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Zelda's Adventure is a video game developed by Viridis and released for the Philips CD-i in 1994. It is a semi-sequel to Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, both released on the same day a year before. Zelda's Adventure was developed by a different company, and this shows through heavily in the game's design. All three CD-i Zelda games were the product of a compromise between Philips and Nintendo after the two companies failed to release a CD-based add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Plot[]

Spoiler warning: The following information contains spoilers. Please read at your own risk.

Tolemac is in the middle of the Age of Darkness, as Ganon (spelled here as Gannon) has kidnapped Link, and unleashed his rule over the land of Tolemac (Camelot spelled backwards). Princess Zelda sets out to save the young adventurer and learns from the astronomer Gaspra that she must first collect seven celestial signs before she can conquer the dark king and bring Hyrule to an "Age of Lightness".

The story is told mostly through live-action FMV scenes filmed in Los Angeles on blue screen.

Gameplay[]

Unlike the previous two CD-i Zelda games, which take the side-scrolling view from Zelda II, Zelda's Adventure is played with the same top-down view found in The Legend of Zelda. Playing as Princess Zelda, the aim is to fight through the Seven Shrines of the Underworld to collect the celestial signs, and bring the land of Tolemac to an Age of Lightness.

Reception[]

Like the system they were created for, the three games were never very popular and today are obscure. Zelda's Adventure was never officially released outside of Europe, hence its rarity and extremely high resale value.

Zelda's Adventure was created by an entirely different company with a change in style and gameplay. Gameplay is very much like the original game, with an overworld that allows access to individual dungeons. Regardless, the game is considered to be an inferior use of the Legend of Zelda title by most fans. The game is not officially recognized as canon by Nintendo because of its lack of involvement.

Trivia[]

  • All the human characters in the game were created using motion capture video, which was shot at the developer's main office using a ceiling mirror for the top-down view, and a treadmill for walk cycle capture.
  • Many of the in-game characters were employees of Viridis in other capacities.
  • Most of the creatures were latex and wire armature models that were stop-frame animated.
  • The photo-realistic backgrounds were composited from top-down photographs of numerous landscapes and textures.
  • The game spent more time QC testing than it spent in development.
  • This title is said to be the rarest Zelda game that was commercially released, particularly since it was only released in Europe, although, like all CD-i games, it has no region encoding to deter importing.

External links[]

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