The Legend of Zelda has eloquently evolved into an astounding action adventure game series since its original release in 1986. What started as a seemingly story-less, Peter Pan and Tinkerbelle inspired, 8 Bit NES Garden exploration game, has now grown into a Zelda empire that is rich in compelling storylines. The NES Legend of Zelda was not exactly story-less:

The game jumps right into the top-down view of the land of Hyrule. Link is the green suited main character who immediately finds his beloved sword in a cave right in front of him.

Link must fight against the chaos and monsters left behind by Gannon and must solve puzzles to unlock the 8 pieces of the Triforce of wisdom and save Princess Zelda. This primitive story and game set the stage for years of entertainment as 16 Zelda games were released since. Each of the games has a unique part of the overall Zelda saga. In 2011, a collector’s book was released outlining the entire chronology of the Zelda story and where each game fit in the timeline.

The beginning of the Zelda story is told in the 2011 release of The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword for Nintendo Wii. The game begins with a detailed prolog and animated video, a sharp contrast to the NES versions one screen of text. The legend begins that the demon Demise destroys and causes chaos on the “Surface”  in search for the Triforce. In order to protect the remaining people on the surface a Goddess, Hylia, transported them to an Island in the sky called Skyloft.

When the gameplay starts, a ceremony is about to begin and Link discovers that the Loftwing he needs to ride in competition for the ceremony has gone missing.

After recovering the bird, Link wins the competition at the ceremony and celebrates by taking Princess Zelda for a victory ride. While riding, Princess Zelda is sucked away by Demise’s dark tornado. She is captured below on the Surface. Link must save her, destroy Demise, and restore order to the Surface. Despite different storylines and the passing of 25 years, Skyward Sword has remarkably stayed true to the DNA of the original Legend of Zelda.

Both the original Legend of Zelda and Skyward Sword revolve around sword combat against mythical monsters. Other weapons such as a slingshot are also available to defeat antagonists.  Both utilize the same heart piece life indicators and provide the chance to find additional heart pieces which permanently extend life capacity.

The items and overall theme of the game have remained constant. Both games include bottles, potions, fairies that restore life, and bows and arrows. Both games have shops where items can be purchased for a currency called rupees. Rupees are earned through secret discoveries and by defeating enemies. Both games include a map, although the NES game only provides a limited paper map. Both the original Zelda and Skyward Sword have a separate item screen allowing the player to choose available items. Both games involve at least some on-screen text dialog with other characters in the game, providing direction and advancing the storyline. Both games give a third person perspective view of the main character Link, but the overall perspective view of the worlds are where the games begin to depart.

The top-down view of the NES game is trumped by the beautiful 3D rendering of modern graphics. This introduces a brand new game mechanic compared to the original. Not only can Link move north, south, east, and west, he can also jump on top of things. The 3-Dimenional world allows for levels, ledges, hills, and mountains. Not only can Link jump, now he can climb, hang, and swing. The scenery is more realistic and detailed. The Wii provides game mechanics that were not technologically possible in the 1980’s. The original Zelda sword swing was just a tap on the “A” button, on the Wii, the player must swing the motion tracking controller, simulating an actual sword swing. Different functions and fight moves are achieved by different controller motions. There are balancing obstacles in the game which rely on the players actual balancing ability.

The Skyward Sword storyline is much richer and is well blended throughout gameplay. It really makes the player feel as if they were part of the story. This is in stark contrast to the original which basically consists of the opening story and then the rest of the 12+ hour game includes no advances in the original storyline. Skyward Sword also is kept interesting, at least comically, by the prompts to choose responses in character dialog. These choices usually just affect the character’s response in one or two lines of dialog depending on the choice and then jump back on the main story path.

The differences in Skyward Sword certainly modernize a very primitive game, but do these changes make the game more fun? Or do the differences make the game too complex? Perhaps players still long for the soothing simplicity of the NES game.

The Legend of Zelda and Skyward Sword have been loved and played by millions. The game review site ign.com rates The Legend of Zelda at 9.2/10 while Skyward Sword is rated 10/10. The improved game mechanics in Skyward Sword do serve to make the game more fun. Swinging an actual object to control Link’s sword is considerably more enjoyable than hitting the “A” button. The other mechanics like balance, jumping, and swinging really makes the game exciting and interesting. The in-game help from Fi and other characters make the game much less painstaking than the original version. The hints and helps made the game very easy to learn. Many times, in the original Zelda, Link must wander aimlessly until he stumbles upon something. This wandering can take hours and is really not much fun. Nearly all this wasted time is eliminated by dialog from characters that is programmed to get Link back on course. This allows the player to spend more time advancing through the meaningful parts of the game. There is something almost therapeutic in the simplicity of NES and of course, video games would not be where they are today if it weren’t for games like The Legend of Zelda. However, the advancements in technology, storyline, and gameplay have made Skyward Sword even more enjoyable than the original Zelda.