Matt's review:

The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s most popular and playable series of games. Almost everyone is familiar with Link and his adventures across Hyrule, but what might be surprising to those who weren’t there at the beginning (like myself, actually), is just how little the game has changed since 1986.

Everything you could expect from a Zelda game is here. The eight pieces of the Triforce have been scattered across Hyrule, and it’s up to Link to find them, defeat Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda. Players must traverse the overworld map, exploring caves and collecting special items, as well as entering dungeons and defeating bosses. The music is the same, albeit in NES beepy format, and even some of the enemies are recognizable.

All of these unchanged features are a testament to how well the core gameplay works and it’s interesting to compare this and Super Mario Brothers with the rest of the games in the NES series. Everything else involves repetitive stages which gradually increase in difficulty, but the player is essentially repeating their actions again and again. That’s fine, and obviously can work really well, but the difference between this approach and the full-blown adventure with a variety of puzzles and varying gameplay is striking. It’s a reminder of just how innovative Nintendo was being at the time.

For anyone who is even remotely interested in the Zelda series, this will surely be a must buy. That is, of course, unless you’ve got it already. There was that free Zelda: Collector's Edition disc which contained this game, The Legend of Zelda II, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. This was bundled with special GC packs and was available through Nintendo of Europe’s reward system. The Legend Of Zelda is also rumored as a very rare NES collectable in Animal Crossing.

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Stephen's take:

The classic that was released in Japan on the famicon disk drive, and later issued stateside on cartridge has made its way onto the Classic NES collection. This game for me ushered in the golden age of gaming, and brought with it new ideas of what games are, and how they should be.

One thing that needs to be said is this will be the first time you can take the original Legend of Zelda with you via a Game Boy cartridge. I am well aware that the first Zelda is hidden somewhere inside Animal Crossing, but since most don't even know its there, we will not take it into consideration.

The Zelda series have gone through many changes, but it still seems to stick to a basic formula of sorts, stemming from the original Legend of Zelda released way back in 1986. Another classic by famed designer Shigeru Miyamoto has the player assume control over a small child. As you situate yourself with your surrounding, you find a sword, and other items that will help you on your journey.

The game was separated into two distinct parts; a over world, and dungeons. Locales were amazing, everything from grave yards, to mountains. Dungeons were found in almost every major area above ground, and each one had a boss, and a special item that allowed you to progress to new unexplored areas of the over world. One such item allowed you to burn down trees that blocked off hidden paths.

Dungeions had small puzzle solving elements thrown in. Sometimes you would have to push statues around to activate a plate in the floor, or just simply kill all the enmies in the room. You had to also look for keys to unlock doors, all these little aspects had never been used so well with a video game before.

To me most games can be equated to a simple analogy with stones being the basis. Some stones are polished, but they may have areas that are jagged and rough. While others you would be hard pressed to find a smooth surface, but The Legend of Zelda for the time had no conceivable flaw. It was unique, and grew far more enticing as you progressed. This game is definitely the highlight of the collection, and is well worth the money.