IGL Podcast is back with more Retro Gaming! Today we're talking about the continuing antics of your favorite gaming elf in Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.

About the Game:

The Zelda games are beloved by many, including us. This second installment in the Zelda series is an action role-playing video game with platforming elements. It was developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System on January 14, 1987, less than a year after the original The Legend of Zelda was released and seven months before North America saw the release of the first Zelda title. The game was released in North America and the PAL region for the Nintendo Entertainment System in late 1988, almost two years after its initial release in Japan.

The Adventure of Link is a direct sequel to the original The Legend of Zelda, which again finds protagonist, Link, on a quest to save Princess Zelda, who has fallen under a sleeping spell. The Adventure of Link's emphasis on side-scrolling and role-playing elements, however, was a departure from its predecessor. As of 2016, the game remains the only technical sequel to the original title, as all other entries in the series either are prequels or take place in an alternative reality, according to the official Zelda timeline.

The game was a critical and financial success, and introduced elements such as Link's "magic meter" and the Dark Link character that would become commonplace in future Zelda games, although the role-playing elements, such as experience points, and the platform-style side-scrolling and limited lives have not been used since in canonical games.

The next installment in the Legend of Zelda series was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Developers: Nintendo R&D4

Publisher: Nintendo

Directors: Tadashi Sugiyama and Yoichi Yamada

Producer:Shigeru Miyamoto

Designer:Kazunobu Shimizu

Writer: Takashi Tezuka

Composer: Akito Nakatsuka

Plot:

Several years after the events of The Legend of Zelda, the now-sixteen-year-old Link notices a strange mark on the back of his left hand, exactly like the crest of Hyrule. He seeks out Impa, who responds by taking Link to the North Castle, where a door has been magically sealed for generations. Impa places the back of Link's left hand on the door, and it opens, revealing a sleeping maiden.

Impa tells Link that the maiden is Zelda (not the Zelda from the first game), the princess of Hyrule from long ago, and the origin of the "Legend of Zelda". Zelda's brother had tried to force her into telling their recently deceased father's secrets concerning the last of three sacred golden triangle treasures of his kingdom, known collectively as the Triforce.

Princess Zelda refused to reveal its location, and the prince's wizard friend, in anger, tried to strike her down with a spell. Zelda fell under a powerful sleeping spell, but the wizard was unable to control the wildly arcing magic and was killed by it. The prince, filled with remorse and unable to reverse the spell, had his sister placed in the castle tower, in the hope that she would one day be awakened. He decreed that princesses born to the royal family from that point on would be named Zelda, in remembrance of this tragedy.

Hosts:

Justin Gentile | Twitter: justin_gentile

AJ Demers | Twitter: lissaj89

Kyle Duncan Graham | Twitter: kDuncanG