Why is Zelda's Adventure often overlooked?

[ZetTheLegendaryHero]

So, we all know that Sony was contracted by Nintendo to make a CD add-on for the SNES (which eventually evolved into the Playstation), but when that deal fell through Nintendo instead turned to Philips to make the add-on. Nintendo gave Philips a license for their characters in exchange, but Philips decided to instead focus on their multimedia console, the CD-i, and with license in hand, several games were pitched and four were made. The games made were Hotel Mario, Link the Faces of Evil, Zelda Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure; while other pitched titles included Super Mario's Wacky Worlds (an alpha build has been found for this title) and Mario takes America (no builds or footage has been found for this title). Hotel Mario, Link the Faces of Evil, and Zelda Wand of Gamelon often are looked at as bad games and feature in many of a YouTube Poop. Super Mario's Wacky Worlds is often mixed with some complaining it is incomplete (despite the fact it is an alpha build); while others praise its potential. Zelda's Adventure is a bit different, for starters it was made by a different company than the other two Zelda games on the platform, second it was made for a far lower budget, third it features digitized graphics, fourth the cutscenes were made with live action actors instead of being animated, and fifth the game has a more traditional 2D Zelda style (for example, the other two Zelda CD-i games are Fantasy Action-Platformers with RPG elements, while Zelda's Adventure is an overhead Fantasy Action-Adventure game with RPG elements). It is hard (or impossible) to find raw gameplay footage of Zelda's Adventure and I have yet to see raw footage of the cutscenes or rips of the music, sound effects, sprites, etc.

So, why is Zelda's Adventure on the CD-i often overlooked when compared to the other Nintendo games on the CD-i.

[Snessy the Duck]

Probably because it doesn't have terrible, meme-worthy cutscenes.

Because let's be honest, if the other Zelda CD-i games (Along with Hotel Mario) didn't have those cutscenes, I doubt a lot of people would remember them.

[ZetTheLegendaryHero]

Probably because it doesn't have terrible, meme-worthy cutscenes.

Because let's be honest, if the other Zelda CD-i games (Along with Hotel Mario) didn't have those cutscenes, I doubt a lot of people would remember them.

Well, it doesn't have meme-worthy cutscenes (from what I've seen), but they are pretty bad. I do like the fact that there is a Zelda game with digitized sprites. Makes me think they were trying to copy Mortal Kombat, but in reality they didn't have a budget, so that was the only way they could fit in the, then still popular, FMV footage and keep a (remotely) similar art style.

[Yawackhary]

I think you explained it yourself why it is overlooked. Link: Faces of Evil, Zelda: Wand of Gamelon and Hotel Mario all have those cutscenes even though the games themselves are just average, maybe good in terms of Hotel Mario if it was on a different console, after all the CD-i did have limitations since it wasn't really designed as a console.

Zelda's Adventure from what little I know just isn't exciting enough to be shown to a young crowd. They can't really mock the cutscenes as easily because it is easier to mock animation rather than dry acting. From the footage shown it looks like one of those typical German made games of the era where they used digitalized sprites however a lot more basic than those. Those types of games have a small fanbase but mostly not outside of Germany. Also again from little I know the game is glitchy but more of an annoying type of glitchyness rather than the type that you can laugh at.

Thinking about it most of the CD-i library is actually overlooked such as a decent port of Micro Machines or The Apprentice that is considered by the people who played it the best game on the system. It could also be down to emulation not being good enough to emulate the system because it isn't exactly as easy to emulate a device that is pretty much a glorified video player. Zelda's Adventure is one of those games that doesn't work properly in emulation while the other Nintendo based ones were some of the earliest to work. Plus the system itself isn't exactly easy to get these days and many of them have gone faulty over the years.

[ZetTheLegendaryHero]

I think you explained it yourself why it is overlooked. Link: Faces of Evil, Zelda: Wand of Gamelon and Hotel Mario all have those cutscenes even though the games themselves are just average, maybe good in terms of Hotel Mario if it was on a different console, after all the CD-i did have limitations since it wasn't really designed as a console.

Zelda's Adventure from what little I know just isn't exciting enough to be shown to a young crowd. They can't really mock the cutscenes as easily because it is easier to mock animation rather than dry acting. From the footage shown it looks like one of those typical German made games of the era where they used digitalized sprites however a lot more basic than those. Those types of games have a small fanbase but mostly not outside of Germany. Also again from little I know the game is glitchy but more of an annoying type of glitchyness rather than the type that you can laugh at.

Thinking about it most of the CD-i library is actually overlooked such as a decent port of Micro Machines or The Apprentice that is considered by the people who played it the best game on the system. It could also be down to emulation not being good enough to emulate the system because it isn't exactly as easy to emulate a device that is pretty much a glorified video player. Zelda's Adventure is one of those games that doesn't work properly in emulation while the other Nintendo based ones were some of the earliest to work. Plus the system itself isn't exactly easy to get these days and many of them have gone faulty over the years.

So, do you think we will ever have perfect or near perfect CD-i emulation? Or do you think the lack of interest and dying hardware has already sealed its fate. Because, if that's the case, it would be a sad day for video game preservation...

Also, I want the assets. It's a Zelda game with digitized sprites and live action cutscenes. I don't care how bad or boring it is, I need those assets.

[Kendotlibero]

CDI zelda is mediocre at best a unresposive nighmare with cluncky controls, annoying mechanics and boring levels.
It is a bad game from every point of view, without talking about cutscenes

[ZetTheLegendaryHero]

CDI zelda is mediocre at best a unresposive nighmare with cluncky controls, annoying mechanics and boring levels.
It is a bad game from every point of view, without talking about cutscenes

I still think that the CD-i should have better emulation. You know, more accurate emulation, better controls (not just mouse controls), support for more games, etc. The CD-i had good games, and the concept of the CD-i was actually something people wanted, until they actually got it. Most people claim that the CD-i and Amiga CDTV (or the concept of multimedia all in one devices) was something that even at the time made no sense, but again it something that people really wanted, but up until these devices were made. Again, companies like Philips and Commodore were making these devices because people ask for them, but when the devices were made, people changed their minds. It wasn't at the fault of these companies (Philips and Commodore), who made exactly what people ask for, but really people asking for something they didn't really want to spend money on.

Now as for the Nintendo CD-i games, they were a result of Philips having the license to certain Nintendo characters. Philips themselves didn't make those games, instead the games were pitched to Philips who sub-licensed them for the CD-i. I believe Nintendo also approved them in some way too. The only reasons I can see for the cutscenes in these games, were (1) to capitalize on the  then still popular FMV format (2) to show the storage advantages of the CD format vs the cartridge format and (3) to use more space on the CD. Again, the CD-i had good games, and was capable of more, but I'm pretty sure the developers of the Nintendo CD-i games were usually looking to make a quick buck with the Zelda and Mario characters, and didn't care about quality. The 2 exceptions I can think of were the cancelled CD-i game Super Mario Wacky Worlds (where the assets looked good, but the game itself was only in alpha stage) and the released game Zelda's Adventure (which had a much smaller budget than Hotel Mario; Link the Faces of Evil; and Zelda Wand of Gamelon, and attempted to make a more traditional Zelda game [with live action cutscenes and digitized graphics], but due to the smaller budget, the skill of the team, time restraints, or a combinations of the three the game itself didn't turn out good).

[Xamad]

Thought you had written "Why is Link's Adventure overlooked" and was about to talk about that one. But for Zelda's Adventure I'd probably echo the other sentiments in this thread. The visual style of the other two, as awful as it was, was at least... unique and memorable in its own twisted ways. The voiceovers were also pretty distinct(ly awful), like surfer Link. Zelda's Adventure's realistic graphics don't look as terrible, but that's both to the benefit and detriment of the game. It doesn't hurt to look at as much, but it's not unique enough to be memorable. And I imagine most people only know the CD-i games from graphical parts anyhow, so if Zelda's Adventure didn't stand out, it wasn't gonna be remembered I guess.

[titleknown]

Honestly, main thing I wonder is if the miniatures they used for the monsters are still around. Namely because I'd love to see those 3d scanned into 3d models people can use!

[ZetTheLegendaryHero]

Honestly, main thing I wonder is if the miniatures they used for the monsters are still around. Namely because I'd love to see those 3d scanned into 3d models people can use!

Well, in my opinion there are five likely things that could have happened to them: (1) they were destroyed or tossed when the game was completed (2) a collector or former employee has them (3) they were given to Nintendo or Philips upon the games completion for either legal reasons, or to use in future projects (4) someone else has them, but either doesn't know what they have, or doesn't want to share the fact they have them or (5) they got lost at some point in storage or something.

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Thought you had written "Why is Link's Adventure overlooked" and was about to talk about that one. But for Zelda's Adventure I'd probably echo the other sentiments in this thread. The visual style of the other two, as awful as it was, was at least... unique and memorable in its own twisted ways. The voiceovers were also pretty distinct(ly awful), like surfer Link. Zelda's Adventure's realistic graphics don't look as terrible, but that's both to the benefit and detriment of the game. It doesn't hurt to look at as much, but it's not unique enough to be memorable. And I imagine most people only know the CD-i games from graphical parts anyhow, so if Zelda's Adventure didn't stand out, it wasn't gonna be remembered I guess.

I kind of agree, but digitized sprites, could be considered unique for a Zelda game.