Philips CD-I Zelda
[ Wand of Gamelon | The Faces of Evil | Zelda's Adventure ]
The Philips CD-i
In 1994, Nintendo and Philips and Sony had partnered up to make a CD add-on for the SNES. The add-on would produce better sound, graphics, and larger games. A little while after they had started the idea, Sega released the same thing to their "Mega Drive", and Nintendo put the idea to a halt.
So both Philips and Sony went off and released their own consoles, Sony releasing the Playstation, and Philips releasing the CD-i. Nintendo had given Philips permission to use their characters while they were working on the CD add-on, so the Zelda CD-i's are the outcome.
The games are a mark of shame of the series. Both the console and the games were a complete flop and it is very hard to obtain a copy of either in this day and time. If you are a dedicated zelda fan and cannot do without them, they sometimes come up on eBay, but I recommend skipping over these games.
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Wand of Gamelon
This game is a side scrolling game. It did not fare well at all. The enemies have little detail, but the backgrounds are of quite good quality for its time, but the game has overall poor overall presentation. The cartoon cutscenes aren't too well thought out, and the voice actors seem to be amateurs. The in-game sound effects are terrible! The only thing this game is good for is originality, because you play as Zelda not our favorite hero Link!
The Faces of Evil
This game was one of the earlier CD-I Zelda games. This game has bad presentation and sound (again!). The game is annoying; you need certain items to be able to defeat bad guys and (this is the really annoying part) the way the game is spread out wasn't very organised, which means you'll get to dungeons and such before you're even supposed to be there and have no clue that you've skipped one. The storyline isn't really pleasing either, 'One day link is bored because of Yule's peace, so he complains to Zelda's father.'
Zelda's Adventure
This is the final CD-I Zelda to be released. This game's presentation is quite fair compared to its prequels. You play this game from a bird's eye view with pre-rendered graphics, which are great for its time. You take the role of Zelda again. This game drops the cartoonish style of the previous two CD-I Zelda's. The FMV now has real actors in it, which doesn't work very well because they are terrible at acting! The characters themselves are slightly blocky and undefined, but still sufficient. The sound and music is a bit better, and the game's controls have really improved, but browsing through menus still is a pain.
