Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon
Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon are action-adventure games developed by Animation Magic and published by Philips Interactive Media for the CD-i on October 10, 1993, in North America and December 25 of the same year in Europe. They were released on the same day, were developed simultaneously, and look and play similarly because they use the same graphic engine. Both games are based on Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda franchise, but are not acknowledged as official, canonical entries and are the first two games of three Zelda games released for the CD-i. The third, Zelda's Adventure, was developed separately and plays differently.
Link: The Faces of Evil puts the player in control of Link, who goes on a quest to defeat Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon changes the roles and has the player control Zelda, who sets out to save Link and King Harkinian and defend her kingdom from Ganon. Both travel to a new world to thwart Ganon's plans. At the time of their release, the games received mixed reviews. In later years, both games have received universally negative reception for their plots, full-motion video animated cutscenes, voice acting, controls, and graphics. The games were not acknowledged in the official The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia guidebook; Eiji Aonuma, who has served as a series director since Ocarina of Time, has remarked that the games do not "fit in the 'Zelda' franchise". This has led to the three games being considered not only the worst games in the Zelda franchise but also among the worst video games of all time.
Gameplay
Players take control of Link in The Faces of Evil, and of Zelda in The Wand of Gamelon. At the beginning of both games, players have access to only three areas, which are accessed through an in-game map. The two characters only have their swords and shields at this stage. The sword can be used to attack enemies either by stabbing or shooting "Power Blasts", while the shield can deflect attacks. Link's sword in The Faces of Evil is known as his Smart Sword, and will not hurt anyone considered friendly. The shield is used whenever the player character is standing still or crouching. They gain new items later on in the game, including lamp oil, rope, and bombs, all of which can be purchased from a shop. Rubies can be obtained by stabbing them with the sword after defeating an enemy, after which they can be spent at the shop.The player's health is measured in "Life Hearts". Although the player begins the game with only three hearts, there are ways to earn more. Each time the player character is injured, they will lose at least one-half of a heart. The first two times the player runs out of Life Hearts, the player will be given the option of continuing from near the point where their last heart was lost. When the player loses their hearts for the third time, they will be returned to the map and must start the level from the beginning. Returning to the map replenishes their Life Hearts and lives, and they will retain any items and Rubies they picked up.
Plot
''Link: The Faces of Evil''
In Hyrule Castle, a bored Link discusses his desire for a new adventure with King Harkinian. His hopes are immediately fulfilled when a wizard named Gwonam arrives on a magic carpet to announce that Ganon and his minions have invaded and conquered Koridai Island. Gwonam recruits Link to stop Ganon. Link is then transported to Koridai by Gwonam, who explains that many of Ganon's minions have established the "Faces of Evil", giant mountains and stone structures that bear the resemblance of their commanding minions that act as their bases of operation. Shortly after arriving, Gwonam discovers and informs Link that Ganon has captured Princess Zelda and imprisoned her in his lair.Link ventures through the island and conquers all the faces along with defeating their leaders such as the necromancer Goronu; the anthropomorphic jokester pig Harlequin; the fire-breathing armored knight Militron; the gluttonous cyclops Glutko; and the three-eyed anthropomorphic wolf Lupay. At one point during Link's quest, he discovers the sacred Book of Koridai, which he brings to a translator named Aypo, who reveals to him that the book is the only way to defeat Ganon. Link finally confronts Ganon, who offers him the promise of great power with an alliance and the threat of murder. After imprisoning him within the pages of the Book of Koridai, he rescues a sleeping Zelda and awakens her. Gwonam appears and congratulates Link and while transporting the two back to Hyrule Castle, shows them the liberated and recovering Koridai before he officially declares Link the hero of the island.
''Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon''
King Harkinian announces his plan to travel to the Duchy of Gamelon and aid its ruler Duke Onkled, who is supposedly under attack by Ganon's forces, and orders his daughter Princess Zelda to send Link for backup if she does not hear from him within a month. He reassures her that he will be protected by the Triforce of Courage while Zelda's elderly nursemaid, Impa, reassures Zelda that the Triforce of Wisdom promises that Harkinian will return safely. Despite these promises, a month eventually passes without word from Harkinian, so as instructed, Zelda sends Link to find him. When he too fails to return, Zelda ventures off to Gamelon to find both Link and Harkinian, accompanied by Impa.As she ventures across Gamelon, Zelda battles many of Ganon's minions including the mummy Gibdo; the three wicked witches of the Fairy Pool; and the knight Iron Knuckle. During Zelda's quest, Impa discovers that King Harkinian was captured by Ganon and that Link was engaged in a battle, with the outcome being unknown. Eventually, Zelda rescues a woman named Lady Alma from evil sorcerer Wizrobe and learns that Alma had met Link before, providing her with his canteen. Zelda then travels to Dodomai Palace, where it is revealed that Duke Onkled has betrayed King Harkinian and is collaborating with Ganon. Zelda storms the palace, kills Ganon's henchman, Hektan, and saves a prisoner named Lord Kiro, who had accompanied Harkinian on his trip to Gamelon before he was captured. Kiro then reveals to Zelda the entrance to Onkled's chamber and when they confront him, he reveals the secret entrance to Reesong Palace, where Ganon has taken residence.
Zelda travels to the Shrine of Gamelon to battle shapeshifter Omfak and obtain the Wand needed to defeat Ganon, then makes her way to Reesong Palace, where she casts a spell to bind Ganon with chains, before she rescues her father. Back at Hyrule Castle, Lord Kiro turns Duke Onkled over to King Harkinian, who orders him to scrub all the floors in Hyrule as punishment. Although Link's whereabouts are still unknown, a comment by Lady Alma, who is also present at Harkinian's return, prompts Zelda to throw her mirror against the wall; as it smashes, Link magically materializes, seemingly having been trapped in the mirror. The group then has a feast to celebrate Gamelon's return to peace.
Development
In 1989, Nintendo signed a deal with Sony to begin development of a CD-ROM-based add-on for the Super NES that would allow for FMV and larger games. However, Nintendo broke the agreement and instead signed with Philips to make the add-on, which caused Sony to spin off their add-on into its own console called the PlayStation. Witnessing the poor reception of the Sega Mega-CD, Nintendo scrapped the idea of making an add-on entirely. As part of dissolving the agreement with Philips, Nintendo gave them the license to use five of their characters, including Link, Princess Zelda, Ganon, and Mario for games on Philips's console, the CD-i, after the partnership's dissolution.Contracting out to independent studios, Philips subsequently used the characters to create three games for the CD-i, with Nintendo taking no part in their development except to give input on the look of the characters based on the artwork from Nintendo's original two games and that of their respective instruction booklets. Philips insisted that the development studios utilize all aspects of the CD-i's capabilities, including FMV, high-resolution graphics, and CD-quality music. Because the system had not been designed as a dedicated video game console, there were several technical limitations, such as unresponsive controls, and numerous problems in streaming audio, memory, disc access, and graphics. The first two games were showcased at the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show.
The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon were the first two Nintendo-licensed games released on the Philips CD-i. They were given the relatively low budget of approximately $600,000, and the development deadline was set at a little over a year – to be split between the two games. It was decided by Animation Magic, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based development team led by Dale DeSharone, that the two games would be developed in tandem and would share the same graphics engine in order to make more efficient use of the budget.
The rest of the development team included three programmers, musician Tony Trippi, and freelance writer Jonathan Merritt, who created the scripts and designs. Under DeSharone's direction, development progressed similarly to that of his game Below the Root, which Retro Gamers John Szczepaniak suggested was as a forerunner. Background designs were created by local Cambridge artists. The animated cutscenes were created by a team of animators from Russia, led by Igor Razboff, who were flown to the United States for the project. These games marked the first time that Russian outsourcing had been utilized by an American games company – a move that was only possible due to the somewhat thawed political climate after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For voice acting, Animation Magic recruited and auditioned local New England community theater actors in Boston, Massachusetts. Jeffrey Rath was cast as Link. In a 2010 interview with The Gaming Liberty, Rath stated that there were two-hour recording sessions after roughly 15 minutes of rehearsals. Bonnie Jean Wilbur was cast as Zelda and her husband Paul Wann played various characters, including Gwonam, Aypo, Mayor Cravendish and Harbanno. Mark Berry provided the voices of King Harkinian, Ganon and a Gibdo. Additional voices were provided by Jeffrey Nelson, Natalie Brown, Phil Miller, Chris Flockton, John Mahon, Josie McElroy, Jerry Goodwin, Karen Grace, and Marguerite Scott. Brown, Flockton and Goodwin had previously worked with DeSharone on two Spinnaker Software games the previous year, Alice in Wonderland and Laser Lords.