Nintendo’s Zelda-themed Game & Watch is a love letter from Link’s 8-bit origin

For the 35th year of Super Mario Bros.. last year, Nintendo released a special Game & Watch app. (In case you did not know, Game & Watch was a line-up of LCD handsets from the ’80s that can play one very simple game.) the next Japanese-only, known in the West as Super Mario Bros.: Lost Sessions.

Nintendo is pulling the same fraud this year with a The 35-year-old story of Zelda-themed Game & Watch which has just been sold. And as in last year’s model, it incorporates color palette and full sports, but the selection is very generous. It includes the original The Story of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, all released on NES. It also includes Zelda’s Story: Link’s Awakening, which was released on Game Boy in 1993, making this primarily a series of Zelda’s first 8-bit episodes.

I’ve never played the first two games of Zelda, though I love it Link rise. Ine played Switch remaster A few years ago, but I haven’t touched the first game since I was a kid – so when we got a chance to see this little device, I was really excited to deliver the game.

The Game & Watch itself is professionally designed, and also affordable. It’s a small palm-leaf device with eye-catching gold, while everything else has green plastic. The front has a 2.36-inch color LCD screen that is very small and looks great – as well as playable Link Rise, a promotion from the Game Boy show, which had no backlash, is amazing. D-Pads and buttons are not something you can write at home, but they are great.

To the right of the device is a modern USB-C port for charging its battery (which is much smaller, then you have to do more) with the power button; the speaker is on the left. Finally, there is the big Easter egg on the back: When the curtain is opened, Triforce shines brightly through the green plastic. It’s a little detailed.

The Game & Watch has several different styles: watch, time and games. Pressing the “play” button allows you to switch between three Zelda themes, Link-themed type Animals (from 1980 Game & Watch), with timer. The clock and time are self-explanatory, but their use of Zelda as a base is done skillfully.

At the clock, you will see the original The Story of Zelda, and the CPU-controlled interface mainly fights the game in the next 12 hours, defeating Ganon and saving Zelda at 11:59. If you really like it, you can pick up a connector and adjust what is happening on the clock at any time. Similarly, the timer has several different formats from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link that you can watch or play on your own. The installation of the device is also modified to be a bit static so you can use Game & Watch as a desktop watch.

If you are interested in these Games & Watch, however, you are not involved in the clock play: you want to repeat Link’s past experience on the smallest device you can find. Sure, you can play the NES Zelda collection on the switch (or many other Nintendo devices), but the little Game & Watch game and old-school screens sound great on these effects. It is doubly true with Link Rise, since it was originally designed to be equipped with a carrier.

The game is exactly the way you remember it, with no live additives or graphics; Link Rise it’s black and white, instead of the “DX” version released on the Game Boy version. I & # x20AC; & # x2122; m not worried, because these original types seem to be suitable for Games & Watch as a celebration of 8-bit originals.

How you feel about the game depends on your profile and list. As I said, I have never played the original NES Zelda tour; I rode with them Back Link in 1992. As a result, I would not have much love for the first two, and playing the first game was a frustrating game. No map, Link is delayed when enemies are in a hurry, and direction is not clear. I actually died more than my time, which was the lowest for this self-proclaimed Zelda expert. But hey, I shouldn’t have expected anything different from the 1986 game, and I started to know it soon.

Link Rise, on the other hand, was like visiting an old friend. The memory of the muscles and the brain combined to get me through the process right away, and it improved as I remembered. The A and B buttons may sound a little rough, but the D-pad was very close to the one on my old Game Boy that I felt at home. I don’t know if I finish the NES Zelda game, but I do Link Rise.

So who exactly is this $ 50 device? The Super Mario Bros.. Games & Watch were just made for people who love Mario’s original game, not the people who love Mario franchise a lot. Likewise, The Legend of Zelda Game & Watch is ideal for someone who loves the first game growing up. It doesn’t have to be all three, though – if one of them was a fitness game, you might enjoy getting a chance to play it on a cute little bag. But someone woke up Twilight Princess or Wild Air perhaps they will find this to be really unnecessary.