Coming from the ill-fated Nintendo/Philips deal, it resulted in four terrible Nintendo-based games. The worst of these are two Zelda games. Despite how bad they turned out, somebody decided to use them as inspiration for a new game. Considering how bad the inspiration was, could this be any better?

One thing this game is going for it that it is a parody of video games. Working with the Zelda games, it is ripe for parody. From the artwork to the gameplay, it is so poorly designed, it deserved to be made fun. Even the name of the company is a play on words. The company Seedy Eye Software is a parody of the CD-i, the machine the Zelda games ran on. Even the story is self-aware of what it is talking about. Wirth references like finding a turkey leg inside of a wall, a Castlevania reference, it makes playing the game worthwhile even without actually covering any story.

One big reason for the original games' infamous reputation in the animation. Since Philips is because it is a hardware company and not a games or animation company, the animation turned out poorly designed. The lack of knowledge is a large reason why the animation looked so bad. While that was bad from lack of knowledge, Arzette decided to do so with the bad design intentionally. If you understand the logic behind it, it has a strange kind of charm to it. However, if you have no recollection of it, it still feels as ugly as it did back then. Whether it is bad or not depends on your perspective on it.

Even without the animation, the gameplay is the important part. Those that got to play the game know this was where the Zelda games fell apart. The first of these is the controls. Not being a game system, they used several weird controllers to play—none of which were ideal. With one button for attacking and a second for everything else including the menus, just trying to do something basic like use an item is a chore to do. The strange thing about this is that even the worst controller had at least one extra button that could have gone to make controlling a little easier. Arzette realizes this was unnecessary and goes to fix this. By making some buttons have dedicated functions, it loosens the controls for more functionality. The strange thing is that there is an option to play using the "classic" controls that the Zelda games used. If you can find a controller like that used on the CD-i, it allows for an authentic feel for those willing to put up with poor controls.

Besides the control, the stage layouts were the other half of the problem. With platforms too close to the ceiling, falling through what seems like solid platforms, passageways that lead to dead-end pits, and enemies too low to hit, it makes you wonder if anybody bothered to test the games before releasing them. Arzette fixed these problems to make playing not feel like torture. Enemy placement makes it that they can either be attacked without problem or are able to get around without getting hurt. Additionally, all platforms are placed in a way that makes navigation both easy and logical without any forced dead ends. Considering that the game was made primarily by one person, those behind the Zelda games should be ashamed of themselves.

Despite being inspired by terrible games, this is worth your time to play. You must be tolerant towards the intentionally ugly animation, but being able to get past that means a worthwhile experience. Just make sure to use a proper controller to play the game it should have instead of how it was.

Coming from the ill-fated Nintendo/Philips deal, it resulted in four terrible Nintendo-based games. The worst of these are two Zelda games. Despite how bad they turned out, somebody decided to use them as inspiration for a new game. Considering how bad the inspiration was, could this be any better? One thing this game is going for it that it is a parody of video games. Working with the [i]Zelda[/i] games, it is ripe for parody. From the artwork to the gameplay, it is so poorly designed, it deserved to be made fun. Even the name of the company is a play on words. The company Seedy Eye Software is a parody of the CD-i, the machine the [i]Zelda[/i] games ran on. Even the story is self-aware of what it is talking about. Wirth references like finding a turkey leg inside of a wall, a [i]Castlevania[/i] reference, it makes playing the game worthwhile even without actually covering any story. One big reason for the original games' infamous reputation in the animation. Since Philips is because it is a hardware company and not a games or animation company, the animation turned out poorly designed. The lack of knowledge is a large reason why the animation looked so bad. While that was bad from lack of knowledge, [i]Arzette[/i] decided to do so with the bad design intentionally. If you understand the logic behind it, it has a strange kind of charm to it. However, if you have no recollection of it, it still feels as ugly as it did back then. Whether it is bad or not depends on your perspective on it. Even without the animation, the gameplay is the important part. Those that got to play the game know this was where the [i]Zelda[/i] games fell apart. The first of these is the controls. Not being a game system, they used several weird controllers to play—none of which were ideal. With one button for attacking and a second for everything else including the menus, just trying to do something basic like use an item is a chore to do. The strange thing about this is that even the worst controller had at least one extra button that could have gone to make controlling a little easier. [i]Arzette[/i] realizes this was unnecessary and goes to fix this. By making some buttons have dedicated functions, it loosens the controls for more functionality. The strange thing is that there is an option to play using the "classic" controls that the [i]Zelda[/i] games used. If you can find a controller like that used on the CD-i, it allows for an authentic feel for those willing to put up with poor controls. Besides the control, the stage layouts were the other half of the problem. With platforms too close to the ceiling, falling through what seems like solid platforms, passageways that lead to dead-end pits, and enemies too low to hit, it makes you wonder if anybody bothered to test the games before releasing them. [i]Arzette[/i] fixed these problems to make playing not feel like torture. Enemy placement makes it that they can either be attacked without problem or are able to get around without getting hurt. Additionally, all platforms are placed in a way that makes navigation both easy and logical without any forced dead ends. Considering that the game was made primarily by one person, those behind the [i]Zelda[/i] games should be ashamed of themselves. Despite being inspired by terrible games, this is worth your time to play. You must be tolerant towards the intentionally ugly animation, but being able to get past that means a worthwhile experience. Just make sure to use a proper controller to play the game it should have instead of how it was.