Just finished playing this hack on my 35 year old NES. So much fun! I really enjoyed Legend of Zelda as a kid and later as an adult but was getting bored playing the 1st and 2nd quests over again as all the exploring had already been done. This hack is great for those looking to re-live the experience of original Zelda. It plays like a perfect extension of the original game, and I honestly felt like kid again while playing it. The level of difficulty is sequential, I’d say that the 3rd quest is a bit more difficult than the original 2nd and the 4th is more challenging still. The “reality” of the game is the same as the original (all the weapons exist, 9 dungeons need to be beaten, bushes can be burned, dungeon walls are bombable/walkable, etc.) but redesigned in a very creative and sometimes unexpected ways.

A few thoughts and highlights for me:

• 1) Overworld redesign is very cool. Better than the original IMO.
• 2) New dungeon layouts are great. They all have a logical flow and are not randomly designed (which I was afraid of). There are even overlapping portions of dungeons which are especially important in Quest 4. If you do the dungeons correctly, you shouldn’t need to buy a key (but I still did a couple times). If you get stuck from progressing, you’ve missed an important weapon/item somewhere in a dungeon.
• 3) Knowledge of the original Zelda does help in terms of where a few dungeons/items can be found. I see the nod to the original Zelda for some locations.
• 4) Love how the recorder takes you to a few otherwise inaccessible locations.
• 5) There are lots of hidden heart containers in the overworld in Quest 4, which does take a bit of grinding.
• 6) The game can be really challenging at some points, especially in a few dungeons. I really struggled a couple times early in both quests in a few rooms. You get hit with some hard enemies while you’re still quite weak. I think a lot of this stems from the fact that you’re dealing with the wooden sword and green suit for a long time (by design), which makes the battles pretty tough. I think this was intended to mimic the experience of the original Zelda before you knew where all the heart containers were and had the ability to purchase the blue ring (usually I go into the first level in the original Zelda with the blue suit and all the available heart containers). In Quest 4, although not necessary, you can get stronger earlier, but you’ll do need to do some of the dungeons out of order.
• 7) I hate the orange suns that take your sword (a general statement). There are a couple of dungeon rooms you really have to be careful in!
• 8) I was forced to kill enemies at certain points (especially the blue Wizzrobes) with weapons that I had not traditionally used, which was cool, but a bit frustrating before I figured it out.
• 9) A few bits of humor that I liked (Q4 Level 8 final boss, and the old lady in the forest maze)

Again, a great hack by KevvyLava that you will enjoy playing, especially if you were a fan of the original Legend of Zelda.