past posts, I am sometimes surprised at what games users on these forums have played or missed in a franchise and it's made me curious about the gaming habits of all our various users here. It also made curious as to what my gaming experience looks like compared to others. I thought I'd see if I could find out more information on the matter by creating a series of threads designed to look at different franchises found on Nintendo systems to see what series the users here like. What franchises do people still find important to keep up with and what series have they let lapse or play infrequently? What are the franchises people haven't even touched or have fully completed? Which games are the most common shared experience in a series and which ones are the least?

For each entry, I've created a poll and the poll lists all the games considered as franchise entries.* Users can then select which games in the series they have beat. When I mean beat, I'm just referring to completing the main quest or storyline and seeing the credits and not if you've completed every other side quest or mission similar to how Backloggery would classify those terms. This poll is a chance to let all users see how they stack up again users from this forum.

In addition, if you want to provide more information about what your level of completion is on games, feel free to post about it. For that matter, feel free to give your thoughts on the series. Why you play it, why you don't, what's your favorite entry, least favorite entry, how you'd rank the entry in the series, what you'd like to see, what you don't want to see, etc. You know the drill. Whatever comments you want to make based on the series under discussion or specific games in the poll, this thread is open for you to do so.

*Or at least my take on what the series consists of. You are welcome to tell me how wrong I am with my selections.  :'(

Past Entries in the Series

1st Edition - 2D Mario Platformers
2nd Edition - Pokémon Main Series
3rd Edition - Donkey Kong (Country Style)
4th Edition - Wario Platformers
5th Edition - Mario Kart


If you are new to this forum series or missed an entry, feel free to check out the past entries and comment on them too if interested. Bumping Khushrenada threads is always a welcome practice on these forums.

Khushrenada:
The Series Up for Discussion

The last time I did one of these articles, Breath of the Wild hadn't even released yet and with Zelda fever in the air, I had always planned to do a Zelda entry next. However, rather than a 3D entry with a new 3D game about to release making such an installment a bit obsolete or needing a return and update in a few months, I was going to go in the direction of focusing on the 2D games since there was nothing currently being planned along those lines and currently there still is nothing in that regard. So, with resurrecting this series, I figured I might as well stick to the plan I'd always had for the next entry.

Although originating on consoles, this style of Zelda gameplay has pretty much become the domain of handheld gaming hence its placement in this forum. With the 2D games spanning from the NES to the 3DS, I'm expecting the amount to have run the series to be low but I'm also interested to see just how well the older entries get represented compared to the newer ones especially with their difficulty compared to newer entries even though Nintendo has re-released a lot of these over the years.


Why Are These Games Part of the Series?

Basically, these games feature all or a majority of their gameplay in the top-down view associated with the first game in the series The Legend of Zelda. Although it could be argued that the series really keeps the same structure in a lot of ways either in the 3D or 2D mode, I feel the puzzle and battle elements change the gameplay enough between the two that separate entries for the main series should be based around that fact.

Four Swords and Triforce Heroes are multiplayer which may make them more of a different experience than a normal single player Zelda game but they still rely on the same type of 2D combat and dungeon/puzzle exploration as the single player games so I didn't think they were completely different enough to warrant a separate entry. I'm sure the connectivity requirements will probably keep them low on the completed list though thus there might not be too many users disagreeing about their inclusion anyways.


What Games Weren't Included

These articles are sticking with the games released on actual Nintendo consoles so save your Wand of Gamelon fandom for another day. There's only other spin-off type game that might be considered a part of this half of the Zelda series and that's Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. It is not included with these other games, though, since I've mainly been sticking to the Nintendo games released in the North American region as that is where the majority of the users on these forums are located. Sorry, European users but at least you got the game released in your region. Plus, although in top-down view, the game diverges quite a bit in most of its elements compared to how other 2D Zelda games operate that it is too different to include anyways and would be part of the oddities section of the Zelda series. Like other series, I feel all Zelda games can be divided into these three categories: 2D, 3D, Oddities. If we were doing the latter then it would be Tingle's time to shine.


So, with that quick little rundown, let's open it up to the rest of you forum users and let's see how well NWR has Run the Series!

BeautifulShy:
So my history with 2D Zelda goes back to the NES and The Adventure of Link. That game was actually the first game I played.  I played the original as well at friends houses and I would get the original myself as well. I think I managed to beat the original back then or later on with The Legend of Zelda: Collectors Edition disk.    I never beat Adventure of Link in all those years. 

 Backtrack to fast forward to the SNES era I beat A Link to the Past more times than I can count and it was so engrossing. Just playing the game and trying to find all the heart pieces was a great accomplishment.  I even managed to have a 000 file at the end of the game. That basically meant I didn't die at all through the game.

After playing through LTTP I picked up Link's Awakening and it was a little different from what I was used to because it didn't really take place in Hyrule.   I did like how the puzzles were a bit more difficult then previous games.  There also was the way you could experiment with the different item combinations and get surprising results.   This was the game I played most on my original brick Game Boy till I got one of those "Play it Loud" clear GBs.   I also liked the way the game pieced areas of the world with others in many ways. I loved beating the game over and over even though it was pretty large for a GB game.   

Between the SNES era and the DS era of games I did play the oracle games but never managed to beat them.
I don't think my eyes were on the 2D Zelda games during this time I think I was more focused on the 3D titles like OOT, MM, OOT: Master Quest and The Wind Waker. 

After that my games that I beat takes a long hiatus till the DS and Spirit Tracks. It was a little frustrating traversing through the world in retrospect but I did like that Zelda had some role in the game.

I am looking at A Link between Worlds and Triforce Heroes to obtain but I haven't gotten them.   I'm sorry Mop it up. Triforce Heroes looks really fun.


I guess if I were to rank the 2D Zelda games that I have played it would be like this...


1.The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
2.Link's Awakening
3.The Legend of Zelda
4.The Adventure of Link
5.Spirit Tracks
6.Oracle of Seasons
7.Oracle of Ages

Khushrenada:
What this entry in Run the Series has taught me is that I seem to be more interested in the 3D Zelda games then the 2D. There are 13 2D games and I've only completed 3 of them. The Four Sword stuff require other people has held me back from really trying to get into them but most of the other games I've always been interested in playing or want to play (aside from Zelda 2) but I've put them off for one reason or another and I'm really surprised at how little I have actually played of them.

My first Zelda game was A Link to the Past. It was the GBA edition which I borrowed from a friend after I had gotten a DS and was catching up on past titles. (Then I got a Famicom Micro GBA for cheap and never used the DS again for GBA. The rumble pak now sits in its GBA slot.) It really blew me away. It made me again appreciate the SNES software but I totally understood why this series was so popular. I was more used to Metroid at this point and it felt like a neat deviation from that series. I also appreciated how 2D games made it easier to search and explore everything. 3D games were starting to feel like these large massive worlds already but as I went screen by screen across the overworld and through dungeons, I would tap on every portion of walls to check for any hollow sound to make sure I didn't miss anything. When I got the shovel, I started digging up all the earth to make sure nothing was missed.

Khushrenada:
When I finished, I then moved on to Wind Waker and other 3D Zeldas. The next 2D game I played was the original Legend of Zelda. I had a GC Zelda Anniversary Disc with 1, 2, OoT and MM on it. I thought I'd start from the beginning and start catching up on the series. I found LoZ to be rather tough and confusing at first. I started checking out a guide after awhile to figure out where the dungeons are that I needed to get too. After some time, I did start to get better at the game and learn how to use my shield to protect myself. I'm pretty sure I even got through the first 4 dungeons in the game and was working on or to the 5th.

But then, I got sidetracked and didn't get back to the game and later the save data was corrupted. I'd have to start over but I never have. In addition to NES Metroid, the experience taught me that NES games really don't compare to SNES or beyond. They can still be playable but they really require effort since they've got a higher difficulty in addition to or because of their technical limitations. Still, once I started making progress in the game and getting better at it, I did and do have a bit of fondness for the title but not enough to make me go back to it yet.

The next game I actually played and beat all the way through was Phantom Hourglass. As a big Wind Waker fan, I'd been interested in the title for a long time in the hopes of getting more of that experience. I knew it had a lot of divided reviews over its controls and a central dungeon you had to keep going to but I really, really liked this game when I played it. Revisting the dungeon didn't really bother my that much and there were ways to warp down further over time so it wasn't constantly a lot of backtracking. The touch controls really won me over and I think they're brilliant. It's kind of a shame no other game makers felt like following or adapting that control scheme into other titles. Part of me wanted to dive into Spirit Tracks right after to play another game with those touch controls but I told myself I should save it for later and now I've never gotten to it because there are always other games I'm wanting to catch up on and finally play.

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