Tomorrow’s the day. Can you hear it in the distance, the countdown to the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild reaching its end? Is the theme song of Terminator 2 playing in your mind as it is in mine? No? Oh well.
Tomorrow I’ll probably hold off on any article until I receive the care package and set it all up for an unboxing video, so let’s use today to reveal the number 1 entry in my Top 5 The Legend of Zelda titles, one that those who know me will undoubtedly predict.
It’s no secret that I love The Legend of Zelda Series with a passion. It’s perhaps my favourite game series of them all. With every release, the chance to explore the reimagined and rebuilt Hyrule and its many parallel worlds fills me with child-like glee. I feel like a kid again every time I play a new Zelda title, and even if I find it too easy, I still thoroughly enjoy the experience.
Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.
Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every once in a while I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!
Last week I presented you with a fun puzzle-y scenario, three in fact and they’re still open. Go check them out and let me know what your solution is!
This week’s puzzle is from one of my favourite games of all times, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In the Dark World’s 7th dungeon, Turtle Rock, you come up to a room with a pit, two doors—one of them locked—a railway track and a bunch of unlit torches. With the help of the Cane of Somaria you create a platform on the rails to light the torches floating over the void. The problem is you need to use the Rod of Fire and the torches don’t stay lit for very long.
This place, first friggin’ puzzle and it stumped a lot of people!
This can be a frustrating puzzle but I love it just because of that reason. It’s the last ‘traditional’ dungeon—the next one, Ganon’s Tower I consider ‘endgame’—the game it throws everything it has at you, to stop you from rescuing the last maiden, Princess Zelda, and this starting puzzle is a perfect example of how intense Turtle Rock is. The Rod of Fire takes a big chunk of magic per use and the torches light out quite fast, so you need to figure out the right moments to light them with as few blasts as possible and still get to the door before the torches die out. It takes some good thinking, a little strategy and some luck!
A Link to the Past has many fun and engaging puzzles. Hell, the entire Ice Cave is one big layout puzzle, but I had to mention one of them and this was the most memorable one for me. How about you, any interesting Zelda memories?
