Game Name: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Game System: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Release Date: 1988
Current Price: $21.69
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is an action role-playing game, bearing little resemblance to the first or later entries in The Legend of Zelda series. It features side-scrolling areas within a larger top-down world map, rather than the mostly top-down perspective of the previous game, which only uses side-scrolling in a few dungeon basement areas. The side-scrolling gameplay and experience system are similar to features of the Castlevania series, especially Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. The game incorporates a strategic combat system, a proximity continue system based on lives, an experience points system, magic spells, and more interaction with non-player characters. Apart from the non-canonical CD-i The Legend of Zelda games, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, no other game in the series includes a life feature. The side angle is occasionally seen in Link's Awakening and the other Game Boy entries, which rely primarily on the top-down view. Source