As The Years Pass

A S   T H E   Y E A R S   P A S S . . .
On Febraury 21, 1986(6 years later on that day, I was born)Shigeru Miyamoto
and the staff of Nintendo took Miyamoto's childhood adventures and  created
Legend Of Zelda. A game that(unlike no other) had a non-linear path(meaning
you could do things out of order) and multiple items that helped  you  pro-
ceed through temples and the expansive 8 by 16 overworld map. In  the  end,
after all 9 dungeons, you killed your arch-nemesis and soon to  be overused
bad guy: Ganondorf Dragmire and saved the Princes Zelda (You're  Link,  not
Zelda, remember that!).                                                    
                                                                           
Then two years later after the game's release, Nintendo took another  whack
at gaming by making Zelda II: Adventure Of Link. An  extremely  hard  side-
scroller, Zelda II was the last and only Zelda game to include  a  level-up
system and RPG elements (such as spells and experience). The game  actually
allowed you to jump and you had a puny little sword to jab with  and  shoot
beams if you managed to keep you're health full long enough  to  shoot  it.
You also had a shield that only blocked one-half of Link's body, so you had
to constantly duck and stand in order to block low and high attacks. In the
end, you traversed through 6 palaces, inserting stones in statues as you go
just so you can gain access to the Great Palace and defeat  two  bosses  to
wake up Princess Zelda. Bad game on on Nintedo's Part.                     
                                                                           
Three long years pass by before Nintendo finally releases the Super Famicom
System and (known as to be the GREATEST Zelda game in the world) Legend  Of
Zelda: A Link To The Past! This game was huge in epic proportions  and  had
TWO world's to discover! The Light World(Hyrule  at  peace)  and  the  Dark
World(A world ruled by Ganon). You also had a HUGE Inventory,  several  ex-
pansive dungeons to discover, and plenty of new features. ALTTP also intro-
duced BOTTLES! Where you can store multiple potions for manual future  use.
No more waiting until you're dead! In the end, after an endless  amount  of
hours playing, you rescued the Maidens, defeated  Agahnim  twice,  acsended
Ganon's Tower, and killed Ganon(again!). Awesome game on  Nintendo's  Part.
                                                                           
Finally we come to this game, Legend Of Zelda: Link's  Awakening!  Released
in black and white for the GB  two  years later, the game  brandished   new
features that would echo and annoy many Zelda perfectionists:  Trading  and
optional collectibles(in this game: Secret Seashells). These two new things
forced you to actually look around real hard for items  that,  in  the long
run, gave you the 'ultimate' prize. The map  (like it's ancestors)  is sep-
erated into 256 individual squares on a 16 by 16 grid for easy programming.
You also dwelled through numerous caves, 8 dungeons, and  collected  sacred
instruments that, when the correct song was played,(You  now have  3  songs
rather than the usual 'toot') would break  open  the Wind  Fish's  Egg  and
allow you access to a endless maze with repeating rooms.  If  you  got  the
sequence right, you would fall into a pit and fight the  final bosses, thus
beating the game if you emerge victorious. Five years pass before they  re-
lease Link's Awakening DX, which  patched  all  the  good glitches (*cough*
Screen Warp *cough*), was now in full bloom and in color, had a Photo  Shop
(where you can print pictures taken during specific situations via a  Game-
boy Printer), the optional D0: Color Dungeon, and beautiful  graphics! This
was, without a doubt, an awesome game to have on you're emulator... I  mean
Gameboy and was well worth the free ROM, I  mean  paid cartridge(hey, those
are hard to find, you know!).