The disc includes four full games (not including the 20-minute Wind
Waker demo): The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time,
and Majora’s Mask. There’s no need to get deep inside each of these
games. Everyone has played them in one form or another and this collection does a pretty
good job of presenting them to a new generation of gamers.
Control problems are present in just about every game in this set. The first two NES games suffer from either unresponsive or over responsive controls. It just never feels right. You’ll take more than just a few unfair hits. Whether it’s just the GameCube controller or the emulation isn’t known, but it’s probably not enough to turn players off from playing these classic titles. The two N64 games are only problematic thanks to the shift in control scheme. After putting in countless hours in the N64 versions, the GameCube simply cannot replicate the button layout. If you’ve never played either of these games, then it shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Also packed onto the disc is a 2-minute "History of Zelda" video. This incredibly inept piece features footage from each Zelda game released to date. Any Zelda fanatic would’ve loved to see interviews with the designers, some of the original TV commercials, or any other number of extras. The inclusion of this all-too-brief clip is a waste of space and could’ve (and should've) been put to better use. Maybe the inclusion of one of the Game Boy renditions? Also, each game requires quite a large chunk of memory card space so you may need to set one aside if you plan on getting anywhere.
The entire disc runs in progressive scan so HDTV owners will get their moneys worth.
Otherwise, the games have remained relatively untouched, save for some cleaner textures on
the N64 versions. Majora’s Mask suffers from some audio clipping (which is
stated on the packaging and when selecting the game) while it loads, but that’s
really the only glitch these games have suffered from during their translation. Otherwise,
there’s an outstanding rendition of the Zelda theme during the menus that
could very well be worth the price of admission alone and you simply have to love looking
at the first NES game in HD.
The disc is nice touch from Nintendo. You can get it in various ways. You can buy a new ‘Cube, subscribe to Nintendo Power through their official website, or buy and register two specific GameCube games from the list provided on Nintendo.com. In other words, the cheapest way to nab this one is by subscribing to Nintendo Power for $20. It will most likely never be a collectors item. There will be a ton of these out there, especially after this holiday season. Regardless of it’s value, this is a great disc if you don’t any of the originals.
