It's dangerous to go alone take this… and this… and this, this, this, and don't forget this!
This is the new message of The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo's original masterpiece which was given a surprise release on the Nintendo Switch this week. Alongside a swathe of new NES games available through Nintendo Switch Online, including the excellent puzzle platformer Solomon's Key, the NES classic comes to the Nintendo Switch with a new subtitle, The Legend of Zelda – Living the life of luxury!
Where as the original game tossed Link into an open world with nothing but a shield and the aid of a cooky geezer with a wooden sword, this new version bestows upon Link the White Sword, the Blue Ring, the Power Bracelet, bombs, arrows, the Blue Candle, a Red Potion, three additional hearts, and even the frickin' Meat!
On top of that, it even gives players 255 rupees… leaving me wondering what the point is since Link already has the Blue Ring, the Meat, and the Blue Candle, the only items you really need rupees for in the first place… I guess that's just an easy 255 arrows.
The Legend of Zelda – Living the life of luxury is similar to those weird ROM hacks from the late 90s, only officially sanctioned by Nintendo. This is the big N's way of introducing the game to a new generation of gamers, I suppose. Hand them all the secrets so they are able to survive easier. They might not lose confidence in the wilderness of Hyrule, but they do lose a bit of their soul they'll never get back…
Not my kid! He's gonna learn the proper way to explore Hyrule, and he's going to suffer through it the way I did!
Hell, get the graph paper, we're making our own maps!
In all seriousness, this isn't the last time we're likely to see such blatant hand-holding with the NES classics. Metroid is due for a similar release on the Switch somewhere down the line, and that game is even more inaccessible than The Legend of Zelda!
It might be necessary since a large number of gamers find NES too difficult to sit and dedicate time to. While I feel this is going overboard a little, the levels are still grueling, the map is still open, and the Master Sword remains hidden from all but the sharpest eyes.
Best of luck, kids. You'll still need it… just not as much as we did in 1986.
