I went to PAX East 2024 this year and was able to get a physical copy of this, along side getting it signed by the creator and a artist/VAs from the Zelda CDI games. They also held a pannel where they talked about the history of the CDI games which was cool to hear about. The game itself is obviously asterisk wise very unique, and a game I am very happy was actually made. The gameplay itself though is kinda middling and not a whole ton of fun to play. It’s a pretty short game, which is fine, but I was very on and off with playing it over the corse of half a month. This was not a great way to play the game, as especially in the start of the game, I would often completely forget what I was doing and have no clue where to go. This lead to ALOT of pointless replays of levels, just because I didn’t remember if something I could now pass was in that level. This problem becomes less prevalent later in the game when you have so many abilities unlocked that your bound to stumble on something new. But yeah the mechanics of the game and the main loop could definitely be more interesting. I also feel like I completely cheesed the last few bosses with the bounce back shield? The final boss specifically I didn't have to do anything accept just hold forward and do some jumps while holding the shield down. Kinda felt like an oversight, or im not sure if it was intentional.

I think most people who are interested in getting this game are aware of what it's inspired by and thus in on the joke, though I'll explain it anyways. So there were two games based on The Legend of Zelda series that were released for the Phillips CD-i called Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. The cutscenes in particular were known for being bizarre and strange so much that they spawned countless memes and YouTube poops. Then, in 2020, these games were remade unofficially by Dopply who went on to make his own company called Seedy Eye Software.

You can just tell that a lot of passionate people made this game. This game isn't just a joke or a meme. The fact that this game even exists is proof of the amount of passion on display.

The gameplay is fine overall. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's nothing mind blowing either. It's kinda like a metroidvania in that you unlock new abilities and have to go back to old areas to progress. Only wandered around a couple of times, otherwise it's very good about leading you in the right direction.

The music is surprisingly good.

This next bit isn't a criticism of the game, but I thought it was worth bringing up anyway. A few of the cutscenes are clearly 3D. Sometimes there's no cutscene at all and instead there's just a dialogue box, though I'm pretty sure all those quests are completely optional. These things didn't happen often enough to dampen my experience, though I do believe that they're in the game for a good reason. It's simple, animation and voice acting cost money. I highly doubt that a spiritual successor to the Zelda CD-I games is gonna make much money or be very popular.

If I had to highlight one aspect of this game, it would have to be the cutscenes. The animation and the voice acting serve as a nice treat for making progress. You could say that it's FINE DINING.

Also I played this game on the Nintendo Switch cause I thought it would be fitting.