Why Were These Zelda Games So Terrible?
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- čas přidán 12. 05. 2024
- The three Zelda Games for the Philips CDi are notorious for being the black sheep games within the Zelda franchise. They've been mocked for many years and never seem to lose relevance for new memes. But who actually developed these CDi games and what were their stories? This Origin Oracle I'll take a look at the development of Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure to uncover what went wrong.
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00:00 - Why were the Zelda CDI Games Bad?
01:05 - What is Link: The Faces of Evil?
02:56 - Who is Morshu?
03:29 - Link: The Faces of Evil (continued)
04:52 - Nintendo vs. Sony
06:33 - Who Developed the Zelda CDi Games?
13:47 - What is Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon?
17:00 - What Happened With Zelda's Adventure?
23:06 - We've been too hard on these games...
#legendofzelda #tearsofthekingdom #zelda #link #thementok #originoracle
Sources:
The Philips CD-I Game Console/Home Entertainment System - The Centre for Computing History - • The Philips CD-I Game ...
All Remastered Zelda CDi Cutscenes - QuintemCharizard - • All Link: The Faces Of...
DINNER BLASTER - lucarioxkurkow - • DINNER BLASTER
All Link: The Faces of Evil Gameplay - NintendoComplete - • Link: The Faces of Evi...
Morshu's Paradise - JeffLindlom - • Morshu's Paradise Humm...
Edge Magazine: The Making Of: Playstation - web.archive.org/web/201402061...
Meet The Unsung Pioneer Behind The Most Hated Zelda Games Of All Time- TimeExtension - www.timeextension.com/feature...
The Zelda CDi Reanimated Collab! - • The Zelda CDi Reanimat...
Morshu But Every Frame Is By a Different Artist - Jimmy Davis - • Morshu But Every Frame...
All Zelda: Wand of Gamelon Gameplay - NintendoComplete - • Zelda: The Wand of Gam...
All Zelda's Adventure Gameplay - NintendoComplete - • Zelda's Adventure (CD-...
Interview with Zelda’s Adventure (Philips CD-i) Model and Prosthetic Maker Jason Bakutis - www.nintendoplayer.com/intervi...
Zelda, Voyeur, and a man who worked on both CD-i projects - web.archive.org/web/200801302...
LINK: The Faces of Evil + ZELDA: The Wand of Gamelon HD Trailer - • LINK: The Faces of Evi... - C4DNerd
Music:
Link: The Faces of Evil - World Map
Link: The Faces of Evil - Serigon Caves - Ice Crystal
Link: The Faces of Evil - Goronu - Face's Crypt
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Shop
'' Worth It ''| HARD Trap Beat 2023 - Buddha Vybez Prod. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=33fRM...
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Realm Overworld
Double Dragon Neon - Lab 2
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - Main Theme Milk Bar
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Dragon Roost Island
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure - Lake Hylia
The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap - Princess Zelda Awakens
Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon - World Map
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Full Steam Ahead
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Lurelin Village
Spirit Tracks - Castle Town - Hry
I didn't even know about Arzette before this video. I hope the gameplay is better than the CDi games, at least.
Also, the company name is Seedy Eye Games.
No exact 2023 release date yet but I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
Same. This is the first I've heard of it.
I definitely am going to keep an eye on that.
Oh boy! Wowwwww! Gee, I can't wait!
Seedy Eye Software actually, haha. And yes, I am doing my best to make sure Arzette is a well-made action platformer, in addition to a loving homage to the games that inspired it.
greetings from the future. arzette plays great!
My favorite part about Zelda's Adventure, the top-down one, is that they clearly just pulled people from the nearest bus stop to get voice actors
Apparently they literally just use random people who works in the office. I think the lady who voiced Zelda was a secretary or something.
Welcome to 90s voice acting, bruh. Perfect Dark is another good example due to all the Rare employees being used for VAs as well as the face scan models.
@@elizabethb4168 19:25 I too, watched the video.
@@elizabethb4168 That is both funny and charming how "Wild West" the voice acting game was back in the 90's for video games. Megaman 8 was my first experience with voice acting in video games and it has stuck with me since.
@@louspowels7120 I replied before finishing the video
Great video! I am the creator/lead developer of Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, my take on a spiritual successor to these games (and the fanmade remasters of Faces of Evil/Wand of Gamelon). One of my biggest inspirations was learning the story of how these games were made, the circumstances that led to them, and the potential they held if they were executed well. It is nice to see a video thoroughly cover this story and put the games in the context they should be seen in. The games had a lot of flaws, but they were literally the best they could be with the cards the developers were dealt. Great work!
My advice if you're doing cutscenes like in Faces of Evil/Wand of Gamelon:
The memetic fun comes from when a game fails to be serious and the director and actors just lean into the absurdity and have fun with it. Look at Command and Conquer... Tim Curry is having so much fun hamming it up in the scenes he can barely keep a straight face. __SPACE!__
RIP Dale Disharone. He helped make some excellent titles for early computers (Below The Root comes to mind). What a talent he was.
Link face is so creepy and funny at the same time 💀
This is why Link never speaks, EVER.
In this episode mentok fast forwards to a prior year showing that time is constantly flowing in a loop. Surprisingly no companies changed hands or inconsistencies were found in the iterative loop.
Outside of King's Quest, Animation Magic was also responsible for another infamous CZcams Poop source: I.M. Meen, and its sequel, Chill Manor. They were educational games in the style of Wolfenstein, with the former game being done in the same animation style as the Zelda CD-i games.
As they weren't working with outdated hardware, or being crunched for time to put out games for an incompetent publisher, they managed to make arguably better experiences. By contrast, these games are more critically acclaimed today, much like how the CD-i games were praised when they originally came out.
In the darkest nightmare hour, when Sun nor moon has risen, I take Zelda by my power, I shall keep her in my prison.
Bars
ngl, the style of Zelda's Adventure has a lot of charm. I'd love to see some indie devs take the concept and run with it
I should point out,
that animation-magic, didn’t do the animation for Hotel Mario. It was another company named Fantasy Factory.
while the animated games have a german dub (with actual main voice actors you hear in most german dubs), Zelda’s Adventure doesnt have one sadly
when gwonam says "squadala, we're off!" in the german dub of faces of evil, to me, it sounds like he's just saying "squadala! we shit in the loft!"
I remember first learning the history of the CDI from MiiYouandMii2 incredible Sonic X-treme concept to console series. Since the whole Nintendo-Sony thing caused sega rush out the Saturn and by extension further mess up X-treme’s development. It’s cool to learn more details between a decade more information and actually being the focus of the video.
The idea of the other kingdoms/ islands was always a great part of them.
I think the old TV show gave us Arcadia.
Great research and deep dive into the history of these games man! Even though they are very mediocre by today's standards it was interesting to learn how they were created and what the staff had to go through to get them made. Funny how the reviews were overall very positive too
One thing to understand about reviews at the time was that CD based anything was just cool. Now that we have three decades with the tech it's easy to look at these as trash. Which I mean they are, but tech at the time was just jank enough where people had more tolerance for issues like load times and low framerates
I'd love to hear your Opinion on I.M. Meen, which was made by the same people who made both Zelda: Wand of Gamelon and Link: the Faces of Evil.
Man I personally ADORE these cutscenes. They are so uniquely animated and fun to watch. I would watch a whole series of this.
It's ahead of its time, its trully a master piece that only someone enlighted can understand
These first two Zelda CDI games are such cult classics that a spiritual successor called Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore was made as a tribute to the Zelda CDI games. A game that I plan on checking out.
@Mr.Tangle-Strikes-Again
I played a demo at PAX last month. It perfectly mimics the CD-I games as far as art and cutscenes and gameplay. Only its completely self-aware too. Really worth taking a look, although I found the "early 90s platforming" game loop a little too simplistic, it still does exactly what it set out to do. And the cutscenes are 100% on point and hilarious.
What a great and informative video .. thank you .. I never played these Zelda games but were always so interested in them
People dump on the animation but there isn't a single frame where the hands aren't drawn and animated brilliantly.
If we're talking about smooth animations in the CDI games, I think 15:17 is pretty good. Had no idea Zelda's Adventure existed lmaoo
It would be so incredible to see these games remade, but actually done competently, in the style of eg Aladdin, with Dragon's Lair style cutscenes
I've literally only ever seen the YTPs and never knew there was actually any 2D gameplay.
15:21: I can *STILL* see AVGN's reaction to this line, even after all these years. XD
Philips did have experience. They bought Magnavox shortly after they made the Odyssey and were responsible for all other consoles under the Magnavox name. They even sold the inital CD-i consoles as the Magnavox CD-i, before pulling that off and branding it completely as a Philips product....as if that helps lol
Best Docu of Z CDI! good going. (Could be an intro to Euromation, it's own distinct style with amazing films worth discovering, "The King and the Mockingbird", etc.)
I love how Nintendo enabled their biggest competitor because of a failed partnership. Would love a Nintendo + Sony anime 😆
When you think about it, Zelda being the playable character in the latter two games is a point Nintendo themselves have yet to get. Yes, games like Hyrule Warriors make Zelda playable in an ensemble cast. Yes, Spirit Tracks lets the player control her for puzzle solving and combat. But Nintendo has yet to release a game where Zelda is the sole playable character and the game is clearly based around her as the protagonist, which is something people have been increasingly calling for.
So I do Find it interesting that, when given options to make LOZ games, those developers jumped at the chance to do just that. I feel like that's another reason the games are remembered -- besides the memes, two are known as "the ones where you play as Zelda".
The fact that the Game Developers of the Zelda CDi games didn't have access or even know about the SNES game Link to the Past, explains why they went with the 2D Platforming version of Adventure of Link from the NES.
And the 3rd Zelda CDi game called Zelda's Adventure, took the vague interpretation of NES Zelda and SNES Link to the Past with the top down look.
I remember when these games came out people were talking about them like they were these secret amazing games that no one played cuz I don't know a single person that had a Phillips it was almost like kids at the playground Link walking around with a giant axe it's up there with the mortal kombat rumours
21:30 This mushroom thing reminds me of the PSX (and now Switch) game Moon.
This was a great video. I am glad I took the time to watch it. Thank you for making it.
4:52 A Phantom Ruby Time Travel Vortex transition in a CDi Zelda video? Or should it be Phantom Rupee?
This was such a good documentation of the CD-i games
This channel really has become something special in such a short amount of time
hi...long time listener, first time caller...
I'm a somewhat old person with a visual condition that reduces my vision over time, right now I'm what they call "legally blind". For fram of reference, my last console was an SNS.
Anyway... when I said I'm a listener, I really meant listener 😜
I discovered your channel watching the video with the origin of Super Mario and then wen back in chronological order from the beginning, I've now finished!!! A lot of Sonic in the past, then Mario, DK and now Zelda... I really like the way you explore the history of characters outside of what is on the screen during the game... If it weren't for your channel, I wouldn't have access to this... or maybe I would, but here it's funnier
Anyway, thank you for your work (and also the "new guy", Alex, right?), it is with great pleasure that I listen to your videos and so, in a way, I can "keep playing" the games.
By the way, congratulations for your overall posture about everything... you are not an inflamatory or complainy person and that is hard to find when searching for game content... I'll gladly accept suggestion of another channels that love video-games and treat them with respect.
I'm so happy that I saw this comment! Thank you so much for these kind words, they were so heartwarming to read. I'm so glad that my content gives you a way to experience/keep playing these games, you understand my videos for what they are. Whenever I feel discouraged, I'll be sure to go back to this comment. Thank you again, this means a lot. All the best to you.
Terrible?? These games were amazing!
What I love about the first two Zelda CD-i games is how well they are animated. Sure, they are not perfect, but I see bits and pieces of actually good animation. They just need more frames and additional polish to the existing ones. What surprised me is how the animators went on to animate that one King's Quest game and even did a great job!
As for the third game, I feel bad for the developers behind it. Had they gathered better resources and wasn't foiled badly by Philips, this would have made for a very good Zelda game! The models for the enemies were a nice touch!
I want to say some of those reviews were surely bought and maybe they are but then i remember from the back of my mind that i also wanted to play these games myself back in the day. The colorful cartoon style and zelda 2 gameplay, which i didn't mind, i actually found attractive purely from a uniformed spectator angle. Years later thanks to youtube i could finally see the games in motion and feel relief of having dodged several bullets, not that i was ever gonna ever buy a Philips cdi but the fomo is gone.
I doubt it but I wonder if the uncompressed assets for Zelda's Adventure still out there. If found we could get a remaster.
Combed the internet for this but no dice. Hopefully they are sitting in an archive somewhere waiting to be released sometime.
Normal people when defeating a boss: Hasta la vista baby. Nobody loved you, you deserved to die and never come back!
Zelda when defeating a boss: Good.
I went into this with the lowest expectation and came out with the highest praise. Amazing work!
Terrible? 2 of these 3 games are amazing gems.
I remember CDI had an arcade similar? port of Samurai Shodown? but even then we realized the development of quality games wasn't enough for the system to justify it's premium price.
OH SHIT A POWER UNLIMITED REVIEW!
Sorry but that magazine was my childhood it used to be one of the biggest gaming magazines in the Netherlands 😂
Though I don't get the score they gave the Zelda game though 😂
Dear Lord, that Gangsta's Paradise edit caught me off guard :P
I think NEC's issues with the TG16CD in the US had more to do with the Nintendo backing out than Sega's failure. IMHO
10:19 Even if the Russian animators were on a shoe string budget, at least they put in some fine Jiggle Physics for the Zelda CDi games.
I think morshu VA is on Arzete cast alongside Link and Zelda's VA don't he?
"It's always cool to see Zelda depicted as a cutthroat warrior"
Ok but just why. Just out of curiosity what is appealing about taking a character who has always been the saved and turning them into a warrior? I mean I dont have a problem with it per se but I dont see the appeal of this all the time. Same with Peach in the Mario movie. Why not just be consistent and have the girl get saved
This is nothing new for Zelda at that time, she was depicted as being able to fight back in the 90s cartoon and Captain N. I’m not saying this to check a political correctness box, it’s just cool seeing different takes on characters from time to time. Simple as that.
@@TheMentok okay that is good to hear and honestly I'm least educated in Zelda history than any other Nintendo property so I wouldn't know but yeah not political correctness just common sense and btw I loved the video
After thinking about both this and Link's terrible performance in the cartoon, suddenly the idea of a Zelda movie doesn't sound exciting anymore.
Call me a weirdo, but I think Zelda's design (specially her clothes) in FOE/WOG is one of the best of the entire Zelda series.
No Dodongos were harmed for making this video.
Will you do a Mario timeline video
I loved wavys video on morshu, super interesting
Awesome channel! Let's go 1mil subs!!!!
Oh damn, I just realized how 'low' his sub count is. I've been subscribed for a while I assumed he had a few hundred k, he definitely should these videos are great. I put low in quotes cause 65k is still nothing to scoff at lol
The Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon Remastered games by Dopply are great.
Cool now you have to talk about hotel mario
14:41 this is TOTALLY unrelated but what is this sound effect called? I have no clue what to search to find it.
It's from One Piece and funny enough everywhere I look it's labeled as the "WTF sound"
@@TheMentok THANK YOU
1:57 Nice to see someone who remembers Link Nukem lol
Only early youtube folk like us can appreciate.
Edit: well seems i stand corrected after watching. Ppl really rocked with these back in the day huh? Pretty cool that there was genuine love in a weird way
Anybody notice the goron face of evil from twilight princess?
Okay but the Zelda design for Zelda's Adventure ? It's literally so pretty ! Kudos to the costumer and the lady playing her because she looks gorgeous.
If it was more inspired by anime than the Hobbit, in the worst, low budget kind of a way, the animations could have been delightful. :D At least they're good for nostalgia for those who played these.
Do a video on mario 64 DS
I would love to talk to you about oot
Jerry didn't poop his pants
Wow that was ballsy you ended the video on a sweet heart warming note just barely over half way through the video and kept going. I can't wait to see how you actually end the video now! Jk Awesome content!
I hope people still keep up with the cdi games, they are so funny
Changed the thumbnail
My Boy.
I think I heard of this back when I was a little kid. I thought it was a CD ROM game.
i miss youtube poops man
Video on bowser brother plz
I played all three cd-i games when they came out around 30 years ago, and I enjoyed playing them as a kid. The graphics and soundtrack were amazing for that time. Sure, the cutscenes are cheesy, but every cartoon in the late 80's/early 90's was like that.
Of course, the games didnt age very well. But seeing it pop up everywhere in "worst games ever" lists annoys me. It wasnt as bad as people make it out to be.
14:43 WASHED!
i unironically wish animation magic made the saturday morning cartoon instead of dic
I just can't stop to laugh at Zelda whe says good in that you killed me cutscene!!!😂😂😂
Remake and redemption
Some of the art stills are as good as anything else in the history of Zelda
this game creator is very crazy
3:45
4:37
7:00
LAMP OIL, ROPE, BOMBS.
YOU WANT IT? 🪔🪢💣
Much respect. 💪🏾
Appreciate the membership bruv! One of these days I’ll make sure to get some real benefits out there 😂 My apologies for not being on top of that
@@TheMentok shid, it's all love.
The content is worth it, so just take care of us when you make it to the top, fam.
Say what you want about Zelda's Adventure but the gameplay was somewhat solid. At least it was compared to the other two.
I've played it so much i know pretty much every secret and item location haha. Still curious how it would';ve turned out if not so much of the content was cut.
Gannon with *three N
here before this blows up
Am I the only one who likes dorky CDi Link?
DINNER
My boy
крутая превью!
Idk man believe it or not I ordered a CDi, wand of gamelon and link faces of evil and I’ve actually enjoyed em quite a bit 😂 Good video!!
Can you pronounce Mario Brothers normally?
Nope
@@TheMentok oh well I tried. Hope you have a nice day
Привет! ролик офигенный)
Still better than Skyward Sword.
Geez it is sure boring around here.
Not first
Those animations are SO Russian.
lame señorship yet again