[Courtney]

It's two popular series going against one another as our #4 The Legend of Zelda takes on #13 GTA III.

The Legend of Zelda



vs.

Grand Theft Auto III

[Batman]

The sequels may look better, but GTA III is still the greatest game for just collecting up a lot of weapons and just destroying everything you see to see how high you can get your wanted level and how long you can last before they bring you down--just for the hell of it.

[Mikey]

Sept 7, 2008 9:49:59 GMT -5 Batman said:

The sequels may look better, but GTA III is still the greatest game for just collecting up a lot of weapons and just destroying everything you see to see how high you can get your wanted level and how long you can last before they bring you down--just for the hell of it.

Truth. Besides, I always thought the original Zelda was the weakest of all of them.

[Jack Quinn]

The Original Zelda may be the weakest LOOKING of the bunch (though I think that honor really should go to The Adventure of Link) but it was a historic ground breaking game. Then again, so was GTA III. Tough call here, but since I already went win San Andreas, and I think both Vice City and San Andreas are better GTA games, I am going to go with Zelda

[The Jewish Cunthead]

How can you not love a non-linear action game that will let you kill people, or drive taxis, ambulances, or cop cars whenever you feel like it?

[Batman]

As opposed to a non-linear action game that allows you to kill bushes and get rupees.

[punk/core]

As opposed to one of the most influential games of all time? Zelda... easily.

[Byrntrigan]

Sept 7, 2008 12:05:28 GMT -5 punk/core said:

As opposed to one of the most influential games of all time? Zelda... easily.

I'd have to say this game has done more for Nintendo then Mario. I would gather that if you put a gun to Miyamoto's (sp?) head, he'd say he likes Zelda better.

[Stu]

Sept 7, 2008 12:05:28 GMT -5 punk/core said:

As opposed to one of the most influential games of all time? Zelda... easily.

Can you justify that "influential"? Because when I look at RPGs in general, I see either online, grind-heavy guild em ups, or Turn-based Final Fantasy Clones. I don't see much that comes from Zelda, to be honest. While GTA's success has spawned several imitators and games using the sandbox, open world style (Spidey Games, Crackdown, Saints Row Series, a Ratchet and Clank game (or was it Jak and Daxter?), Total Overdose, Skate, Godfather, True Crime and upcoming ones like Prototype and Infamous).
The most influence Zelda seems to have is on it's own sequels, as they keep following more or less the same storyline.

[Lucky]

Seriously? Zelda isn't influential? Just grabbed from Wiki.

When The Legend of Zelda was released, its gameplay defied categorization. The game incorporated elements from action games, adventure games, role-playing games, and puzzle games.

Nonlinearity, the ability to take different paths to complete the game, separated Zelda from its contemporaries. Link can freely wander the overworld, finding and buying items at any point. This flexibility enables unusual ways of playing the game; for example, it is possible to reach the final boss of the game (but not defeat him) without taking the sword.[3]

After completing the game, the player has access to a more difficult quest, officially referred to as the Second Quest,[4] where dungeons and the placement of items are different and enemies stronger.[5] Although a more difficult "replay" was not unique to Zelda, few games offered a "second quest" with entirely different levels to complete.[3]

The Legend of Zelda is considered a spiritual forerunner of the console role-playing game (RPG) genre.[3] Though its gameplay elements are different from those of typical computer or console RPGs, its bright, cartoonish graphics, fantasy setting, and musical style were adopted by many RPGs. Its commercial success helped lay the groundwork for involved, nonlinear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful RPGs, including Crystalis, Soul Blazer, Square's Seiken Densetsu series, and more recently, Alundra and Brave Fencer Musashi.

Isn't the "open world style" that you give to GTA in fact the very thing that Zelda inspired? The big scope world that allowed you to explore it freely and play a non-linear story that didn't require you to follow a set sequence of levels to advance?

[Byrntrigan]

Plus the biggest game of like all fucking time (in sales World of Warcraft) takes much from Zelda, as does the Diablo series and any RPG that's heavy in action and not stats and reading...

[Stu]

Sept 7, 2008 13:01:20 GMT -5 Lucky said:

When The Legend of Zelda was released, its gameplay defied categorization. The game incorporated elements from action games, adventure games, role-playing games, and puzzle games.

That sounds more to me like Zelda was unfluencED by other games.

Isn't the "open world style" that you give to GTA in fact the very thing that Zelda inspired? The big scope world that allowed you to explore it freely and play a non-linear story that didn't require you to follow a set sequence of levels to advance?

And we can't attribute this to D&D because....?

[Jack Quinn]

was D&D a video game before Zelda?

[Mikey]

Because D&D sucked?

[Stu]

Sept 7, 2008 14:49:27 GMT -5 Jack Quinn said:

was D&D a video game before Zelda?

It was a Roleplaying game that featured non-linearity and dungeons before Zelda did.

[Jack Quinn]

yeah but Zelda appears to be the first to incorporate that into a video game

[punk/core]

Sept 7, 2008 13:08:05 GMT -5 Byrntrigan said:

Plus the biggest game of like all fucking time (in sales World of Warcraft) takes much from Zelda, as does the Diablo series and any RPG that's heavy in action and not stats and reading...

World of Warcraft isn't anywhere close to being the best selling game of all time.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

World of Warcraft isn't even close, according to this link.

[Jack Quinn]

no wonder they keep making those stupid Pokemon games, those things sell like crazy.

[Lucky]

So being the first game to incorporate a bunch of different genres essentially forming its own genre that was then used for decades including by the game its going against doesn't matter because the same idea existed OUTSIDE of video games? It doesn't matter that it was the first VIDEO GAME that did this stuff and kicked off what became common?

Its simply bizarre that you listed a bunch of games that use an "open world style" as imitations of GTA and yet won't give Zelda any credit for being an open world game 10 years before GTA was created. Because there was an open world dice game already in existence? Yet 10 years later GTA did something special? Why? Because it was guns instead of swords?

[Stu]

Okay, maybe you have a point. The influentialness wasn't instantly obvious.

[DevSop]

The game was also GOLD...that's fucking epic.

[salmonjunkie]

8 of you are too young and stupid to remember how MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME Legend of Zelda was when it came out. There was NOTHING like it when it came out. It had RPG elements without the gay experience points. Everything you obtained in the game was either because of toughness or clever problem solving. And it endured terrible terrible commercials such as this:


As good as GTA was, it would not have survived a terrible ad like that. Zelda was so good, it sold millions DESPITE shitty ads like that.

And even worse:



Legend of Zelda was the first game I ever tried a speed run in. Beat the damn game in 2 hours without losing lives. That was fucking hard. I spent all fucking summer of 1987 playing that game. It was groundbreaking. To this day, I still go back and play it on my GBA. GTA, I've never looked back at since Vice City came out. No matter how many sequels LOZ has had, the first one is STILL replayable.

[Mikey]

What in the holy FUCK was that?

[Demko]

Sept 7, 2008 15:26:31 GMT -5 The Jewish Cunthead said:

World of Warcraft isn't even close, according to this link.

Best selling? No way... most money generated by any game? I'd guess that WoW is probably pretty close to the top of that heap, if not at the very top.