Adventure of Link

Zelda II: Adventure of Link is the second game for the NES. Unlike other Zeldas it is a sidescroller (and don’t you dare bring up the cursed CD-i games). It also has RPG leveling elements. Basically it’s an odd game radically different than the others.

The game has a lot of fun action and swordplay, but unfortunately it suffers from a lot of the obscurity even moreso than Zelda 1 does. If you don’t use a guide, you’re going to have a bad time.

That's not to say you'll have a good time with a guide. Game Over is this game drains you of your experience to the next level but not of your levels. This can be extremely punishing, where progress gets stalled if you keep dying before getting levels. And the difficulty of the game is pretty damn high with a decent ramp up. So you’re in for a frustrating experience.

Random encounters are also super annoying. Honestly they’re annoying in every game that has them. And while the swordplay is fun, it definitely gets tiresome as the game throws absurd enemies at you.

Overall, the game is just a slog. And the fact that it has very little connection to future games makes it easier to sideline. Basically the only legacy this game has is giving link the upward and downward strike in Super Smash Brothers. So forget about it.