The Legend of Zelda stands as one of the greatest NES games of all time, along with one of the most influential. Nintendo struck gold in 1986, but not every masterpiece from that era has enjoyed the same eternal adoration as Link's first adventure. As important as it is, LoZ isn't the easiest NES game to revisit today, and it has aged worse than quite a few "lesser" titles that barely get a fraction of the recognition.
By the end of the NES's lifecycle, developers figured out how to make full use of the console's capabilities and work around some of its limitations. LoZ wrote the playbook and set the stage for a sea of successors to shine even brighter, at least in terms of actual content. Few people remember these NES games, but they should discover them.
I'm focusing on games that are more fun to play today than LoZ, so not titles that were actually better when they were released.
OK, let's start with controversy, in more ways than one.
While an argument could be made that no mainline Zelda game can be labeled as "forgotten," if one were to qualify, it would be the black sheep of the franchise. Switching to a side-scrolling perspective and prioritizing combat, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link wasn't the sequel anybody expected, and Nintendo hasn't really gone out of its way to celebrate it. Nowadays, most people looking to visit old Zelda are likely to start with A Link to the Past, perhaps visiting the NES original for historical purposes. They'll probably skip Zelda 2 entirely.
Although a worse Zelda experience, Zelda 2 is all-around a better game than its predecessor, particularly when viewed through modern eyes. Mechanically, there really is no comparing the two, as the sequel offers far more in-depth combat and leans into RPG territory more than most entries in the franchise. While Zelda 1's boss fights are fairly basic and mostly require focusing on one strategy or mechanic, its successor forces players to constantly take into account their positioning, timing, and spells.
More importantly, Zelda 2 actually gives you towns and NPCs that provide direct contextual clues on what you need to do, avoiding the first game's love for cryptic messages.
Don't get me wrong, Zelda 2 has plenty of issues that stop it from being a true all-time great, but it shines in a different way than Zelda 1. I'd argue it shines brighter, too.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/nes-forgotten-games-better-than-legend-of-zelda/
