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Portable gaming systems have been an important part of the technological revolution. Before there were PDA’s and iPads there was the original GameBoy. Most games for the Gameboy were created specifically for that system. Yet others were ports of other popular games. Killer Instinct the Gameboy version is an example of a Gameboy port of a SNES game that was a port of an Arcade Game. After detailed inspection of gaming on these small screens, I noticed something when playing a retro NES game on the GameBoy Advanced. There was a problem playing NES games that required more hair-trigger response reflexes. It seemed that the small screen somehow made it harder to avoid damage and hit the correct areas that I wanted to. This was compared to playing the game on a larger screen.

What could be doing this? There was no way that the smaller screen affected the actual pacing of the game. So, the only thing that could actually be changing in this situation was the human player him or herself. When we look at a screen on a television there is sort of sweet spot for viewing distance. This actually is different for each person, but generally the larger the screen, the farther back the viewer sits in order to have a comfortable view without going cross-eyed.

The people who sit close to large television screens have to move their eyes more in order to make sense of what is going on the screen. The farther back you sit, the more one can absorb the entire screen without moving the eyes. The drawback is that it is harder to pick out details in the periphery if you eyes are stationary. Also, the eyes can get tired depending on what kind of visual gamer one is. Arcade machines tend to but the gamer at a slight distance by the very wooden box itself. The designers understand that people can hurt their eyes by getting to close to machine and try to create an apparatus to compensate for that, without sacrificing visual pleasure enticed by the moving colors and text.

Zelda 2, when played on a GameBoy advanced simply did not work for me. It felt like I had to work twice as hard to not get hit by small monsters like slimes and bouncing skulls. Also timing jump hits and being more adventerous with jumping down-thrusts in order to play with style was reckless when doing so on the GBA. So the experience of playing Zelda 2 on a small screen had some serious disadvantages. I don’t even want to imagine what it would have been like to try and play Ninja Gaiden 2 or Zanac if they were released as part of the Classic NES Series for the GBA. It probably would have been some sort of quasi-nostalgic nightmare state.

A game that translated well to the small screen was Metroid and especially Metroid Fusion. Wow, I had such a great time playing Metroid Fusion. It actually was the reason why I purchased the GBA SP in the first place. But that game had a different feel than Super Metroid or the original. The bright colors seemed to work in order to make threats more visible. And the mission objective system made pacing the game simple enough to keep one’s interest while waiting for someone to finish shopping for shoes.

-Tyler

 

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is a game that many people have played, but few have beaten. There is a great deal of sentiment about this game. Some say that the game is not a ‘true’ Zelda adventure due to its primarily side-scrolling nature. Others say the 2D action/RPG elements were just too darn hard. Albeit this game is much more quick reflex and dexterity challenging compared to the First and Third installments of the Zelda series, it is not an impossible game to beat. There are some strategies and tactics that will help you beat the game, they include proper leveling techniques for rapidly getting the MAX 8 attack / 8 Magic / 8 health defensive rating, strategies for combing for powerups such as heart and magic containers, the strategic use of game mechanics to optimize gameplay without cheating, and optimal sword combat tactics versus different enemy types.

When you start the game you will notice that you already have a sword so you won’t have to borrow one from an old dude in a cave. Also that green billy club in your hands is actually your shield and it plays a much bigger part in Zelda 2 than it does in pretty much any of the other Zelda games I’ve played. You get the spell called, “Shield” early on, but it doesn’t do anything to your shield. It actually doubles your current defensive rating. It is one of the best and most used spells in the game. The spell that affects your actual shield in your hands is called, “Reflect” and that comes much later. We will discuss that in a few paragraphs, when it is more appropriate for the palace you will be on.

The biggest mistake I made when I tried to play through the game a few years ago for the second time, was that I rushed into the first palace too soon. Try and level up  a few times in the forest. You’ll notice that some of the monsters don’t give exp when you kill them, like the bear creatures with the spears if you get hit by the more dangerous overworld monster activation shadow. But if you kill these spear bears over and over again, they often drop 50 exp ‘P’ bags. These drop quite often and sometimes you get more than one per forest encounter, so practice your skills and level up for a bit.

When you finally do make it into the first palace, do not use the “JUMP” spell that you may have learned from the town to the north-west. The jump spell will make it hard for you to hit the horse head boss in the face. So just use your “SHIELD” spell and smack him 8 times or so and he should explode quite dramatically. I’d recommend having your sword attack skill at least at level 2. So your stats should be at  (2/2/2) or better for you to easily defeat the first palace.

REMEMBER: Everytime you defeat a boss and replace one of the crystals in the third eye socket (yes, I just noticed that this time around. These statues look like elongated faces with a third eye and a long nose) you will get enough EXP to level up your current EXP maximum. So if you have 0006 / 3000  EXP. Or six out of three-thousand exp. Then you will get 2994 exp from replacing the crystal jewel into the statue.

BUT if you have 2900 / 3000 EXP and you replace a crystal, then you will only receive 100 EXP for replacing the crystal. This being known, you should try and level up in this latter circumstance before fighting a boss. This way you can maximize the amount of bonus you get from defeating a boss and replacing a crystal.

Also, once you get the secret item from a palace, and kill the boss, and replace the crystal in the palace…the palace itself will be destroyed and turn to stone. You will not be able to visit it again. But if you beat a boss and replace a crystal but don’t take the special item hidden in the palace, then you can still go inside.

Early in the game you will notice some over world extra lives in the form of little “Link” dolls. I recommend that you don’t pick these up and diligently remember their locations. Link dolls will help out tremendously when you try and defeat the final palace.

The first of these free life dolls is in the first swamp zone near a boulder.

When fighting most monsters with shields there is a trick to pretty much getting a guaranteed hit instead of playing guess the shield location all day. If you jump and attack as you are starting to come down and aim for the monster’s head…you will pretty much get a hit every time if you do it right. Of course, this technique can only be done if you are not in an enclosed space.

NOTE: This technique will not work when fighting the final boss, it will actually get you killed.But we will discuss the final boss in more detail later.

Near the first swamp zone there is also a big forest, this is where you need to get into the habit of combing entire map areas and remembering where you’ve explored in between monster encounters. This will help you level up and you will also learn how to fight like a pro.

When you are in the forest you will eventually find a log cabin and a guy will give you the password for you to access the bridge that is guarded by the soldier.

Also I recommend taking the south bridge that is on the east side to get to the town, this is because there are less bottomless pits and it is easier.

Just on a side note the overworld encounters with the monster shadows reminds me of PAC MAN. munch…munch…munch…

There are a great deal of fire/lava pits in palace number 2. So you might want to venture into the caves near the water town in order to finish leveling up instead of risking loosing all your EXP if you have to continue. Inside these caves you get the hammer which is necessary for finding some awesome heart container/magic container powerups as well as making traversing the over-world map tremendously faster.

Here is a pro tip that I haven’t heard anyone else talk about yet. If you have a medium amount of magic energy left in your magic bar, but you don’t have enough magic to cast, “LIFE” but you come across a red magic potion, you may have an inkling to collect the red potion, wait for your magic to refill and then cast LIFE and regain some health. Well, here’s a trick that will impress your friends. Before collecting the red potion, activate your start screen and prepare LIFE to be cast. Then collect the red potion, but while your mana is being refilled, constantly press “select” on your controller. What will happen is that you will regain your life but the potion will still give you magic energy. And you will end the transaction with more magic energy in your bar than you would have than if you had just sat there watching the bar fill up and then cast your spell. This happens because you are using your remaining magic in part before the magic bar refilling potion finishes its process.

QUICK TIP: Monster strength varies for enemies equipped with shields varies from YELLOW (weak) RED (somewhat strong) BLUE (adept soldiers bent on your demise).

Once you get your attack strength to level 5 you can kill the yellow axe wielding alligator soldiers. And the amount of EXP from battling in the mountains is excellent so there is no reason to wait till later to at least get your bearings there and enjoy the well crafted mountain maze.

Another thing that will make fighting palaces more fun is that once you have your sword skill at level 5 and if you have the DOWN THRUST sword ability that you get from spending some time at the church. You can effectively kill the flying skull things that drain your magic power that live in the palaces. You need to just time it so you jump straight up and down and land with a down-thrust right on top of it. If you keep holding “down” you will bounce on top of the thing until it blows up and give you 50 EXP. (This reminds me of the unlimited life trick in super mario brothers part one on stage 2-3 ??)

If you visit the water town in Sarira you will notice there is a sleeping slime that says, “…zzz…” I believe this was the first time I ever saw “zzz” used in popular culture that made its way into American mainstream in order to denote that someone was sleeping/bored. Why was that slime so tired?

To save the little kid that people want in Sarira, you need to enter the mountain maze by exploring over and over again. You will fight a lot of monsters in the process and will get a lot of EXP for doing this. Eventually you will find the missing child.

THE HEART CONTAINER IN THE WATER: This one is tough. You need the walking boots to walk on water to the level 5 palace. But you need to walk until your path is blocked in the water to the north keep moving east and then check north every time. About 5 steps or to the right, you will be able to walk
north a few steps. Then keep heading east and you will reach the place where the heart container is kept. You will need enough magic for a jump spell to get to the heart container. (is it just me or does link look extremely excited and joyous about finding heart containers?)

All right, you’ve heard enough basic stuff, it’s time for some pro tips.

When you are in the green palace, you will notice that there is an EXP bag above an elevator near some poison water dispensers. Even with the JUMP spell you won’t be able to normally get the bag. The way to do it is to preferably have “SHIELD” spell activated as well as JUMP and then time your jump precisely so that you will get hit by the poison water exactly when you are at the apex of your jump. This will trigger your damage-hit response and you will be pushed up onto the ledge and be able to receive the P-bag.

The fire spell is MUCH better than it was in the first Zelda game. It makes it so your sword launches fire that will stay on the screen to the end. You can have two fireballs on the screen at once and can make then follow extra length if you have somewhere to run to that triggers the screen scrolling animation. These fireballs can penetrate most enemies and actually pierce directly through them and carry on to damage more enemies. But what you might not have known is that the FIRE spell is directly related to the Sword Skill rating that Link has at the time of the cast. So if you have sword skill level 8 your fireballs will do serious damage.

The REFLECT spell is excellently effective versus magic wielding and fire breathing enemies. REFLECT will make it so you can defeat the enemies that disappear and also the ghost boss of one of the palaces. But it will also make it so your shield will block fire attacks. Normally fire based attack will penetrate your shield even if you line yourself up properly. And since reflect doesn’t cost that much magic in order to cast, it can sometimes can a good magical investment in situations that normally may require you to take damage that would have you end up casting a much more expensive LIFE spell anyway.

The hidden town of Kasuto is extremely tricky to find. You have to use your hammer in the forest that you can only get to by entering a cave to the East. This forest has about 20 – 30 forest squares and if you diligently chop down all the trees that you can and remember which ones you chopped down before getting hit by the shadow overworld monsters, then you might find the hidden city.

Within the hidden city, there are many secrets. So be more diligent than ever when listening to townsfolk, in this town especially. There is a magic container a special item and a magic spell in this town. So don’t miss out.

The final heart container is actually in the desert to the far east of the triple rock formation. If you search long enough you’ll find it. At least you don’t have to chop down trees in order to find it.

Once you defeat all the 6 palaces and put the crystals in the eye socket of the statues, then go to the dead city that used to be the original hidden city. You need to also make sure that you have the Cross Item or else you will get your face beaten by flying invisible monsters that do critical damage. Once within the city enter the first house and talk to the old man. If you did all the above things, he will give you the Final Spell of THUNDER. This spell is important for the second to last boss battle of the final palace.

THE FINAL BATTLE: You will engage in hand to hand combat with your shadow self. This is what puts Zelda 2 above many games I’ve played. The technique of jump-attacking to get free hits simply won’t work. You need to stand your ground. But first make sure to cast shield and that’s it. Don’t use jump. Actually, jumping around too much isn’t a good idea, it makes you very vulnerable. Save your magic for casting LIFE when you need to. Remember that you need to prepare LIFE by pressing start every time you want to cast it. You can’t just press ‘select’ twice and heal yourself twice.

When fighting you should try and force your shadow to jump at you. Then attack him at his legs or body. This will get you a nice hit. If he isn’t jumping at all then go ahead and do your leap attack that I mentioned before, or else play more defensive and move away from him. Eventually he will get greedy and jump at you. Be careful not to have him fight off the screen, I don’t think your hits register properly if you do this…but unfortunately his attacks will definitely hurt you. Hold your own and try and push him back with the force of your sword and determination. Eventually he will get impatient and try and jump attack you. Be on the lookout and take advantage of his hubris. Also, you can occasionally get lucky with a basic attack while you both are standing at his upper or lower body. But this is a lot harder to do than hitting him while he is jumping.

You may have just saved Hyrule. But from now on…you rule.

-Tyler