Nintendo Adds One Of The Most Divisive Zelda Entries To 'Nintendo Music'

For a hot minute I thought you meant the CD-i editions.

@Kaiffe123 That is weird. Maybe we're getting two updates this week.

@Suketoudara i guess that it's only because of a japanese national holiday

The one Miyamoto straight-up said was a "bad game" hahaha

I've never finished Zelda II, but I'm still happy it exists if only so it could give us the theme for one of the most iconic Smash Bros. stages.

Well at least we can say there’s nothing divisive about the soundtrack; it’s one of the rare NES classics with what we could consider to be an actually good soundtrack (as opposed to assorted sounds and one or two tracks).

Majora's Mask?? Noooooooooo!!!

This Zelda game will forever be in my memory as the only one I've never beaten. Every other Zelda game is quite easy - but this one is brutal. Tho the soundtrack is legendary with many melodies that are stuck in my head forever.

@Whirlwound Reading the title, I had the same idea. Would be awesome though.

After seeing that image and shield, i would love to have link back in medieval times. As i remembered it had many Catholic/Christian elements in it. That made ganondorf even more demonic and evil.

I have to say that Nintendo has been adding banger after banger to Nintendo Music lately.
Captain Toad, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Galaxy 2 and now this. Along with the 'special releases' of DK Bananza and Kirby Air Riders they're pulling me back into the app multiple times a week - something I never expected when it first launched!

@ShadLink @Whirlwound I watched the Game Grumps struggle through some of Zelda's Adventure, the worst of the CD-i bunch. The "soundtrack" to that game is mostly wind passing through empty fields, an occasional monster scream or bee buzz, and some nightmare-fuel funhouse music, haha. What an addition to Nintendo Music that would be.

Played this game as a kid when it came out on NES.

Finished it as an adult about 25 years later on the 3DS.

@Whirlwound I dont think the opinion on that one was very divisive.

Zelda II rules. The Great Palace theme is one of the best compositions on the NES.

Divisive?

Zelda II was a success since the beginning.

Only after a bad translated article with Miyamoto surfaced, that somehow, people was saying the game is bad.

Great OST to listen to while cracking my head open trying to beat Act 3 in Silksong…
I will never play anything made by Zelda 2 fanatics ever again, no matter how hyped that game would be!

My favourite Zelda game, together with Link to the Past, though I view them as very seperate entities. Link's Adventure is more epic saga, Link to the Past is more fairytale.

Divisive, this game is awesome. Still would love a remake or a sequel.

“ Nintendo Adds One Of The Most Divisive Zelda Entries To 'Nintendo Music'”

Proof Nintendo has no clue what they are doing. Consumer focused….pssshhhh yeah right. 🤪

I just recently 100% this game on NSO and it's still a really good game to play today. Playing it with the NES Game Atlas from 1991 definitely elevates the experience.

Definitely a game that was built around the idea of guides and telephone help lines, but still a phenomenal NES game.

"Most divisive Zelda"
Oh wow! They're actually uploading Zelda CDi music?!
Oh wait... it's just Zelda II.
Never mind.

I can't loop the game over theme, 0/10

This isn't a divisive game... it was and continues to be one of the best in the series, and certainly the hardest. Best combat out of all the 2d Zeldas. Incredible world-building with limited assets. No Kaepora Gaebora to spoon-feed you your next location or objective. No map. No master sword.

Those who don't like it probably just need to keep in mind...

Git gud.

@Nintoz yeah, that's not true at all.

@aznable Not everyone who dislikes Zelda 2 has never beaten it fyi. I did beat it and I felt it was a sadistic and tiresome experience…
With such a huge franchise, there surely is a Zelda game for everyone. Zelda 2 is for masochists

@Kyloctopus Absolutely agreed on the Palace Theme! It's crazy that it's not a Zelda staple like other themes. It is one that feels so iconic though after it featured so heavily in various Smash games.

please bring back normal release days 🙁 however i am happy that zelda is getting more content on Nintendo Music, majoras mask next?!!

At this point that game isn't decisive.

I'd bet they're waiting until October to give us the Majora's Mask OST. Would be fitting for the spooky season.

@Flashlink99 watching people rage on the great palace on youtube is glorious if they ever do a remaster of this game they should keep the same brutal difficulty.

well excuse me... it is the greatest zelda game to come out.

I'm thinking those referring to the CDi games likely need to brush up on the definition of the word 'divisive'.

As I've grown up I've mellowed on zelda 2. Nintendo could have played it safe and made a game bigger but more like zelda 1. But they took a shot at something else.

What shouldn't be divisive is that the music in zelda 2 was great and we can now appreciate it whenever.

@rvcolem1 remakes of both Zelda 1 and 2 please

The most divisive entry!? So they added Skyward Sword!?

@cvrator Agreed, I quite like it for how different it is

@Kyloctopus I love this game so much. So far I've completed it around 10 times between fresh save files and "new game +". The first time I beat it was a pain but after the second time it gets enjoyable.

Nice! I recently downloaded the app and was disappointed by Zelda II’s omission. The game is overdue for a DX edition or maybe even a remake.

@hisownsidekick The other two (Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil) actually have surprisingly good music!

Zelda's Adventure is a weird one, as it barely has any music, yet there were MIDIs floating around the internet over 20 years ago, which claimed to be covers of that game's soundtrack, even though they clearly weren't. I'd love to find out what those were based on, but last I heard, no one knew.

Maybe it's divisive, but it's objectively a good game, especially by NES standards. Whether it holds up as a good Zelda game is a matter of opinion. Personally, I prefer it over Zelda 1.

Maturing is realising Zelda II isn't divisive, it's just different

One of the best “old” Zeldas… it’s just …. different. And the music is a banger.
And it’s not that hard. I remember beating this as a kid and having no problems as an adult either.
I hate to say it but Git Gud.

With some modern polish (adding actual hints, not hiding things that's near impossible to find without a guide, not sending you back to the beginning when you’re game over), this would've been a fantastic game. At least you feel real accomplishment when you beat it.

Brilliant music, though!

Still my favorite Zelda game.

@Eel There are way more good NES soundtracks than you would expect
(if you look outside of Nintendo-published games)

@JCLKaytwo they got better as time went on

The Palace theme is still one of the greatest Zelda tracks of all time. This one quickly went into my favorites!

Huh. What's the difference between NES version and FDS version?

Nothing divisive about the music though, it slaps. The game gets goofily difficult and wildly unfair toward the end which makes it not very good

Just thought it was worth mentioning, these were the 99th and 100th games added to Nintendo Music!

This was my first Zelda game when I was still in primary school.

Brutal. Exciting. The fantasy, and lack of understanding, was phenomenal.

I only finished the game as an adult, and it is just as brutal.

It's one of the best memories for me, but I'm not going to say it's the best Zelda game because...it is BRUTAL!

@aznable I didn't play it until the mid 2000s, and even then while it was a game I wanted to like, I couldn't.
Link's only weapon is a sword with a super tiny attack range, and there's way too many of those knights where it's a high-low guessing game hitting them.
Great Palace is a super long and tedious maze that I recall takes like 15 minutes to go through, until you get to a boss that requires a spell that takes over half your magic bar to make it possible to damage. So if you don't have it, you just lose. Maybe if the dungeon wasn't like 15 minutes of tedium to try again, I wouldn't feel so bad. But I beat the original Zelda and Ganon's dungeon in that was no where near as awful.

Sorry but maybe because it was a couple decades later and I had plenty of other games available I could "git good" at many other games that don't have some design flaws that alone make me want to stop playing them.
I am aware that games in the '80s were often "challenging" at any cost but Great Palace is something that could've been less a pain.
I also have not finished NES Metroid solely because I don't want to have farm Energy refills each time to cover for a massive flaw that even Zelda 1 didn't have: it's okay if Link can only die in like two hits after every restart because that game didn't have energy generators that remain active during door transitions in which they took away the player's control but didn't give them i-frames. I can take the rest of NES Metroid's designs that are a part of its era and hardware limitations that might not sit as well today.
Maybe at some point I'll give it another try after I've seen a streamer discover the workaround of leaving powerups behind, but it's really something that even in 1986 Nintendo should've looked at and said it was an issue.

@KingMike the only way I was able to beat the game was with the “cheat” on the Game & Watch Zelda Edition.

If you hold A when starting or reviving, you get maxed out life, lives, and all stats.

And even then it was super difficult! I did eventually map a quick route to return to the final boss, but only because I had to return so many times to it.

Zelda 1 by comparison is still a joy to play today without any cheap cheats.

I loved Zelda II back in the day. Still love it today. Going through the final dungeon is a breeze once you memorize the route, especially as an adult (took my brother & I days of exploring to memorize the layout). The final boss attacks are completely randomized, but button mashing overcomes the boss well enough, imo. There are much harder games out there.

Zelda II was a great gaming experience back then and it still holds up as a great 2D adventure game to this day. This is fact regardless of there being "better" Zelda games.

I just beat it last week. Personally don't think it's that divisive in fact the temple in smash melee derives from Zelda 2. A lot of conventions from it were used in the making of OOT which initially started as a remake project for it. Hell even the game sold well.

@KingMike @Flashlink99 Sounds like you had a tough time lol I first played it at about 4 years of age, in 1988. Couldn't beat it solo, my older brother did, but only because of the Nintendo Power magazine walkthrough. I've played it on and off for the past nearly 40 years, and I never felt the game was unfair. To beat the Thunderbird you essentially had to max out your magic so you could get the thunder spell, which required leaving no stone unturned to find magic flasks. OK, so to beat the game, you had to master the game? Sounds fair.

@Knightmare2232 @Aneira Exactly Thank you I felt like I've been taking crazy pills

I never cared for it, but the soundtrack is great.

Not a bad game though, unlike Skyward Sword.

Tips for anyone taking a stab at zelda 2, go get the downward stab and jump downward stab is op for most enemies. Jump slash enemies head is also a good thing to practice, as you fall from a jump before you hit the ground slash their head. Works great on knights with shield. Don't be afraid to lose a continue it starts you off in the beginning of the room you just entered to gain full hp and magic. (except the last temple which starts you off at the very beginning)

@aznable If you get there without enough magic, you just can't win. That's a fair way to design something, you say.
And how would you have known about needing Thunder magic anyways?

Now that I know about it, it's also great that in the conversion from the disk format in Japan to cartridge for the west, clearly they looked at ways to utilize the extra capabilities of the cartridge hardware. In 1988 there was someone at Nintendo who realized that having such a high quality digitized sound of Ganon laughing at the player when they Game Over was a great idea. Laughing at the player when they fail. Every time they fail. "Because they could" was important. I bet the testers knew their game well enough they didn't fail a thousand times to make them question "should they?" after getting laughed at for their thousandth failure.
I'm glad at least by the time I played the game long enough to ragequit it in the 2000s was when it was pretty much expected to have a TV with a remote with a mute button. I'm only imagining how irritating that would be for kids (who'd have even less patience than I did) playing that in 1989 who could well be playing on TVs that would have been old even then, old enough to lack a mute button.
I know the Japanese version had a normal, silent, Game Over. Though I can only imagine the Japanese EXP system would have its own problems.

I know that's a huge rant over one small detail. But I think that's a pretty fitting thought. Okay game, you want to disrespect me with that? I can show that feeling right back at you by not finishing you.

@KingMike Had some trouble closing the deal, huh?

As a wise man once said, "OK, so to beat the game, you had to master the game? Sounds fair."

All Ganon's laughter did was scare me when I was little. Maybe that was the vibe they wanted?