Introduction: It was released in 1987 when Nintendo, after the great success of The Legend of Zelda for the NES, decided to create a sequel to this fusion of RPG and Adventure. The sequel is a game with a unique style that meshes RPG, Adventure, and Action elements together for a memorable experience. The best pieces of the greatest NES games went in to this title, and although it is criticized by many for this original style, it has been one of the Nintendo' greatest hits. Let us analyze it, but remember that, while you are reading the review, this is a very old game and it's age will be taken into consideration for the ratings.

Review: First, when you begin to play this game, you immediately notice that alot has changed from the previous chapter of Zelda. Now the game is divided in to two modes of play: an Explore-battle mode and a Map mode. The Explore-battle mode is the part of the game in which you will spend the most time playing. Map mode is needed only to move around the world of Hyrule. The first uses a view like the one of Super Mario Bros. and is activated upon entering a town, palace, dungeon, and random battle. By the way, random battles are represented on the Map mode as little black monsters; the battle triggers when the monsters hit you. Some monsters are large and some are small: the bigger the monster, the more difficult the battle will be. The game is kind of easy to control. On the Map mode you only use the direction pad while on the Explore-Battle mode you use A to jump and B to swing your sword. Furthermore, you can select spells (you learn them from old men that you find in the towns) from a menu that appears when pressing START. The spells can be used in battle by pressing the SELECT key.

Now that I've covered the gameplay we can move on to the storyline. That's really quite simple because the game is focused on gameplay. Basically, you play the role of Link (from the prequel) that now has grown up and is sixteen years old. He has to awaken the princess Zelda, that fell in an eternal sleep years and years ago. To do this, he must enter palaces protected by force fields and collect different pieces of the legendary Triforce. To destroy the force field he must place six crystals in six evil castles located in the land of Hyrule, all very well guarded.

The graphics are the best that the old NES can do and the music is very good although it is a little tiring sometimes, especially in the castles. However, graphics and sound combine to create the right atmosphere that is adapted to the fun of the gameplay.

Conclusion: An original game that fuses the best aspects of Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania which are definitely classic NES titles. Its best treat is that it allows you to play an RPG with all the fun of Super Mario and the pure action of Castlevania. Considering its age, it is an original, funny and innovative game. It is worth a try on your favorite NES emulator.

Ratings: (scale of 0.0 - 5.0)