Where were you during the hype build up to Zelda 2 in '88. (For people around then please.) When did you acquire it?

[BossDumDrum]

I was watching the brand new episode of NES Works and the video goes into an EXTENSIVE detail about Zelda 2's hype cycle, being advertised what seemed barely after the first game released. Granted, a lot of it was relegated to the Fun Club Magazine prior to Nintendo Power, but dang what huge coverage for a game that wasn't to be released until nearly a year down the line.


View: https://youtu.be/L-zz4JrqIK0

Then there's the matter of the chip shortage in 1988 and how for 88- Early 89, you couldn't even acquire the game, and when it eventually became widespread enough to get, there was an absolute plethora of NES games to own.

I wanna know this mainly for historical understanding. It's a game that I mostly hear about in hind-sight and in comparison to the other games in the Zelda series. How did this game compare not just to Zelda 1, but the other titles on the NES catalogue you may have owned?

 

[Killyoh]

In a void and now I have existential crisis

 

[writhingcorpse897]

Not born yet. I first played Zelda 2 many, many years later in my 20s. Played the original Zelda as a child it was a wonderful experience.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I was 3 years old and I've never owned a physical copy of Zelda 2 because it's a bad game and every time I played it at friends' houses when we were kids, I just ended up turning it off and putting regular Zelda on.

 

[Deleted member 12129]

I was too young to notice the media blitz, but I did have the game. I was also too young to play through it lol

 

[808s & Villainy]

Well I was born in 89 so...

 

[entremet]

I remembered it. My music teacher would complain to us in class that she couldn't find a copy for her son.

I wasn't a Zelda fan back then. I did end up playing it via rentals/trades. Buying games back then was a special occasion thing. We mostly rented and made temporary trades.

Loved it. Never beat it until recently.

 

[SeanMN]

I had actually not played the first Zelda or even heard about it even though I was a big Nintendo fan. The hype around Zelda II was enough that my Mom, who played games with us, had heard about it and told us. My brothers and I pooled our savings and purchased it in ~1990. We thought the gold cartridge was incredible. It was the first game I remember playing where you didn't just keep moving forward to progress. You had to choose, and figure out, where to go. We found it fun and difficult, perhaps too difficult since I never went on to play any more titles in the series.

 

[tuffy]

I missed the pre-release hype altogether and got the title as a gift probably late 89 after renting it beforehand. I didn't actually get the original Legend of Zelda until some time later the next year, and a used copy at that.

Zelda 2's dual modes, RPG level grinding and twitch combat platforming impressed me more at the time, but I came around to appreciating the original game's style later on.

 

[sir_crocodile]

I didn't get this until a few years later because £. I'd stare at it pictures of it in magazines though. Some would show entire palace layouts and man I wanted it bad.

I played it before Zelda 1, which I picked up a year later.

I faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar preferred it to 1, thought it was so much better it's not even worth talking about. The combat is so good, and secrets are mostly more interesting then in 1 as well. Zelda 3 would of course later refine 1 into a format that was also superior to both, but 1 has a lot of rough edges and 2 is almost perfect for what it sets out to do.

2 is also my absolute fave game on the nes. My rough top twenty for reference (for games I completed back then, so fami etc not included):

Spoiler

Zelda 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Maniac Mansion
Castlevania 3
Gargoyles Quest 2
Super Mario Bros 2 (USA)
Duck Tales 2
Mega Man 4
Parodius Da!
Monsters in my Pocket
Kabuki Quantum Fighter
Duck Tales
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Super Mario Bros
James Bond Jr
Little Nemo
Rainbow Islands (UK version)
Shadowgate
Bubble Bobble

 

[Flex1212]

I was the annoying kid who called Toys R Us every day to see if they had Zelda in yet and luckily I called at the right time and my mom was a saint and drove me to get it right then and there. Little did I know the game would became almost impossible to find.

 

[Fuzzy]

First time I played it was as a rental in the summer of 89. I loved it from the start and would get it as a free rental from my oldest brother's friend a bunch of times that summer. I still love it to this day and I've beaten it every time I've gotten it (NES, GBA, Wii VC, etc), even on the Zelda G&W last year.

 

[FTF]

I was too young to notice the media blitz, but I did have the game. I was also too young to play through it lol

Click to shrink...

lol yeah this is me too.

 

[tata toothy]

I was skimming early Nintendo Powers on archive.org the other day, and it's pretty evident there wasn't nearly much a hype culture in gaming as there would be in the coming decades. NP would often wait an issue or two before a big game's cover feature to even announce the thing in their preview section.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Didn't get my NES until 89 but I had enough friends in school with it that I knew what was up. I played the hell out of Z1 but Z2 was an odd aberration that I didn't know how to accept back then when I rented it or borrowed it from a friend, then later strongly disliked, then even later turned a full 180 on and really, really enjoy.

 

[Kazooie]

In my diapers.

 

[BossDumDrum]

I was skimming early Nintendo Powers on archive.org the other day, and it's pretty evident there wasn't nearly much a hype culture in gaming as there would be in the coming decades. NP would often wait an issue or two before a big game's cover feature to even announce the thing in their preview section.

Click to shrink...

That's because the hype cycle happened in the Nintendo Fun Club News. The video shows how this game basically got the red carpet treatment, and Nintendo held back on the hype for Nintendo Power since the game had been apparently delayed.

 

[Ferrio]

I don't remember the build up to Zelda II. I had the magazines and stuff but some reason it doesn't register unlike Mario II.

I do remember playing it a shit load with my friend, we both loved the damn thing.

 

[j7vikes]

I don't remember the hype as I would have been 5 when it came out. I do know that we got the game when I was 7 and with the help of my older brother and cousin working together over time we all beat it.

We would share notes back and forth so my cousin might have it for a month and he would share notes on what he figured out then my and my brother might have it for a month and share notes. We passed games back and forth a lot. By the end we definitely had pages of correspondence and notes on the game.

I never played the original so the whole oh man the sequel is so different that's bad thing was never a thought to me.

It remains one of my favorite games of all time and probably the one game I fell the most in love with and played the most on the NES which was my first console.

 

[gamerfan]

I got it for Christmas of 1988 along with Super Mario Bros. 2. One of the best Christmas I've ever had, was in 2nd grade at the time.

 

[QisTopTier]

I was 3 years old and I've never owned a physical copy of Zelda 2 because it's a bad game and every time I played it at friends' houses when we were kids, I just ended up turning it off and putting regular Zelda on.

Click to shrink...

The worst of takes about one of the top 4 zelda games.

I was only 2 at the time but my older brother and dad were super excited for it. I beat it on my own a few years later with some help from my dad with some of the weirder stuff

 

[Baphomet]

Being born

 

[Aldo]

Wasn't there yet, but it was one of the first NES games my parent bought me in the early/mid-90s. It was fun but as a child who didn't understand English or even read, I had no clue about what to do plus it was hard as hell. I was clearly not the target audience, but hey, shiny gold cartridge.

 

[Vilifier]

I think I got it for Xmas in '91.

Never even knew it existed before I got it. I played the original at a friend's house and asked my parents for Zelda. I was extremely excited when I opened the present but completely perplexed there was a sequel and by how different it was to the first.

It was also the first time I learned the risks of using a Game Genie device. I was stuck on the final dungeon and a friend let me borrow their Game Genie. I used infinite magic to Fairy quickly to the final room and had the game lock during the Shadow Link fight. I restarted the game to try again and my save was wiped. That moment broke me as a kid.

 

[No Depth]

MASSIVE Zelda 1 fan at the time as a youngling.

Was stupid excited for a sequel until I saw the screenshots in magazines and just…I crumbled. I wanted more of the same but bigger and better. I was a devastated child on how substantially different the gameplay looked and didn't ask for it as a gift.

Some friends got it at launch and I played it with them, remained stubborn for awhile despite loving the music and kind of enjoying the vague mysteries and secrets to unearth in the world.

A couple years later I bought it myself and just become a huge fan, letting go of my early disappointment. Beat it multiple times.

By then LttP was getting closer to release and I was beyond the moon in anticipation for a "true successor" to my gaming love. Still hold Z1 as possibly my fav in the franchise but Zelda 2 won me over and is a solid experience despite some quirks.

 

[Dr. Mario]

I don't think it really registered as a distinct game for me at the time. I was sure the commercial about link kissing a sleeping beauty was for the first game. That one probably took me years to finish anyway. I didn't play Zelda 2 until a few years later and didn't like it that much.

 

[Vonocourt]

Not existing.

 

[inner-G]

I was super hyped because I loved Zelda 1, but then couldn't find a copy forever.

Finally got one at Sears eventually.

Got it home and was utterly disappointed because of how different it was. I never ended up playing it very far.

Honestly it's prob one of the main reasons I'm not a big Zelda fan now. (I also preferred the 2D sprite-based Zelda's in general. 1, LttP, the Oracles, etc.)

 

[mute]

Not sure how aware of Zelda I was until the Super Show. Even then I only had the first one I think, and skipped 2 and got LttP at some point and didn't look back until I was much older.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

I remember store employees here in Canada were saying that some Americans were coming up here to buy it as it was easier to find when it first came out.

I didn't like the game quite as much as Zelda 1 but it was still great and I have fond memories of it. Wonder Boy III blew it away as far as platform/adventures go but that was several months later in the region.

 

[The Real Abed]

I never owned the NES Zelda games as a kid. Though I always admired them from afar through the glass case at Jamesway. I didn't really play them for real until the late '90s or early '00s when I could get them used at EB Games. Maybe I emulated the first one at some point. I dunno. I forget. Either way they were way too difficult for me as an adult. Nintendo Hard is real. Back then I had no idea. I always wondered what it would be like if I did have them as a kid. How far would I have gotten in them? Would I even bother with II if I couldn't beat I? Probably not. But eventually I did have a Game Genie. You just know I'd have been exploiting that shit ASAP. Probably a code for infinite health or maxed weapons or something.

Thankfully we have the NES Classic and the Switch NSO. Thanks to save states I could actually play through both of them and finish them on my own terms. As an adult I don't have all the disposable time I had as a kid to just play a single game for hours upon hours to try and beat it through trial and error. Save states are a godsend. I don't even care. Hate if you want.

Thanks to that, Zelda II is actually more fun than Zelda I for me. Though I love them both. I do need to play through the second quest in Zelda I one of these days though. I beat the first quest like 4 years ago when I got my Classic. I felt so happy to finally finish them. Since I couldn't enjoy them as a kid.

 

[Lockheartilly9799]

I was literally born in 88. However, I will say that there was MEGA hype about Ocarina of Time when that came out. Like super duper hype. I remember most of us kids who didn't get an N64, got one specifically for that game. I also remember the endless Link vs Cloud fan battles we all drew up as kids too. What a fun time.

Speaking of Zelda II though, I played it after beating the first one when I was a kid and really didn't like it. The different experience was jarring for me.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Too young to care.

Played it much later and appreciate their attempt to make something of a side scroller but I think it plays too poorly to succeed. I'm certainly open to another 2D sidescroller Zelda attempt someday but I think Zelda II just wasn't particularly tuned well.

 

[Druffmaul]

I stopped playing video games circa 1984, shortly after hitting puberty. I skipped the entire 8-bit era and came back right when the SNES launched. I bought Zelda ALttP in 1993, partially because I was annoyed that the commercial didn't show any game play whatsoever and that made me very curious. It had been out for a year at the time and there were so many occasions when I came THIS close to buying it, before I finally did. At the time I had absolutely no idea it was the third game in a franchise. ALttP was one of the games that solidified that I was a gamer again and still am now. Super Mario World, ALttP and Super Metroid were some of my top favorites, so I was motivated to get a used NES and play the previous incarnations I missed out on. Sadly I was never able to get into Zelda 1 or 2 at all. Same with Metroid. For me they are the epitome of "you had to be there" games.

 

[Jake]

I will always remember getting this for my birthday in second grade. It's still one of my favorite games to this day, and have had great memories of playing it.

 

[mrbogus]

I had just gotten an NES for Christmas in 1987 and the first Legend of Zelda in the summer of '88.

I didn't have any game magazines to get hyped to buy the sequel. I think I rented it once, didn't care for the change in gameplay, and didn't get a copy until over a decade later in the 2000s.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

I was 8 and it was the most hyped I'd ever been for a game at the time. Played TLoZ almost non-stop.
So my brother and I got TAoL for Christmas.

And we hated it. 😅

For reasons beyond me the cartridge stopped working after a couple of hours and we didn't even bother telling our Mom to get it replaced.

 

[oRuin]

I was 7 or 8, with my parents in Boots pharmacy store in the UK.
Don't remember any hype for it. Was a lot of general NES adverts on TV though.
Bought it because it was gold with a cool sword on the cover.

Was my 4th game, just after Tiger Heli.

 

[Jordan94]

You need to go to an old age home and ask them lol

 

[Polyh3dron]

I lived in Canada at the time and was SUPER hyped for Zelda II but it wasn't available anywhere.. I was 7 years old and it was early 1989. Was so excited when my family ended up going on a cross-border shopping trip to Michigan because I could finally try and get it over there and managed to nab a copy. Nintendo Power magazines had me salivating for it.

I ended up not liking it and never finishing it since I was expecting top-down gameplay like the original. Spent a lot of time meandering through the earlier castles and dying to overworld enemies.

I was so excited for Link to the Past when I started reading about that in Nintendo Power later on though. My disappointment with everything about Zelda II (especially the weird and subpar music aside from the brilliant dungeon theme, with the tweaks on the original overworld theme really irking me for some reason) made the return to form in ALttP that much sweeter. Made sure parents got that one for me ASAP and played the hell out of it. Adventure of Link was the only mainline Zelda game I had a real dislike for.

 

[karim]

I got a nes in 89. I didn't even realize Zelda 2 existed until the internet.

 

[hutna]

I was the annoying kid who called Toys R Us every day to see if they had Zelda in yet and luckily I called at the right time and my mom was a saint and drove me to get it right then and there. Little did I know the game would became almost impossible to find.

Click to shrink...

This was me except my parents refused to buy me video games of any kind or provide transportation for me to buy them. Instead I had a route planned for me to ride my bike to the TRU in the event they had it. Luckily a friend's parents were kind enough to let me tag along one day to buy it with them.

 

[DixieDean82]

I didn't own a NES. I owned a Master System. It was popular in the UK and I'm not sure why.

 

[ghostcrew]

It was actually my first Zelda game. I was seeing both games in magazines at the time (typically guides - those maps were so exciting to see in print!) and I thought Zelda 2 looked like the better one because it was side scrolling.

Still loved it at the time but obviously I knew instantly when I got Zelda 1 that that was the superior game.

 

[Spork4000]

My parents were dating, I was far off. First time playing it was on the Wii virtual console.

 

[TΛPIVVΛ]

I was trying to get adequate breast milk nutrient intake and soiling myself.

 

[Freshmaker]

Massive cart shortage, so it was impossible to get.

Ended up renting it, hated it, and never bothered again.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

I didn't own a NES. I owned a Master System. It was popular in the UK and I'm not sure why.

Click to shrink...

Probably because Virgin Mastertronic did a better job marketing it than Sega/Tonka did in NA.

 

[julia crawford]

the vast green fields of inexistence

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I was a child so I didn't get into "hype" of things like video games back then because I didn't follow it like today. However, I did get the game, it was my first Zelda and it's still in my top 3. Fucking love that game.