The Unholy Tri-Force of Zelda on CD-I - Nintendo Forums

AgentXu · 09-01-2009, 02:49 AM

Ever heard of these? It wouldn't surprise me if you hadn't. There were three games for an obscure and huge console known as the CD-I manufactured by Philips and released around 1991 for a whopping $1000 USD (Good friggen God man!) This beast wasn't originally intended to be a game console but it is widely heralded as one of the greatest console failures of all time. Nintendo turned down Philip's offer to design a CD add on to the SNES but gave them license to use some of their characters for games. The games were horribly underfunded and rushed through production. An infamous result was the unholy trio of Zelda games.

Zelda: The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon were released in 1993 as 'brother and sister' games and Zelda's Adventures was released in 1995. These games are a favorite of reviewers because of the nearly endless things there are to mock about them. They have terrible game controls and absolutely absurd cut scenes that feature animation popular with Biblical cartoons.

There's pretty much nothing I could say about these games that hasn't already been said. If, however, like me you thought you were an avid Zelda fan but had no idea these games existed don't feel bad; they originally retailed for ridiculous prices (over $180 USD) and because of the failure of the CD-I are valuable as collectors items if nothing else (which is the case.)

"Come on Xu... there's no such thing as a terrible Zelda game! Where's the proof?!" Well, while I would love to show you the horror myself, I'll direct you to The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of Zelda and Mario on the CDI (He spent over $700 to review this piece of crap so my hats off to him.)

2008 Episodes | Cinemassacre Productions

A terrible Zelda Game; learn something new every day, eh?

A.X.

Eilt Druin · 09-01-2009, 10:32 AM

I have all three. Zelda's Adventure isn't too bad. The lack of direction makes it difficult, but not much more so than Zelda 1. The cutscenes and voice acting are definitely not the best, but they're better than those in the other two CD-i Zeldas at least.

I never made it through the other two games. I tried them once and saw that the gameplay was more like Zelda II than any other Zelda game. I just put them aside after that and never tried them again.

AgentXu · 09-01-2009, 06:03 PM

Wow, I'm surprised you held onto the CD-I this long. From what I read they weren't designed for the long haul. Do you use it for anything else? Also, if you never play those games and you've still got them you should sell 'em. They're collectors items so they're worth quite a bit in certain circles.

I could also understand your wanting to hold onto them though. I dunno... maybe in another 10 years they'll be worth even more.

A.X.

Eilt Druin · 09-01-2009, 07:01 PM

I actually bought it all second hand on eBay, probably about 5-8 years ago. I paid a pretty penny for Zelda's Adventure, let me tell you. I actually had to buy it twice because the first copy I purchased had a scratch and wouldn't play past the first boss. The others were fairly cheap. The CD-i I bought came with a few other discs, but I was really only interested in the Zelda stuff. Some old digital encyclopedia isn't of much use in this day and age, you know?

The CD-i itself can be pretty stable, if one takes care of it. I've read that they are still used in some museums for interactive displays. There were several CD-i models too, so some are probably better constructed than others.

AgentXu · 09-01-2009, 07:37 PM

It's not surprising that Zelda Adventure was expensive. From reviewing them it seems like the only one of the three to be "decent." Shame the first copy was scratched though that's to be somewhat expected I guess (it was pretty old, even 5-8 years ago).

I've seen the list of games they came out with for the CD-I and I have to say I was pretty unimpressed. It looked like mostly educational "games" but I guess that's to be expected since it wasn't really supposed to be a gaming platform. It surprises me they're still used commercially. The image of the CD-I on Wikipedia is freaking massive! It's seriously like the thickness of a VCR and a half in addition to being wider and longer. I haven't seen any other versions of it but I'll be sure to look around for them (not because I want one but just out of curiosity.) Which model did you end up getting?

A.X.

Eilt Druin · 09-01-2009, 07:56 PM

I don't recall the model number offhand, but my CD-i looks like this: New Page 1
But it's actually a Magnavox model and not a Phillips.

I think Zelda's Adventure also had a pretty limited print run, too, which adds to the price. I saw a demo copy of it on eBay once about 10 years ago. I think it went for something like $400+.

AgentXu · 09-01-2009, 08:02 PM

Oh wow, that actually looks pretty sweet (you know... for its day.) The Philips' CD-I looks ridiculous.

What delights me is that I didn't find out about this until I was grown up. Had I known these Zelda games existed as a child I would have no doubt demanded my parents find and buy them... and then I would have immediately disappointed and then they would have been furious that a week into it I threw it in the corner underneath my Tickle Me Elmo and Beanie Baby collections.

A.X.

Eilt Druin · 09-01-2009, 08:16 PM

I knew about them back in the day, but like you said earlier, they were really, really expensive back then. There's no way my parents would have spent that much on a gaming system. I wanted them a lot because of the Link to the Past art on the covers. At the time, I had no idea they weren't made by Nintendo.

In retrospect, I'm glad I had to wait until eBay made old stuff like this easier to get. It all cost a lot less than it would have at release, and it turned out most of it wasn't really worth it.

SirManguydude · 09-03-2009, 09:13 PM

I don't think you should be able to say anything about the CD-I Zeldas and Mario unless you have played them. Now yes they are god awful but you can't say so unless you have played it.

AgentXu · 09-04-2009, 09:57 PM

I agree in most scenarios. I would never write a review on a movie I hadn't seen. In this case, however, most people have never even heard of them let alone played them. To play these games you would have to buy an expensive, dated system off the internet and then keep your fingers crossed that it even worked. Then you would have to purchase all of the games which are collectors items at this point. And still you would just have to keep your fingers crossed that it worked. That's a lot of money and finger crossing for a game that is nearly universally considered god awful. I've never actually lived under a fascist dictatorship but I know enough about them to write up a few paragraphs on how unpleasant it would hypothetically be.

A.X.