Link: The Faces of Evil (CD-i, 1993)

Before one examines this "lost" Zelda game, one must understand why it was produced on the Philips CD-i. To get at this, one must look at the video game market in the early-1990s. Nintendo's "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" (SNES or Super Famicom) was released in 1990/91 and was forced to compete with Sega's already established "Sega Genesis" (1988-90). In Japan in December of 1991, Sega introduced the "Sega CD," an expensive add-on that allowed users to play music CDs as well as play the newly-developed CD-ROM games. This product would reach the US and Europe in 1992 and 1993.

Thus, Nintendo didn't want to be "overshadowed" in the console market by its rival and realized that the "new age" of gaming lay in CD-ROMs. Therefore, it looked for an inlet into the CD-ROM market- a company that could help it develop an add-on to the SNES/SFC that allowed it to play CDs.

The first solution seemed to lie with Philips, the company that developed the CD-i player in 1991. Nintendo began to work with them, but the deal eventually fell through. As a result, Philips was contractually allowed to produce Nintendo games with Nintendo characters because it possessed their license.

Nintendo would go on to work with Sony after 1993, but Nintendo's "greed" would result in the "Nintendo PlayStation" soon becoming the "Sony PlayStation."

This brings us to "Link: The Faces of Evil," a game released on October 10, 1993 for the Philips CD-i (one of three Zelda games developed for the console). The game was produced under the Nintendo license and makes use of the CD-ROM technology of the age, featuring animated video sequences (cartoons), MP3-quality music, painted backgrounds, and nice looking sprites. In fact, the CD-ROM's capacity makes the game fairly long (thankfully players can save on the CD-i player's internal memory system).

This all sounds great, right? However, the game has a few drawbacks to it. The main problem is the "controller-" the CD-i player's remote control. The game officially says "thumb stick recommended," and that certainly is the case. However, the thumb-stick remote is still a bit awkward to play the game with, and unless you are pointing it almost exactly in the CD-i player's vicinity, you run the risk of seeing no response. Additionally, there is no "lag-time" between enemy attacks. Whereas Link is temporarily "invincible" for a couple seconds in other Zelda games after being attacked, enemies can literally beat him to death within a few seconds in this game (especially when hoardes of them surround him)!

On the positive side, the developers have made a game that requires thought- you cannot just run in, beat a dungeon, get a new item/weapon, and repeat. You need to constantly revisit areas and see what your new weapons can do, see if your new keys work, see if your weapons hurt enemies that they previously couldn't, etc.

While many have said that the voice-acting is terrible, it actually isn't all that bad (I always expected Link to sound like the 16-year-old that he is!).

Thus, if you are looking for a decent Zelda game to play and are a fan of the series, don't miss out on this game! If you are not a fan, this one may just be as this review indicates- "average." But, in the end, it is an interesting piece of gaming history!

GREATEST... GAME... EVER... HANDS... DOWN... like seriously, buy a cd-i, and get this game if you can. The mechanics are unrivaled and unparallelled, only its sister game Wand of Gamelon even comes close.

The game is terrible. What can I say other than I have officially completed my Zelda collection. It will go on the shelf and be made fun of for generations to come. :)